Work now continues on THIS report...and then the one above it...etc. Thank you for your patience.
You know, kids these days have it pretty good. Back in MY day, the competition would drag its preliminary week competitors into smoky sports bars in Kent and Yakima, shoutfests in Oak Harbor, wannabe hipster bars that hadn't really cottoned to comedy...and to each of those venues we had to walk for miles and miles...uphill...both ways...through three feet of snow...and for craft services, we were given a lump of dried poison.
Now?
The kids in this year's first preliminary week
are getting spoiled by the luxury of performing in a wonderful new comedy club in Kirkland, the life of leisure as sampled at a country club in Tukwila...and now, in the third brand new venue of the competition, these spoiled performers are given a brand new and wonderfully plush 700-seat theater with all mod cons--including a stage manager who softly whispers reminders into the green room speaker for each performer, in turn, to begin making their way towards the stage for their performance.Pah.
But, you know what? We were happier in those days.
Actually, no.
As I look around at the wonder that is the Edmonds Center for the Arts, I have to admit--"No, we weren't."
Lucky bastards.
(And apologies to the Four Yorkshiremen.)
The 28th Annual Seattle International Comedy Competition
Preliminary Week One--Night Three
November 2, 2007
Edmonds Center for the Arts, Edmonds
So, things have started out very good for this year's competition. We've had good weather, we've had good luck with traffic, we've certainly had good performances from our competitors...and we've had good audiences. Tonight, the competition heads slightly north to check out the new Edmonds Center for the Arts--a beautiful facility constructed from an old school.
Really, the only thing that hasn't been part of our good fortune has been the health of former champion and expected host for this week, Lamont Ferguson--who, it turns out, will not be able to catch-up to our competition tonight as was hoped. We hope everything with Lamont is all right--his professionalism and good humor would have been a wonderful addition to this great group of comics.
Stepping into his shoes--although, albeit, with a different hat--is the legend that is Heneghen. James hosted a week of the competition last year...and he's been a finalist, as a competitor, in this competition more than anyone else. His experience will prove valuable to helping us break in this beautiful new venue in Edmonds.
Once again, the game faces come on and the tension begins for the competitors as they spend the hour before the show starts trying to figure out who they'll be performing for and what weapons in their arsenal will be the most effective for blowing this place up. It is a theater show and tickets weren't exactly cheap...on the other hand, it's Edmonds and not Redmond. Making those decisions and believing in the decisions that you've made is a huge part of taking on this competition.
...but so is simply doing what you do with confidence. You can think yourself right out of your best possible effort. Comedians develop their instincts...and sometimes your gut knows more than your head.
Maybe that's why there are so many funny fat guys?
As he often does, producer Ron Reid came out to address the crowd before handing things over to Heneghen. As Ron got to his standard line advising people to put their cellphones on vibrate and put them in their front pockets so they might really enjoy the show--he got groans.
"Wow," Ron said. "If you groaned at that...some of you are in for a very long night."
With that, he passed the show over to Heneghen...and, at first, you might look at Heneghen and feel a disconnect with the theater crowd. Heneghen is in his jeans, jean jacket, baseball cap, long hair and beard... But that's judging a book by its cover--because on this night, Heneghen was spot on perfect. He made connections with local references that welcomed the crowd into laughing with each other and, sometimes, at themselves.
As a couple of people with seats closer to the stage showed up late, Heneghen referenced the former use of this building as he welcomed their late arrival. "These two just got done getting high in the parking lot. Wow, this place IS just an old high school..."
His relaxed tone helped counter some of the stuffiness that sometimes keeps theater audiences sitting on their hands--when really, they should be comfortable and more ready to laugh. Heneghen got them there and inspired confidence in both the audience and the performers that they'd be in good hands tonight.
Excellent work. And, with that...the audience was handed over to the competitors to see what they could do with them...
Competitor Review-----
GEOFF LOTT, pointing at Heneghen as he left the stage, smiled and said "Hey! My drug dealer's here. It's one stop shopping in Edmonds."
Once again, Geoff proves his ability to do the little things that make a comedy performance seem both professional and "in the moment"--by connecting to the previous performer, in this case it was the host, and then he managed to take that connection and smoothly transition into his actual material...without it seeming like it was forced... He makes his prepared material seem conversational--and that's a vital skill.
There was some concern going into this venue about whether or not this crowd would expect a "clean" show. It was advertised as an all-ages show--but with the caveat that comedy can often use language that some people don't feel comfortable with... Before Geoff took the stage, Heneghen had done a cleaner version of his warm-up set--but, he also got laughs when he said something that wasn't entirely scrubbed.
Geoff took advantage of this by presenting some adult material--but it was SMART, adult material...and it worked very well. And I truly mean "adult"--as in topics and attitudes that grown-ups could relate to. Geoff related to these people. In some ways, more than any other competitor in this week, Geoff IS these people.
