Producers Diary
PAY NO ATTENTION TO THE MAN BEHIND THE CURTAIN
by Jon Fox
producer
Show 1 – The Battery – 19 to Go
That Talent Director Shane Fox (in consultation with his mom, Anne) choose nearly an all-local field for round one raised an eyebrow. Such concern drew a firm retort: “Do you think we would put together a bad field?”
Arriving at The Battery with Opening Night set to start there at 8 pm, we were told a 90-minute performance was expected! Let’s see: 16 acts each doing about six minutes = 96 minutes.
My pleas for an extension drew another firm retort: “The staff has to clock out at 10 pm and the showroom has to be cleaned up before they do.” So, no time for emcee (and new Competition program coordinator) Daniel Lewis to warm ‘em up. It was left to poor Marcus Howard to kick things off, cold. Damned if he didn’t blow the roof off the place! We were off to the races.
By 10 pm, I was enjoying a house specialty at the bar with judges Fred (The Filmmaker) Ritzenberg, hearing about his new adaptation of an inspiring ode to oldness, “Travels with Epicurus” and (Stuttering Comic) Nina G who pitched her own book a bit to Fred when I was suggesting to contestant Kate Carlsen Carlson that she pull her hands in tighter during a T. Rex impression.
At home, Excel spit out that Cathy Zhao had placed first! Jon Lehre second. Oh my!
And coming in fifth was Iain Langlands. Iain had been a late invitee due to a cancellation.
At the time, we discussed surveying former finalists about a good replacement. Sometimes though alumni recommendations aren’t so good.
“I won’t ask for their advice again if someone they sponsor doesn’t at least get into a top five at a preliminary round show,” I had declared.
Surprisingly Daniel piped up, “I’ll recommend someone and if they don’t come in the top five at least once, you don’t have to pay me!”
Talk about an offer that couldn’t be refused.
Show 2 – 18 to Go – Guild Theatre
“LET’S PLAY TWO”
Next evening, I arrived early at The Guild in Menlo Park for our first ever two shows in one night at the same venue. Such a “new” idea had been a long time coming.
Theater Director Tom Bailey greeted us. We discussed pizza for the dressing rooms. He recommended waiting a bit longer for Round Table. It recalled the great commercials a former contestant used to do for RTP back in the ‘80s. Was that Bill Bonner?
Once again, it was going to be tight. A warm-up by host Johnny Steele was cool and of course the house wanted an intermission but no time to announce the results before turning the house. As we don’t know many capable judges on the peninsula, both Johnny and Tom were enlisted. Johnny is a former college football player. Maybe he recalled “going both ways” when he agreed to host and judge simultaneously.
Starting a show at 6:30 is unusual. It did not escape sardonic comment from Johnny.
As for the second show at 9 pm, it appeared folks might like to tie it on early in Menlo Park or maybe it was just the holiday weekend. At any rate, a tipsy, happy, boisterous crowd assembled. Contestants needed to adjust from the level-headed technocrats that attended before dinner
Show 4 – 17 to Go – Orinda Theatre
“BOOK IT AND THEY WILL COME”
Our idea is to establish a matinee as a Labor Day Weekend attraction in charming Orinda. A Facebook ad touting the occasion had received a remarkable number of responses.
It draw half a house. A good time was had by all. Still, there’s work to be done next year on this concept.
Tony Camin who has good credits (“Just say Conan and Kimmel”) came up from L.A. to host while visiting his mom in Mountain View.
The awarding of the important Encore Point is done in a variety of ways by hosts. Here, Tony drew it out while holding audience attention with increasingly hopeful facial expressions. It was beguiling.
This time there was time to announce the results. The first name heard was Sophia Garrow tying for fifth place. The comedians went crazy with applause.
What amazing camaraderie! Twenty thousand bucks on the table and they’re rooting for each other!
The house cleared quickly. Then the phone rang. It was Daniel saying he had forgotten his charger. I found it. A few moments later, he called back. Iain had left his Thermos. I found that, too.
