WHy bar comedy is real comedy

This is Bar Comedy USA News.  It’s comedy news.  It’s the underground news.  It’s not the stuff about the celebrities, or social media stars, or the red carpet performers.  This is the news about the life of the bar comic and bar comedy.  Which is mostly my number one expertise. 

My dream job is to be the guy that does that color commentary for  a reality show that follows road comics with cameras and shows what kind of comedy takes place on a Saturday night in the nooks & crannies of America.   Where there is no “APPLAUD NOW” sign.  You actually have to win over the audience because it’s their local hang-out.  They are used to playing the jukebox and throwing darts.  If you don’t win them over, you’re dead in the water. 

We always make that joke about rolling into a venue like The Blues Brothers and having to perform from behind chicken wire, because the audience will throw beer bottles at you.  And that’s an exaggerated scenario of what some bar audiences can be like.  They’re not always polite.  If they like you, they love you.  But if you can’t bring the goods, they will run you out.   And I’ve experienced both scenarios.

There have been shows that went over so well, if there were an election the following day, they would have voted me in for mayor.  And there have been other shows where I barely escaped with my life.  In some of those towns, if you drop your keys, do not bend over to pick them up… just kick them and run.

 I got my start in the bars and clubs, back in the early nineties, when karaoke first launched onto the scene.  Instead of singing, I would perform 3-5 minutes of stand-up comedy and have to win over a bar full of people that wanted to hear someone belt out “Loveshack.” And in many cases, I was running for my life out of the place.  

Bar comics can relate so well to The Blues Brothers because not only do you have to win over very discerning, yet enthusiastic crowds, but oftentimes there is a chance you’ll be chased after the show by the cops or townies.