Show Me the Funny

Last weekend, I went to a late afternoon performance at the Wit's End Comedy Club, the small local place I've been to on a few occasions. As last time, it's unlikely you've heard of either of the performers that made up the show, but both had some good laughs to offer.

The opening act was Ray Devito. (Here's his MySpace page, with clips including some of the material he performed at my show.) I found him to be pretty entertaining, if not hysterical. What was really funny about him, though, was the way he handled a "tough crowd." Chalk it up to it being a tight audience, not the late night show, or whatever, but it really wasn't an extremely vocal audience. Oh, people were laughing at the jokes, but not very loud. And it wasn't always the same people for every joke; he'd get a few here, then a few there, and so on. I was at the least smiling the whole time.

But whether fair or not, he played it like he was bombing the entire set. "Ah, good for that side of the room." "You all must be out early on Saturday so you can make it to church the next day." "See, I tried to be highbrow with the Edison's brother joke, but no, you didn't want that. So look where it led us!" Like I said, I don't think he was bombing, but his "crap, I'm bombing!" material was pretty damn awesome. Highlight of the show.

Second up was Leif Skyving. (Here's his MySpace page, with clips.) I didn't find him as funny overall as the first comedian, but still pretty good for a small venue such as this. He capped his act with a virtuoso performance on harmonica, complete with a simulation of the bagpipes created by inflating a balloon and stretching the neck over the "A" hole as he continued playing on the upper registers of the instrument. Okay, not quite standup there, but damn impressive nonetheless.

Let's be honest, it's not likely you'll ever see either of these two comedians live. But hey, they travel back and forth all over the country, so if you do ever get out to support live comedy in your area, you never know. (And if you don't, maybe you should!)