2009: 30th Anniversary Seattle International Comedy Competition

[pg13]

In a competition like this, decisions are made by the passionate. If a judge pretty much likes everyone equally, their scores won't impact much. But, if a judge loves who he or she loves and hates who or she hates...and that translates into their scores...then THAT judge can determine a lot of things...

...which brings us to:

30th Annual Seattle International Comedy Competition
Preliminary Week Two--Night Five
Lower Columbia College, Longview, WA--November 14, 2009
TOP 5 RESULTS

5) Mike Cummings (Seattle, WA)
4) Toby Hargrave (Vancouver, BC)
3) Derick Lengwenus (Montreal, QC)
2) Curt Sudden (Caldwell, ID)
1) Sean Kent (Austin, TX)

A couple of new faces made the Top 5 on this night in Southwest Washington, at the Rose Center on the campus of Lower Columbia College--a new venue for the Seattle International Comedy Competition.

Typically, we get great crowds to show up at the beautiful Columbia Theater in Longview--but that theater is under renovations. Luckily, the Rose Center offers marvelous facilities...but the competition didn't draw the kind of numbers there that would be expected at the Columbia. Although the crowd was small in size, they packed themselves in close to the stage and remained enthusiastic throughout the show...so, while a bit more intimate than such a large space could accommodate, it ended up being a night that our contestants in Preliminary Week Two could manage.

And that's good, because this was an important night. Night Five--this would be one of the two last scores that you could accumulate to build your way into the Weekly Top 5 and earn the right to continue to compete in next week's Semi-Finals. It was also a night where the performers above you in the standings would need to stumble for you to get a chance to move up.

The competition allows you to drop your lowest score...so, this night was the last chance for someone to really get damaged by a low score--because, if you get a low score on Night Six, it becomes your drop score and you ignore it. But getting a low score on Night Five puts you at risk for someone who puts together two strong scores in these last two shows.

The theater setting played well to Derick Lengwenus' strengths--which was good, as he drew the dreaded bullet spot on this night. It also played well for Curt Sudden--a former finalist in this competition two years ago, when he performed under his given name of Leif Skyving, but who hadn't been receiving the scores he'd expected to get this week...until tonight--who put a rough night on Broadway behind him to make his first appearance in a Top 5.

Also making his first appearance in a Nightly Top 5 was Seattle's Mike Cummings...who admitted to me that he'd considered not bothering to make the 2+ hour drive from Seattle for this show...and just using the 0.00 he'd get for not showing up as his drop score for the week (which is legal, but not advised.) He's certainly glad he made the effort on this night, as he earned his highest score for the week.

Toby Hargrave continues his push towards the finish, earning his second straight Nightly Top 5 finish. He's been quietly accumulating strong scores, leaving him in good position to make a move if the stars align on Sunday night.

And Sean Kent earned his second nightly win on this night and with that, he takes over the Weekly Score lead from Travis Simmons.

Scores are very tight towards the top of the scoreboard for the week--with Sean, Travis, Derick, Toby, Travis Simmons, Solomon Georgio, Mike Baldwin, Paul Hooper and Prescott Tolk all within spitting distance of each other. (Although, spitting is considered rather unprofessional behavior and is discouraged.)

Let the most intense game of musical chairs begin!

Night Six, Sunday night, brings our intrepid contestants to the site of many crushed dreams--The Fairhaven Martini Pub in Bellingham, Washington. In order to secure a spot in the semi-finals, our contestants will need to surf the wave of an often-rowdy, often-talkative rock bar...and either score their best or simply not crash and burn, depending on their particular "cruelty of math" circumstances.

In the italicized opener to this report, I mentioned how results are dominated by the passionate--and that definitely was the case in Longview--as three judges tended to score everyone similarly, but one judge in particular gave very high scores to the contestants that he enjoyed very high scores, while those comics that did not find his favor earned extremely low scores...and those low scores altered the course of the week and (possibly prematurely) sealed some fates.

How those who are now out of the running will respond may determine the tenor and quality of the performances they give tonight...which may impact the vibe in the room for those who are scrambling for an extra hundredth of a point which might make the difference between going on and going home...

I should also point out that Nick Sun AGAIN went beyond the time frame and had his score disqualified for the night. Although I'm really not supposed to share scoring information, this bit of information is too good not to let you in on... One judge--the passionate "love it or hate it" judge--gave Nick's performance on this night the lowest possible score that a judge can give a contestant... Another judge gave Nick the HIGHEST score on their score sheet, just four points from the HIGHEST possible score that a judge can give a contestant.

And this is why we have so many shows and gather the input of as many judges as we do...because everyone sees comedy differently. What might be right for you, might be right for some...

...and it takes...diff'rent strokes to move the world...

Yes, it does.

pg--I'm again saddened that we can't keep running shows with this excellent group of comedians, just as I was at the end of Preliminary Week One. This has been one hell of a year so far...and if you're in the area, I can't encourage you enough to come and see for yourself!--seattle

PS--We'll know later tonight who will join the 5 Preliminary Week One Semi-Finalists...and then those ten comedians continue their journey on Tuesday.

[pg13]

Pressure affects us in unique ways. Some are energized by the adrenalin that flows more freely in their veins when presented with a challenging situation. Some retreat, in an "option b" response to activation of their "fight or flight" response, and shut themselves down into a self-protective cocoon. Some lash out and express their anxiety and frustration in a way that allows them a release while protecting their ego by damaging those around them.

A competition like this definitely puts a participating comedian's feet to the fire...and it is often a surprise to see exactly how each performer reacts--both on stage and off.

Especially on the last night of a very competitive week.

...which brings us to:

30th Annual Seattle International Comedy Competition
Preliminary Week Two--Night Six
The Fairhaven, Bellingham, WA--November 15, 2009
TOP 5 RESULTS

5) Solomon Georgio (Seattle, WA)
4) Travis Simmons (Seattle, WA)
3) Paul Hooper (Charlotte, NC)
2) Sean Kent (Austin, TX)
1) Toby Hargrave (Vancouver, BC)

Going into this last night of Preliminary Week Two of the 30th Annual Seattle International Comedy Competition, eight of the sixteen comedians knew, for certain, that the math did not allow them to move on to the semi-finals...and this would be their last performance in the competition, and it wouldn't matter what they scored on this night.

Meanwhile, two of the comedians knew that they were absolutely locked-in to the semi-finals...that the math was such that there was nothing they could do to NOT move on to next week...and it wouldn't matter what they scored on this night.

And six comedians knew that their scores were so close to taking one of three available slots that would send them to the semi-finals, but, at the same time, were just as close to NOT getting one of those slots and going home...that they knew they'd have to have a great score tonight AND have the other comedians still in the running not do as well as they have in the past...

And those things all factored into another weird, dream-crushing night of comedy at The Fairhaven in Bellingham, Washington. I should say, however, that this audience seemed up for a great night of comedy...which this group of comedians were all perfectly capable of delivering. The question in the back of everyone's mind, all night...was...would they deliver?

Since eight comedians were completely out of the running...and, unlike Preliminary Week One, whose comics had their last night also be their "Industry Night" where Preliminary Week Two comics STARTED their week with "Industry Night", these eight comedians had no incentive to perform their best...it would be up to their own sense of professionalism versus the very "nose thumbed at authority" attitude that probably lead them into being comedians in the first place to determine what they would do on this night.

And the two comedians were were a lock for the semi-finals ALSO had no particular incentive to perform their best, as they were "in." The same fight between a sense of professionalism versus a genetic pre-disposition towards mischief was fought in THEIR heads as well.

...but what some of these comedians failed to account for (or, perhaps they DID account for it and chose not to rate it very highly) was how what they did might impact the six comedians needing great scores on this night.

As I said, it made for a fascinating scenario...a compelling drama with heroes and villains playing itself out right in front of everyone in five to seven minute increments...but, perhaps, not the best night of comedy...

Although, it started well. The audience seemed to really enjoy host Vince Valenzuela's set--good sign, there. They continued that appreciation for Seattle's Solomon Georgio, who drew the bullet spot tonight. Solomon, going into this night in 3rd place for the week, was NOT a lock for the finals and he NEEDED to score well...and a room not necessarily bound to be conducive to his comedic approach. Luckily, the warm welcome, the hopeful enthusiasm and the show momentum shown to Vince carried on to Solomon and he had a good, strong set.

Next up was Mike Baldwin, who went into the night in 5th place but who had one of the softest scores of the six comedians fighting to end up in the Top 5 for the week. Mike had a very low score on Night Two in Port Townsend--and that was likely going to be his "drop score" for the week, unless he had a catastrophic set tonight...but in order to hold onto 5th place, he'd need a strong score to hold back the others who, due to their HIGHER drop scores, were in less danger of slipping lower than they were... Mike had considered whether to do a dirtier set than he'd been doing this week--but, decided to dance with the girl he brought to prom...and he stuck with the strong showcase set that had him still in the hunt. Mike had a good set, but he left the stage shaking his head, knowing that he hadn't locked anything down...and the best he could hope for would be to hold on and hope that the others battling him for the precious semi-finals slots would stumble after him.

It was to this warm and not-terribly-rowdy room that Vancouver's A.J. McKenzie took the stage. A.J., a very funny young man, just never got good scores this week and found himself hovering towards the bottom. With nothing in particular to lose, A.J. decided to drop his showcase set that was meant to highlight his likability and instead, he mixed in some decidedly edgier and less crowd-pleasing bits into his act. He quickly lost the audience, as a result...but he didn't care. He ended with a bit that imagined him as a pedophile...and his last words in this competition were "bloody vag."

Instead of the almost compulsory encore point that Vince had been handing out ever since Night Three of this week, the absolute silence from this audience when asked to cheer for A.J. made that impossible...and it also signaled the end of the warm, hopeful audience... And the show definitely turned a corner.

...as the next performer up was Nick Sun.

If you've been reading these reports, you probably know what Nick Sun did. He purposefully presented a set designed to polarize the audience and the judges... He attacked the competition, he disparaged the judges, he tried to get a rise out of the audience. However, following A.J., who did a similar thing...and said some similar things...it held none of the fascinating appeal that Nick's PREVIOUS two efforts at self-sabotage held. And, in the end, it was a bit disappointing that Nick gave this competition one actual set of him doing his best. (He went up first in Port Townsend, which was an older crowd and, to Nick's credit, he didn't purposefully try to poison the room off the top. And the third show was TV Clean night, which is not something that Nick cares about...but he didn't purposefully flaunt those rules.) Three "snap" sets out of six simply means that Nick Sun wasted a spot in this competition that could have gone to someone else who would have tried.

And yeah, I know that the whole idea of "trying" in a comedy competition is not what Nick's about...but, when his antics don't end up being funny--as they weren't on this night--it isn't any fun...for anyone. And the double impact of Nick's belly-flop coming right after A.J.'s purposefully weak effort was to bury the entire show in soft sand...

