The Comic Strip

I went to the Comic Strip in NYC with my friend David this weekend. Lee Camp was one of the 10 comedians (I know, me going to a Lee Camp show, weird innit?). It was actually a pretty cool venue, but I'm very glad we didn't end up right in front because those guys in their slick gel hair and fur-lined leather jackets got picked on by every comedian. "What is this, West Side Story? Are you a Shark, is that it?"

There was a nice mix of comedians. Lee was funny as always, with some material I hadn't heard before. He starts out saying how weird it is that we're all here at a live, in-person show. These days it's like a shock to see someone who's not in a screen. But it's mostly funny because it's so true. The people sitting in front of me were texting through the whole show, and they're sitting dead front and center. One comedian had to pause the show to get them to promise to stop, which only lasted 'til the next guy came on. Even the audience was annoyed. That comedian makes fun of their Twittery lives: "Just let the world wonder for an hour where you went. 'Oh my god, an hour ago, he said he was going to take a crap and we haven't heard from him since. I hope he's okay!'"

Here's some Lee Camp at the Comic Strip. David was happy they have a proper comedy club brick wall.



The host was much funnier than the host at the Laugh Lounge. He started the show by asking everybody in the audience where they were from. Most were from other countries. Romania, Scotland, Ireland, Canada, Australia. When I said I live in Jersey, he had to explain to the Scottish guy behind me not to go to Jersey.

Most of the comedians were pretty funny, but there was this one guy who wasn't invited, but he's apparently some big star, so the host asked if he wanted to do ten minutes. And I don't know if the guy was drunk or what, but it was the most disjointed, distracted set ever. When he saw that he wasn't making the audience laugh, he reverted to really loud Chris Rock impressions over and over. When he got off, we were just like, "What was that?"

There was this one guy, Ross Bennett. He was a little older with a whole different vibe than any other comedian. He gets out and he's like "Trust me, I'm just as disappointed as you. Every time I come out in the middle of these comedy shows, I don't feel like part of the act. I feel like I'm interrupting your party. Like this is your basement. And your parents are gone for the weekend. And I'm the neighbor." He was pretty great:


Also great was Jermaine Fowler:


There was also this guy who made fun of his girlfriend for doing the victory arm pump all the time. "The only time you should ever do that is if you're six years old and you just found out it's taco night." A few comedians later, this comedian comes out and she does the arm pump thing and goes "Tacos!" And I thought, okay, she's seen that guy's set before. Nope. That's the girlfriend. She claimed it was a total lie and she doesn't actually do that. The weird thing about her set was that most of her stories seemed to involve cannibalism in some way. Usually comedy is funny because in some way you can relate to it. When Ross Bennett does his thing about how now he's getting older, he makes noises when he doesn't want to: one grunt noise when he's doing something, and one sigh noise once he's done it. It's funny because you can relate. However, her jokes were like "Have you ever looked at a baby and really wanted to eat it?" Now, this would be hilarious if it was some kind of secret desire everybody has that she brings to light but I have a feeling most of us were like "Umm...no...?"

Then I missed my train because I thought it was at 11:30 instead of 11:11, so I had to wait for the 12:30 train to take me to Broad Street, then had to wait 'til 1:30 for the Montclair train, but the screens at Broad Street were frozen, so I couldn't tell if there was a train coming. Then I realized that TECHNICALLY it was Monday now and trains don't run that late on Monday. But the schedule made it look like 1am on Monday was still counted as the Sunday night schedule, but I wasn't sure. The only people around were this older couple making out on the platform, so I had to interrupt them to ask if the train was coming, which they explained in a few different languages that they didn't know. Luckily, the 1:30 train did come and I didn't have to call a cab.