The dimly lit basement feels stuffy, and you can feel the tension of the raucous, near capacity crowd as they await the arrival of the contenders for tonights donnybrook. There may be no physical grappling in store, but have no illusions, the semi-finals of Comedy Showdown 6 at the Plaza Hotels Comedy Mix will get ugly and combatants will fall.
The competition kicked off on March 28with three local comics, and a different coterie of comics for the following three weeks, culminating in the semi-finals on April 25th and May 2, when the ranks of the 12 will be whittled down to the final six combatants by the panel of celebrity judges (including past winners).The finalists will vie for the coveted title of #1 Comic at the May 9 finale.
The spoils? The winner will take home $3,000, or as emcee Toby Hargrave voted the Funniest Comedian in Vancouver at the 2005 Vancouver Comedy Festival excitedly noted, the equivalent of a years salary for a comedian."
Along with bragging rights, the title will also provide him or her with much needed exposure (of the media kind) and a potential jumping off point: past winners have been featured in their own comedy showcases on TV and headlined at comedy festivals across North America.
Hargrave did an outstanding job of preparing the audience at the April 25 semi-finals for the inevitable verbal onslaught.The humour ran the gamut from Chris James advice on how to maximize savings at self-serve check-outs (Just punch in the cheapest code for everything), Jimmy Barnes observations on the realization that youre watching too much porn (Oh, man, this ones a classic!), musings on bullying by Patrick Malihas (the world record-holder for most impressions in one minute) and Kwasi Thomas notes on the absurdities of life (A fire escape made out of wood is like a condom made out of ovaries.)Its also interesting to note that while there was some racy subject matter, the language remained relatively tame; indeed most of it could have made it through prime time TV with nary a bleep.
But it wasnt all fun and games.
Despite the ample comedic talent on display, there were a few cricket moments after jokes fell flat, a couple of the competitors noticeably stumbled when the end-of-set light flashed and, bizarrely, rape references popped up in three of the contenders skits. And of course, three of the sextet was eventually given their walking papers; look for Patrick Maliha, Jane Stanton, Chris James, Kyle Bottom, John Beuhler and Simon King to strut their stuff on May 9.
Tickets are$9 and are available by calling 604.684.5050, at the door, or online atTheComedyMix.com. Reservations recommended.
The show starts at 8:30 pm and doors open 1 hour prior to show time