Having to dig herself AND, indeed, the whole night, out of that sand was Minneapolis' Elaine Thompson...who would do so with a mild-mannered if dirty minded "wife" act. To her benefit, the entire room was so starved for ANYTHING they could laugh at, after what A.J. and Nick had given them, that they LOVED Elaine. It didn't hurt that Elaine didn't seem fazed by what had just preceded her on stage...and she delivered a fun, rowdy-room appropriate, professional set. It deserved top marks from the judges, all things considered...but once again, Elaine's calm approach to comedy just wasn't able to compete with the flashier efforts of some of the other competitors this week...

The night continued...rowdier than before, more talkative than before...less willing to suffer fools gladly than before... Some performers, that change of atmosphere in the room actually helped--including Vancouver's Toby Hargrave, who was riding a major wave of great scores right into shore. Toby had a chance to make a huge comeback and sneak into the Top 5--but he not only needed to score well, he needed others to struggle. Another one in the same boat was Charlotte's Paul Hooper, who had been in 5th place after Night Four but fell to 6th place after Night Five. Both of them seemed to relish the boisterousness of the room.

Travis Simmons had another strong set--although, perhaps his choice to do political material for this room wasn't the best choice...he kept his most crowd-pleasing bits in his act and delivered the funny yet again.

Mike Cummings, like Toby Hargrave, had figured something out and were getting better scores as the competition went on...but, unlike Toby, it was too late for Mike to battle his way up to the semi-finals level...so, he relished the role as a potential spoiler for the others. As did Curt Sudden, also getting stronger scores as the week went on, but on the outside looking in at the race for the Top 5 for the week.

Prescott Tolk, from Chicago, was one of those "others" who could, mathematically, get himself into the Top 5 for the week if he rocked it and others failed to rock it. Prescott, as he did every night, rocked it--and he'd end the week with one of the highest drop scores of the week, as his strong consistency always kept him in the hunt. But, tonight, a high score wouldn't be enough...and as others were having good sets, it didn't look too promising for Prescott sticking around for another week.

The increase in the boisterousness of the room did NOT play into the hands of David Cope, who had made two nightly Top 5's this week, but the New York alt-comic (from by way of Portland and Seattle) had struggled a couple of times earlier in the week to keep him out of the chase for the semi-finals.

Spokane's Meghan Flaherty, certainly used to rowdy rooms back in her comedy scene, seemed to do just fine with this audience...but was one of the few performers who WANTED to get a good score who didn't end up with an encore point. Still, she goes back to Spokane a far stronger performer than she was when she started the competition...and the judges on this night actually scored her efforts quite well on this night.

Going into the last couple sets of the night, the room had recovered from the attempted poisoning and was definitely into the comedy... They had their favorites and they wanted comedians who grabbed them and made them like their comedy rather than those who sat back and let them figure it out...but they were into it.

Until Nicole Lucas took the stage...as a gross caricature of a man. Trucker hat, drawn on goatee, and a Derek Smalls-esque armadillo stuffed down her jeans.

Nicole had struggled this week to get good scores and seemed to take it quite hard. A more seasoned eye recognized that there were reasons that she wasn't getting good scores, but they were technical things that simply doing comedy more often in different rooms and learning how to best connect with various audiences would teach her...that the scores were not a referendum on whether or not she was funny, merely an indication that there's some refinement that experience would offer her.

But she took her frustrations out on this audience--who probably would have absolutely LOVED her normal performance, which includes tales of drunken abandon and questionable personal life decisions--in a weird performance art thing that started out as a weird rip on frattish asshole guys...but then, when that generated NOTHING from this audience, Nicole...as this guy character she'd created...started trying to tell Nicole's jokes. Stripped from the likable persona that Nicole actually is--and one of her comedic strengths has always been for her just to be who she is--this material failed miserably.

It brought the show to a complete halt...and it was unnecessary...and it was unprofessional...and, since there were comedy bookers in the room, it may end up hurting Nicole's future in comedy more than she might have imagined when she convinced herself that this would be the way she'd like to be remembered.

I hope not--because she IS really funny, she just needs to understand the WORK involved in presenting comedy that any audience can enjoy...and she needs to get the experience to teach her how to harness who she is and what she wants to do and figure out how to make that work.

I hope that what she did tonight doesn't make it harder for her to get that work...to get that experience.

...and, I hoped that what she did on this night didn't unfairly damage the chances of the performer that had to rebuild the night yet again (now, with an audience that has been tricked by the performers twice and were drunk and rowdy to boot)--one of the last comedians with a chance of making it into the finals, Montreal's Derick Lengwenus.

It didn't help that Derick's set--a series of cleverly re-enacted vignettes from Derick's childhood--was not the type of thing meant for a rowdy, talkative, somewhat-pissed-off-for-their-time-having-been-wasted-by-previous-performers crowd.

To his credit, Derick didn't change or back down...although, perhaps that's because Derick didn't have a Plan B to fall back on. The audience response was tepid, but not hostile. The encore point, all-important considering the circumstances, WAS given to Derick...but it was a very close call that some witnesses strongly disagreed with...(especially considering that Meghan Flaherty had not earned HER encore point with equal if not stronger applause.)

The final performer on this night was Sean Kent--who had two nightly wins under his belt and was locked into the semi-finals already. He could have mailed in a performance and skate right into the next round, but he brought it...as he has every night...and he even managed to sneak in two shots at the comics that he felt had been unprofessional and selfish on the night.

Not sure that was necessary, but it certainly was heartfelt...and hopefully the feelings behind his calling out might have some lingering impact on the performers who chose to embrace the idea of a "snap set" as a way to deal with their personal frustration without recognizing that what each comedian does impacts what happens to everyone else.

Still, the night, over all, was not a fiasco...certainly not a catastrophe...and those who needed good scores had a chance to get them. Mike Baldwin kind of wished he'd gone up in the middle, when the crowd was a little more rowdy. Derick Lengwenus, I imagine, probably wished he'd gone up earlier, when his approach wouldn't be fighting the audience so much. Solomon, Toby and Paul probably felt they got their chips into the pot with the best hand they could have.

And the judges had their say. Some had their favorites...and some of those favorites were surprising... Others had been hovering near the top or near the bottom all week, and remained there on this night.

So, with all of the scores added up...who ended up making the Top 5 for the Week?

Top Five From Preliminary Week Two
5) Derick Lengwenus
4) Paul Hooper
3) Solomon Georgio
2) Travis Simmons
1) Sean Kent


Picture L-R: Vince Valenzuela (host), Sean Kent (1st), Travis Simmons (2nd), Derick Lengwenus (5th), Paul Hooper (4th), and Solomon Georgio (3rd).

They join up with the Top Five from Preliminary Week One: Jose Sarduy, Rodger Lizaola, Steve Monroe, Matt Billon and Andy Haynes.

...and the semi-finals, where these ten performers will compete with ten minute long sets each in six shows this week...begins Tuesday night at the Comedy Underground in Seattle.

And to Toby Hargrave, who came up just short in sixth place for the week, despite winning Night Six...and Mike Baldwin's, whose fears about going up early hurting him seemed to prove out...and Prescott Tolk, who never had a bad set all week but never dominated a night...they have the benefit of knowing that this was a very strong, competitive week and they helped push the five who DID move on right to the limit.

And to everyone else...the best news of all is that it's just a competition and in the long run, it doesn't matter that much at all. Sins will be forgiven the next time anyone makes us laugh...and hopefully we'll see more of everyone in the future.

pg--Break's over, everyone back on their heads!--seattle

[Jimes]

I was at the Bellingham show (judging). Based solely on Toby Hargrave's performance that night, I'm surprised he did not advance to the semi-finals.

I was also surprised when the RoboCop-looking-dude whipped out a harmonica. Then surprised-er when he used a balloon to play the harmonica like bagpipes...

[pg13]

The "RoboCop-looking-dude" was Curt Sudden, which is a character done by Idaho based comedian Leif Skyving--who, two years earlier, made the FINALS of this competition and expected to make it back there again this year...but, with the overall strength of this year's roster, didn't even make it out of his preliminary week.

...and that "Scottish Blues" bit slays 'em every time.

And Toby, after Sunday's show, said that it took him a few shows to really "figure out" what he needed to do in the short 5-7 minute sets that you do in the Preliminary Week. By the time he DID figure it out (...when he started getting the really strong scores, including a win on Sunday night), he had too much ground to make up.

pg

PS--Semi-Finals start tonight! Yay!

[Jimes]

I looked into Curt after the show, and I was pleasantly surprised (again) that he was a character. Knowing that he is a character gave me a little more faith in the sub-set of humanity known as comedians. But he played the character so well that it was difficult for the audience to realize (or at least for me to realize) that he was not actually a full-of-himself middle-aged guy armed with crude jokes and a harmonica...

PS--Peter, your re-caps are even more impressive given that you spend most of the show taking pictures and handling other things necessary to run a good show.

[pg13]

Any attempt at crafting an "objective" rating of a subjective and personal art form using comparative numbers is both unfair and rather foolish.

Yet, that's what has to happen for a comedy competition to occur...and everyone has to just accept that when you ask someone their opinion, you can't be terribly upset when they give you those opinions...

And that brings us to:

30th Annual Seattle International Comedy Competition
Semi-Finals--Night One
Comedy Underground, Seattle--November 17, 2009
TOP 5 RESULTS

5) Derick Lengwenus (Montreal, QC)
4) Sean Kent (Austin, TX)
3) Jose Sarduy (Miami, FL)
2) Solomon Georgio (Seattle, WA)
1) Andy Haynes (New York, NY)

The semi-finals of the Seattle International Comedy Competition is the first time that the top 5 performers from Preliminary Week One and the top 5 performers from Preliminary Week Two get to perform with/against each other...and it is the first time that people get to see how each contestant extends their 5 minute Preliminary Week Set into the 10 minute Semi-Finals set they'll be rocking over these six shows.

Doing so by returning to the comfortable "hand grenade room" of the Comedy Underground in Seattle gave every contestant a stable footing to begin this week's adventure. With most of the seats filled and four judges who were knowledgeable about comedy, it seemed like the perfect chance for each contestant to start their week off right.

Our host tonight, not for the whole week, is the wonderful and delicious Cathy Sorbo. This was Cathy's first ever time hosting a Seattle International Comedy Competition show--but, as the Queen Mum of the Rat City Rollergirls, it's not like she didn't know what was required to get things going and keep the excitement level up throughout the night. However, with one quarter of the room dominated by some middle aged Danish tourists, it did seem to be a tight crowd, at first...

That actually played well into the hands of Derick Lengwenus, who completely ditched his Preliminary Week Set to mine his observations on relationships. It was just as strong and professional as his previous material, and he easily earned the encore point.

Next up was fellow Canadian Matt Billon, who continued in a similar vein--if more joke-centric and less story-centric than Derick. He also easily earned his encore point.

Rodger Lizaola, who claims the Comedy Underground in Seattle as his home club, followed. Rodger added a chunk of material regarding complaints that he has about his current girlfriend's inability or unwillingness to cook for him to his well-rehearsed set from the Preliminary Week that mostly dealt with Rodger's views on race and prejudice. The audience, however, was not reacting as strongly to Rodger's efforts as he may have been accustomed...as he chastised the crowd for not giving him his laughs. He got his encore point, but it wasn't as clearly obvious as it was for Derick and Matt.

