Thursday night Doug Stanhope hit Reno, But he didn’t play at in some posh casino showroom, he played at the Zephyr Lounge – exactly where I’d want to see him.

I’ve only gone there a few times, but the Zephyr is the seedy kind of bar that I really feel at home at. It’s cramped, there’s old dirty couches at the bar that you really don’t want to examine. They only take cash, but you can hit up the ATM next door by the nudie bookstore. It’s a classy joint.

We all got there about an hour before everything started and pretty much everyone there couldn’t believe we were seeing Stanhope in such a small venue for only $10. That and the full flask of whiskey in my back pocket guaranteed a fantastic evening.

Stanhope hit the stage slurring, looking truly drunk, notes in hand because he started out the set with a few bits he’s still working on. Pretty much immediately he simultaneously won the crowd and totally humiliated a group sitting in the balcony. They ended up leaving. A few times he’d stop and apologize for not being familiar with some of his material or just being off, saying something like “don’t worry, you can always buy a DVD where I tried harder.”

I dislike when comics say things like “[insert current venue, city, college] is my personal favorite” because you know they’re full of shit, but I really wanted to believe him when he said “Reno is my favorite city in the country – ’cause I’ve got so many vices, and only two hands!”

One thing I noticed- he mentions Myspace a lot. Originally, I heard about the show from a friend who saw it on Myspace. Her husband had sent a bulliten announcing the show to his friends, and Stanhope had sent him a message thanking him. More and more as I asked people in the bar how they found out, it was the same story, so I was a little intrigued.

After the show I asked him about it- he said he chose the Zephyr and another bar right off Myspace, and he ended up there because the other bar never responded. “No shit,” I said “that’s pretty cool.” Here’s a great example of control an artist has that wasn’t possible 5 years ago. He chose the exact dive bar he wanted to play, promoted it basically through word of mouth and packed the place. Pretty cool indeed. I wonder how many other comics are using Myspace to book their shows in the same way.

Jerz and I headed over to Berkeley on Friday nite to see Dane Cook. If you know who he is than right now you are probably feeling a little jealous and inadequate. That’s natural. Seeing him perform makes me better than you. If you don’t know who he is, then don’t worry. Life just got better. Go pick up his DVD and ruin your couch in a piss-drenched laugh-fest.

I’m not gay, but I am in love with the guy.

So if you ever travel to Berkeley, use a helicopter or parachute in. You. Will. Not. Find. Parking. Anywhere. I got pretty nervous thinking that we’d miss part of the show, since you have to wait for someone to die or carjack someone for a parking space. Finally we made it. It’s a good thing I got my tickets online- and paid to be up front, right? right??!?

Here is where I would spend several paragraphs ranting and raving about how the awesome 5th row seats I bought didn’t exist, and how after sitting through the opening act we got booted back so far he was smaller than on TV… but thanks to the SUPERB staff I got a full refund. It’s almost a pity ’cause it would have been really funny stuff.

As for the show, it rocked. Dane Cook has a style you just can’t imitate. His jokes come from some alternate universe where the stupid stuff you and I say is really really funny. I had those nasty, crusty tear trails on my face as we left.

He did stuff from his CD, stuff I’ve seen on the clips on his site, and around 50% of the material I didn’t recognize. The set went for a while, too. Over an hour. Needless to say I left pleased. tho choking down anger over the aforementioned story-which-must-not-be-told.

Now I sit a happy boy- money refunded, laughs laughed and maybe just a smidgen confused about my orientation. Now isn’t that what we’re all after?

Dane Cook @ Berkeley Community Theater
Nov 19th 2004
Price: $30.00

Do yourself a favor. Quit looking up naughty stuff on the internet, put some pants on and go buy Dane Cook: Harmful if Swallowed. If you love me you’ll do it.

Trust me. Pop the DVD in and after 15 minutes, you will experience a deeply satisfying feeling down in the cockles of your heart. Your cockles will thank you. Of all the comedy I’ve seen this year, Harmful if Swallowed was the most refreshing. After that, Chris Rock’s Never Scared was good and so was Dave Chappele’s 2000 release (his latest blows. hard.).

Dane Cook exemplifies the concept that if you can get the audience to like you- they’ll laugh at anything. He manages to be unconventional while avoiding being gimmicky. His style and his content are all over the map, ranting at times about average houseold stuff, then doing full-on Alien impressions. He’s also rather physical on stage.

I hadn’t seen much stand-up before starting it myself, and his act showed me I could be more myself on stage. There’s a reason he was just picked as RollingStone’s “Hot Comic.” Cook is seriously on the rise. He’s got another DVD/CD set coming out in January also.

So buy it. Then have your cockles email me and tell me how much they liked it.

Friday night we went to the finals of the San Francisco Stand-Up Comedy Competition up at Lake Tahoe(?). I guess SF was full.

There were five performers; each did a 15-20 minute set. It’s a theatre set up with long tables instead of um, theatre style. Great if you are a contortionist/giraffe.

The acts were cool. I liked two out of the five. I really dislike comics who are putting on an obvious act. Real people are relatable. When you seem like a real person, then I’m laughing at something you said that I think is funny. When you are Bernie the Ukrainian-Chicken-Farming-Gigolo, then I’m laughing at something you think is funny. It only goes so far in my opinion. Not to say that you can’t have a persona- it’s just got to seem like you are a real person. Otherwise it just seems like a gimmick to me and that’s a distraction.

Here’s what I thought of the acts (in order of appearance).

• Eric Schwartz: The Suburban Homeboy. He was alright. He goes for the whole “I’m a Jewish geek who wants to be a hip-hop sensation.” After a while it wears on you.

• Sadiki Fuller: He was cool. He goes into the whole “I’m black and poor so we drank a lot of off-brand Kool Aid” thing but not so heavy that it’s all he relies on. He had a great stage presence and was likable.
• Nathan Trenholm: Think Steven Wright as a whiney angry twisted dwarf. A few of his zingers made me chuckle, but I wouldn’t go see him agian.
  Tommy Savitt: He plays a sleazy New York ex-lawyer. He breaks into this too-affectionate-uncle voice quite a bit. Creepy.

• Jim Short: He’s Australian which differentiates him and gives him some material, but he was a truly good comic. He killed. And won.

It was a great night and I respect each comic for making it to the finals.

Location: Caesars Lake Tahoe
Price: $25