Friday, November 16, 2012
Comedian has a one night only engagement tonight on his hometown turf
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Friday, November 16, 2012
Doug Karpf knows Springfield. Not only is Karpf, who takes the microphone this weekend at Scotty’s, a Springfield resident, but he has spent most of his life in the area and said he feels he can relate to the people for whom he is performing. Since much of the audience hails from within a 10-mile radius of the club, he said there are a lot of little nuances and specifics he can get into that people might find entertaining. “Even if it’s speaking about local stores, nightlife or lack thereof,” Karpf, who grew up in Millburn, said, “I think a lot of them are impressed sometimes when I mention real local specifics that comics touring the country from other areas would have no idea about.” Karpf said he prides himself on being able to perform …
Friday, September 14, 2012
Storytelling comedian discusses being good at stand-up, bad at waiting tables.
Instead of serving a setup and punch line, comedian Mark Riccadonna considers himself a storyteller, delivering stories to his audience in the same manner he would to a bunch of friends. “When I first got started, I did the setup-punch thing,” Riccadonna, who performs this weekend at Scotty’s, said. When a fellow comic, Carl Labove, pointed out that Riccadonna was good at telling stories and enjoyed acting, he suggested going the storytelling route. “I started doing that, and that made it a lot easier to remember my act,” he joked. Riccadonna was introduced to comedy about eight years ago when he got a job at a comedy club to complement the days he spent looking for acting work. Although his skills as a waiter were subpar, he said the club…
Friday, September 7, 2012
Long Island comic mixes observation comedy with voices
Keith Anthony is an angry lunatic, both on-stage and off. A self-described “crazy guy trying to survive on a daily basis,” Anthony, who performs this weekend at Scotty’s, said his act involves him providing social commentary on what he deems the ridiculous things in life. “I’m like George Carlin before he went crazy,” Anthony said. He said two main keys to his act are basing his commentaries on his own experiences and avoiding promiscuous jokes. “I don’t waste any of my time doing sex jokes,” he said. “Enough comics are talking about that trash. I prefer to talk about the absurdities of life.” Aside from commentary and storytelling, which he said is a popular delivery form for Long Island comics like himself, Anthony also likes to dip into…
Friday, June 8, 2012
Chipps Cooney has a trick or two up his sleeve.
Few, if any other, comedians can say they got the idea for their comedy acts after watching an episode of "Columbo." Chipps Cooney can. The episode featured a magician character played by the late actor Jack Cassidy. The character was supposed to be a sell-out performer, although the TV audience never actually saw the actor himself perform a single trick. "For instance, he was doing hand tricks with cards, but you know it wasn't him," Cooney said Tuesday over the phone. "The camera shot is from the elbow up. You don't learn tricks like that in a week. "He wasn't doing one trick, but it was his demeanor. He's so serious, and he's not doing anything." At that point, Cooney's fake magician character, which he will bring out when he takes the …
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Friday, May 4, 2012
Scotty's takes the poll and looks ahead to Mothers' Day.
Scotty’s brunch menu hasn’t lacked for variety, offering omelets, stuffed Frech toast, chicken and waffles, steak and eggs and more. But this Mothers Day, the offerings expand to epic proportions. For carb lovers, there will be Danishes, pastries, bagels, lox, croissants, muffins and other breakfast breads. Seafood and vegetable fans can feast on a salad bar with bottomless shrimp cocktail and smoked salmon. Hearty appetites can be sated by foods like baked Virginia ham, bacon, Hatfield Breakfast Sausage, omeletes, fritattas, eggs Benedict, pancakes, French toast, waffles, chicken Francaise, sliced sirloin of beef, roast turkey with giblet gravy, buttered noodles, sliced prime rib, fresh flounder stuffed with crabmeat, garlic shrimp, …
Saturday, April 7, 2012
Comedian's honest approach keeps him SFW.
When Johnny Watson is on stage, he tells jokes that you wouldn’t mind repeating to your parents. Watson, who takes the mic tonight at Scotty's, said he likes to keep his act as relatable as possible, which has helped to keep his material relatively clean. "My language is probably dirtier off-stage," he joked. "For some reason, though, that doesn't really appeal to me on-stage." Watson said he likes to target his act toward people who like "comedy for the sake of comedy," rather than an audience looking for shock value. Although he said some of the autobiographical issues he discusses on stage can be seen as shocking, he tries to present himself in a way that is both vulnerable and relatable to the audience. "For instance, I talk about my …
Friday, July 8, 2011
Comedian dabbles in characters, impersonations, music and social commentary.
Tommy Koenig is what you might call a mixed bag. He does traditional stand-up, dabbles in music, brings out some characters and does some social commentary. He even has a Bruce Springsteen impression, which he uses to entertain his audience with “Bought in the USA,” a parody touching on the fact that very few products are made in the country nowadays. “I also close my act by doing an impersonation of an old man singing all the songs from the ‘50s up to Lady Gaga,” Koenig, who headlines at Scotty’s this weekend, said. “They’re all sung by a cranky, old man, which I expect to be some day.” He said he likes to describe himself as animated, much like Robin Williams or Jim Carrey, but still down-to-earth à la Jerry Seinfeld, George Carlin and …
Friday, June 17, 2011
Comedian gives audience a little 'verbal tickling'
His approach to comedy is simple: insult the audience and tell them what he would never be able to say to them on the streets. Michael Young Cho starts off all of his sets this way, leading with a little bit of what he dubbed “verbal tickling,” where he improvises and interacts with the audience. For example, he mentioned a black woman at his show who had loudly yelled that it was another woman’s birthday. “And I say, ‘I know it’s her birthday because you have such big mouth, and everybody can hear what you saying,’” Young Cho said with a thick Korean accent. “I talk about this woman looking like a freakin’ Tina Turner and what’s love got to do with her piece of s--- wig.” Young Cho, who performs this weekend at Scotty’s, said he likes to …
Friday, May 20, 2011
Boston-bred comedian discusses being a mom with three kids, wanting to be a guy in her act.
She’s the girl next door, just with a little more edge. A bit of a storyteller, comedian Kerry Louise likes to talk about the everyday things that happen to her, her upbringing and how she would much rather be a guy, as well as being the mother of three children and the subsequent need to find time for herself. Louise, who will return to the stage this weekend at Scotty’s, said she likes to switch up her act based on whether she is working a club or a different venue, such as a college. “At Scotty’s, though, I’ll probably see more parents and more people who would have children,” Louise said. “So I would do 70 percent kids stuff and other observational humor I do.” In some of her other material, she discusses growing up as a Catholic, …
Friday, May 13, 2011
Comedian brings monologues, wordplay to Scotty's this weekend.
As a person with a theater and radio background, Mike Eagan likes to view his stand-up as a performance. Delivering his comedy with a monologist approach similar to George Carlin, Eagan takes his life experiences and embellishes on them, touching on relationships and topics he said many comics discuss. He also likes adding some offbeat topics into his act, as well. “I play on words, and I’m really into the language,” Eagan, who headlines this weekend at Scotty’s, said. “It’s probably what I’m known for the most, the way I use language and the way I express myself.” Eagan started down the stand-up road in the late 1970s after getting out of the army. While working in radio at a local Philadelphia station, an extension of his work as a disc …
Elizabeth
3:12 pm on Saturday, September 15, 2012
I have nothing but respect for people talented enough to do stand up comedy. You have got to have nerves of steel to be able to do that. Just finished reading Darrell Hammond's book (the guy who did Clinton on SNL). That he was able to do this with what he went through as a child? Amazing. Never saw your act but hoping I see you on HBO one of these days! Live right down the street from Scotties … more ›