Next up was Solomon Georgio, the hometown comic who has the least experience of all of the semi-finalists. If he was nervous, he didn't show it...as he performed a strong, controlled set that showed that he took some lessons from the experience of the Preliminary Week--moving a joke here, changing a line there... He earned himself the strongest encore point of the night to that point.

It was an honor that Solomon didn't hold very long, as former-Seattle-based, now New York comedian Andy Haynes bested Solomon's encore point cheer with probably the most cohesive performance that I've ever seen from Andy. Andy's known for his quirky takes on unexpected subjects, but tonight, he took that material and ran with it. He was truly hitting every line, every pause, every twist...perfectly...like a great half-pipe snowboarding run. Doing this all while sick as a dog, doubly impressive.

Sean Kent started off the second half of the show, after a secret judge's pee break, by taking on the Danish audience members in a way reminiscent of Basil Fawlty in Fawlty Towers. "DON'T MENTION THE WAR" was advice that Sean, if he was given that advice, simply didn't take. It did show that Sean wasn't bound by the tightness of the circumstances. He remained loosey-goosey throughout his set...and that sense of danger, that sense that "This guy might say or do anything!" help build strong comedic tension...and the encore applause for the end of Sean's set was filled with similar abandon. The question became whether the judges would be swayed by this sense of unpredictability over the controlled efforts shown by Derick, Solomon and Andy, earlier in the night.

Taking on the difficult task of following Sean Kent on this night was Steve Monroe. Steve's "Hugs Bit" is a strong bit--but it can be made stronger depending on the reactions of the person Steve selects to help him out on stage. On this night, although both attractive and willing to play along, "Rebecca" didn't add any laughs to the situation...and the bit played with a little lower energy than it does sometimes--which lead to a feeling of deflation in the room...and host Cathy Sorbo, trying to be fair, had to hold a long time to determine if Steve had indeed earned the encore point. (Cathy ended up determining that Steve did.)

Next up, another comic that counts the Comedy Underground as his home club--Travis Simmons took the stage. Travis' set is filled with fencepost set-pieces that simply "work"...every time...and Travis moves from one fencepost to the next with a practiced ease. It was only in going into some recently written material on politics or current events that he didn't enjoy the same level of audience reaction that he does when doing his more honed bits. Telling the audience repeatedly that he "just wrote that yesterday" didn't really up the level of appreciation for those bits...and then tended to like his older stuff better than his newer stuff. Still, this is some serious hair splitting...and there was no doubt about Travis' encore point on this night.

Going up ninth was Charlotte's Paul Hooper. Hooper's style is to sandblast the audience with "I can't believe he just said that" and "What the heck is he talking about?" comments, peppering in indefensible arguments until it all becomes an avalanche of OMG. On this night, however, he didn't hook the audience immediately... It took them a little while to understand what Paul was doing--that he was not really looking forward to running over children in his car, that he may not have actually called his girlfriend a "braindead sow". It is a sensitivity that Seattle audiences have a reputation for...and it struck Paul on this night. Nevertheless, Paul didn't bail out on his approach...he simply shifted his focus for his anger towards the stupidity found back in his area of the country and their love of things like the comedian Gallagher. By the end, the audience and the performer's gears meshed and Paul drove it strong to the finish...earning an encore point as strong as Solomon, Andy and Sean.

The question would be...what would the judges remember?

Closing up the night was the man who dominated Preliminary Week One--Jose Sarduy. With a winning personality, a unique life-story, a strong well-incorporated catch phrase and positive energy permeating all of his material...Jose proved that expanding to 10 minutes would be no problem for him...and he closed the night strongly.

It fell to the judges to decide how things went...and some may have been surprised by their decisions. They did not give strong scores to Rodger, who expected strong scores in his home club. They did not give strong scores to Paul, who some comedians in the contest felt had the set of the night.

They tended to favor the positive, they tended to favor material based performers...and they couldn't deny Sean or Jose their spot in the Top 5.

But top honors went to Andy Haynes...who gave this set of judges the type of comedy they enjoy.

What will happen on Wednesday night, as the Semi-Finals heads slightly north to the Edmonds Center for the Arts in Edmonds. Previous shows at this venue have tended to favor comics who stayed away from vulgar words or controversial topics. It's definitely not the best place to be edgy--and nearly every comedian in this semi-finals week have some edge.

...but it might be different this year.

However it ends up being, victory will probably go to the contestant who is the best at reading the room and making the right adjustments...

pg--And I'll try to get a report up a little quicker from tonight's show for you.--seattle

[pg13]

30th Annual Seattle International Comedy Competition
Semi-Finals--Night Two
Edmonds Center for the Arts--November 18, 2009
TOP 5 RESULTS

5) Jose Sarduy (Miami, FL)
4) Travis Simmons (Seattle, WA)
3) Derick Lengwenus (Montreal, QC)
2) Matt Billon (Toronto, ON)
1) Sean Kent (Austin, TX)

If the first night of the semi-finals had the local club comics on familiar turf--being held at the venerable Comedy Underground in Seattle--the second night would begin to test their ability to adjust their performances to a less intimate setting...as this night's second show of the Semi-Finals Week was held at the gorgeous Edmonds Center for the Arts.

While not quite a sell-out, the audience was large enough to fill the room with laughter...which they proved while enjoying the efforts of recent "Live at Gotham"-performer, and former Seattle International Comedy Competition champion, Gabriel Rutledge. Gabriel was hitting on all cylinders tonight--with excellent new material spiced up with some of his longtime favorite bits. If Gabriel was a contestant, he'd have won...hands down.

Instead, his job was just to warm the crowd up, keep the night moving and dish out encore points...which he gave out to everyone.

And there was precious little adjustment going on from the contestants, as far as what they chose to do...and how they did it. Most of them continued to do the same set they'd done the show before...

Of course, the results were quite different.

With the larger stage to fill and the audience further away, both Andy Haynes and Solomon Georgio, who had taken the top two spots on the first night, stumbled on this second night. Solomon ended up in last and Andy took eighth. Both of them, on this night, also had to follow high energy performers, which doesn't mesh terribly well with their slower paced style.

Joining them near the bottom of the standings for this night was Steve Monroe--who, later, told me that he felt he'd done the set of his life on this night...and was surprised to see himself in 9th place for the night. Part of the problem for Steve might have been the 20-30 seconds where he had to leave the performance area entirely, in order to guide an audience assistant from the floor level to the stage...

To be honest, the audience did not give him a cheer level worthy of earning the encore point...and had Steve not gone up first, before Gabriel could clearly judge the level of applause that this room would give to performers they ACTUALLY thought deserved the encore point...it would be likely that Steve would NOT have received the point. As it was, Gabriel looked like he'd decided to not give him the point...then changed his mind, at the last second, just to be charitable. (After Steve, EVERYONE got the encore point with a definitive level of audience cheering to have earned them.)

And, once again, Paul Hooper--despite building up momentum to a feverish pitch by the end of his set--failed to get the scores that most people expected him to get. For Paul, this must be very frustrating--because it's not like he needs to make an adjustment...as he's doing the best Paul Hooper that he can do...but the best Paul Hooper isn't being rewarded with good scores by those judging him.

Once again, Jose Sarduy did what he does very well...once again, Sean Kent does what he does very well... This rather NPR-ish audience seemed to like where Travis Simmons was coming from. They also enjoyed a more adult-centric performance offered by Derick Lengwenus. And joining them in the top 5 was the always consistent Matt Billon.

The competition heads south for a likely-to-be-rowdy night at the beautiful Liberty Theater In Puyallup (read last year's thread to catch a story that makes me very wary about comedy shows in Puyallup.)

Still time for everyone to get some scores and make a run for the Top 5.

pg--Kept it short.--seattle

[scamboogah]

Speaking as someone who grew up in Edmonds, they have an Arts Center?

Christ, Peter, the show's been over for almost 18 hours at this point. How long are we supposed to wait for a 3,000 word recap?

[pg13]

They have a gorgeous arts center in Edmonds...and they even let people bring their drinks with them into the theater this year (which some of the contestants believe made the show even better...but that's just conjecture.)

pg--Sorry for the waiting. My two month old son has just discovered the strength to cry for 24 hours, if he wants...which isn't a skill that I'd hoped he'd pick up, frankly.--seattle

[pg13]

Tonight's show was sold out. That's awesome.

The venue decided not to have table service tonight. That wasn't so awesome, but it's something that everyone could deal with...it wasn't going to be a dealbreaker.

The venue offered a "$10 for all the beer you can drink" special. That...made it important that you went up early, when they could still capture a coherent thought...or hope that what you do can be painted in big enough brush strokes to be recognizable through the blur of unlimited beers.

30th Annual Seattle International Comedy Competition
Semi-Finals--Night Three
Liberty Theater, Puyallup--November 19, 2009
TOP 5 RESULTS

5) Solomon Georgio (Seattle, WA)
4) Steve Monroe (Los Angeles, CA)
3) Jose Sarduy (Miami, FL)
2) Sean Kent (Austin, TX)
1) Travis Simmons (Seattle, WA)

Well, the good news is...I didn't get threatened with legal action by someone who I asked, politely, to please keep their conversation level to a whisper--as I had last year. However, that's only because (a year wiser) I recognized that trying to keep this crowd from talking to each other throughout the show was an impossible task.

I don't know if it's the free flowing booze or the small-town-residents-don't-know-how-you're-supposed-to-act-in-public...but the entire concept of paying attention to the show and the performers that they paid to watch seems to be an alien and unfathomable concept to the otherwise fine people of Puyallup... Most performers just gritted their teeth and pushed right through the endless conversations having nothing to do with what they were talking about, and most performers managed to ignore the woman who kept dog-whistling whenever she heard something she agreed with (even if, in doing so, she made it impossible to hear the NEXT thing she might agree with) and most performers accepted that any attempts at subtlety would be rather futile.

And pity poor Duane Goad--our very funny comedian host for the night--who had to perform the "stall set" (to fill in the time while scores are being tabulated until the Top 5 is ready to be announced) to a crowd that didn't even know that this was a competition show and felt that when the 10th contestants set was over...that the SHOW was over...

Yes. People paid $20 a ticket to see a comedy competition that they didn't know was a competition show. One wonders if they even knew it was going to be comedy--that perhaps they'd have paid $20 for a ticket to a room where they could pay $10 to drink all the beer they might want.

So, strategically, I'd have guessed that going up early was the prime spot...but going up FIRST is always difficult, not only to get the room hip to what you're doing but to get good scores from judges who haven't seen anyone else to compare you to... Nevertheless, the person who took down top honors of this night did so by taking the bullet and going up first. Travis Simmons' battle tested material and impersonations won great favor with this crowd...and while they didn't give him much love for his Sarah Palin joke, they gave him enough love for his Bush joke to make it seem like Travis was both crowd-pleasing AND socially relevant...usually a good combination to get good scores from the judges.

