Red, Wrong and Strong

"There's a lot of angry comedy in this city."
- Rick Overton

I like going to the Stay Puft Marshmallow Mic at 87 Ludlow on Thursdays. There's a really good group of people that go there and it's hosted by either Charlie Kasov, Danny St. Germain or Jon Savoy, all of whom are good guys and run a good ship. After the mic there's a Two-Minute Drill, which is a really innovative idea that Charlie came up with and I enjoy a lot.

After the mic and the drill I often head over to RG Daniels' show Potty Mouths, because I like RG and the comics he books. I host every few weeks and always know people there so it's a good time. Last night I did all three, which isn't unusual, the Stay Puft Marshmallow Mic, the Two-Minute Drill and then went to Potty Mouths since Jon Clarke was producing it that night since RG couldn't make it.

There's been something in the back of my mind for a long time and it was really struggling for me to latch on to it all night. Finally during the very last comic I was watching I couldn't stop thinking about it. There are so many comics that are angry. They're just angry and dirty and mean and I have no idea why. I don't understand it at all.

I started to address it at Stay Puft, because the comic before me said something to the effect of his constant unhappiness and almost every other comic applauded. I did not. Nothing against him, I just don't agree. And I got up on stage and said, "I don't understand why you're so unhappy. It's beautiful outside!" It is. It's like 65 degrees out right now. It's fantastic.

Then a good friend of mine, while drunk, blew up during the mic. And at the Two-Minute Drill a few stories were told that were just hateful and angry. And then at Potty Mouths... 80% of the people that went on stage were angry, miserable and mean. Not funny at all. It just doesn't make any sense to me. Are things that bad? Is life really that crushing? Is the world that brutal?

It's not like I haven't been there. I get angry. I've been the Angry Young Man before, but that was when I was 15. By the way, Billy, you're doing great. I grew out of it. It was a phase. I told a friend of mine on St. Patrick's day that I'm not content, but I'm happy. You don't have to be furious to to try and change things. There's Malcolm X and then there's Martin Luthor King Jr., Ghandi, Henry David Thoreau and so many others. Civil disobediance.

Is there something about feeling like an outcast that makes you angry and drives you to comedy? Because these people all seem to think that they're one in a million as people, but as comics they're a dime a dozen. They're everywhere! Everyone yells, screams, tells dirty jokes, mean stories. There's a lot of hate in these shows.

I don't know what to do about it. Ignore it? Try to do my own thing, I guess, but it hurts me to see it. A lot of these people are my friends, but often it's hard to talk to them or encourage them to do somet things, because it's baffling. Have a cookie, man.

Just to close it out, my favorite comedian is Tom Rhodes. He's playing at Comix in July here in New York and I'm definitely going to see him. Rhodes' biggest influence is Bill Hicks, but where Hicks screams, Rhodes seems to smiile. He's got an attitude about him that's very loving and happy. He talks about politics and race and culture and how people are wrong, but it's always with a sense of humor and an air of joy. The potential that life has and the beauty of it seems to get him by. In one of his CDs, "Live in Paris" he says, "The way we eliminate fascism is by laughing at it." Right on, brother. Right on.