I got an email last week asking if I could emcee the Saturday shows at the Columbus Funny Bone, I checked with my wife and was able to pull it off. Our kid was sick and she had to call off one day, so she was pretty far behind with life, but she’s the best and was able to pull the long shift again for me. I looked at the schedule and realized it was with Headliner Colin Quinn, formerly of Saturday Night Live, Remote Control, and Tough Crowd, plus countless stand-up specials and movies.
It was a very cool experience – the crowds were sold out for both shows and both Colin and Jay Stevens, the other comic I worked with, were both overly nice to me. I introduced myself and he said, “Wait, let me guess with that accent. You’re in Columbus now, but not originally from here. Kentucky?” Close, I said. Before I could say where he said, “Tennessee?” No, I’m from Southeastern Ohio. Ohio has three accents and I got the shitty one. He told me I should use that onstage, so that will likely be my opening joke for the rest of my life.
I did my set and was even more surprised that he listened – the club has a speaker coming into the Green room, which is nice, so you can hear the other comics. He had some pretty good advice I can use and told me with my voice and story telling material, I could be a really unique stand-up and fill a niche for blue collar crowds. (Like I said, he was very nice, he should have told me not to look him in the eye and kicked me out of the room). I also got to hear some really interesting stories about how he got started and how he came up with Adam Sandler and Chris Rock on the New York comedy scene in the 80’s. Chris got a big break when Eddie Murphy picked him go to on before him, but even after getting on SNL, he was able to reinvent his entire set by changing his delivery style. Of course, his material was great also – I always love hearing comics take the most obvious things that we can all relate to and finding the humor in them. He was able to take his entire act from common experiences and make it hilarious.
He even let me get a picture with him, which I told him I would understand if he told me to go to hell, after my shitty intro. I brought him up the first time and he had told me he wasn’t particular about his intro. I went through the TV credits and for some reason said, “He’s a staple of the industry.” He went up and torched me for it – nothing says this next act is funny like calling them a staple of the industry. It was even funny getting blasted for using a term like I was presenting an employee of the week award. Oh well, I’m sure I have more duds to deliver down the road.