On the other hand, it certainly seemed like as the crowd got drunker and more fragmented, that someone trying to pull off some socially relevant material towards the END of the night would be pissing into the wind...but Sean Kent managed to pull out a second place finish by going up last, and he didn't shy away from taking his shots at a world (and a couple specific members of the audience) that presents him with many frustrations.

And certainly, much love was given to Jose Sarduy...who took the 3rd spot from the very middle of the show...so, it seemed that if you had the kind of act that the audience and judges could get behind, it didn't seem to matter much WHEN you went up afterall.

Although, Matt Billon felt that he'd earned himself low-man on tonight's totem pole status when he followed Steve Monroe's very successful crowd-work-based set tonight with the same set that had earned Matt second place the night before. The audience wasn't ready for a material based comic after Steve's stunts and impressions...and it took Matt a few minutes to get the audience in gear with HIS particular performance style.

Steve Monroe made the Top 5 tonight, but continues to believe that his set the night before in Edmonds was far stronger than what he did on THIS night. This night, however, he used his crowd work skills above and beyond the "Hugs Bit" which is Steve's signature effort... This night, he found the perfect person to reference early and often...so, when he brought her onstage as his "assistant" in the Hugs Bit...the audience was primed and ready for it. It worked well.

(The same boisterous table right up front that Steve plucked Felicia, tonight's volunteer for his Hugs Bit, from...was the same table that Sean Kent would later pick on...and, like many drunk comedy show crowds, they seemed to enjoy being the people getting picked on...which is one of the weirdest social interactions in the performing arts, if you ask me.)

Rounding out the Top 5 was last night's last place finisher, Solomon Georgio. It was widely thought that Solomon would struggle on the big theater stages--as he is used to the intimate settings of comedy clubs and alt-comedy rooms. On this night, Solomon made some adjustments to the jokes he used at the top of his set...but still went into his very personal material that he must have worried if it would work in Puyallup (he needn't have worried, as this crowd seemed energized to cheer for someone being both vulnerable and bold at the same time.)--and it must have helped, as he bounced back to grab another Top 5 finish.

Andy Haynes, who followed Travis and preceded Solomon, didn't fare quite as well...although I thought his set was well-received throughout. Once again, however, this wasn't the more glaringly befuddling score for the night...

Once again, that honor fell to Paul Hooper...who once again started somewhat slow, but by the end had the crowd in full-on avalanche laughter mode, ready to stand and cheer his efforts above and beyond the encore point cheer. Once again, Paul Hooper doesn't make a Top 5 he seemed destined for...and once again, Paul Hooper wasn't even close.

Something about what Paul Hooper is doing is connecting with audiences but not with the judges...and however much it is frustrating Paul, it is ALSO frustrating those of us on the production staff...because one night of not getting scores for a solid set is a fluke, but three straight nights of doing good work and not getting good scores seems to be a systemic problem...and no one can quite diagnose what's going wrong...

What went wrong for Derick Lengwenus, tonight, was simply that he was a calm and sober presence in a drunken nightmare of a room. Perhaps it was because he went up after Jose Sarduy, whose crowd-pleasing ability is unquestioned...but Derick never really connected with this audience the way he has nearly everywhere else in his time here in the competition...until the very end, where he goes a little more blue than he tends to do earlier in his set...and, by then, evidently, the judges opinions had already been formed.

And Rodger Lizaola is quietly keeping within range of the leaders without breaking into the Top 5... As Top 5 scores are getting spread around the roster, he'll probably need a couple of them in the last three nights to get the chance to move on...but it's not like he, or anyone else in this week, is out of the running yet.

Anyone who can work a big stage for a big crowd will have a good shot to move on--as the next two shows are big casino shows (with big buffets to match! Yum!)...and after that, there'll only be one more show in a smaller setting to try to finish off strong in...

Performance order is proving to be a major factor, to be sure... Who you follow and when you go up are the prime variables for a group of solid comedians like we have in this week.

Skagit Valley Casino on Friday night...that's where show four will be.

There's where I will be.

pg--Quicker tonight. Enjoy it. It might not last!--seattle

[pg13]

One of the most fun things about helping to run a competition like this is when you get the chance to take some up and coming club comics...and some road comics with a few miles on their odometer...and you get to throw them up in the Pacific Showroom of the Skagit Valley Casino...which is so ludicrously "show business"--the kind of "show business" that you quickly realize that stand-up comedy, whatever you imagined it might be before you started doing it, isn't...

Well, it isn't, normally.

There's food vouchers for the buffet and complimentary fruit/chips/beverages in the green room...there's dressing rooms with clean towels...there's sound technicians and there's been effort put into the lighting and stage design...

...and then there's 460+ people in every available seat, attentively watching you do what you do and then cheering on your efforts wildly...

It's a wonderful thing to offer someone who has never felt that way about what they do...

...of course, then you have to watch them shrink back into reality once the competition is over, and it's back to the hellgigs and shitrooms...

But, in that glorious moment...repeated a few times over the course of the competition...it's remarkable.

30th Annual Seattle International Comedy Competition
Semi-Finals--Night Four
Skagit Valley Casino, Bow--November 20, 2009
TOP 5 RESULTS

5) Travis Simmons (Seattle, WA)
4) Sean Kent (Austin, TX)
3) Paul Hooper (Charlotte, NC)
2) Steve Monroe (Los Angeles, CA)
1) Jose Sarduy (Miami, FL)

Big room, big stage, big scores. That's tonight in a nutshell. Everybody got great scores from the judges tonight, but some got greater scores than others.

The room was hot and most people did well...with the larger acts performing better in the larger room, as you'd expect.

The biggest news of the night (other than the one hour wait for the buffet, which nearly ruined my night...but that has nothing to do with the competition) was that finally the judges agreed with the comics and the production staff in celebrating the glory that stood before them in the form of Paul Hooper.

A favorite of many, going into this semi-finals, to make it to the finals and possibly win the whole competition...Paul has been delivering his bombast night after night to great response from the audience, thunderous applause at encore point time and the sound of a balloon fizzling flat when the scores are counted up. No reason...just a disconnect between what everyone else seemed to be watching and what the judges were reporting.

Tonight...without changing anything or making any sort of unnecessary readjustment, Paul simply did what he did and finally earned the scores he's deserved.

And he did so just in time--as one more disappointing score might have torpedoed his chances for good. But, as it stands...everybody is definitely still in this thing--because the scores have been close...and everyone has had their moment in the sun.

Everyone except for Rodger Lizaola...who hasn't made a nightly Top 5 this week, but, due to his consistent scores, is in the Top 5 standings for the week!!! That's because it is scores that count--not placements...and Rodger, despite not making the podium on any given night, has racked up consistently strong scores.

There are only two shows left--one more big room, big stage show...Saturday at the Lucky Eagle Casino in Rochester...and then a small, intimate, supper club show at Marsons in Everett. The performers that hope to move on will have to master both types of shows, as no one can afford to slip even a little bit...as everyone else is right there.

Meanwhile, thankfully, reports warning about flooding in the Rochester area have subsided (hopefully, the waters have too)...so, we're expecting around 1100 excited comedy fans at that show--and that's something that most contestants in the competition have never experienced before.

Hee hee...

pg--Plus, there's an excellent seafood buffet waiting at the Lucky Eagle... Bless those food vouchers!!! It's sooooo showbiz!--seattle

[pg13]

The drive from Seattle to Rochester--in the dark, through the rain--is a journey into another world. The urban, progressive mindset must be left behind...as you drive off the Interstate, into the woods...past a combination Guns & Furniture store...to a palace built on very bad decisions...

Still, these people who pack the Lucky Eagle Casino for the competition show certainly love to laugh...and you don't have to pander to them to get them to laugh... You just don't have to piss them off, either...

30th Annual Seattle International Comedy Competition
Semi-Finals--Night Five
Lucky Eagle Casino, Rochester-November 21, 2009
TOP 5 RESULTS

5) Rodger Lizaola (Gilroy, CA)
4) Travis Simmons (Seattle, WA)
3) Derick Lengwenus (Montreal, QC)
2) Sean Kent (Austin, TX)
1) Jose Sarduy (Miami, FL)

As the previous night's show proved, it takes a certain kind of act to really do well in a big room...but it is also possible for everyone to get good scores in front of a hot crowd.

On this rainy Saturday night, over an hour south of Seattle, the contestants would get their second shot at rocking the big room--typically, the biggest room of the competition. Would this group--who have all seemed pretty well locked into their process, not many adjustments being made from show to show--continue the path they're on, or will some of them switch some stuff up to see if they can't change what might seem to be their fate?

With the scores as close as they are, there are good arguments to be made for staying the course AND rocking the boat... There are also good arguments for not caring too much because the Lucky Eagle Casino offers up one hell of a seafood buffet before the show...and the chance to rock a crowd of 800 doesn't come to comedians every day, so at some level the scores don't matter as much as the experience.



Ha ha ha haaaaa... Oh, I almost got you on THAT one, didn't I?

OF COURSE the scores matter...but, at some level...you can only do what you do and hope the scores work out.

Andy Haynes knows this all too well. Two years ago, he was in the semi-finals of this very event...coming to the Lucky Eagle Casino...fearing that this audience wouldn't get him or what he does...so, he thought he might do a character bit--where he dressed up in a trucker hat, dumbed down what he would normally do...but then he chickened out, did his normal act...and end up in tenth place for the week.

Coming back to the Lucky Eagle with a chance to move on to the finals...but just as much of a chance not to...Andy still didn't know how they'd take to him being full-on Andy--and tonight, he drew the bullet and would go up first. This year, instead of hiding himself behind a character...he just went up and did what he does--and the audience responded well...and the judges noticed, giving him scores good enough to put him into sixth place for the night and keep him right in the hunt for the finals.

Rodger Lizaola, fresh from the big casino rooms of the San Francisco Comedy Competition, didn't feel the need to change anything...and he delivered a strong, confident performance.

Paul Hooper did what Paul Hooper does... Steve Monroe did what Steve Monroe does (although, he did have a harder time getting from the stage to the audience and back to bring a volunteer to demonstrate his hugs bit on this night.

It wasn't until Derick Lengwenus that we saw the first significant change in approach--and Derick has made it very well known that he wasn't going to look at, consider or even want to hear about his scores, placements, etc. Derick did one set all through the prelims...and he's been doing a completely different set through the semi-finals...but neither of them showed off his penchant (and ability) for doing spot on impersonations.

Tonight, we got to see Derick whip a few impersonations out at the very end of his set...and it was a pretty strong strategic decision, even if this wasn't the type of audience that would truly appreciate how good he is at doing Kevin Spacey...they WERE the type of audience that loved his Jim Carrey and his Christopher Walken.

Jose Sarduy, having made the Top 5 every night this week, certainly didn't feel the need to change anything...and he rocked another big crowd in another big way.

