What's Up Doc?

On Friday I went to the Comedy Bar for an early show intriguingly titled Forever Jung. The premise was that a stand-up comic does their bit, then they get some analysis from a therapist regarding their problems. So the emcee started the show reading "real problems" submitted by people. These absurd quips played to a mostly quiet room. The performers uncomfortably felt that lackadaisical non-response all night except for Ivan who was guffawing at the front. Though to be fair, I think they just had a crowd that was more smiles than chuckles.

Three of the five comics (Jen, Jacob, Deanna) either grew up in a smaller town or had family there. So there was quite a few jokes that played up the differences including various hoser accents. Saira poked gently at the still sensitive boundary of race and visible minorities. There were some dating (Jordan) and marriage (Jen) jokes, that perennial topic of stand-up comedy. Overall, I thought there were some funny bits but nobody had a full and confident set of dynamite material.

Unless he hid his credentials well (for professional or ethical reasons), I don't think the therapist, who fell backward into a garbage can and found a psychology textbook, was a real one. So the one-on-one session post-set was more of an improv or comic banter, with the participants trying to anticipate each other and getting some zingers in. It would have been interesting to get some real psychological analysis, although perhaps that might be too much for both performer and audience. Nina Conti In Therapy is a great set of videos exploring that level of honesty and cringe factor. To be fair, she is also doing a bit even if improvised.