Grin and Bear It

Saturday night, I decided at the last minute to see a late comedy show at the Comedy Bar. Headliner Wendy Liebman has been in the business a long time. I don't know how her other shows went but for this last one, because there were less people than expected, management moved us into the smaller cabaret lounge.

So myself and the audience had to impatiently wait while that room cleared out, resulting in about 1 hour delay. That didn't help with the mood. The consensus, at least from the comics throughout the evening, was that it was a tough crowd and the show bombed. That was only partially true.

The local acts were just OK. The dude with only 5-minute worth of material fared the worst. The 2 women comics, both gay, did better. Though perhaps their jokes about being queer might have gone better with a more diverse audience. Liebman's material needed a larger group. She specialized in a non-stop barrage of punchlines. One example: "My step-sons said, 'You can't make me, you're not my mother.' They got that from my husband." These tend to make people smile more than laugh (me, for instance) but grins do not translate well to a live setting. Hence the perceived "uncomfortable silence" in the room.