Travis Simmons came out guns ablazing...dropping his most popular bits very early in his set. It had the effect of making his act seem somewhat top heavy...and, at least to someone familiar with him and his other performances during this competition, he seemed to trail off at the end...but the audience, not having that perspective, certainly seemed to enjoy what he does...as did the judges. (Travis also made a strategic decision not to do his more political material...which was probably a wise choice.)

Also making some changes to their approach, and skipping his most overtly political stuff, was Sean Kent, who seemed to be taking a page out of Andy Haynes' two-year-old strategy...switching to a trucker hat, talking about being from Texas, and, in his own words, Jon Reep-ing it up a bit...

I think the strength of his performance ability would have shone through without the minor alterations, but his choices on this night certainly didn't hurt Sean at all...

Following Sean's energetic performance was Solomon Georgio--who remains rather rigid and still at the mic. His stage presence was probably not the first thing on Solomon's mind, of course, as his entire act seems purposefully built NOT to connect with the very audience he was facing on this night.

And, to Solomon's credit...he trusted himself and did what he does... He acknowledged that some of his material might make some in the crowd uncomfortable, but he also made it clear that he didn't care enough to not be himself--and they could take it or leave it as much as HE did... He even added back in a particularly button-pushing bit that he'd taken out for his set at the Skagit.

And, much to the credit of the great comedy fans who come to the Lucky Eagle each year, they accepted Solomon for who he is and they enjoyed the comedy that he performed for them.

The night ended up with Matt Billon, who decided that his barrage of traditional-comedy jokes needed to be beefed up a bit by closing on a longer, more personal story...a story, granted, that included guns and sibling rivalry... I see what Matt was thinking...but since he went up last, and considering how long the show was, I'm not certain that telling a long story without as many laughs in the telling of it was the way to go...

In the end...the changes that Sean and Derick made seemed to be the right ones on this night...and staying the course didn't hurt Rodger or Jose.

The judges gave Matt Billon the lowest score of the night but even the score that he earned was very high, comparatively it might have been a 6th or 7th place score on another night...so, this was a night that would keep the standings close, keep the drama going into the sixth and final night to the very end.

pg--Took long enough, didn't it?--seattle

[pg13]

Going into the sixth and final night of the semi-finals week, the situation was both clear and cloudy, at the same time.

What was clear was that three contestants had earned scores in the previous five shows to absolutely lock them into the finals.

What was clear was that all seven of the other contestants were still in the hunt for the two remaining slots into the finals...not only were they mathematically in the hunt, but all seven of them could conceivably fall all the way to the bottom of the heap--the scores were THAT close.

What was cloudy was that first place for the week had not been decided.

...and none of the seven on the outside, scrambling to get in, were entirely certain what had to happen for them to assure themselves of a place in the finals.

One thing was certain...winning the night would certainly help.

30th Annual Seattle International Comedy Competition
Semi-Finals--Night Six
Marsons @ Club Casino, Everett-November 22, 2009
TOP 5 RESULTS

5) Derick Lengwenus (Montreal, QC)
4) Jose Sarduy (Miami, FL)
3) Travis Simmons (Seattle, WA)
2) Rodger Lizaola (Gilroy, CA)
1) Paul Hooper (Charlotte, NC)

This is the second straight year that the semi-finals week would end at Marson's at Club Casino in Everett. Marson's is a restaurant with a small stage along one of the long walls, where comedy is booked regularly on Friday and Saturday nights.

Last year, the Sunday night crowd for the competition show was a bit odd--with people falling asleep in the comfy couches that make up the front seats...and people arguing, at full volume, about the quality of their food, DURING the competition...

It is also the place where a minor miracle took place--where Lars Callieou was close to moving on to the finals, but he needed some help...and he needed to knock it out of the park, which would be difficult as he was going up at the end of the show. He managed to do just that--winning the night and earning his place in the finals.

Would another minor miracle be in the offing on this night?

Well, luckily, this crowd seemed much more primed for the entertainment they were about to receive. The front row patrons were all into the show--and some were REALLY into it, as one woman would laugh so hard, her body shook violently from front to back when something tickled her funny bone.

One couple in the front had been at the show the previous night at the Lucky Eagle Casino...and were somewhat disappointed when they realized that many of the performers would be doing the exact same set they did the night before...

...not all of them, however.

Matt Billon, for example, did not choose to repeat the story that he'd closed with at the Lucky Eagle--he kept it simple, doing the jokes that got him to the semi-finals and kept getting him good scores in doing so. On this night, despite having to start his set while loud waitresses inexplicably waited until the first contestant began his set to take the judges' food and drink orders, Matt did another quality job and proved why he's a solid, working comedian...

Second up, Derick Lengwenus, might not have known that he needed some help to make the finals--as he hasn't been checking the scores all week--but he knew enough to keep the impressions that he broke out the night before. He even upped the ante a bit, as he took crowd suggestions as to what impressions he'd do...so, this night he did Kevin Spacey (to a much more appreciative audience for such an impression, including Spacey-loving host, Duane Goad), Elvis Presley, Jack Nicholson and Christopher Walken. All through this competition, Derick has proven himself to be a total professional--almost a throw back to a previous era of show business...as, although he ditched the suit jacket for a t-shirt on these final two shows, he still gives off the vibe of someone who would feel quite comfortable paneling with Johnny and Ed.

On this night, in this era, he earned himself a very strong encore point cheer...but, the show was young...would it be enough to elevate him into one of the two open positions?

Solomon Georgio hoped not, as he was in position to claim one of them as well... Feeling a little bit more on home turf, Solomon used his charm, charisma and bold material choices to earn solid scores throughout the competition...belying his relative lack of experience, compared to the other contestants who made it as far. Doing this competition adds to that experience and he should come out of this a far stronger performer than when he came in... Of course, he's hoping that his performance was strong enough to keep him from coming out after tonight.

Travis Simmons followed Solomon. Travis is a veteran of both this room and the competition, and he continued to display strong performance skills, original material, some crowd pleasing impressions and a likability that serves him well. On this night, he again put his most crowd pleasing bit (his Louie Armstrong impression) in his set quite early...but unlike the Lucky Eagle, it didn't end up making his set seem front-loaded...(not that it hurt him with the judges at the Lucky Eagle, of course.)

Rodger Lizaola never changes a thing...but seems to be getting stronger every night. He, like Travis, is a veteran of this room and this competition...and he simply seemed at home here. He even commented on how some of his material pushes the audience away only to get them back...a power move that proves his confidence in himself and what he's doing.

Sean Kent, liberated from having to limit himself at the Lucky Eagle, did a set that veered from side to side...and lurched a little long, just past the threshold for the minor time penalty. He'd kick himself for that, but it didn't matter all that much, as Sean was one of the three contestants already mathematically locked into the finals.

Steve Monroe was the proverbial bubble boy. In fifth place going into the night, he both needed a good score and needed those scrambling behind him not to get a better score. Steve couldn't begin his set with his customary music opening, as Marsons does not have a dedicated person running sound...and he had a slightly difficult volunteer for his Hugs Bit...but I don't think he could be disappointed in his performance on this night, or on any other night after the first night of the first preliminary week. He does something that crowds really like...and that's his primary concern with every performance--it's no wonder he'd made it this far.

But, would it be enough to move him forward?

Following Steve was Jose Sarduy...who has been the master of consistency in this competition. With a few minor tweaks here or there, he'd stuck to a game plan, kept to a planned set and earned great scores because of it...UNTIL TONIGHT.

Tonight, Jose did one minute of his normal set...then he switched into material he had previously not presented...material about college and about sexual techniques... This material was just as strong as the material he'd been doing, which suggests that he might have his longer finals set ready to go...and that this would be a preview of what he'd add to his other set to make-up his finals set. He had that luxury, as he was one of the three contestants who knew he was a lock for the finals going into this night.

The key for Jose is how likable he is...compared to every other performer in the semi-finals, he seems the happiest to be doing what he's doing...the performer whose material allows him to be talking about things that he enjoys...

Compare that to Paul Hooper, whose set is a non-stop peppering of complaints, criticisms, cynical blather and grandiose posturing...and is absolutely wonderful to behold. Night after night of pressure washing the audience has left the comics and the production staff in stitches...but they haven't earned Paul more than a quick nibble of any nightly top 5. Still--he was in contention for moving on...as long as he knocked it out of the park tonight.

...and that's what he did.

In a performance that was as strong and as steady as he's given over the past two weeks, Paul got the kind of reaction commensurate to his performance...the kind of reaction that we all thought was possible every time he took the stage. The judges table was convulsing with laughter throughout his set...

...and all of the other hopefuls for one of those two remaining slots in the finals must have taken a hard swallow in reaction to the reaction Paul earned on this night. As this was Paul's night to try to duplicate what Lars Callieou had done the year before...

Which must have been hard for Andy Haynes, closing up the night and needing his own Lars Callieou-esque moment, to swallow. Andy, who had earned his way into the semi-finals of this competition two years ago with a miracle finish on the last night of the preliminary week that year, knew that his job was a lot harder in the wake of what Paul had just done.

Andy chose not to make any radical adjustments to his set. Some of his bits were winnowed down a little--dropping a couple of lines that got laughs in previous nights, in the process, unfortunately--and that left him closing up a bit awkwardly, before seeing the 10 minute light. Nothing wrong with that--a contestant could do as little as 8 minutes without penalty in the semi-finals...but you could tell that Andy could tell that he hadn't hit it out of the park on this night...

When the scores were announced, you could tell that Derick was happy...until Rodger was announced...and then, when Paul was crowned as the nightly champion... The writing was definitely on the wall for Solomon, Matt, Andy and probably for Steve, too...

The proof would come with the announcement for the top 5 for the week:

Semi-Finals Week Top 5 (and moving on to the finals!)

5) Paul Hooper
4) Rodger Lizaola
3) Sean Kent
2) Travis Simmons
1) Jose Sarduy


L-R: Duane Goad (host), Travis Simmons (2nd), Jose Sarduy (1st), Sean Kent (3rd), Rodger Lizaola (4th) and Paul Hooper (5th).

...and that's how this incredible, competitive and mathematically close semi-finals week ends.

Five shows remain. Sets get longer, ability to hold an audience's attention gets challenged further, the stakes are higher...

The finals week begins Tuesday, November 24th with a private show for the Washington Athletic Club in Seattle.

pg--And I'll try to get the recaps up each night.--seattle

[pg13]

Eighteen shows of the 30th Annual Seattle International Comedy Competition have come and gone to give us our five finalists.

They should be proud of such an achievement...they should revel in their accomplishment and treat these five shows of the finals as a glorified victory lap.

...but they won't.

They'll claw each other's eyes out to try to win this thing...

...and that's fun.

30th Annual Seattle International Comedy Competition
Finals--Night One
Washington Athletic Club, Seattle--November 24, 2009
NIGHTLY SCORING ORDER

5) Jose Sarduy (Miami, FL)
4) Rodger Lizaola (Gilroy, CA)
3) Paul Hooper (Charlotte, NC)
2) Sean Kent (Austin, TX)
1) Travis Simmons (Seattle, WA)

After a day off to enjoy their success in the Semi-Finals Week, our five Finalists gathered together to begin their Finals Week...a five shows in six nights adventure that will culminate in the crowning of a new champion in the Seattle International Comedy Competition...in the rather tony environs of the Crystal Ballroom at the private Washington Athletic Club in a downtown Seattle that is already decked out and lit up for the holidays.

