Some of you might have heard of the original Comedy Store in LA, which is run by Paulie Shore's mom and has seen the lion's share of comedy's big names come through it over the years (John Belushi, George Carlin, Chevy Chase, Dave Chappelle, David Letterman, and Jay Leno to name a few). Apparently, the two aren't affiliated at all except by the name. Nevertheless the London venue is pretty big over here and was one of the first places Mike Myers did standup.
The show that we had tickets for was billed as "The Best in Stand Up," which I correctly took to mean a lineup of virtually unknown but nevertheless entertaining comedians (thankfully they were for the most part actually pretty funny - there are few things that suck more than a really bad comedy show).
Knowing ahead of time that the comedians would do a good bit of poking fun at the audience, and wanting to take part in just a little (but not too much) of this, four out of my five flatmates and I sat about three rows back from the stage. Our other flatmate bravely sat smack dab in the center of the front row with one of the girls from our building. Collectively, as it turns out, we grossly underestimated the attention we would draw as Americans in an almost entirely British audience. But that turned out to be part of the fun.
It took until maybe the third act before we were uncovered. The comedian was doing the usual "Hi, what's your name, where ya from?" along the front row when he came across the two from our program. Of course, filled with national pride (and the evening's drink specials), the rest of us couldn't help cheering enthusiastically for our fellow countrymen. And that's where it all began. So for the first half of the show every comedian threw the apparently obligatory American joke into their routine. There are a few moments from that night that I'm particularly proud of, though.
The next comedian to come out started off with "Ok, let's pretend we don't know where the Americans are." And proceeded to softly sing, "For the land of the free..." to which we shamelessly and enthusiastically bellowed back "AND THE HOOOOOOME OF THE BRAAAAAAAAAVE!" Judging by his reaction, he had definitely not anticipated a response of that magnitude (he's clearly never witnessed the energy and enthusiasm of a group of drunk American college students singing "Tiny Dancer" or "Piano Man," let alone our national anthem after five weeks on foreign soil). At that point he must have decided there was pretty much nothing he could do to embarrass us, and left us alone for the rest of his routine.
The next comedian also decided to take a shot at us right out of the gate. He started out with, "I hear there's a rowdy group of Americans in the house tonight," to which we obligingly responded with cheering and yelling. He followed up with, "You know, most Americans over here these days just say they're from Canada." To which PJ, my roommate from Kansas City, yelled back, "Fuck THAT!" Not as easily deterred as the one before him, this comedian went on to ask PJ where in the states he was from and made some generic hillbilly jokes before moving on with his routine.
During the intermission all of the Brits around us couldn't stop telling us how we'd really done ourselves in by being so bold, because one of the comedians in the next set (I can't remember his name but they kept talking about one in particular) was really going to have a field day with us and the other comics where probably all back there writing nothing but American jokes. But contrary to expectations, the second half of the show went by with little more than a few lighthearted jabs here and there. I guess they either decided that ripping on the Americans was getting a bit old or that our increasingly drunken unity made them think it was better off to leave us alone.
One last anecdote:
During the intermission I went up to the bar/kitchen area to get some food (I hadn't eaten dinner yet and I was getting drunk-hungry). As I was squirting ketchup onto my plate one of the bartenders lipped off. "Ey mate, wood ya loik some chips wiv that katchup?" (translation "Hey mate, would you like some fries with that katchup?") To which I replied, "Wow you're a fucking riot, why don't they ever let you up on stage?" I mean c'mon, I'm willing to take it from the professionals but the damn bartender? And such an unoriginal cheap shot?
Song of the Day:
