The Definitive Guide to Comedy
This is no ordinary show, and certainly not an ordinary audience, and yet I’ve seen several comedians approach the stage without keeping that in mind. Comics who deliver their regular 20-minute low-energy set when the crowd isn’t having it, and needing the opposite. Comics who rely on crowd work with …
It’s just after noon on Wednesday, and already, Dan Ahdoot has said three things onstage that capture the mood in the room. 1) "I’ve never performed with orange juice and half a danish in front of me." 2) To a guy dozing off in the crowd, who earlier claimed he’d …
They say when one door closes, another door opens. Usually they say this to console someone. Wyatt Cenac needs not your consolations but instead your congratulations. He probably has gotten over getting passed over by SNL now that he started his new job last night as the newest correspondent on …
Just as I finished typing that last update, Pete Dominick switches gears completely and decides to talk about how some people watch comedy shows and think maybe they should do it. So Dominick offers tips and guidance. First, he says that most comedians wish ill on each other’s careers, and …
As hour 14 heads into hour 15, and I think my eyelids cannot stay open, Pete Dominick arrives and says he’s going to do a "social experiment" and work through today’s New York Post and see what jokes he can write from it. Obama’s on the cover. But turn the …
For the record on this record-setting comedy attempt, Jon Fisch became the first comedian to take the stage for a second time. He’d been on from 2:42 a.m. to 3:04 a.m., breathing life into the crowd. When he returns at 8:56 a.m., several of the audience members remember him, even …
12 Hours! New audience members! An applause break! Duly noted, Ted Alexandro. Duly noted. A quartet of new audience members recently arrived, and say they’re visiting from San Diego and saw this was happening as a "thing to do" on the "Internet." Alexandro applauds us all for being here as …
Breakfast update: They passed around sandwiches that appeared to contain egg, cheese and some sort of meat, although in this light, in this current state, it’s not in me to determine exactly what sort of meat. Audience attention focuses away from Lee Camp, who is attempting to deliver political jokes …
After an unfair amount of bluster, the daylight is sneaking into the club and it’s time for the "free breakfast" for patrons still hanging around the Comic Strip. Barry Weintraub took the stage at 7 a.m. and asked audience members if they were enjoying the grub…a muffin and a glass …
The voice of Rachel Feinstein’s mother still would be haunting me, if not for Paul Mecurio, who in his first 10 minutes onstage has proceeded to yell at most of the remaining audience members and even at me. He thought I was the Guinness World Records rep. When he found …