Comedy Speakeasy. Wednesdays at the Purple Onion!!

[scamboogah]

^^^^^
Awesome.

[Meen Bellpeppers]

Yeah, awesome page break.

You look like a fool to me.

[scamboogah]

I was referring to the title banner for AST being awesome....

[scamboogah]

Also...

This week (6/10) features...

- Liz Grant
- DJ Real
- Rachel Rockwood
- Toby Muresianu
- Lisa Geduldig - and more!

Tickets are only $10:
http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/59776

____________________________________

Upcoming Shows:

June 17: Baby Faces II, Revenge of Baby Faces
June 24: Special Event: Christian Finnegan

[drieux]

This Wednesday!

[RubelT]

oh yeah just stick the hulking black guy's face on a white baby hopefully he won't notice.

[Meen Bellpeppers]

Haha.

That's a real good lineup, except for the host.

[scamboogah]

oh yeah just stick the hulking black guy's face on a white baby hopefully he won't notice.

The Reggie Steele picture is the only one that wasn't photo-shopped.

Awkward....

I'm going to this show. So it's got that going for it.

[scamboogah]

Interview with Comedy Speakeasy co-founder Jeff Cleary, courtesy of Broke-Ass Stuart...

[scamboogah]

Recap Time!! Please hold your applause until all the names have been read.

Baby Faces II was an epic success. A packed house!! A great time had by all!! All in all, more laughs per dollar than the Geneva Convention should allow...

First up, snazzily dressed host and future 'Fuck KRON' t-shirt inspiration Drew Harmon. Hosting an open mic every week hasn't killed his spirit yet, so I felt lucky to see him during this brief, brief period before he starts rolling his eyes as he introduces each act.

Next was Dave Thomason (Maybe Thomasville? From the flyer, his name might be Dave Thoma-awful-photoshopped hand or Dave Thoma-Harmon's mug). Dave's act doesn't necessarily appeal to me, but at the same time, I can see him becoming a huge success. He's got that 'Tosh-like' appeal that the kids really seem to go for, and does a fair amount of yelling. Actually, his jokes were pretty solid so I should just give him his propers.

Next up, Dave Wiswell, who had probably the best single joke of the night. It's his opener, involves Hitler, and without giving it away, immediately puts half the crowd in shock not knowing what to think, while earning an immediate free pass for the rest of his act from total assholes like myself.

Adrian Palenchar comes up next, and has a great bit about trying to win a contest to write jokes for Good Humor ice cream sticks. More good stuff.

Amir Malikpour, America's favorite middle eastern named but could be Puerto Rican or some kind of Philippino guy, had a great bit about eggs and some wonderful stuff about a friend of his that became vegetarian after seeing a movie about animal cruelty and how it made him wish they'd made a movie about cruelty towards donuts.

Next, Janine Brito, who had in my opinion, the best set of the night. Great, great timing, really well thought out material, and just a natural story teller, I don't think there's any way Janine doesn't become a much bigger name very, very soon. Can't recommend her enough if you get the chance.

Then, fire up the smoke machine, it's time for Joe Gorman, who was the first to point out the 14 year old kid sitting in the front row for what has, up until now, been a 1 and 1/2 hour string of dick, rape, and dick-rape jokes. I'm convinced that the kid was part of the 'make a wish' foundation, and while lying in his hospital bed, decided he wanted to see someone who would make him feel better about his own terrible situation. "Is Joe Gorman still doing comedy?", he asked, and then it was off to the Purple Onion. I kid Joe Gorman because he can take it, and if he can't, he's tiny enough to where I can barely hear his complaints.

To bring it on home, the single most likeable guy in the free world already, Reggie Steele. This is said mostly because it's true, but also because he could probably fight the whole room to a draw if the whole room was given pool cues and tear gas. I counted four applause breaks for Reggie. For a too-cool-for-you San Francisco crowd, that's the equivalent of getting carried out of the place on a throne and made Comedy President for life. I think I've seen Reggie about 8 or 9 times now, and he killed the first time and has only killed more each and every time since. Watch for his name for sure.

A great night for Wednesday Purple Onion Comedy, and a perfect lead-in for Christian Finnegan next week, and then Comedy competition in July.