All five contestants know each other...they know what they'll bring...they know that on any given night for any given audience, any of them can earn the best scores...there isn't a weak sister in the bunch.

The questions was...who would it be on THIS night...for THIS audience?

Would it be Miami's Jose Sarduy? He drew the short straw of taking the bullet on the first show of Finals Week. Normally, that wouldn't be much of a problem...as Jose has proven that he can rock it right from the start. Tonight, however...for no apparent reason, it didn't happen for Jose. The audience's response to Jose was rather mild and reserved--which suggested that the crowd itself, all members of this private Athletic Club, was tight. That could make for a rather long and unfunny night if true.

Or, maybe Jose's problem related to the fact that he chose to end on material that seemed to make fun of a girl with a lisp...and in super-sensitive Seattle, that sort of thing never works out very well...

Would it be Austin's Sean Kent? As much as Jose's performances are carefully constructed military strategies that he carries out with precision and accuracy...Sean's performances always seem on the verge of flying off the rails...off into space. Funny space, to be sure...and part of it comes from that sense of potential abandon...of not knowing exactly how far Sean will take them--which is often a little bit further than where he "can" take them...

Whatever concerns about the audience being a bit tight seemed to fade away as Sean fearlessly took it to them...got them laughing about "twittering" and he poked around at where their political leanings might be... Might it have been a bit too much for this crowd? Perhaps...but it sure sounded like most everyone was on board.

It was a strong performance that ended with a crack team of half-naked gay special forces scaring the hell out of Fundamentalist Muslims...and a daring leap off the stage that either dented Sean's skull or the overhead lamp that he slammed that skull into...

Would it be Charlotte's Paul Hooper? If this crowd was warmed up to comedic anarchy by Sean's performance, they'd better hold on tight as this particular fairground dark ride was launched forward at breakneck speed. Paul couldn't wait for everyone to figure him out...he couldn't wait for each single person in the audience to understand that the things that he was saying were meant to be laughed at and not be lingered upon to dissect for the various ways it could offend someone of tender sensibilities.

Eventually, as it always has, it seemed like Paul reached critical mass with enough of the audience to send the avalanche of laughter down the mountain--his sheer willpower alone would collect enough people willing to laugh at things that would normally make them cringe...(although, they seemed to blanch at the Jerusalem Gift Shop joke...and Paul wisely bailed on that one to seek more fertile fields to plow elsewhere.)

It seemed like the show was building with each performance...which made the intermission that came next a bit unfortunate...but host Gabriel Rutledge did an excellent job of getting them back and ready for more comedy.

Would it be Rodger Lizaola? Things started for Rodger a little inauspiciously...as Rodger took a heckle based on his appearance before he even got his first joke out...but, being a club-seasoned pro, Rodger turned it around to good effect...and it both generated laughs and endeared him to the rest of the room. It did take up some of his valuable time, however...and Rodger didn't really get to his planned material for almost a minute.

His planned material, however, seemed to lose him favor with the audience. They weren't with him on his deconstruction of racial issues...they froze up on him, enough for Rodger to comment on, as he discussed his annoyances with women...

And, possibly because bits that usually generated significant amounts of laughter didn't happen to on this night, like the moon rocks that Apollo 13 didn't come back from the moon with changed its trajectory...he came up a bit SHORT on time--not long, as I'd originally worried he would since dealing with the heckler took some time off the top.

It was short enough that he earned a time penalty that would be taken off his scores...and he ended without a very strong audience reaction, that he nearly didn't earn himself the nearly-obligatory-in-the-finals "encore point".

Would it be Travis Simmons? Travis, who made a point to bring out his being a hometown performer...and then demonstrated the confident performance style that he's honed to a razor's edge over the years. The audience ate him up like he was the best thing on the buffet, and Travis kept tossing them his best bits...

...until, again, as had happened the last two nights of the Semi-Finals week, it seemed like he'd front-loaded his set...and his material seemed to keep getting less and less response as he went on. While not a deal breaker in the semi-finals, with the increased length of the finals sets (where you have to do 15-20 minutes of material)...the ability to work within the dynamics of that longer set is of utmost importance.

Rather than the tight focus and direction he presented early in his set, towards the end of his effort tonight...it almost seemed random--as if he was scouring his rolodex of material to see if he had anything left to toss out to the crowd. It was like he was always on the verge of saying "So, what ELSE was I going to tell you?"--which is very different than the type of absolutely in control performance that tends to win competitions like this.

Travis also has a habit of following a joke that he likes that doesn't work terribly well with a particular audience by announcing "I wrote that" or "I just wrote that this week"--which only serves to point out the artificiality of stand-up comedy that most audiences want to keep hidden... I've found that most audiences want to believe the magic that this could all just be coming from the top of a performer's head--not having been pre-written and well-rehearsed.

Travis did have something interesting happen to him...in that the audience, on a couple of occasions, took Travis' set-ups to jokes VERY seriously. On one audience poll, Travis got a discussion rather than simple answers...and on two occasions an audience member gasped as Travis described a situation that he was about to make a joke about...

Again, that's what we sometimes run into when performing here in Seattle...as Travis well knows, as he wasn't fazed by any of this...

So, that was the show.

It would be up to the judges to decide who it would be...and quickly, it became clear that the five judges were not in agreement with each other, or, as far as I could tell, with the rest of the audience... As special guest Ty Barnett performed the "stall set" for the audience, the production staff were tallying the scores...and occasional gasps of amazement were heard as certain scores just didn't make much sense, other scores were just different than the previous scoresheet that staffer had counted up and certain people got scores that were nothing like any scores he'd ever received before on this night.

According to the judges, it was Travis Simmons who won the night--and, to be sure, when Travis was announced...the crowd cheered much more strongly than they'd cheered for the previous four contestants who had been announced.

Sean Kent took second place with the judges...but in a separate award, by a vote taken of the rest of the audience, Sean won the "Washington Athletic Club Choice Award" as the comedian that the crowd liked the most.

Paul Hooper took third...but only because Rodger's score was lowered due to the time penalty. Had Rodger managed to perform one minute longer, HE would have taken third place. (This makes that somewhat questionable encore point all the more important...)

Rodger Lizaola took fourth, but even with the time penalty, his score for the night was respectable...and probably better than Rodger expected it would be...

...and Jose really took it on the chin on this night...as every judge had him in last place (or tied for last) for the night--something that has certainly not happened before in this competition.

But this was just one show of five in this Finals Week--and each comic gets to drop his lowest score. This just means Jose has to bring it every night for the rest of the week--which he's proven himself certainly capable of doing.

And it means that the next show and the next audience could bring far different results for everyone...and no one would know until the ferry ride to Vashon Island and the performances at the Vashon Theater on the night before Thanksgiving are judged by those judges there...

pg--Thanks to everyone at the WAC...and to an audience that definitely had a great time enjoying some excellent comedy on this night.--seattle

[pg13]

Over the river and through the woods...would NOT have gotten you to Vashon Island, which is where the second night of the Finals Week of the 30th Annual International Comedy Competition was being held.

You needed to take a ferry...because it's an island.

You needed to take a ferry on the day before Thanksgiving.

So, let's just say some military-style strategy was necessary for everyone to accomplish the goal of getting to the show on time.

The same type of strategy might have helped me get this recap up on time...but I'd already used up my strategic allotment on getting to the show...so, what follows is the belated recap that I could come up with when I had the time to do so...

And let's get to it...

30th Annual Seattle International Comedy Competition
Finals--Night Two
Vashon Theater, Vashon--November 25, 2009
NIGHTLY ORDER OF FINISH

5) Paul Hooper (Charlotte, NC)
4) Travis Simmons (Seattle, WA)
3) Rodger Lizaola (Gilroy, CA)
2) Jose Sarduy (Miami, FL)
1) Sean Kent (Austin, TX)

The Vashon Theater is a delightful one screen movie theater on delightful Vashon Island, just a short ferry ride away from West Seattle...but seemingly a world away from the hustle, bustle urbanity that is downtown Seattle.

Artists, craftsmen and even television actors have found a home on Vashon Island and every year, they welcome this crazy comedy competition to their island and onto the stage of their one and only movie theater for some pre-Thanksgiving laughs.

And boy, could they use it this year...because just days earlier, someone broke into the Vashon Theater... It wasn't just what they took--some cash, some candy and a digital projector...that's bad enough--but it was the sense of violation...that sense that these sort of things just don't happen in the small town vibe of a place where everyone on the island knows everyone else on the island...

So it was nice for Eileen, Gordon and Rachel--who operate the Vashon Theater as a family--to have a night where they could laugh a little...and forget everything they'd been dealing with...

Or, maybe they were just happy for a night where they didn't have to screen "New Moon" again. Hard to tell.

Making things more interesting for your humble recapper...was the fact that the burglars had broken in through the men's room...which meant that the door handle for the men's room had been compromised...which meant that when your humble recapper closed the door while using said men's room before the competition began, the compromised door knob was unable to re-open the door once business had been finished...which meant that I'd accidentally locked myself into the men's room of the Vashon Theater while "New Moon" was playing...

It took the efforts of five people to rescue me...and I'd love to say that this was the end of my bathroom adventures there, but at the END of the night, before heading back to Seattle...a quick visit to the bathroom (where the entire door knob assembly had been removed) ended in an awkward moment where someone expecting the room to be empty walked in on me in my about-to-zip-myself-up, being-casual-about-it-because-I-think-no one-will-walk-in mode.

Yep. Great day for me. Can we talk about the competition show now? It's worth talking about...much more than my bathroom adventures, believe me.

After the corporate-gig style vibe of the first show of the Finals Week, this show would present our contestants with a completely opposite kind of show... If the WAC was a show for the elite, then this was a show for the people--but, "people" who are committed to caring about themselves, their planet and how everything and everyone is treated...and for the rather cynical, good-nature balloon busting comics that we have this week in the finals, it would be just as challenging for them...

In other words, this audience has been known to be somewhat sensitive...and this group of comics has made it clear that they're not likely to care.

Especially Charlotte's Paul Hooper, who bit the bullet on this night. Now, the bullet was unkind to Jose Sarduy at the WAC--as it tends to be for everyone, year after year, in the finals--and it would be unkind on this night to Paul Hooper...who intentionally pushes as many buttons as he can early on. He counts on the audience's ability to see through his intentional button pushing and see the brave thoughts that his bluster sometimes obscures...and that's a calculated risk that doesn't always pay off for him.

Paul got his laughs...he's simply too strong of a performer not to...but this crowd on this night wasn't totally ready for him...at least not as their first comedy course at this particular meal.

