I get angry and I will say
That the day is in my sight
When I take a bow
And say goodnight...
--"Add It Up" by Violent Femmes
Sixteen--yes, sixteen--new competitors put themselves into the meat grinder that chews up promising comedians and turns them into sausage.
And, without meaning to...we dulled the blades on them so that it was as painful as possible.
Our bad.
Details to come as work on this report continues.
The 28th Annual Seattle International Comedy Competition
Preliminary Week Two--Night One
November 6, 2007
Comedy Underground, Seattle
The start of Preliminary Week Two is always odd, emotionally, for everyone involved. For the competitors, this is their first chance to actually meet the people they'll not only be spending the next six nights with but also be joined in having perfect strangers who will try but fail to objectively judge and compare their very subjective artistic efforts. There's an odd musky scent of hope mixed with panic that permeates the air.
Well, this week starts at the venerable Comedy Underground, so maybe that's not what that smell was...but nevertheless, there's definitely a swirling mess of anticipation and tension for the competitors.
Meanwhile, the production crew has already gone through all of those emotions with the first week...so, I've got to be honest, we tend to look upon the bright-eyed faces of these new calves for the slaughter who are wondering where this traincar ride might end for them with a certain level of benign bemusement.
Tonight, a decent but not overly impressively sized audience for a Tuesday night will set a tone for the week--as people suss out their competition and try to project their place in this brave new world.
Our host for this week is 2004 Seattle International Comedy Competition Champion, Gabriel Rutledge. Gabriel hosted a semi-finals week previous, where he proved that he is a strong host for this competition--he can be funny at the top of the show, so he gives the bullet spot a good, warm room...and he can keep the energy level up throughout the show.
He DOES have a reputation as being a big softy when it comes to dishing out encore points--so, Executive Producer Jon Fox did impress upon him the need to respect the audience's role in the process.
Competitor Review-----
Full Reviews To Come, in the meantime, here are some quick takes to tide you over...
ANDY PETERS--Went up first. He's hyperactive and loud. Earned encore point.
MARTHA MARION--She's fun, sassy and hip. Earned encore point.
TONY BOSWELL--He's smooth, cynical and sly. Earned encore point.
DT OWENS--He's solid and compelling. Earned encore point.
JUSTIN MCCLURE--He was scattered like a shotgun but enough jokes hit the target. Earned encore point.
GENE RENFROE--He's comfortable, experienced and had the may have either confused or offended the crowd when he switched to being dirty at the end. No encore point.
RANDY LIEDTKE--He's dry, awkward and furry. Earned encore point.
NICK HOFF--He's young looking, very expressive and works his material well. Earned encore point.
ALLYSON SMITH--She's smart, confident and strong in how she presents and enhances her material. Earned encore point.
RUBEN BARRON--He did magic and involved the crowd but nearly ran out of time and didn't close as strong as he needed to. No encore point.
BRIAN DOWELL--He's tall, drawling and willing to find the funny in some serious topics.
DEREK SHEEN--He's loud, twisted, and edgy...but he put the audience into a blast furnace they weren't prepared for. No encore point.
MARCUS--He's just as loud as Derek but HIS pop culture references and attitudes found a more common home. He's also heavily tattooed. Earned encore point.
ANDREW SLEIGHTER--He's smooth, smart and funny. He followed two comics who yell and got his laughs. Earned encore point.
KEVIN RICHARDS--He's clever, natural and likable. Earned encore point.
JEREMY GREENBERG--He went up last and suffered due to audience fatigue. No encore point.
(THIS REPORT IS BEING POSTED IN SECTIONS. YOU COULD CONTINUE TO READ BELOW TO SEE WHO THE TOP FIVE PERFORMERS WERE FOR THIS NIGHT.)
A top five was announced at the end of tonight's show, as always. It surprised some people when Ruben Barron was announced as tonight's fifth place performer--not because people didn't enjoy Ruben's work, but because it didn't make mathematical sense. Ruben was one of four people who did not earn an encore point--it seemed impossible that he beat out other strong performers who had.
After the top five was announced, there was some rumbling and grumbling about the scores and the rankings...and when Gabriel, the host, brought the whole situation to my attention--it became obvious there was a problem. The performer in sixth place had a higher total score than Ruben, who was listed in fifth. All of the computations were done by computer--so, we hadn't doubted the results when we sent them up to be announced...but, unless we want Yul Brenner to chase us to the edges of WestWorld and beyond, we'd better keep a human eye on the machines.
Sure enough, there was a problem...and there was a change in the top 5. Unfortunately, the crowd had gone...as had the moment. Hopefully everyone understands that mistakes sometimes happen...and that nothing was done on purpose to make it awkward for everyone involved.
So, after all of the revised math...
The top five for the night are...???
Fifth place--Randy Liedtke.
Fourth place--DT Owens.
Third place--Allyson Smith.
Second place--Marcus.
...and, the top performer for the night...
First place--Tony Boswell.
(L-R: Allyson Smith, Gabriel Rutledge, Randy Liedtke, Marcus, Tony Boswell Not pictured: DT Owens)
By the way, many props to Ruben Barron for accepting an unfortunate situation and handling what must have been an infuriating scenario in a very professional manner.
NEXT SHOW: WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 7th, Preliminary Week Two-Show Two takes place at Chop Suey on Capitol Hill in Seattle (the home of People's Republic of Komedy's weekly Laff*Hole show)--show time, 9pm.
LINKS:
SEE PHOTOS FROM THE ACTION AT SEATTLECOMEDY.NET'S FLICKR
OR GO TO THE OFFICIAL SICC WEBSITE
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