A Perfectly Cromulent Blog

Comedians of Comedy recap

Last Friday night, a group of us (The Wife and I, Thing that Walks Like a Man and some others) went to check out Patton Oswalt, Zach Galifianakis, and Brian Posehn on the Comedians of Comedy tour. They played at Mary Jane's on Washington, which is an establishment worthy of mention on my list of Top Dive Bars to Drink and Get Beat Up In When Visiting Houston (a list I now may actually have to write up).

Oswalt et. al. are among a growing number of comedians who prefer playing music venues to comedy clubs. Among the reasons they cite for this preference are: no drink minimums, no "comedy politics," and a greater sense of audience interaction. Someone, possibly Bill Hicks, said that all comedians also harbored dreams of rock stardom, so playing on a stage like MJ's is one way to realize that as well. Plus, it's easier for fans to buy them booze.

For a while, before the show started, I was afraid I was going to be the oldest guy there (not counting Posehn). Fortunately, the quartet of 50-something lesbians who showed up blew that curve for me. Then the lights went down and things got...interesting.

I don't remember the opening comic's name. It's not important, since he didn't do much besides dick around for about fifteen minutes before Posehn came on. I'm not convinced he had much of a routine scripted out, but that's not important. What is important, for purposes of me talking about myself, is that I tell you about the loathsome pseudo-hipsters who were standing directly to our right and unable to shut up for the first ten minutes of the show.

Now, I understand that heckling at comedy shows is part of the experience. Everyone wants to know how the guy on stage can dish it out, but there's a difference between heckling and maintaining a running commentary of pissy complaints with your friends while everyone else is trying to hear the show, especially when said complaints include such illuminating fare as, "I want my $15 back" or, "I can't believe he made that joke." I can usually ignore shit like this, but when it became apparent they weren't going to stop I decided to politely ask them to keep it down:

Pete: Hey, shut the fuck up.
Pseudo-Hipster 1: What?
Pete: Shut. Up.
Pseudo-Hipster 2: Come on, everybody's talking.
Pete: No, they're fucking not.

(I blame the lack of school prayer for my excessive profanity)

At this point, things quite possibly could've gotten ugly. The Wife pointed out that the guys in question looked like they wanted to fight, until they realized that they were, in fact, the only ones speaking. What brought about this change of attitude? Why, when the host started jumping on me, of course.

Like the junior high student who gets passed an unsolicited note, I was singled out for punishment. Fair enough, I'd bothered to mouth off to the two idiots in the first place, after all. No doubt the host was happy for the opportunity to liven up his tanking routine by drawing attention to us. He moved on soon enough, and the ass clowns were quiet the rest of the night.

As for the show itself, Posehn was surprisingly good. I'd never heard his stand-up, but he has an engagingly laconic delivery and good stuff about getting an autograph from Chris Holmes of W.A.S.P. and Mexican babies.

Galifianakis fared a little worse, as his style was probably least suited to the venue. He also ran out a lot of old material (like several years old), spent an interminable amount of time bantering with some chick buying him shots, and didn't seem to have a lot prepared. Our friend Melissa, noting the disgruntlement of the crowd, gave him an out by heckling him with an easy "little dick" comment. His response garnered the biggest laugh of the night for any of the headliners. He wisely decided to leave on a high note.

Most of the crowd was there for Oswalt, however, and he delivered. Some of the material was leftover from his TV special, but there was plenty of new stuff to be had, including a bit about how there should be a Sideways for heroin, and a great riff on Bush supporters that involved blowing '80s soap star and one-hit wonder Michael Damian at the State Fair. I can't do it justice here.

The crowd thinned pretty heavily during Oswalt's performance. The Wife attributed it to the exodus of Galifianakis fans (of which she herself is one), I opined there were more Bush supporters in the crowd than we'd previously suspected. In any event, we had a fine time. Check the show out if you get a chance.