That was Rodney Carrington. I don’t think I’ve ever laughed that hard that damn many times as the night we saw him at a packed Verizon Theater. Everything hurt the next day, esophagus, ribs, tear ducts, etc just from the belly laughs. That guy was a freakin’ riot.
:)Nobody in my life would say I lack a sense of humor, trust me. I’m a pretty light-hearted guy. I have my own style of humor that is not going to be conveyed well here. But the purpose of this post was to talk about the mechanics behind laughter, specifically at comedy clubs.
I’ve watched videos of Hedburg and Hicks and others and found them funny. I smile and occasionally chuckle. I just am not convinced that casual laughter is a particularly good gauge of things actually being funny. My guess is people at comedy clubs laugh to show they are having a good time (especially with a date or colleagues) or to hide discomfort…
Although I haven’t been to one in years, I love comedy clubs and will say that I’ve seen some comics that made me laugh until my sides hurt and I’ve seen some that didn’t make me laugh at all.
The worst was a lady who billed herself as the country’s oldest female standup. She had a lot of menopause jokes and made puppets out of maxipads. She was so bad that the emcee actually made an announcement reminding us that the comics were still in the room sitting in the back. (I’m guessing that so many people were saying so many hurtful things that the emcee felt it would be kind to remind us that she could hear - but maybe not.)
So to answer your question, if I’m laughing, it is because I found the material funny.
The problem with this criticism is that most people in a real comedy club almost never go to comedy clubs. If you were to take a poll of 100 random people coming out of a big comedy club, 95 will tell you they go to comedy clubs once a year or less. To give you some idea of numbers, the city of Toronto, which has 2,500,000 people in it, has exactly two full time comedy clubs, Yuk Yuks and Absolute Comedy. Total attendance at those two establishments, by my back of the hand calculation, is about 100,000 people per year. If I apply an extremely liberal estimate to all other comedy rooms in the city maybe you could get it up to just short of 200,000 people. That means the average Torontonian goes to a comedy show once every 12 years. Granted, some people are regulars, but most aren’t; the vast majority of clubgoers are there on a special occasion, celebrating something, first date, work outing, stuff like that. Again and again I speak to people at Yuk Yuks, Absolute Comedy, and places like that who are there for the first time in their lives, or the first time since that time they went in 1998, or was in 1999, so wait it was before Kim was married.
So what seems appallingly hackneyed to Ricky Gervais, who has been to comedy clubs a thousand times or more, might be quite fresh to Jim McCivilian, who’s been to a comedy club three times in his entire life. The regulars - people who actually go frequently - are far more discerning. Gervais is forgetting that a joke he’s head a hundred times might be raw and fresh to, well, most of the audience. Comedians do not, and should not, tailor their acts for other comedians.
Sorry, you’re wrong. I go all the time - I perform as well - and I laugh a lot. I don’t laugh at old, hack stuff at all, but there’s always something legitimately funny to laugh at some point.
I was at Absolute just last Saturday. I wouldn’t say the comedy was fantastic; it was serviceable. But in 1:45 of serviceable comedy there’s lots of good laughs.
[quote=“B.Serum, post:7, topic:635141”]
[li]Mike Bergiglia[/li][/QUOTE]
Co you mean Mike Birbiglia?
I never go to a comedy club. I don’t think I’ve ever been in a comedy club in my life. Rickjay is right on that score.
[quote=“ecoaster, post:1, topic:635141”]
What I don’t get about stand-up is that it is all recycled material with the same themes; penises, potty humor, race/accents, in-laws, bosses, politics, etc. [\QUOTE]
Also I’m looking at this list of humor subjects. With the addition of love and the heartache that goes with it, that pretty much encompasses our lives! I mean, we mock what we see! What do you think humor should be about, then?
Add David Cross and Dana Gould to that list and you are my new best friend.
