The Easter Funny

I went to the stand-up comedy show at the Guild yesterday. Overall I was really impressed. Margie Carmichael sang a few songs and read a bit from her book. I always really enjoy bits that are written with poetic precision. Putting words together artfully to me is even more of an art than making fun of the instructions on shampoo bottles.

Taylor did a good job in the first act, he didn't make any effort to speed up his pace, which is actually a good thing. Half the funny in watching Taylor is his little asides and pauses. There was a sketch comedy group as well, but honestly I didn't find them very funny at all. The first bit they did was the 'freeze tag' game, where one member shouts 'freeze' and takes the physical position of someone else and resumes the sketch. I found they switched up far too frequently, so there was never a chance to really develop a dialog beyond just the initial gag. Next they did a bit where they had to make up lyrics to a song on the fly. And frankly it blew. To pull off that game really well requires a lot of practise, and the kind of word power that the members of this group just didn't seem to have to come up with rhymes or at least lines that flowed well quickly enough.

The last two comedians were Patrick Ledwell, who's about to go to the Halifax Comedy Festival, and was definitely the most polished of the night. He did a bit that I enjoy of his about having conflicting goals in life while trying to be 'goal oriented' to please prospective employers. Richard Shroeter also performed, and he did a great job, too. Overall Patrick was the best in terms of what you expect from a typical stand-up act, but there's something unique about how Taylor throws so much of his human-ness out there that makes it a lot more memorable

Labels: Reviews, Stand-Up Comedy