So according to Twitter and a few drunks I talked to on my way home last night, there were some moments of serious awesomeness on some of the Bridgetown stages last night. I am here to report that this experience was not universal. There was also some not-so-awesome, and apparently I got to see most of it.
I wanted to see some people I’d ever seen before so I hit the 7pm show at Bar of the Gods. Except for Nico Santos, I didn’t know anyone else on the bill.
And you know? It’s tough to go first. It’s even tougher to go first in a cramped little back room under a fucking skylight when the sun is still out because it’s Portland in April.
And it’s even tougher than that when there’s some crazy lady sitting right up front talking back to the comics the entire time (no, I’m not talking about myself). So I want to cut the comedians who had to perform there at 7 a little slack, and give most of them a lot of credit for handling the talky lady, who was just fucking obnoxious. Come on people: let the comedians do their sets. It’s why they’re here. It’s why you paid to come to the show. Seriously. Stop trying to have a conversation with them when they’re on stage, even if that stage is only a foot away from you.
With all of these elements working against it, it was for the most part a pretty lackluster show. There were a few good moments despite host Neel Nanda rolling out tired Indian stereotypes. And it was disappointing that pretty much everyone who took the stage — men AND women — spent time talking about how those ladies are just SO silly, especially with the sex, am I right, people?
Santos was solid, but also seemed a little distracted by the relative meh of the scene, and no one was handling the sunlight well at all.
Shawn Pearlman had some pretty original material, and should be worth checking out at a different venue. I left before seeing Rebecca O’Neal, but I’ve heard about her and look forward to catching her later this weekend.
I saw a show at BOG last year and hated it. Ian Karmel hosted and was the best part about it, but even he had a hard time keeping the energy up. In fact, it was my first time seeing Mike Burns and I thought I didn’t like him because of that show. It was a 10pm show and there were maybe only 7 people in the audience and in that horribly cramped space, and everyone was agitated. The comedians commented on this fact several times (with Mike Burns interrupting his own set to rant about how he was performing in a crappy venue to an ungrateful audience). That space is already kind of a shitty smoking area, and I’ll never understand the person who thought that it should be turned into a performance space.
Luckily I saw Mike Burns later on that weekend and loved his set. And I of course appreciate Portland bars doing what they can to share comedy with the masses. But I’ll be skipping all the shows at BOG this year.
Letting natural light into a dive like that is like Dracula putting a skylight in his bedroom.
Can we list other notes for next year here?
*Mail the wristbands and/or don’t have the pick-up be at the same venue as a big show. Bagdad was a clusterfuck. (on the same note, don’t be surprised when people show up at 7pm for their wristbands just because you aren’t ready for them. also, don’t force people into a single file line only to then direct them to split into three lines. did i mention it was a clusterfuck?)
*Don’t kick people with wristbands out of a venue that want to stay and watch the next show. I understand you’re trying to give everyone a fair chance to see everything, but shows often run late, and it puts everyone already at the venue at a huge disadvantage to have to exit and get in the back of a line that’s already a block long. If fairness is really such a huge concern, schedule the shows next year with more time in between, but don’t punish those that choose to station themselves at one place.
in other suckage: the 10pm Bagdad show featured a comic who did 5 minutes on Frasier. Frasier. We left after that.
So you dealt with that long ass line just to leave after the first comedian? Hope you have VIP passes. I thought that bit was funny, but even if it was awful, you missed out on a great show – I mean, there was a video clip with Jon Hamm in boxer briefs.
Yah.
Scofflaws that we are, we didn’t actually wait in line again. We hung out in the lobby. And we must not have left immediately afterwards, because we saw the Simon and Simon video.
My point was that the shows are uneven.
I like BOG as a venue but I second the whole just mail the damn wristbands out idea, I had to go through the process 3 times because I bought the 3 tickets for our group, but my friend and girlfriend both had to work thursday night and they wouldn’t let me pick up all the tickets so I had to go back with them both to get theirs individually! Freaking ridiculous!