And that would seem to make it tough for Sean Kent, who followed Paul on this night...as Sean, while not as purposefully harsh towards his subjects, definitely shares a certain cynicism towards the world around us. However, Sean was savvy in changing up his set a bit tonight...going into a long form bit regarding driving in Nebraska and the "justice" of marijuana laws...

The combination of smart and silly that Sean chose to present on this night was catnip to this audience...and now, it seemed like the audience was fully on-board with what the show had to offer...

...which was good, because Rodger Lizaola was ready to challenge their sensitivities, too.

Rodger's act seemed primed for disaster here...as it plays off of casual acceptance of certain racial stereotypes, it decries vegan-ism and recycling as worthless, it projects a much more traditional view of a woman's role in society...and, new on this night (so Rodger didn't again end up with a time penalty for not doing enough time), was an extended discussion of homosexuality... Granted, Rodger's take on homosexuality is a positive one...the words used might play poorly against sensitive ears.

However, Rodger's good nature and self-deprecation throughout his set allowed him the grace in the audience's eyes to get his comedic takes on these sensitive subjects across...

Comedy is so subjective. What works for you might not work for the person sitting next to you...and that was made clear to me during Travis Simmons' set on this night. I was sitting with the competition producer, Ron Reid...and when I saw Travis produce another top-heavy set that started with his strongest bits only to see his energy level, his performance enthusiasm and the audience's enjoyment of his material all fade significantly as the show went on...Ron Reid saw Travis fully in command of the stage and of the audience.

That's why we have judges.

I just had this nagging sensation that if Travis would only close his set with his Louie Armstrong bit, he'd be unstoppable. That bit is undeniable...and in the finals, he kept putting it right up front in his set...which usually "worked"--but it didn't earn him the maximum possible response for that bit...and it didn't leave a lingering impression on the judges right at the moment that they'd mark their score sheet. Tactically and strategically, I thought this was one area where Travis could improve--but, as he'd won the night before (and as Ron was certain that he'd done an even better job on this night), I wasn't in a position to say anything.

Closing up the night was Jose Sarduy...who experienced the pain of the bullet the night before--really, Jose's first stumble in what has been a remarkable competition for him. And this crowd would seem to be in prime position for a few minutes of energy, smiles and goofiness... Jose, this week, will be a counter-puncher...he will be the definable "other" to what else this competition has to offer.

And this night, as every night, Jose simply went out and did what he does best...which is he entertains the room.

Everyone, really, did another excellent job...and it would be up to the five judges to express their thoughts with numbers...

And as a cool little bonus, one of the judges on this night was Jackson Douglas...who some of you might recognize as Jackson Belleville from "The Gilmore Girls".

And one of the other judges was Jackson's wife, Alex Borstein...who some of you might recognize from "Mad TV" or as the voice of Lois (and others) on "Family Guy".

This is not the first time that they've judged for us...but they were unavailable last year as they were working hard on being new parents... We were thrilled to see them again, and have them as judges--as they add some specific industry knowledge to their scores...

The other judges, fine folks all, may not be as famous off of Vashon Island, but they do love their comedy and this competition...and they combined to give us the results as listed above.

They didn't however, agree on everything...other than how strong Sean Kent was on this night--which made his victory tonight a strong one...with a significant point separation between himself and the rest of the field. That could come in handy as this finals week continues.

As we were counting the scores, Ron expressed his surprise that Travis had not done better--but as one judge wrote in their comments "Oh My...Too Text Book" regarding Travis' performance...

These judges liked Sean because he gave the impression that he was free and vital and in the moment...and the material he chose on this night allowed him to fully express those qualities...and for that, he earned an important nightly win to go with his second place the night before (and the wonderful WAC Choice Award he won there.)

And...with that, the contestants would head back to Seattle on the ferry...with lots to think about with only three shows left in this finals week...in the entire competition, really.

They would also have a lot to be thankful for...as they enjoyed a one day break from the rigors of competing to enjoy some good food and good friends.

The competition continues on the day after Thanksgiving at the Kirkland Performance Center...and we'll have a new host for that show and the following show at the Admiral Theater in Bremerton--the brilliant David Crowe (like our host on this night on Vashon Island, Gabriel Rutledge, a former Seattle International Comedy Competition champion himself.)

pg--Thanks to the great people of Vashon for welcoming us each year...especially the staff and family of the Vashon Theater, who deserve better than to have someone make their efforts more difficult. Here's to a better year for them, starting with this great show!--seattle

PS--Sorry for the delay in posting this recap.

[pg13]

Pity Lizzy Pilcher.

Every year, the Kirkland Performance Center presents her with some unnecessary drama.

Last year, Lizzy was handling the role of official timekeeper for the show at the Kirkland Performance Center...when Justin Rupple, going up first in what was really his hometown audience, went a couple of seconds short of the minimum time required in the finals...earning himself a time penalty. He thought he'd narrowly avoided a time penalty, based on his own calculation of his set time...but Justin had started his timer as he walked on stage...but the timekeeper is instructed to start the time from when a contestant begins their set--which was a few seconds difference...a difference that cost Justin a full point on that night.

This year, her role as the Director of Judges was questioned when a contestant felt they had a legitimate complaint about a particular judge on this night--before the show actually began. Now, typically, judge identities aren't revealed to the contestants...but Lizzy (and Jen Seaman, who helped Lizzy this year) worked very hard to get quality judges for every night of the competition...and she didn't deserve any drama regarding her efforts on this night.

In the end, it wouldn't matter...but I wouldn't be surprised if Lizzy started developing a complex over ever going to Kirkland because of this stuff...

Oh, yeah...there was a show here on this night, best get to recapping it...starting with:

30th Annual Seattle International Comedy Competition
Finals--Night Three
Kirkland Performance Center, Kirkland--November 27, 2009
NIGHTLY ORDER OF FINISH

5) Rodger Lizaola (Gilroy, CA)
4) Sean Kent (Austin, TX)
3) Travis Simmons (Seattle, WA)
2) Jose Sarduy (Miami, FL)
1) Paul Hooper (Charlotte, NC)

Kirkland, Washington is on what is known, in relation to Seattle, as the Eastside...and that means something to residents of Washington State. It implies a "tony-ness" that might not always be an accurate representation of a Kirkland comedy audience.

...but a show at the beautiful Kirkland Performance Center, competition producer Ron Reid's favorite venue of each competition year, tends to reinforce the stereotype...as this is a very nice theater with a very nice audience enjoying what they hope will be a very nice comedy show on the night after Thanksgiving.

Of course, what the finalists of the 30th Annual Seattle International Comedy Competition want is to milk some good scores out of the judges on this night. And, they definitely want to avoid a catastrophic set that could upset their chances for grabbing the brass ring at the end of this whole process.

This is the third of five nights in this finals week of the competition...and this is the turning point, the moment where they'd better start making their move to the top.

Travis Simmons would follow the sublimely wonderful David Crowe, who would be our host for this night and for Saturday night in Bremerton, as the first contestant of the night. He opened with a timely joke about Black Friday...where the audience actually laughed more at the set-up, as they filled in the space with where the joke was headed on their own before Travis dropped the punchline on them.

Again, Travis front-loaded his set with his strongest bits...and again, he seemed a bit disjointed and random towards the end--which is at odds with the power and command that Travis has while on stage. He's a very controlled and deliberate performer who makes himself clearly understood with everything he says... On this night, he hoped that he could avoid the curse of the bullet that had shot down Jose and Paul before him.

Speaking of Jose, he would follow Travis tonight...and deliver another solid performance. This was an important night for Jose, because with his last place finish on the first night of this week, if he could keep strong scores rolling in...he could drop that first night's score without worry--but a single slip-up could cost Jose more than it might cost others.

But on this night, Jose did not slip-up... It was Rodger that slipped up. He failed to earn his encore point...a very unusual occurrence in the Finals Week. He knew it, too...and accepted the host's decision not to award it to him. He asked later where he lost the audience...as the part where he would often lose an audience to their sensitivities in his chunk where he complains about his girl's inability to cook, but on this night the joke the concludes the chunk worked so well that he could honestly claim that he'd won them back.

He had...but then he went into a chunk where he talked about how much he hates homeless people and wishes they'd all just go ahead and die--and after you've pointed out to an audience that you'd survived pushing their buttons, you rarely get the grace to dive right back into that pool. You touched the hot stove and didn't get burned...but then you put your hand right back on the burner and kept it there... Burned.

Still, Rodger was saved by strong judges scores at the WAC when a time penalty would have seemed to have doomed his chances right from the start...it could happen again here, if the judges weren't as sensitive to where a comedian finds their humor as this audience seemed to be...

And, it would seem to be a dark omen for the second half of the show for Rodger to have been reacted to so harshly...as the second half of the show would give them a "parade of hatefulness"--in the form of Paul Hooper and Sean Kent.

Paul, as he does, took it to them. He didn't back down, he didn't apologize for the fury he unleashes on stage... He might have smiled once or twice more than I've seen him in the past, to let the audience in on the fact that they didn't have to take every thing that he was saying as the word-for-word Gospel truth of Paul's heart.

And the avalanche started to build...this room on this night GOT him and what he was doing. The more he pushed, the more this audience liked it...the more extreme his views, the stronger their reaction. This was Paul Hooper's moment...this was Paul Hooper's night. Even host David Crowe was impressed, and he wanted to know if Paul could really keep up that level of intensity over the course of a full length set.

Oh, yes...he could, would...will and does.

Now, as good as Paul was...it could be topped--and if there was someone who could top a Paul Hooper performance in a Paul Hooper lovin' room...it would be Sean Kent.

Sean tried to duplicate the strong results that he had with the set he performed at Vashon Island, and for the first time in this competition, I wondered if Sean had made a strategic error. The bit that had locked him into first place two nights earlier--a bit where he imagines himself being repeatedly prison raped while discussing the relative merits of Holland--simply didn't work with this crowd on this night.

Not to say that Sean had a bad set...he just didn't connect as strongly as he might have wanted to...

While the judges' scores were being added up, the audience was treated to a bonus performance from Emmy-winning comedian Rick Overton...yet another wonderful moment in a competition that has offered 30 years of wonderful moments.

First things first, the concern that one contestant had regarding one judge mentioned in the opening paragraph turned out to be a needless one--in fact, that judge scored the contestant in question with the highest score that contestant earned.

And the judges definitely agreed in how Paul Hooper had the set of the night...one of these judges even gave Paul a perfect score of "70" for his set.

Once again, the judges provided clear separation...as Paul's night winning score was strongly ahead of second place finisher Jose Sarduy (the second straight night that Jose's taken second only to be disappointed by earning a score more likely to be given to someone placing third or fourth on a finals night.)

Travis Simmons survived his bullet spot...taking third place, with a score very close to Jose's second place score. Rodger, however, did not survive the lack of encore point...as the judges seemed to agree with the audience that this was not the performance they wanted to reward. One of the judges took the time to point out their opinion that Rodger suffered from "unoriginal material."

The most surprised by the night was Sean Kent, who took fourth on the night. Two of the judges strongly disliked what he did on this night--one of these judges was the key to wide separation between Paul, Travis and Jose...and Sean and Rodger.

