HAUSMAN COMEDY: Show News

A very fun show, sadly with a small audience. The table in front kind of "made" this a fun night, as they were LOADED and HAVING A BLAST. Except the teacher sitting in back of the table, who was the designated driver, and was still having fun and laughing although she appeared to be sober. She did not offer to show the comedians her breasts, as one of her table-mates did. My wife refused to let me take the woman up on this, as my wife is old-fashioned and has no idea about "good form" when it comes to stand-up. Most of us were holding out for the teacher anyway, although the would-be exhibitionist was cute. Still, in her altered state it may have been considered a prosecutable crime, even in Gloversville, where many other things are A-OK: bestiality is not a felony there, it's a tradition.

Then one of the front table ladies fell out of her chair. Gracefully, though. Yeah... right.

These shows should get a better audience. The comedians do a surprisisngly good job.

Jon was the emcee; Marcy was a Guest Comic. It was awesome.

Turned out to be a stunningly good show. Hadn't seen our headliner - Mark Matusof (I believe that's ma-TOO-sof - beats me because I messed it up the first time) before, but I was very impressed. Excellent show all around. Feature act was Greg Aidala (A-della - got THAT one right) from the Brew-Ha-Ha comedy shows, and guest acts were Marcy Hausman and "Just Andy". All the comics did a great job and were well-received by the audience, which included Santa, albeit in civilian garb. He was getting a lap dance from a pretty young thing under the guise of asking what SHE wanted for Christmas, although I think he was dreaming about what HE wanted. She was definitely a few inches higher by the time she mentioned the IPod - SHAME on you, Santa!

You should have been at this show - you'd have had a good time - guaranteed.

See Mark Matusof's website at www.matusof.com.

Jokin' Jonny Moocow's debut as emcee. He did OK. He was ably assisted by the "Amazing" Jaime D. Rulison, who made sure the audience knew when to laugh, even if they must have misunderstood and not always laughed when they were supposed to.

Jeez, this is a tough business, for man OR cow.

Here's some thoughts on appearances I've made this month: I was the emcee at JJ Boyd's show on 10/13, I appeared between music sets to a young but hostile crowd for The Gospel Train at Samuel's Coffee House in Alplaus NY, and then I emceed again for Clay Miles at The Funny Farm.

Clay suggested that we get far better as comics playing to small, less-than-enthusiastic audiences; going by that theory, I'm getting stinkin' great. But he has a point - I come back from these shows more determined than ever to write new, better material so I can go up there and say (symbolically) "Here - I DARE you not to laugh at THIS".

So far it's been a tough road. But I find myself emceeing for better and better performers. JJ Boyd regularly opens for such luminaries as Ray Romano and Kevin James. Clay Miles has been on E.R. and in the movie "Tears of the Sun" (Clay is the black guy - Willis plays the white guy who can't be killed, sort of like Jesus or The Terminator but not as likeable as either).

At Samuel's Coffee House, which is associated with a Christian religious youth organization, my sets about being a Jewish guy growing up down the street from St. Teresa's of Avila were met with various threats involving them making me the next Messiah, "sort of". After what happened to the LAST Jewish guy surrounded by people who thought that way, I pretended to have to go to the bathroom, then climbed out the window and escaped through the Alplaus Post Office parking lot. Too bad Jesus wasn't at the Judea Taco Bell when the Romans came to arrest him.

And by the way, those Italians were in charge of Judea back then. Jews had no power to arrest or execute anyone! Why do we get blamed for everything?!

This was a GREAT show! Headliner Mike Dambra interacts hilariously with the audience, and on this night the audience did not disappoint, stunning even him. Much of his act centers around the mentally "slow", but even HE could not rectify some of the audience answers he received. Most of these were so bizarre there was no NEED for additional comment - a stunned expression was sufficient.

MARCY HAUSMAN was the emcee, and warmed up the crowd beautifully; there were TWO guest comics: "Just Andy", and JON HAUSMAN. Then Carole Deyoe as the feature comic, and on to Mike Dambra as headliner. There were NO slow spots in THIS show - anyone who came got a comedy bargain rarely seen on the tour!

First-rate show!

COMIC SYNDROME group appeared at The Nightsky Cafe in downtown Schenectady. About 7-10 audience members were in attendance, of which several appeared to have been tied up and then transported to the show, probably by the organizer, Russ, who is both persuasive and insane (married 4x - say no more).


FIRST of all, you would have gotten to see EIGHT good comics, which is a definite plus. A drawback is that they were charging $12 at the door, which is in contrast to The Nightsky's USUAL cover of $0, and their USUAL crowd of something LESS than 10. Which is a shame as the food is very good. I had the "gourmet pizza", and expected very little as I didn't think Ben (in the kitchen) could MAKE a pizza, but it was about the best pizza I've ever had (I grew up with a mother who didn't cook - she incinerated - so I was RAISED on delivery pizza). So great reviews for the kitchen.

Comedy? Well, ever tried to do audience interaction with a group of 10? It tends to be spotty. JOKIN' JONNY MOOCOW should have been there. Got that Russ? He was MADE for "crowds" like that. Dammit.....

With Comic Syndrome, you get a diverse group of comics. Hell - youre sure to really go for at least ONE of them. Beats sitting at a Def Comedy Jam show and going "HUH?". Plus being the only white person there - THAT sucks. At least at Comic Syndrome, some of the comics appear to be white. Or whatever - can't you just enjoy your pizza and be happy about it?

But I've digressed....

Jon emceed, and Marcy was the guest comic, in a 1-night show with National Headliner Mike Eagan leading the show at The Funny Farm in Gloversville.

Both of us were in awe of Mike's command of the stage and just plain overall "funniness". Tremendous performer. Very modest and low-key - a pleasure to work with. We especially appreciated his low-key approach to his DVD ("I have some DVD's in the car in the unlikely event that anyone wants to buy one"). Well... WE did... as did several audience members. It was THAT good.

SUPER show - enjoyed by attendees and performers alike. Emcee - Marcy Hausman. Performers were (in order): Steve Smoller, Jon Hausman, Chris Curtin, Sharon Dyer, Terrie Gifford, Judi Clements, and Russ Davignon. REALLY ENJOYED THIS SHOW - and it's a great room as well - The BackStage Pub, corner of Smith and Clinton Sts., Schenectady NY. They've really done great things with this location. Check it out!

Probably my best performance to date - I just feel 'comfortable' on this stage.
Look for uploaded video clips from this show soon.

What a GREAT show. The place was OVER capacity - they had to start turning people AWAY. Super crowd - they all LISTENED and LAUGHED. It got hot in there with all those people, but it was WORTH it.

Is there anything more dehumanizing and less forthright than a Comedy Contest? Especially those where the "winner" is judged by audience response. The "winner" in that situation will ALWAYS be the person who brings the most friends and family members. Since most all of my fanily is dead or distanced, and I have about 1-1/2 friends, I am always DOOMED in these situations. I am consoled that COMPLETE STRANGERS actually cheered for me - they must have really liked me to vote for me over their friend or relative. If this was you, I thank you sincerely for your support.

Why don't we start judging SPORTING EVENTS this way too? Mike Tyson knocks you out in 2 seconds, but everyone hates him, and you just donated a playground to the community - PRESTO! YOU'RE THE NEW HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION OF THE WORLD! As soon as you regain consciousness, that is.

I don't know what the "right" way to rate comedic talent might be, but this has GOT to be WRONG.

On the bright side, I can still use my joke about having been in a gazillion comedy contests and never having survived even the first ROUND. I need friends BADLY, people!

I won't even go into the painful details of the emcee pulling down the stage curtains by accident. In a way, the comic relief was welcome.

As if further proof were needed, Jon re-established for his co-workers' benefit that the psychological and Security screening we use is not foolproof, as a major fool managed to get hired somehow.

Marcy Hausman was the emcee, Jon Hausman was the Guest Comic.
Friday's show was passable, as a "crowd" of about 15 "packed" into a space designed for about 100. Pleasant group of people. Polite, but not raucous laughers. Saturday was much better, with some 50 or so people attending. The "spotlight" was aimed at the ceiling, so the performers told their jokes from darkness in an eerie interpretation of bad Saturday morning kids' horror shows. We adapted (and turned up the house lights).

"A Character-Building Experience". We had 8 comics scheduled to do 7 minutes each in rapid-fire succession. When we arrived, we were directed to delete ALL semi-adult content, a big change from our PREVIOUS instructions, which brought most of the troupe's acts down to about 15 seconds. Still, we all hastily rewrote our acts and were ready. It turned out to be a benefit for a VERY conservative group of Foster Parents, who were NOT expecting comedy. The foster kids were at a local bowling alley with staff, and HAD to be picked up at 8:15 PM, so the show MUST end at 8:15 PM.
The presentation started with an invocation by a local Reverend in which all the comics saw our eventual end in Hell's fiery inferno. Then came a torturous Raffle drawing and honoring of new foster parents, after which the mike was turned over to Marcy for the "Comedy" portion.
Only problem: it was then about 7:40, instead of the scheduled time, 7:00.
Marcy did her clean 15 seconds, several comics went up unaware of the time issue, and in the middle of the fourth act the director stepped in, ordered us to stop the show, and everyone left. Half the comics had not even performed ANY of their acts. Those who HAD performed consider those who did NOT to be "the lucky ones".
Jon's note: Performing comedy for that crowd was a little like being Hitler and addressing the annual B'nai Brith meeting.

A chance for a few of us to get together and critique each others' new, untested, and provisional material. Attendees (alphabetically) were local comics Judi Clements, Luke Donovan, Terrie Gifford, Marcy Hausman, Charlie Paul, and some drunk guy at the bar who was mesmerized by Terrie's breasts (according to Terrie; the drunk claimed he was just looking).

Basically: everyone hated everything except their own material, which they felt was hilarious. In other words, the usual.

I tried out my radioactive pumpkin material, which flopped as Judi did not understand the beginning and so the rest made no sense. "I don't get it", she'd ask factually, "WHY do you have an unnatural carnal relationship with this oversized squash?". Some things just cannot be answered in a reasonable fashion, and so are best left alone.

Charlie felt it was a mistake for me not to call the pumpkin afterwards. Then again, he is insane.

These work-outs are free and open to the public. Please do not throw things - we're TRYING new material. Of COURSE some of it will suck. We're COMEDIANS.

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The new mike stand was torture tested as I failed to see the cord and ungracefully pulled the mike and stand to the ground.

It got a good laugh. I'd guess that many people in the audience hate electronics for some reason.

TRUE STORY: As part of a joke, headliner ROB REIBOLD was asking the crowd for an approximate cost of a bag of marijuana in this area. When no one volunteered an answer, Rob simply made up a number. "No, that's way too low", spoke up one stoner in the front row. When Rob pressed him on what HE pays, the stoner answered "Oh, me? I grow my own. Dude.".

Attention DEA agents - see the FUNNY FARM website (in our LINKS section) for reservations and tickets.

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Possibly the best show I've ever been associated with. Headliner: Rob Reibold, Feature: Joey Grant. TRUE STORY: Rob was doing a bit about legalizing and taxing marijuana. He tried to work the numbers through the crowd. He asked them "and how many quarter ounces are IN an ounce?". Someone yelled out 'SEVEN'. Rob said "Huh?". So they yelled out "I meant six".

TRUE STORY: Rob was detailing the things that marijuana taxes could pay for. He listed "roads, education, hospitals...". Someone shouted out "Schools". Rob paused and sighed and said "Schools would be part of education, sir.".

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