Great job Gorman, great job Jeff and Chad, and an incredible job by Drew and the rest of the comics. You did it!

[drieux]

Scammy beat me to the recap!

He's also being gentle in regards to my opening set...for whatever reason, I did pretty lousy. Luckily, everybody else was really on their game. I agree with him that Janine Brito killed it like crazy, and Reggie Steele is just unstoppable. Everybody else also brought their A-games and that place was PACKED - halfway through the show they were still pulling out extra chairs to put wherever they could find room. Really fun night.

[DaveThoma]

Janine DID totally destroy. How she's not a regular at the Punchline / Cobb's yet is beyond me.

[drieux]

Tonight is the beginning of the Bay Area Laugh Leader competition.

http://www.sfstandup.com/ball/

I'm performing in tonight's round, by the way.

[scamboogah]

A brief recap of the Bay Area Laugh Leader competition, Night ONE...

Can't really say too much, since I was one of the judges (Along with AST's own DarylDuffy and AndreaRunge).

Results (60% judges, 40% audience);

1st - Eric Cash
2nd - Candy Churilla
3rd - (and maybe the biggest surprise of the night) Duat Mai, who according to everyone that had seen him before, had the set of his life.

Among my personal favorites that didn't bust into the top three, Chris Remmers, Drew Harmon, and Adrian Palenchar.

All the comics did well, though, so I'm sure it was tough for the audience choosing only three to advance.

I'm already upset that I'll be missing next week (Damn you, Duran Duran). Mary Van Note, Kellen Erskine, and Joey Devine will be amongst the contestants.

[Matt Gubser]

It was a fun night! Everyone did do well. Candy was a lock. I was surprised David Hawkins didn't advance. I thought he did really well. The audience didn't know what to think of Duat when he started his set, but he got them to come around. I was surprised Eric took first (I thought Candy would). I think I kind of wrote him off as a Dennis Leary-lite when he was up there (No knock intended).

Personally, I just wanted to have a clean set. The first minute and a half was all stuff I'd written in the last two weeks, so I was just glad not to stumble too badly over any of that. I had no illusions of moving on to round 2. I was disappointed that I went so far over my time though. I'd been clocking that set in at 4:45 all day and ended up going 5:30 on stage. I don't know if it was just me, but it seemed like I got a lot of slowly developing laughter that I had to wait for. I felt like I was rushing, stepping on laughs a few times, and I still went way over. This was the first time I've ever missed the light. For whatever reason I just didn't even see it. Bad form.

It was fun though. I had a great time. Plus I found free street parking in North Beach. That counts as a win as far as I'm concerned.

[darrylduffy]

my first time judging, and i kinda feel like i did it wrong. or was too generous/not wanting to give too low of scores, and that maybe ended up putting things back at even (aka as if i didn't judge at all) and making the audience the deciding factor. surprised that AST has the name recognition it seemed to in SF.

i was really impressed with the material that Adrian Palenchar, Margaret France, Chris Remmers, Drew Harmon, and Matt Gubser brought to the stage. i think i've only seen 3 people on the bill previously (none of whom are listed above save for Drew) so it was great to be exposed to a lot of new people and hope to see them at upcoming shows.

jeff and chad run a good show. 12 comedians is daunting, no matter what skill level, but they ran a tight program and i think it only too an hour or so that was pretty painless. plus i love the purple onion as a room.

[drieux]

I thought the judging and voting was fine and that the results were fair, no complaints. Eric and Candy were solid as always, and as Scammy said Duat came out of nowhere with that performance - best I've ever seen him do, seriously. Good for him. Good performances all around, because other than Duat I had no idea who else was going to squeak into the top three. And surprise surprise, it was two folks with plenty of experience and work under their belts already. Can't argue with that.

Also, Scammy's summation of comedy board commentary after the show was pretty hilarious. I had fun and I'll be attending more of these in the future as an audience member.

[Matt Gubser]

This week's should be very solid. The only comics I've seen personally are Kabeezy, Joey Devine, and Ray Molina. All three are consistently good. The judges will have their work cut out for them once again.

[darrylduffy]

anyone make it out last night?

[Meen Bellpeppers]

SHUT









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