Day: April 27, 2009

So last week, everyone was talking about Susan Boyle this and Susan Boyle that. But for comedy fans, Simon Cowell had made a bit of news by inviting a 13-year-old aspiring stand-up comedian from Idaho to take part in this summer's edition of America's Got Talent. I don't care how talented Trevor Hattabaugh is (here is the local TV news report on Hattabaugh out of Boise), because I'm not sold on the idea of kids that young performing their own stand-up. Talk to almost any legendary comedian and he or she will regale you with stories of how, in their youth, they entertained family members and schoolmates with jokes — usually copying the acts of older stand-ups they admired. Eddie Murphy famously made his Saturday Night Live debut when he was 19, and a hit stand-up CD when he was 21. But most teenagers are not Eddie Murphy. What do those kids have to joke about onstage? What could they possibly have for material? There's a certain amount of living you have to do — don't you?! — before you have more to offer the world than an amusing one-liner or a juvenile routine. Not that that's stopping kids from getting onstage. In fact, here in New York, an outfit called Kids 'N Comedy puts on a monthly showcase at Gotham Comedy Club. I can see how it would help coax teens out...