Yet, he knows that comedy comes from surprise...from tension and release...so, Geoff found laughs when he pushed that envelope...when he said things that this audience could relate to but not necessarily or automatically agree with...and that's where he found his laughs.
And, Geoff managed to hit his closing material perfectly...earning him an easily rendered encore point and putting the cap on an excellent bullet biting set. Now, would the scores by the end of the night reflect that or will Geoff be bitten by the bullet he just bit?
We'd have to wait and see...this night has just begun.
With the help of Ron Reid and the stage manager, a keyboard on a stand was brought out--so that meant that going up second on this night would be GREG REID. This would seem to be a venue where Greg could really shine--as Jeff at the sound and light board was going to make him look and sound good.
The crowd, charmed by a smile and Greg's easy going manner, was enjoying Greg's set...especially the bit about "Levitra" sounding like the name of a woman on a street corner in the Central District.
However, they really enjoyed his re-construction of the James Blunt song--where his keyboard, properly amplified through the theater sound system, really sounded nice...and it made it seem like Greg offered more than just being a guy on stage saying funny things.
Greg earned his encore point.
Finally, tonight, it seemed that SHARON LACEY would get a chance to truly be herself and get her laughs--rather than having to fight against paradigms when she had to follow Darren Frost's abrasive style in the previous two nights. Sharon welcomes audiences in and shares--and her success in the recent San Francisco Comedy Competition suggested that if she got the chance and a little momentum, she'd make a run here.
Following Greg's crowd-pleasing set seemed to give her the opportunity she was looking for--but when she got an "ooooh" for mentioning that she was a teacher, it suddenly didn't seem quite so promising. Sharon did a good job of acknowledging the odd reaction and guessing that there were teachers in the audience.
"...and the rest are at home, grading tests."--good connective ad lib, didn't get the love it deserved.
Her transition into her planned set was thus a bit awkward with the set-starting momentum already slipping away from her. As Sharon began to talk about her thoughts on Brazilian waxes, there was some sense of audience discomfort--not the same kind of audience tension that Geoff worked so effectively, but actual "I'm not really enjoying hearing about this" reactions.
It was one thing for her to describe someone who might want a Brazilian wax to be the owner of a hairless cat--but this audience was not ready to laugh when she imagined the recipient of a Brazilian wax showing the results to her parents and saying "Just like the old days." That went too far for Edmonds tonight.
Still, her next line was damn funny and should have got more love and more laughs than it did:
"I've had some shitty jobs, but ripping off crotch hairs isn't one of them..."
I suppose that it's hard for half of the audience to laugh as they're crossing their legs in empathy pain.
Surprisingly, she's coming across as being very dirty to this crowd. I say surprisingly because when compared to Darren's act on the previous two nights, I thought of Sharon's material as rather safe. Safe, evidently, only in direct comparison--and not so safe in the comfortable seats of the Edmonds Center for the Arts.
As she came close to the end of her set, the momentum had slipped to the point where it was getting very quiet in between the laughs she was getting for each joke. To this end--Sharon didn't seem or look uncomfortable...in fact, I still say that she has the potential to be a very good performer in a theater. I just think there was a disconnect between what material she's working and what the audience wanted from her.
This might be an excellent lesson for Sharon--that her material that has been both pulled from her reactions to her job and then honed in rough and tumble clubs, might need to be refined and deepened...because she's got great stage presence and strong technique--so, I keep coming back to thinking that it is material that is what's frustrating her progress in this competition.
Speaking of technique, Sharon was the first competitor this week to realize an effective technique for helping to get an encore point--that of staying on stage and waving to the crowd while the host considers the level of applause. Rarely can an audience that is asked for applause fail to give it, especially right to the face of a likable performer. (All bets are off if the performer has been antagonistic to the audience--but that's certainly not something you'd accuse Sharon of being...)
Sharon got her encore point...and it'll be interesting to see her scores.
Our host tonight, Heneghen, is keeping things moving--still getting in a quick one-liner to keep the laughs moving.
The next performer, MIKE WALLY WALTER, seized on the topic of the one-liner that Heneghen used to bring him up and connected that laugh to the start of one of his chunks of material. It proved to be very effective and it launched him with strong momentum into his set.
As one of the judges noted on his score card, there's no substitute for the experience of stage time--and a veteran like Mike Wally Walter's experience in handling crowds of all shapes and sizes came through loud and clear tonight.
This audience understood Mike and they loved his description of a Texas sobriety test.
That said, for the third night in a row, his Michael Jackson joke died. Three strikes and it's out, that's the comedy rule, right Mike?
But, it proved merely a minor speed bump in a solid set--as this audience connected to the Laughlin Nevada material...and to his classic stand-up style.
