![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stand-up night!
Jun. 23rd, 2002 02:50 pmI went to see Mitch Hedberg in concert with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
fenchurch last night. It was my first time at the Improv. I didn't know comedy clubs had previews just like the movies! This show was unique in that the opening act didn't suck. Greg Behrendt was excellent, and had actually done the Tonight Show the previous night.
But the emcee did suck. He led into both of these comedians with graphic and dirty jokes that didn't quite fit with what Greg and Mitch were up to. Mitch opened his set with a complaint that you can't follow a joke about eating pussy on acid with a joke about a banana. Were it not for the emcee, the evening would probably have been completely free of graphic sexual humor. Not that I'm against that kind of humor, but it's just not what I paid to see that night.
Mitch has a routine reminiscent of Steven Wright, but more observational in nature. His delivery is well-tuned, and the cadence of his voice is as recognizable as Jerry Seinfeld's, and he has a humble, laid-back demeanor that is very endearing to the audience. Other comedians make fun of people who, when you ask them if you have to dial 9, tell you "if it's in the number." Mitch is one of the people who says "if it's in the number." A lot of his jokes play off the syntactic sugar that makes English the sweet language it is, but not in the angry, pedantic sort of way George Carlin does. He likes to set up phrases we've never heard before, like "cutest infestation ever", and "sponge ruiner," and "emergency make-the-car-smell-funny lever". His jokes tend to be short, which is good for those of us with ADD.
I went and bought the CD from Mitch outside, after about fifteen minutes of searching for him outside the building. We finally found him outside the haircut place. He did a joke in his set where he said he wished he had a phone number that was all 2's, so I told him that I saw a guy on TV who had a phone number that was all 8's. I didn't tell him that it was Steve Wozniak, on the April Fools Day episode of The Screen Savers. See for yourself.
He's doing one more show tonight at 8:00, so go if you have time. Also, if you're reading this between 3:00pm and 3:30pm MST, Mitch is on Comedy Central right now.
fenchurch last night. It was my first time at the Improv. I didn't know comedy clubs had previews just like the movies! This show was unique in that the opening act didn't suck. Greg Behrendt was excellent, and had actually done the Tonight Show the previous night. But the emcee did suck. He led into both of these comedians with graphic and dirty jokes that didn't quite fit with what Greg and Mitch were up to. Mitch opened his set with a complaint that you can't follow a joke about eating pussy on acid with a joke about a banana. Were it not for the emcee, the evening would probably have been completely free of graphic sexual humor. Not that I'm against that kind of humor, but it's just not what I paid to see that night.
Mitch has a routine reminiscent of Steven Wright, but more observational in nature. His delivery is well-tuned, and the cadence of his voice is as recognizable as Jerry Seinfeld's, and he has a humble, laid-back demeanor that is very endearing to the audience. Other comedians make fun of people who, when you ask them if you have to dial 9, tell you "if it's in the number." Mitch is one of the people who says "if it's in the number." A lot of his jokes play off the syntactic sugar that makes English the sweet language it is, but not in the angry, pedantic sort of way George Carlin does. He likes to set up phrases we've never heard before, like "cutest infestation ever", and "sponge ruiner," and "emergency make-the-car-smell-funny lever". His jokes tend to be short, which is good for those of us with ADD.
I went and bought the CD from Mitch outside, after about fifteen minutes of searching for him outside the building. We finally found him outside the haircut place. He did a joke in his set where he said he wished he had a phone number that was all 2's, so I told him that I saw a guy on TV who had a phone number that was all 8's. I didn't tell him that it was Steve Wozniak, on the April Fools Day episode of The Screen Savers. See for yourself.
He's doing one more show tonight at 8:00, so go if you have time. Also, if you're reading this between 3:00pm and 3:30pm MST, Mitch is on Comedy Central right now.
