By Jonathan Fox
Producer

The annual showcase at her Comedy Heights room comprised by Maria Herman marked the end of auditions for this year. Maria does a great job finding top potential entrants for us so I was excited about seeing her latest suggestions.

Alas, deciding how to get down there and back was affected by another new late life quirk I’m experiencing. I simply can’t stand going to SFO anymore it’s such a demeaning experience and I hate driving on I-5 it’s so monotonous.

So, I decided to let out for exercise one of my caged big cats by driving a Jag first for a late lunch in Pacifica with my daughter, Stacy, and then south along the coast for a more picturesque journey. Fortified with a giant piece of Petrale sole at Nick’s, I proceeded south along the ocean thru San Mateo County to Santa Cruz where I had to bare Friday commuter traffic all the way to Salinas until the expansive vistas of Steinbeck country opened up.

After a long nap at a rest stop just north of Paso Robles, darkness has fallen as I continued on past the Clark Center in Arroyo Grande where we will hold a night of finals on 9/20, Santa Maria where my late father in law grew up and Santa Barbara where wife, Anne, was born.

Another long nap at a rest stop and it was on toward dreaded L.A. on Ventura Highway. Sometime in the wee hours Saturday morning, I was following a truck, maybe a quarter mile behind. All of the sudden, I saw this dark mass laying across two lanes directly in front of me. The truck had overturned after striking some temporary barriers that were set up for freeway work.

Amazingly, I managed to veer quickly to the left and avoid a wreck that could have been fatal. Seemingly, my Jaguar had contributed one of its nine lives to save us.

There was really nothing to do other than continue on. About 4 am, I pulled into a rest stop near Camp Pendleton. There were no spaces available so I parked behind a truck, figuring it would pull forward if it left. I was so dog tired, I really didn’t even care.

Upon waking up, I bought an affordable hotel room in La Mesa not far from Comedy Heights. On the way there, I prayed I could get an into a room quickly. It turned out they sold early check-ins. There is a God in heaven

At 6 pm, I took a Lyft to the club where Maria explained her plan for determining the line-up. Basically, if acts showed up a bit late, they would get less desirable spots. If they showed up too late, they would be replaced.

I loved her plan as it was in keeping with what the Comedy Competition is all about: helping aspiring talent become real professionals. That starts with showing up on time. No, the fact the girlfriend you decided to bring along was slow in getting ready is no excuse.

This was all well and good except a good friend of my daughter’s I had invited to help judge was herself running late. She showed up having missed Maria’s admonition to the audience about no heckling in light of the important circumstances. She proceeded to declare out loud, “he sucked,” about the first two acts she reviewed.

Then the show caught fire. Act after act destroyed. I started feeling uncomfortable because of our intent to only pick two (plus an additional two for the Seattle Comedy Competition in November).

As the evening concluded, the applicants came over. I tried to explain that although we are a Competition, we are also a show in which we try to present as many different types of performers as possible. That means that at this late point where we almost have the field complete, we may choose someone for their uniqueness. Someone else may have had an even better set but we make our actual choice for the overall betterment of the show. That explanation seemed to go over pretty well.

Next morning, I was back on the road heading home at 8 am on the most direct route possible. It being Sunday, there were few of the normal freight trucks on I-5 with which to contend. A couple 15-minute shut eyes at rest stops and I walked thru the front door at 4:30. On the way, I had decided to invite three applicants instead of just two. Congratulations to Matt Duckett, Mike Freedman and Kyle Rehl!

San Diego or Bust!