There is a difference between watching someone on TV and actually being there, in the moment. It intensifies things. I think this is true of all forms of entertainment: watching a football game in a stadium is more fun than watching it on TV. Rock bands rock harder in a club than on the radio. A bad comedian on TV is easily ignored, while watching someone bomb 15 feet from you can be a painful experience. Heck, even talking to people in person is considerably more evocative than talking to someone on the phone.
I know you’re trying to relate laughing at a comedian to be some kind of deep-seated need to belong or whatever. Perhaps there is some subliminal thing going on where we enjoy ourselves in groups more than when we are watching something on TV. But I assure you, people at comedy shows are not making a conscious effort to fit in by laughing at the proper time. They are actually having fun and finding things humorous and enjoyable, apparently in a way that you’re just not familiar with.
“Did you hear the laughs out there tonight? You killed!”
“I know, I feel terrible… those poor people must be in agony!”
Comedy is largely about the element of surprise. If you over-analyze, or if you tune out or dismiss the often mundane elements of the setup, you lose the impact.
A good stand-up comic is a bit like a good stage magician, in a way. It requires a knack for misdirection. The magician keeps you watching their hands while the lovely assistant drops through the trapdoor, and the comic keeps you listening to slice-of-life patter so you don’t hear the punchline bus bearing down on you.
Silence! I keel you!
You should check out Norm Macdonald live if you get a chance. He has a shtick where he comes off as a rambling drunkard, but all the stories come together in surprising ways, and he’s obviously incredibly intelligent. And also very very funny.
God, I love Russell Peters. My first exposure to him was his bit on why parents should beat their kids. I was in tears giggling so much, and I was watching it on YouTube with headphones.
I think a big thing is not just that humor is very subjective, but your own mood at that time can make or break comedy, even comedy you 100% know you love. There are some things I can watch a billion times, but some of those times I’ll just feel “meh” and not think it’s funny right then. But if I watch it at another time, I’m back to thinking it’s hilarious.
Moving from IMHO to Cafe Society. And boy, are my arms tired! 
I’ve seen the following recently, but not at comedy clubs but rather tour gigs or showcases and laughed out loud :
Bill Bailey (multiple times)
Chris Addison
Richard Herring
Stewart Lee
Rufus Hound
Jerry Sadowitz (possibly the most twisted comedian in existence)
I recently saw Jackie Mason, he was the shittiest, and a vile racist, and did I mention shitty?
I think he means Mike Bahooey.
The comedy club I go to has a two-drink minimum. You don’t HAVE to drink alcohol but most people do. I think this probably helps.
The other thing that helps is that it’s a comedy club so you are there to laugh. Another thing that helps get you in the mood.
On at least one occasion I am pretty sure they salted the crowd with a big, big laugher. She laughed at everything. She laughed at the waitress–although, in fairness, the waitress might have said something funny. I would certainly like this lady in my audience were I ever to do stand-up. It’s much easier to laugh with someone like that leading the way.
The main thing the good comics do is get control of the audience. If they can do that, the audience will laugh. If the guy who introduces the comics is good at that, the audience will laugh.
That said, I didn’t find every single bit by every single comic screamingly funny. But I found enough of it funny to want to go back.
As I mentioned earlier I usually go specifically for a well known headliner. I suspect that many in the audience are there because they are fans of that headliner. So its a room full of people who already found his previous work funny. In that case the comic doesn’t really have to work at getting control of the audience. They are there specifically to see him. The warm up acts have a harder time.
++TRANSMISSION BEGINS++
An equine quadruped of the genus ferus enters a premises sanctioned for the vending of alcohol-based beverages.
The dispensing unit queries: Why do you have a facial expression commensurate with the emotion “melancholy”?
++TRANSMISSION ENDS++
++ADDENDUM++
This unit will remain for the duration of the nocturnal cycle. Should you require nutrition, please consume the flesh of the fowl Gallus gallus domesticus. It is of more recent origin than these anecdotes.
++ADDENDUM ENDS++