Preliminary Week Two--Night Three
November 8, 2007
Paradise Village Bowl & Lounge, Parkland
Competitor Review-----
Full Reviews To Come, in the meantime, here are some quick takes to tide you over...
MARTHA MARION--(quick take to come)
GENE RENFROE--(quick take to come)
MARCUS--(quick take to come)
ALLYSON SMITH--(quick take to come)
DEREK SHEEN--(quick take to come)
KEVIN RICHARDS--(quick take to come)
ANDREW SLEIGHTER--Second night in a row Andrew has followed Kevin. Tonight proved more difficult. Somehow, Andrew is coming across as really bitter and mean in his jokes tonight...to the point where people aren't laughing at that much at him. These jokes are still as strong as anyone's, and he's delivering them well, they're just not connecting with this audience at this time. Gabriel gave him a mercy point.
TONY BOSWELL--Tony, in talking about how bitter and cynical he is, admitted that he hated half of the people in the room. "That means, I hate eleven people." Sadly, that was mathematically accurate. His smart and cynical approach wasn't working quite as well as it had at the Comedy Underground, but he was getting solid laughs throughout and they really loved his chunk on pot. Where, astonishingly, he lost them...is on his closing "Holiday Inn argument" run. It seems inconceivable that this bet wouldn't work--but I think the audience was more sensitive than anyone imagined regarding men talking about women...and, if Andrew Sleighter came across as mean, so did Tony. Gabriel gave him the encore point, despite Tony's closing bit falling flat.
JUSTIN MCCLURE--Justin, tempting fate like no other performer this week, opens with material about racism and about Mexican bankrobbers. The Mexican bankrobbers bit worked well at Chop Suey last night, but tonight it did well until it died at the end. He got 'em back with a Jerry Springer alarm clock and then went back to talking about racism with the Grand Wizard Inn material. He found much more fertile ground by talking about what age people give up on fashion--and he rode that all the way to what looked like a huge encore point cheer until he said that he thought that the everyone in the room looked like the type to wear the kind of clothes he was shitting on. Without that likability or the momentum he just squandered, Justin tried to close by going dirty and that didn't get them back. Justin ended up with a mercy point instead of a truly earned encore point.
JEREMY GREENBERG--In between performers, a guy in the front row started yelling about Wal-Mart for no reason. Gabriel worked hard to calm him down. Jeremy opened by bringing it back up again and engaging the guy. Interesting tactic, that. His opening bit about kids and pets dying early froze the crowd...again. He won them back on his "dog on meth" material. They're treaing him ok and they're paying some attention to him, but he's not getting that many out-loud laughs. Wouldn't be bad as a regular show set, but deadly in a competition like this... That said, they laughed as his closer, about how the US should buy Mexico as a fixer-upper and make a home improvement tv show about it saved Gabriel from a real test of how merciful he'd be in handing out encore points. Gabriel gave Jeremy the point.
ANDY PETERS--Andy started his set by stealing the onion ring that the middle table was saving for Gabriel. Andy had the audience at his hyperactive energy level for the first two minutes, but the crowd seemed incapable of keeping that up...and they started to slow up and quiet down. Luckily, Andy caught that wave and slowed himself down to match their ability to meet his energy level and still got his laughs. Good call to jump ahead a little bit in his closing chunk to get to the good stuff quicker. Totally earned a real encore point tonight.
BRIAN DOWELL--Brian is not overly concerned about coming across as likable. He's like one of those National Weather Service planes that flights right towards the eye of the hurricane, because that's where the fun is... He even took on the guy that's been talking all the way through the show to humorous result. Did some jokes regarding homophobia towards the end--jokes that would not have worked in Seattle, proper, but did just fine in Parkland. Earned encore point.
RANDY LIEDTKE--Self-described "2nd big scary guy in a row" won over some of the crowd, but it's a bad time in a long show in front of a worn out audience to do slow-paced, clever jokes. Crowd was sensitive to his material about "tards." Still sex sells and topless Randy earned his encore point.
DT OWENS--Got an applause break on his "child pornographer or Republican" bit. Maybe that inspired him to do his political stuff--but this club, so close to Fort Lewis, didn't want to hear jokes about what's going on in Iraq. He won them back over by switching back to discussing racial stereotypes. Earned encore point.
NICK HOFF--Nick seemed to be on the same rails that have done him well in the first two nights and it was working just fine, despite the audience's flagging attention levels...but Nick got distracted by the middle aged couple making out in the front row. These are the same people that have been talking back to the comics for no good reason through-out the entire show. He got laughs in pointing them out, but he didn't feel confident in going back to his act. At one time, Nick asked "Anyone know any good jokes?" He wasn't doing nearly as bad as I think he thought he was. Earned his encore point.
RUBEN BARRON--"I heard you, throughout the whole show laughing at all of those Mexican jokes...thinking that there weren't any of us here. Trust me, we're EVERYWHERE!!!" I didn't completely understand the very last line of his set about eating some meat after the show, but other than that, everything he did tonight was everything this crowd wanted from a comic. He messed with someone in the audience, he involved them in all of his jokes and his tricks, and he was compelling throughout. Nice set, Ruben. Earned huge encore point cheer.
(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--Kevin Richards.
Fourth place--Allyson Smith.
Third place--Marcus.
Second place--Ruben Barron.
...and, the top performer for the night...
First place--Andy Peters.
(L-R: Kevin Richards, Andy Peters, Allyson Smith, Ruben Barron, Marcus, Gabriel Rutledge )NEXT SHOW: FRIDAY NOVEMBER 9th, Preliminary Week Two-Show Four takes place at the Admiral Theater in West Seattle. Yes, the Admiral MOVIE Theater which has been renovated to begin offering live theater shows, including our comedy show. Tickets are still available and we'd love to see you there to see this great show--show time, 8:30pm.
LINKS:
SEE PHOTOS FROM THE ACTION AT SEATTLECOMEDY.NET'S FLICKR
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