April 28, 2005

Raw Comedy Quest Final

In a much-needed break from self-obsession, I present two posts showing that I occasionally do leave my room of an evening and venture out in to the town:

It was with some trepidation that I ascended the stairs to my beloved Indigo last night. Like the time my brown-eyed Maori friend wore blue contact lenses, the place just looked different. The dancefloor had vanished beneath a sea of tables, there was no backline on stage and the whole vibe was altered - it was a whole 'nother scene.

All the seats were taken. The tables were all filled, and any seats appearing to be empty were on second glance closely guarded. Then we saw - two spaces on the couches in the front. Sweet! No way could I be assed standing up through eight stand-up performances.

Yeah, you saw it a mile off, didn't ya. The front row, at a comedy show. We had it coming.

I hate it when they ask what you do. I'm not quick to lie, and admitting I'm a lawyer is bait fair and square. But this time I was lucky. The MC was doing his thing, I was nuzzling my beer, and when I realised the focus of attention was in my vicinity, my beer needed tending and I managed to avoid eye contact.

Comedy. Not entertainment to which I'm accustomed, unless you count as much of The Simpsons as I can get. There were some repeated motifs throughout the evening - the new Pope, for one. Now, I don't find the new Pope very amusing, but then I don't pay a lot of attention to current affairs. Neither do I find it amusing that the previous Pope had been quite old and poorly before he died. Retail stupidity - that was a popular one. Suicide bombers. Race, religion and sex.

The blurb on the Indigo site has this to say about the evening:
Some stand-ups and sketch comics are lazy b@stards. They do their seven minutes, get their laughs (or not), stay up late, scribble on napkins, drink, eat, gossip and sleep in, or go to their day jobs where they think they're above it all. Others take part in the Raw Comedy Quest where they stretch moral taboos and social faux pas to hilarious lengths. This is the final so come and laugh at the ones that made it.
On the walk home, Amelia and I discussed what makes some things funny and others not. We decided that it comes down to delivery. Give two people a joke to tell and one makes it the funniest thing evs, while the other is merely awkward. While there's no accounting for taste, generally speaking some people will make anything sound funny, even stuff that simply comes off as inappropriate from your average joker. Even so, some things will always be bad taste. Some bodily functions do not need to be discussed nor visualised. Similarly, misogyny is not something I want to laugh at.

No punch line.

6 Comments:

Blogger limegreen said...

Front rows can be dangerous. I once ended up a little more 'intimate' with Monsieur Elwood than is generally desireable (especially because performers tend to sweat under stage lights).

1:43 am  
Blogger Herge Smith said...

Saw a very good example of your comedy theory last night.

Went to a preview of the Hitch-Hikers Guide to the Galaxy movie.

Whereas the radio series and the TV show were spot on, with pitch perfect delivery, making all the very clever dialogue sparkle, the movie was as flat as a haddock.

The majority of the lines were the same (all new stuff TERRIBLE BTW) but the actors never, not EVER nailed it.

Bummer.

9:12 am  
Blogger Barry said...

Hehe - front rows have their uses, you just have to pick your moments. When I was in a full on Tandi Wright adoring stage, she was Helena in a Mid-Summer Night's Dream. That particular production had her spending a fair bit of time sitting at the front of the stage. Through sheer coincidence, I was sitting directly infront of her, about one row back.

10:07 am  
Blogger Miss Marisol said...

I went to a comedy club once with my sister and her husband who seemed excited to be the one picked on by the comedians. Perhaps it is a weird domination-submission thing.

I found it painfully unfunny.

Though, I did see Janeane Garofolo do stand-up once and she was fabulous.

8:42 pm  
Blogger Jessie said...

Thanks for the comments everyone. Apparently front row phobia is SUCH a cliché, according to a practitioner of the art.

I forgot to mention that I have a new secret boyfriend - in spite of his views on women and perhaps because of his views on diabetes - Jeremy Randerson is Quite cute. See?

12:45 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

jessie
hey there - i found your w/s cos i did a seach on jeremy randerson and he got a mention here so your site came up in the search results - so i was just wondering where you have seen jeremy and what exactly were the views on women that so annoyed you ? i think your post on him is 1 year old (?) but
i'd still be interested to know....and also if you think he is still crush worthy etc. haaah.

3:01 pm  

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