Bad things come in threes. A few minutes later, it was Cathy saying she couldn’t find her AirPods.
Killed some time before leaving Orinda, I enjoyed a sundae at a cute ice cream parlor. Kids climbed on me like I was piece of furniture.
Show 5 – 16 to Go – Crows Nest
“SOUTHWARD, HO!”
Heading to the Crows Nest in Santa Cruz, I wondered if anyone would choose to skip the trip. A couple years back, there was grousing about having to go all the way to Santa Cruz over treacherous Highway 17.
Checking messages while trying not to crash, my fears were alleviated.
Daniel had K Cheng in tow. Jon Lehre wrote to look for him, Kate and Ryan Rodriguez on the restaurant patio. Cathy checked in that she, Iain and Sophia were on The Boardwalk. Maryam Moosavi was on the beach. Holly Shaw was still on 17.
Upon being admonished to keep both hands on the wheel, she revealed her car was equipped to convert audio into text. Nice.
The Crow’s Nest is the rowdy one-nighter on the Competition circuit. The place was packed with people, many of whom had no idea there was a comedy show about to happen.
But, hey, for $10, they’d stick around. Just don’t expect them to quit talking.
I was feeling pressure because it was on me to get the computer to reveal accurate results for round one by first subtracted each contestant’s low nightly score. Our normal scorekeeper, Tony Numbers, is in Dubrovnik at a women’s comedy festival where his beloved Maureen Langan is appearing.
Alicia the night manager consented to let us use her office where I had the pleasant experience of overhearing waitresses talking amongst themselves about how much fun it was to be laughing at work.
I collected the scores sheets from the first half and recorded them while the show was still happening. Eventually, Daniel came back to the office with the second half scores.
I entered them as well, pleased to see Miss Moosavi had placed. Her joke about volcanoes possibly feeling inadequate when after 500 years of inactivity they erupt but only ash comes out breaks new ground, pun intended.
After a moment of dread, I clicked on Cumulative and pressed Control O. It worked!
I wrote down the scores, handing them to Daniel who took off like a shot. Halfway through a sigh of relief, I suddenly realized I’d forgotten to enter encore points from the second half performers.
I chased after Daniel through the catacombs within the mammoth Crows Nest building, yelling his name all the way.
He was not in the catacombs. He was not on the patio. He was not in the back bar. I caught up to him right as Daniel was explaining the results to Tony.
“Stop,” I yelled, “Come back!”
I dashed back to the office with Daniel right behind, shouting over my shoulder that I had forgotten to credit half the encore points.
As the info was entered, Daniel watched the screen like a hawk. Once more into the breach, I pressed the terrifying Ctrl O.
All that changed was Miss Moosavi moved up from fifth to third in the nightly standings.
At last, Tony was set to announce the five semi-finalists from round one. For dramatic effect, the names had been given to him, first to fifth. I saw a look of knowing cross his face as he glanced at the list.
“In first place for the week, Frankie Marcos.” His mom and brother were in the audience roaring.
“Finishing second for the week, Dan Aguinaga.” Dan has been so focused he has done little to capture my offstage attention other than wear a fucking Yankees cap.
“Third is Iain Langlands.” Daniel beamed, camera at the ready.
“Fourth is Shaheen Khal.” He had not placed in Santa Cruz but his ascension certainly aligned with local sentiment.
“And now the big one,” Tony said. Everyone involved knew which two hopefuls remained . . . “Marcus Howard!”
Well done! Round Two starts Thursday at Washington Inn in Oakland.
ONE LAST LOOK BACK — Round Two of the 48th SF Stand-up Comedy Competition starts tonight at Washington Inn in Oakland. Time to focus on a whole new group of contestants, many of whom have come quite a way to participate. Still there’s a line from Week One that keeps ringing: “Fuck me like it’s your job and a Mexican is about to take it!” — Dan Aguinaga.
Show 6 – 15 to Go – Washington Inn
While Frankie Marcos was roaring it up on stage last round, a fire was ripping through his Mom’s house. They lost everything. There is a GoFund Me to help them out.
More fun to follow.