Boston Comedy Festival

This past week I had the opportunity to attend two nights of the Boston Comedy Festival with WCBS Radio's Brandi Thompson, one of the judges. Since I don't normally attend comedy festival's under the 'VIP' status label, this was a fun event to be part of. Taking place at The Hard Rock Cafe, under the guidance of Jim McCue, the 10th running of the festival appeared to be a good place for rising comedians to work their stuff and see if anyone notices. According to Jim (a fine TV show, FYI), the comedians we saw were 1/3 of those who submitted material. Needless to say, those who made it through really had to show their stuff.

As someone who might label himself a student of comedy, or knowing what makes someone funny and someone not - I sort of have this test for individuals to see if they really know what they are talking about - or at the very least, have the chops to do it. The test is - if you get up on stage and have a list of material you want to use, if someone or something takes you away from that list, can you still entertain the audience? Call it improvisation, extemporaneous-ness ( is that a word)?, or whatever - but if you are up there telling jokes and then a heckler steps in, can your sense of humor and stage presence let you take that person down without ruining your act and/or your train of thought. The most famous recent example of this - a comedian going totally off-script and being hilarious, is by Billy Burr in Philadelphia. Long story short, Mr. Burr had a routine all ready, but when the drunken, riotious Eagles fans stepped in, he went off his act and ripped into them for 10 minutes - it was hilarous.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0S4nSzE4N-o

So what does that have to do with anything? Well, the two comedians that stuck out the most to me, and obviously advanced to the next round, were Alvin David and Harrison Greenbaum. First, we'll start off with Alvin David. He has a dark spiked hair, he's Italian, and he's really funny. I would hate to start re-telling his jokes and screwing them up, so I won't. But as he said 'I've had a ton of women, okay that's not true, I've had two, but they were both really heavy.' But aside from that, he has that good comic energy, the energy where you just keep going, you don't really wait for the audience to get the punchline, and eventually the rhythm of your act keeps the audience laughing and wanting more. There are some comics that give you a good laugh, and then some that get you slapping your knees, clapping, and if you're me - fidgeting in your seat because your body is contorted from laughing so hard. Alvin David is that comic.

Now for Harrison Greenbaum. Harrison is a skinny kid, Harvard-educated, and bases a lot of his material on being an effeminate heterosexual, and that he has a Harvard degree and now he does comedy for a living - his parents are proud. But aside from that, let's just say that when he starts with his magic routine, all hell breaks lose. It's pretty straightforward, but it's really funny.
Or maybe it's the yelling and the screaming that follow that make for the laughs. It's difficult to say, but after he does a pretty impressive trick, and the audience looks at him look warmly, his 'are you fucking kidding me? I went to Harvard and now I do this for a living! this is what I do, do you know how fucking awesome that trick is? you should be standing me and thanking me for doing it!" That's to paraphrase, not an exact quote so I'm not stealing his material - but needless to say, Harrison is a funny guy who almost made me spit out my Sam Adams - and I don't easily spit out a $7.50 Sam Adams.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WF8Tan_6pL8

Good luck to all the comedians - hope to see you at a comedy club in the near future.