Montalvo Night Two and Arachnophilia - San Francisco Comedy Competition

There are many great stories to tell in comedy that have happened in this competition, and the latest one is Daniel and the Spider. After being introduced, Daniel Lewis comes onstage and greets the crowd. Shortly into his set, Gill, the heckler yells out, “A SPIDER!” And sure enough, hanging on a thread was a small spider who dropped down to microphone level to see the show!

It wasn’t very big and yet audience members deep in the crowd could see it clearly. Daniel asked the crowd if he should leave it or remove it and the audience really wanted the spider to stay! It’s not even Halloween. Daniel decided for the comfort of the comics and maybe himself to grab the web and move the spider off-stage to the hands of the stage manager who I guess took it to the VIP spider viewing section. People in the audience showed true concern for the spider which was endearing on it’s own, although I don’t think they felt the same way about sharks or hecklers. Thankfully, the audience stayed fully engaged the entire show. Sometimes, too engaging.

The Top Five

Gill continued to attempt to be an interactive part of the show with the first few comedians until Jalisa Robinson had enough and just worked him into her set and tagged him in jokes.

By the end of the show, Bob the heckler took up the slack of Gill as the interactive part of the show. Daniel Lewis finally reached out to him to find out more and asked him his name. He said, “Bob with one O” and Daniel fired back, “I highly doubt that”. The audience roared. Daniel had just completed a bit about ghosting and as Bob continued, someone else yelled out, “GHOST HIM!” and the audience all yelled out they agree. Bob went silent after that.

I’d like to point out there really is no need for anyone choosing to be an interactive element of a show, but I do appreciate an audience that is engaged, responds to material and is enthusiastic to the very end. It makes for a fantastic show.