Comic Timing

My husband took me to a comedy club last night. I don't know why we don't go more often; it wasn't all that expensive and we had a blast. We'll do this again soon.

There were four comics in all. First, the emcee opened. He was an older guy with a lazy type of demeanor. I knew his job was to warm up the crowd and worried a little that he might not be able to do it. His jokes verged on being insulting. They reminded me of a throwback to older days when it was funny to make fun of women as being inferior to men. Luckily, he got a little better.

The next guy up was obviously high. He was college-aged and his material seemed very unfinished. He had a few funny moments with jokes that were edgy and clever. But for most of his act, the funniest thing about him was how bizarre he was. He reminded me of one of my son's friends. I think that made me laugh more than anything. He appealed a little more to the younger people in the crowd. In time, I think he'll flesh out his jokes and will have a real future.

Following him was George Kanter, a middle-aged man who made a lot of jokes about everyday life and aging. For everyone over 20-something, he was hysterical. We could relate to almost everything he said. He used physical comedy as well as jokes. Because really -- if you're going to joke about aging, you have to act it out.

We were well warmed-up for the next comedian: Josh Sneed. Josh is a 35-year-old who focused his routine on his fellow Americans and their obsessions with food, tv, and other pop culture. He turned a lot of the focus onto himself with his self-deprecating humor and it was funny. Laugh-out-loud funny.

By the end of the night, we had laughed a lot. At all four comics. They were so different, at different phases in their lives with different sets of material. I think everyone in the audience had their favorite, based in large on which comic you could relate to. I related to George a little more than the others. The fact that I related to the aging and middle-aged humor might have upset me except that it was funny. Really, really funny. I'm glad George and I can laugh about it. The only other alternative is to cry.