Learn From Watching Others

This week I didn't perform anywhere. Instead I went out to see 26 year veteran comedian Andy Kindler. He was a judge this year on Last Comic Standing. Me and the other local comedians ended up chatting a bit with him between shows. He told us how he grew up in Queens and moved out to LA over 20 years ago, and that he moved out there for a reason other than comedy. He said that was good because a lot of comedians move out to LA with a time frame of success, and if they don't reach it by that time they give up.

At the other club in West Valley the big names were Shawn and Marlen Waynes. It was fun to hear Andy tell us of the time he poked fun at the Waynes brothers on Madd TV, something to the extent that the Waynes' brother's were propagating a negative stereotype for African Americans. He said that it was like if his people had created a sit com called Jewie about a stereotypical Jewish boy who carried out "Jewie" shenanigans all day. He then acted out a bit of the sketch for us then told us that the Waynes' brothers refused to perform on Madd TV after that sketch.

As far as the performance, I saw the late show on Saturday night, and I don't think that a lot of the audience knew what to expect from Andy Kindler. His style of comedy is heavy on the self deprecation, and more from the school of Mel Brooks. I enjoyed it, but many of the late show crowd did not. I found out later that the rest of the crowds that weekend were much better, but it was good to see how he interacted with an audience that didn't seem to connect as well as you would expect. He seemed to have a good time making fun of the young girls in the front row who kept texting throughout the show. They walked out eventually, as did the rednecks in the back of the room who didn't seem to get his brand of comedy. You would think people would do a little research on who the headliner was before going out to a comedy show. There were a few die hard fans though, just not enough to carry the energy of a great show. But sometimes the low energy shows bring out the true grit of  a comedian and can show more of the human side of his craft.