In the middle of a 14 hour poker session I went to see a fine comedy act at the River Palms. For $20 I saw three comics and enjoyed them all to a more or less degree. Comedy works best for me if it is not too abrasive and if all the jokes don't seem to invoke the laugh line with some form of F***. I am not offended by the other sort, just not overly amused. I don't see how the humor differs from the jokes my students told for 30 years in the classroom where from 7th thru early high school F*** was a joke all by itself.
I never see anyone who comes near Steven Wright for comedy, or uses his dry ironic approach to look at the world in new ways. He is my favorite.
Still, these performers were all comics who drew out some of the funny ironies of life and presented them with some energy. Also they did not need to harass the audience and embarrass us to make fun of life. As much as I enjoy good banter, I often am a bit uncomfortable when audience members are the butt of jokes. They engaged the audience a bit by getting hand raised votes to see who might be married, etc. Nothing was very individually focused.
Best I thought was:
Max Dolcelli
http://www.maxdolcelli.com/
His body language and facial expressions presented his material with such energy that I'd have laughed even if I did not get the joke or agree with it.
I'm sorry I can't remember content well.
I do remember he did a good bit on male/female relationships and roles.
My second favorite was Patrick McGuire.
http://www.comedytime.tv/view_video.php?viewkey=810fff094a7bbfe7f83f
He is partially blind and did some great stuff on the ironies of his own condition. I remember him telling us one of the advantages of sight loss could be realized just before going out to dinner. His wife would come out and ask the question all men dread,
"Well, honey, how do I look?"
And he would escape the trap with........
"Well, a bit out of focus and somewhat ...............blurry."
He also did a bit of ethnic humor. This is tough to do because it is always delicate. Some of it was again self focused on his own Latino heritage. And the rest was very well written and presented and did not leave me feeling he had gotten away with insult simply by calling it comedy.
The third comic was okay.
Pediatrician Dr. Sutay
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ia9BusS5lUI
http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.ListAll&friendID=51805195
I did not think his delivery was as polished as the others.
Dr. Jay Sutay is a pediatrician turned comic. He uses the stuff from his day job to make good jokes, most of them on the parents of the kids he treats. I thought he was just a bit short of good stage presence. I always felt it was the Doc speaking and not the polished comic.
I may also have been put off by one strand in his comedy. It is what I call the "ignorant was best" brand of comedy. I guess it is designed to make us laugh at how complex life is now compared to our memories of the past. For example, he mocked the use of car seats. Back in the day, as the strand goes, we did not need car seats. Just an arm stuck in front of the child during a quick stop was enough.
The central theme is that the risks we took in the old days were fine and even made us who we are today. After all, the audience is repeatedly asked, didn't we survive and here we are?"
Well, Doc, the great irony is that few of us who died in car crashes as children are here to rebut your arguments. Or perhaps we are too deaf to hear those voices.
Another of his stiks was that we should train our kids like we train our dogs. We are too sensitive and we read too many books on parenting. We don't do that with dogs.
Well, Doc, I have to tell you I don't think we not do so well with our dogs ether. And when we get to the point where we no longer can do anything with a dog, we just put it down. Hard to do that with children. Often tempting. But illegal in most states.
Also, I have read some fine dog books that helped me understand pack instinct and other dog issues and offered some fairly simple ways to change dog behavior. In my experience books are good and those who can't or don't read them.....well....they then can ignore any new thoughts or information. Illiteracy and ignorance are not the best preparation for parenting.
I guess I could not forget that that Dr. Sutay was a real professional pediatrician telling us not to be modern or particularly smart about raising children. Sort of the old wood shed mentality. It may have relaxed some of us into the simplicity of the mythical good old days, but I would have preferred humor that reflected the stupidity of being violent or negligent with children rather than praised those approaches.
Or perhaps it is just my coming first new grandchild due in November that skewed my receptivity and made me oversensitive to car seat jokes.
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JAZZ
Coming back from poker at the Colorado Belle one night when I either had a cold or allergies and was tired, I sat at a slot machine and watched a great Dixieland type jazz band for an hour. They had a new sax player named Dave who clealy had not practiced with them much or perhaps at all, but he was very talented and it was fun to see them decide on a piece and then start in. Since it was unpracticed you had the sense of real jamming going on. The new guy was also great. He set up some music but as far as I could tell never looked at it. He seemed to know most of what they played.
Much of is was very familiar. The lead singer on a guitar had an old gravel voice and added good character to old songs, even putting in some new words like a reference to oil spills in Buffets' Margarittaville.
Along with some great jazzy pieces like "Georgia Brown" and an instrumental I really lied called "Donkey" or "Jackass" were a few lounge songs like "Fly Me To the Moon." The new sax guy sang some too. Only the drummer and the base seemed to be in always in the background. It was great fun.
Poker has greatly reduced the amount of music I hear on a trip to Vegas. I used to gamble a bit and then walk to a lounge and hear some sounds and then walk again to do a matchplay or play a bit of blackjack or craps. Now I am at the table for 10 hours at a stretch. Partly it is because even 12 hour sessions rarely have me losing more than $100 so I just keep playing. It takes a good hour to learn the players and then there will be a stretch of just poor cards before the knowledge can become useful.
I need to think about that for my next trip and look up more things in the Laughlin Entertainer. Perhaps if I don't go in August, that will make a difference. Less heat will motivate me to be more mobile.
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