Bridgetown closed out Sunday night with what was easily the best show of the festival’s three years. While there may have been other comics or shows that split the sides of an audience to the point of muscle fatigue in Bridgetown’s short history, Sunday’s Closing Night Blowout was phenomenal—a exponential barrage of hilarity.
Ten-odd comics performed to a packed Bagdad Theater and none missed a beat. Everyone held the audience’s rapt attention. The nearly four hour long show got better and better and better. By the end, Tig Notaro wrapped up her planned set—a stunning real-world tale of run ins with forgotten pop star Tayor Dayne—and kept going. The audience just was locked in to the point of laughing hysterically at lines that were not, in any shape or form, jokes.
Brody Stevens hosted and did a fantastic job changing gears without squashing the show’s momentum. Stevens, who’s been everywhere at the festival, has burned out some with his satyrical character: a shameless Hollywood ladder climber. I find it terrific. Coupled with Stevens’ ability to improvise, riff without canned jokes, and interact with the audience, he was one of the festival’s highlights, right there with Kyle Kinane, James Adomian, Notaro and Maria Bamford. But Sunday, everyone was a star.
Special guests like Saturday Night Live writer Hannibal Burris and T.J. Miller showed up unannounced and killed. Miller’s set, performed under the obvious influence of multiple substances, was stunning in it’s spontaneity. He did 20-odd minutes on the day’s events, which saw him traveling from New Zealand to San Francisco to meet with his girlfriend—upset and irritable because she was hungry—before finally arriving in Portland.
Greg Behrent, writer of “He’s Just Not That Into You,” rolled with tales of David Lee Roth and touched Portland’s hipster contingent with talk of record reviews and Pitchfork before going on to bag on Vampire Weekend. Baron Vaughn showed a wide range of styles and a flexible voice. Matt Braunger, a co-founder of the festival and former Portlander, reveled in his homecoming. Christian Finnegan’s set was entirely sex driven but never cloying. It made the festival.
For stand up to really work, the audience has got to go along, and by God, Sunday’s crowd at the Bagdad was phenomenal. The performers and audience fed off one another. It was a quite a closing hurrah for the growing festival. Aside from just jokes, it was a celebration of the Bridgetown itself and a validation of Portland’s hunger for good comedy.
As the comics who performed (or watched) Sunday return home, I have no doubt they’ll share the incredible vibe that was the Closing Night Blowout with friends and colleagues, which means next year’s Bridgtown will be even better.
Notes on the rest of the festival after the jump.
A few notes from the rest of the festival:
– Iron Comic really highlights comics at the top of their craft. The name, derivative of Iron Chef, works exactly the same way: comics are given audience selected topics, then ten minutes to write a two minute set. Alex Koll, Morgan Murphy, Tig Notaro, Kyle Kinane and Maria Bamford competed, and few dropped the ball. Murphy, a first-timer to Iron Comic, didn’t quite keep pace with the rest, as her style is more of a slow build—dependent on rhythm and mood. Still, she is a upcoming talent worth your time. Kinane took the competition with force shortly after blowing away an audience down at the Bagdad. His acerbic, woe-is-me, drunken but quick-witted style won over everyone who came within earshot.
– Portland loves long-form group improv. Shows by Asssscat and Theme Park were standing room only at the Hawthorne Theatre. Theme Park in particular, featuring Scott Adsit (Pete from 30 Rock) and Danny Pudi (Abed from Community) are simply phenomenal.
– It wasn’t perfect. Shows went late. The goddamned schedule was impossible to read. A showcase curated by the folks from Comedy is OK took place beneath a bumping prom dance party at the Hawthorne Theatre, which threw a pretty big wrench in the mood. Some shows were under-attended, or booked in oversized rooms that felt cavernous. Ticket prices for single shows were quite high—indeed the only way to enjoy the festival is with a weekend pass. Even then things can be a bit overwhelming. I missed a number of comics I’d hoped to see, but too many solid shows taken place simultaneously is hardly a bad thing.
– The themed shows—aside from straight comedy—are a geek’s heaven. Podcast recordings like Jimmy Pardo’s Never Not Funny and the Conan O’Brien Writers Panel were great brain candy.
– Helium Comedy Club, opening this July in Portland, was everywhere. A great lineup for the first few weeks plus diligence pressing the flesh should bode well in the broadening of Portland as a stand up destination.
– Almost every out-of-towner used Portland liberally as a punchile. Most common topics: beards, bikes, and limp-dicked liberals. Still, a lot of them honestly seem to love it here.
– I’m fucking exhausted, but left with a warm glow. I wish every weekend was like Bridgetown.
Last night at the Closing Night Blowout, I thought it was all about Baron Vaughn and Matt Braunger–both of those guys were fan-fucking-tastic, to the extent where everyone else seemed muted and blurry in comparison. Last night’s show was a little more hit-and-miss than I was hoping it’d be, but those two guys’ sets were just amazing.
That said–and even though it wasn’t the “funniest” show I saw this weekend–the Conan writers’ panel was easily the highlight for me, insightful and clever and sad and inspiring. Saturday night’s Asssscat performance was impressive and great and sharp, too. (Less so with the local improv troupe who opened for them, the Curious Comedy Main Stage Players–but even then, I was impressed with how the crowd worked with the comedians through their long set. I expected more heckling at the fest, but the crowds seemed genuinely supportive and happy throughout–or maybe they were just pleasantly buzzed. Still, there was a good vibe in the crowd at just about every show I attended, which makes a pretty big difference when it comes to live comedy. Point being: Looking forward to next year.)
The fest was mostly a blur for me, with a few standouts–Christian Finnegan at both the Never Not Funny podcast and the Asssscat show; Asssscat in general with razor-sharp contributions by UCB founders Matt Walsh and Matt Besser in particular; local comedians at Comedy is OK, some of whom were great and some who weren’t; comedians Lauren Bishop and Emily Heller in the Mt Tabor lounge on Thursday. Definitely was not into Brody Stevens’ confrontational style, which felt flailing and needy and “look at me!” in that way that standup comedy can be. Not to mention repetitive. But the rest of the comedians I saw were almost all great.
Congratulations to Rudy Stevenson and Sally Moyer, Class of ’10 Prom King and Queen!!
This was my first Bridgetown and I heard a few grumbles that there seemed like there was less energy this year. Really?? I was only able to go to shows on one of the nights (Saturday) but I had fun well beyond my expectations—expectations that had in part been set by Friday night’s attempt to retrieve my pass from the Mt Tabor at 2:30 am, which resulted in a confrontation with some wasted douche who thought he was h-i-l-a-r-i-o-u-s and DID NOT have my pass but did manage to piss me off and waste my time, souring my enthusiasm for hitting the after party.
I started off by catching the tail end of the returning NW comics, and second Erik in saying that Matt Braunger was great. I only saw part of Hari Kondabalu, but he was pretty great too. The only real low-light was, again as Erik mentioned, the Curious Comedy set before Asssscat, and even though Asssscat was pretty good I preferred the straight standup acts to any of the improv. I remember being happy and extremely amused at the wee hours in the Mt Tabor main room (Brody Stevens, Jon Roy, etc) though by that point rather soused.
It’s absolutely true that the pass is the only way to go, but I wish they would do day passes. I’d go next year in a heartbeat but I really don’t think I would withstand four consecutive nights of this hoopla.
Re: TJ Miller on Sunday — to be fair, he wasn’t kidding about having just had brain surgery. He wasn’t under the influence of “multiple substances,” just post-op narcotics. To me, that made his set one of the standouts of the whole festival — if he’s that sharp after brain surgery, I can’t imagine how great he would be with all of his faculties.