On the Scene at the Freedom of Speech Comedy Show
“No gimmicky contests, no censorship” is the concept behind the Freedom of Speech Comedy Show, the second season of which filmed at 7 and 9 p.m. February 11 at Palace Station’s LA Comedy Club. Conceived, produced and hosted by Chucklehut Entertainment’s Don Barnhart, the end product will air in Southern California in March, followed by a tentative April run in Vegas. Among the evening’s highlights:
Klaus Myers, a “German” comic who had only been in the U.S. six weeks, and whose motto was, “Let bygones be bygones.” The fish-out-of-water shtick toyed with American speech patterns and behavior, allowing for bits like, “Take my wife, I command you,” and a chunk about emceeing a male review show – and the utterances of “dickies” and “pee-pee” that followed – to keep the audience engaged with the character at the heart of the act, if not always with the material itself. When he broke free from the put-on towards the set’s end and turned back into plain old Jim Myers from Long Island, he proved himself more than a one-trick pony by breaking out an equally impressive Southern accent to continue tackling cultural absurdities.
A cross between Dave Chappelle’s less glum brother and a jumbo packet of Pop Rocks, Steve White shot out from the wings and immediately captivated the audience with an admirable combo of quick-and-clever material and an animated, smiley, highly likeable persona. Lines like, “Obama – I don’t think I can vote for another black man asking for change,” “The only Black Jews were Sammy Davis, Jr. and Jesus” and “I’m circumcised…the whole nine yards” were often on the verge of being overly-subtle, and though one joke about high-definition ADD strayed dangerously close to Steven Wright territory, he was undeniably the crowd favorite of the night. And what other comic could get away with not one but two Ben Vereen references?
Last Comic Standing and Comedy Central Presents’ Tom Cotter started things comfortably with some gambling-in-the-age-of-political-correctness and self-effacing segments (“I’m half Irish and half Scottish. That means I like to get shit-faced and wear a skirt.”). It wasn’t long, however, before he segued into material on shooting carousel horses and shitting on boats, then seized control with R-rated storytelling in the vein of Bob Saget. “I almost hit a deer…a John Deere…in the middle of a cornfield,” he explained during a tale of drunken arrest. “I was shocked…by the taser.” The wordplay came almost too hard and fast; often the 200-plus crowd missed out on gems because they were still processing the previous nugget of gold.
Like Lisa Lampanelli gone Soprano, O'Shea's headliner Vinnie "I'm Last, So Obviously I'm the Best" Favorito left no racial stereotype unexploited. Not even the elderly were spared from his off-the-cuff comments. With lines like, "Little brothah with the big sistah: She hits you, doesn't she?," it became clear that more vicious and cutting (both in the best way imaginable) crowd work simply doesn't exist.
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