I interviewed my man Walt over at Street Carnage about a comedy night he's throwing.
He’s throwing a live comedy thing on Wednesday at the Milky Way in Jamaica Plain with some of the best local up-and-comers. It’s going to be like an Iron Chef style comedy contest, or something. Hard to say really. I’ll be there doing whatever it is I do. I asked him to explain the event to us on the off chance two of you might show up.
STREET CARNAGE: What’s the story with this comedy thing? I don’t mean that as an interview question, but like literally.
WALT: This show is just me being selfish and wanting to see my favorite Boston comics perform together. Also, I wanted to do something different. There are great stand-up shows almost every night of the week in Boston, but I saw a lack of shows that give an audience a bit more variety in terms of the entertainment for the night and there aren’t many shows that allow the comics to do much other than their standard short-form sets. This show will be a bit more dynamic with music, a couple longer form sets, a game which will allow the comics to be a bit more playful and come up with material on the spot, and some other surprises that will mix up the night.
The game is something I first heard about in the 2010 San Francisco Sketch Fest. They called it Iron Comic and it was essentially a comics version of Iron Chef. Those nerds trademarked that name — because, you know, they’re totally going to get rich with that name — so to avoid legal action, my game is called 1st-Next-Top-Iron-American-Smarter-than-a-5th-Grader-Comic Challenge. The audience will toss out a subject and the comics will have 10 minutes to write a 5 minute set that will try to revolve around that topic as much as possible.
STREET CARNAGE: What’s the story with this comedy thing? I don’t mean that as an interview question, but like literally.
WALT: This show is just me being selfish and wanting to see my favorite Boston comics perform together. Also, I wanted to do something different. There are great stand-up shows almost every night of the week in Boston, but I saw a lack of shows that give an audience a bit more variety in terms of the entertainment for the night and there aren’t many shows that allow the comics to do much other than their standard short-form sets. This show will be a bit more dynamic with music, a couple longer form sets, a game which will allow the comics to be a bit more playful and come up with material on the spot, and some other surprises that will mix up the night.
The game is something I first heard about in the 2010 San Francisco Sketch Fest. They called it Iron Comic and it was essentially a comics version of Iron Chef. Those nerds trademarked that name — because, you know, they’re totally going to get rich with that name — so to avoid legal action, my game is called 1st-Next-Top-Iron-American-Smarter-than-a-5th-Grader-Comic Challenge. The audience will toss out a subject and the comics will have 10 minutes to write a 5 minute set that will try to revolve around that topic as much as possible.
One thing I hear a lot from comedians is how frustrating the contest/festival system is. It’s ridiculous for comedy to be a competition and I wanted to take a piss at it with this game. Everything about contests will be present, like judges that have nothing to do with comedy, winners and losers, glory and humiliation, but in a very camped-up way. Spoiler: I’m going to win everything without playing the game.
Who is involved? Are these people actually funny? Don’t fuck with me.
Rob Crean, who puts together shows as Anderson Comedy and is a fantastic performer himself, is one of my featured guests as well as a big help in putting this all together. Rob is responsible for “the Gas” every Friday night at the Great Scott, which is one of the best things happening in Boston comedy right now. He mixes together stand-ups and sketch, and gets a great mix of local and occasionally national acts, like Hannibal Buress, a former writer for SNL who now writes for 30 Rock. You can see him at the Gas on April 22nd. BUY TIX FOR THAT NOW!
My role will be hosting and acting like an idiot, reading things from my twitter, which I think is the most famous thing on the internet since I’m almost at the limit of possible followers…. The limit is 70, right? There may be some special guests as well.
The players for the game are a selection of my favorite local comedians: Danny Kelly, Will Noonan, Will Smalley, Gary Petersen, Ted Pettingell and Langston Kerman. These guys all have credits to their names, but whether they were comics in residence at the Comedy Studio, or performers in LA and NY, the important thing to know about them is that they are all hilarious. That’s not hyperbole. They will literally drive you insane from laughter. Now that I think about it, this could be a problem. You know what? For the safety of your mental health, just forget it. Don’t come.
Lillian DeVane is relatively new to stand-up, but she’s already, in my opinion, one of the strongest voices in Boston comedy, and she’ll be doing a set.
What’s the comedy scene like when you are coming up? You just started not too long ago, right? Is it 100% the exact same thing as being in a band, in that no one gives a shit and it’s kind of depressing, but then every now and again you turn someone on and you’re like, “Ah fuck, I guess this is almost worth it….”
I don’t have enough experience myself to give a real answer on what coming up in comedy is like, since I did just start a short time ago. But as soon as I started stand up, I wanted to document that process and interview others who were at various stages of their careers about their experiences in coming up, so I’ve spent time with many local Boston comedians as well as a few national acts, and I do hear the same sentiments echoed frequently. You suck at first, and you start to go to open mics, which aren’t only a practice ground but a place for you to engage with a support system. You work hard and you get better, then you work hard and you get better, then you work hard and you bomb and you bomb and you bomb, and then you get better. You start to find people in the community that you like and are coming up with you, and you become a support system for each other. Boston is thought of as a great place to start in comedy, both because there are a lot of opportunities for stage time (compared with most other cities) and because the community is very encouraging and supportive to new comics who are making an effort.
brought to you by
2 comments:
Aww, man, I always read blog posts a day too late. Wait a minute, The Milky Way is a thing? I thought it went away a while ago.
Yeah, total thing. New space. Really cool room actually. This was fun and way funnier than I expected.
Post a Comment