Towards the end of his set, Mike got a "closing set" level of applause for his "boob signing" bit--but he chose to go past it and try to get another joke in. So often, this proves disastrous--if you're near the end of your set and you get a big laugh...grab it and put it in your pocket. But Mike Wally went on...and it looked like he was going into material that might have damaged the connection he had with this audience--because where he was going was into a bit that showed off the dirtier, rowdier side of Mike than he'd shared so far...
But, again, this is where experience kicks in...because he stopped short of where the bit turns dirty--and he got one more laugh into his set, just as he wanted. Mike, like Sharon, stayed on stage and waved...but he didn't need to do the "encore whore"--he was getting a huge encore cheer just for his work on stage alone...
Up to this point, there had been a conspicuous absence of f-bombs dropped on the Edmonds crowd. That would be taken care of by KEY LEWIS and his "homeless guy passing him by at the gas station" bit. If the performers had any concern that this crowd couldn't handle whatever language that might be tossed their way--it was resolved when no one got out of their comfortable chairs and left in the middle of Key's set.
Far from it--this audience was loving Key...and Key was loving himself. When he explained to the crowd that he was half black, half white and he looked Mexican--they loved it...and Key doubled up with laughter at his own brilliance.
Fun, as every comedian should know...but sometimes forgets, is contagious. Key doesn't forget.
I still have some issues--starting his set with a stock line about his "career being on fire"...doing the "my wife is pregnant, don't clap, it's not mine" street joke...they don't impress me as solid, original material.
But boy, do they work. Proving something that Ron Reid has been saying for years--that comedy audiences, especially those in the Seattle area, don't value originality as much as those in the comedy industry seem to think it should be valued.
Audiences just want to laugh--and Key Lewis was certainly making them laugh tonight.
For heaven's sake, he closed on the words "Duct Tape" and got the biggest encore applause break of the night--give it up for Key, everybody.
It is one thing to laugh at another person's pain--isn't that the basis of every episode of "America's Funniest Home Videos? It is, unfortunately, another thing entirely when a comedian gets empathy instead of laughs. It's death.
And the line is very fine--and where the line is...that's where the biggest laughs are hiding--so, there's a lot of risk/reward calculations going into the style of comedy that JAQI FURBACK is pursuing now. When she connects on the same wavelength as her audience, like she did on the first night of this week at Laughs in Kirkland, it can be magical.
When the crowd wonders why such a nice girl would say such sad and nasty things about herself--it can be difficult to find the laughs you want... That's kind of what Edmonds was giving Jaqi on this night--chuckles and concern instead of deep belly laughs.
To her credit, Jaqi didn't try to force the issue and goose her jokes for the laughs that weren't coming as easily as they should have--nor, did she bail on her approach and try to do different, safer material. This is how she does what she does...and she presented it for the audience as best as she could. If they couldn't find the humor in it...as she obviously found the humor in it...there was little that she could do.
Edmonds just didn't go for dark, self-deprecating stuff...and Jaqi's typically winning smile didn't save her from some uncomfortable silences after jokes on this night.
Not to say that Jaqi didn't have strong moments that hinted at what the kind of reaction that she deserved to be getting. Saying that her body fat test was the first one she'd ever scored a 90 on seemed to win them back...but they fell away far too quickly to gain any traction.
I should also say that there were a number of younger girls who were giggling uncontrollably at Jaqi--perhaps they related to her and her dark look through her own insecurities more than the rest of the audience.
When it came time for her encore point, I have to say that it was very close as to whether or not Jaqi would actually get it--but Heneghen determined that she did...
(the following individual competitor review reports will be posted soon)
LEIF SKYVING
LUKAS SEELY
ADAM NORWEST
STEPHEN O'KEEFE
KYLE HARBERT
RODGER LIZAOLA
LIZZY PILCHER
DARREN FROST
ANDY HAYNES
SCOTT MORAN
(THIS REPORT IS BEING POSTED IN SECTIONS. YOU COULD CONTINUE TO READ BELOW TO SEE WHO THE TOP FIVE PERFORMERS WERE FOR THIS NIGHT.)
And...the top five for the night are...???
Fifth place--Scott Moran.
Fourth place--Key Lewis.
Third place--Lukas Seely.
Second place--Mike Wally Walter.
...and, the top performer for the night...
First place--Kyle Harbert.
(Back Row: Heneghen, Scott Moran Front Row: Key Lewis, Lukas Seely, Mike Wally Walter, Kyle Harbert)
NEXT SHOW: FRIDAY NOVEMBER 3rd, Preliminary Week-Show Four takes place at Columbia Theatre in Longview--show time, 7:30pm. Look for a report from THAT show posted soon.
LINKS:
SEE PHOTOS FROM THE ACTION AT SEATTLECOMEDY.NET'S FLICKR
OR GO TO THE OFFICIAL SICC WEBSITE
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