I've said it here before--the passionate judges are the ones that decide this competition...the judges that love who they love and hate who they don't, because their scores impact so much more than the judges who like everybody but like some contestants a little more than the others.

If Sean felt he was cruising after a strong second and then a first place showing...this fourth place showing would definitely put the pressure back on him...as now, he would have no room for error.

And for Paul, he's right back in the hunt now after a disappointing start to the week.

Travis and Jose are right there...and you should never count Rodger Lizaola out.

Two shows left. Two shows where no one can afford to not get a great score, because the rest of the field will and you'll be left behind.

There's a lot of pressure on everyone going to Bremerton, where over the years, there have been the most issues with judging versus the audience's expectations. This year, the venue has chosen all of the judges themselves hoping to find five people who will most accurately express the audience's reactions to this great group of comics.

We'll see how that works out...and how that impacts the standings of this Finals Week of the 30th Annual Seattle International Comedy Competition.

pg--Seriously...RICK OVERTON!?!?! How f-wording cool is THAT?--seattle

PS--As you can imagine, these results squeezed everybody's scores closer together...and with two shows left, ANYONE could win this thing!!!

[pg13]

There are two ways to get to Bremerton from Seattle. One, you could get in line and wait to get on a ferry which then takes about an hour to go from Seattle to Bremerton. Two, you could simply drive south through Tacoma, across the Tacoma Narrows Bridge and then back up around to the Kitsap Peninsula.

The drive takes about an hour and a half, and I like it better than the ferry. I like it better because it helps re-set my mind...it lets me know that Bremerton is a short distance away from Seattle across the water, but it's a long ways away from the way that Seattle thinks.

Bremerton is a Navy town. Bremerton is not the enclave of progressive political thought that Seattle tends to be. And the drive through Fife and past Gig Harbor helps me remember that...

On this night, on the way home from the competition show at the Admiral Theater in Bremerton, I drove back...around the Sound, as I would normally...but this time, my reasons for doing so was so that I didn't express my incomplete feelings about the show and the results.

I wanted some time in my head to process all that had happened and what it might mean.

Having earned myself that time, let's go ahead and talk about it here...now...

30th Annual Seattle International Comedy Competition
Finals--Night Four
Admiral Theater--November 28, 2009
NIGHTLY ORDER OF FINISH

5) Jose Sarduy (Miami, FL)
4) Paul Hooper (Charlotte, NC)
3) Sean Kent (Austin, TX)
2) Travis Simmons (Seattle, WA)
1) Rodger Lizaola (Gilroy, CA)

The Admiral Theater in Bremerton is one of my favorite rooms--both to play, as a comedian myself, but also as part of the production staff of the Seattle International Comedy Competition. It's a gorgeous facility with a gracious staff. The audience is primed and ready to enjoy a great comedy show (although, sometimes their alcohol consumption makes it more difficult than it should need to be to deliver that great show to each and every one of them.)

The room itself reminds me of something that I'd expect to find in Atlantic City...a great aquarium of a showroom, with a swept balcony, a deep main floor and a wide stage that could fit an orchestra or two.

It does make it a challenging place to perform for a stand-up comedian...as you're just one solitary person on that big stage with a big room to fill with little more than your personality and your jokes.

But, this group could definitely rise to the occasion...and with both Travis and Sean smart enough to leave their pro-Obama/anti-Palin jokes at home, it seemed primed for a great night of comedy in Bremerton.

Again, David Crowe would lead our comedy troops into battle...and again, he provided more examples of his sublime comedic genius.

The person who could least afford to be cursed by the bullet was the person in the bullet spot--Rodger Lizaola. He took a lower than necessary score on the first night of the finals due to a time penalty and he took a major belly flop with the audience and judges on the third night...he was hanging on by a thread as it was, a third low score would definitely doom his chances for winning this competition.

Rodger, true to himself and what had worked just as well for him in this year's San Francisco Comedy Competition, where he also made the finals, didn't make any major adjustments. He delivered his showcase set in the same way that he has on every other night of the competition--with only an accidental spillage of water, a few acknowledgments of how funny he is in his own mind and the choice of his anti-homeless people chunk as his semi-finals set extending bit as variants from any other given night you could have seen Rodger.

And, again, I think this particular set that Rodger is choosing to do has certain flashpoint moments where he goes into territory where it's difficult for an audience or a set of judges to appreciate. In a comedy set at a comedy club, where he doesn't have to depend on being likable, just being funny...it wouldn't matter--he could play the rascal and do fine. But, in the competition, where people judge you with more than just their laughs...your likability definitely factors in... Rodger risks that likability to go where the deep knowing laughs are...which works for him getting to the finals, but seems to be tripping him up a little bit here.

Still, tonight he earned his encore point, at least...so, it's an improvement over the previous night in Kirkland.

Next up, Jose Sarduy.

If Kirkland was Paul Hooper's night, than Bremerton would be Jose Sarduy's night. He's a clean cut, good looking, happily smiling, pleasingly energetic, crowd pleasing MILITARY man (in a military town.) This audience was with Jose the entire way...eating up everything that he had to offer, especially Jose's stories of being in the Air Force Reserves.

Jose has offered up strong, consistent performances every night...but this week, they hadn't clicked with the audiences he's performed for, so he hadn't earned himself a nightly win...but on this night, it felt like it definitely clicked...and when he finished his performance, a significant chunk of the audience gave Jose a standing ovation...and a thunderous encore point cheer that must have made David Crowe second guess whether or not Rodger had actually earned his encore point.

Remember that for later...because like Mike Birbiglia, I'm in the future also...

Travis Simmons had to follow Jose's heat...and again on this night as the others in this finals week, Travis front-loaded his set with his strongest material...and again, it felt like he was just kind of cruising towards the end, without the strong momentum that others in this finals week would be building to...

Travis is a strong, confident performer with well-crafted, well-rehearsed material...and it's not like he's doing anything "wrong"--just that he isn't maximizing his potential with the set he's choosing to perform in the finals. And his encore point cheer was nowhere near what Jose had earned just sixteen and a half minutes earlier.

Now, during intermission came the first rumblings of what would become a stampede of concern regarding the judging...as it was rumored that one of the judges decided to use the rest room DURING a performer's set, rather than waiting until intermission... While not criminal, this doesn't bode well for a judge's awareness of how important their input would be on the course of this competition.

Then, as I took over the role as official timekeeper for the second half, I noticed that one of the judges had left for intermission before scoring Travis for his pre-intermission set. Again, nothing specifically wrong with having done that...but how you felt about someone's performance while in the glow of the encore cheer might be very different than what you felt about it fifteen to twenty minutes and a beer or two later.

Then, making matters worse, after the show started up again after the intermission and David Crowe re-warmed up the audience...I watched one of the judges get up and go to the bar after the first contestant started his competition set...

But...again...this is what we accept when we hand the power of judging over to the individuals given that responsibility. If we wanted to hold them to our standard of how we think things should be judged, we might as well just judge the competition ourselves--and that's not what we do. We wanted the opinions of these judges to inform the competition process and we have to live with how seriously they choose to handle the obligation of judgment.

After the intermission came another "parade of hatefulness" as this time it would be Sean followed by Paul in the second half.

Sean, mindful of the area's differing political views and remembering how his Vashon set had not worked quite as well in Kirkland, reworked what he offered on this night...crafting a set closing in on what amounted to a greatest hits package. He had a strong set, but he might have hamstrung himself a bit by being too clever--as he kept hammering away at a riff about Bremerton's ferry...which merely reinforced his status as a Seattle-centric performer, rather than as someone thinking like a Bremertonian.

Still, he earned himself a very strong encore point cheer, as you can't deny the strength of his performance abilities or how his experience allows him to venture beyond a word-for-word recitation of his showcase-ready prepared competition set.

Not to disparage Paul Hooper, who would change very little from night to night in any given week of this competition, by saying that...just saying that Sean brings different skills to play than others do...

Paul has his own skills...and he was hoping to keep the momentum of his Kirkland win going in Bremerton... Just as last year's eventual champion Tommy Savitt struggled a bit to clue Bremerton audience members in on the idea that he might not absolutely believe everything that he's saying--and that THAT was part of the joke--I wondered if some people simply couldn't suspend their belief enough to let Paul Hooper totally into their hearts... I wondered if some of the audience members actually believed Paul when he said he'd run over their kids at a bus stop...or if some of the audience members might actually believe the thoughts of Reverend John Hagge over how weather might be related to widening gay rights, and weren't too happy with Paul's dissection of such foolishness...

Hard to say...but I feel like I'm watching brilliance each night I get to see Paul fly bravely into the storm, not knowing if he'll ride out the hurricane or be ripped apart--only to be thrilled to see Paul fly clean through and get applauded (by most) for his efforts.

Such a feeling was not agreed upon by the couple who grabbed their coats within a minute of the start of Paul's set...who then walked up to me, at the sound board where I was taking every contestant's time, and told me "We have to leave because HE (point at Paul) is TOO LOUD."

I looked at the sound board operator, sitting next to me. He shrugged--as the sound levels were being adjusted for every performer and Paul was not any "louder" than any other performer...just that his performance style is more forceful, with fewer breaks, than the other contestants.

Still, it was enough for this couple to end their evening early.

I don't know what they wanted me to do... Go up and stop Paul from performing right then and there? Chastise him and instruct him to do his comedy the way that this couple would prefer him to? It seemed like these people were the very people that Paul talks about in his act...and the truth hurts when, like a 2x4, it hits you in the face.

And that was the show. It was simply up to us to count up the scores and see how big of a margin Jose had won the night...and how that impacted the weekly standings.

Only...see...a funny thing happened on the way to announcing Jose's victory.

...he didn't get the scores.

At first, Ron was unhappy as he was counting a score sheet that suggested that particular judge was too drunk to properly score the second half of the show--but, if anything, that scoresheet was closer to how I'd seen the night, as that scoresheet had Jose in 3rd place with a strong score in the 60's, and very close to Rodger and Travis, who he had just a point or two ahead of him.

The other scoresheets all had Jose in last.

This wasn't just the one judge who hadn't scored Travis until after intermission, or the judge who went to the bar during Sean's set...this was every judge not thinking that Jose had the best set of the night...and 80% of them thinking he had done the worst...

I'd mentioned in the previous recap that Bremerton has had a history of odd judging situations. Two years ago, two of the judges hated the crowd pleasing performance of Portland (now Boston's) Tyler Boeh--but those judges had correctly scored Tyler in the categories where he truly excelled and gave him low marks in the categories that they felt he was poor in...those scores were valid and understandable.

Last year, the crowd favorite Todd Johnson was denied top honors for the night because one judge had Nate Jackson 37 points ahead of Todd, who that judge had put in last place...a margin of victory on one scoresheet that the other four judges couldn't overcome... But, at least last year, Todd ended up in second place for the night...and Nate had a good set...so the crowd wasn't pleased, but they weren't outraged.

Here...on this night...there would be outrage...and it was evident when Jose was announced as the night's 5th place contestant...where the applause for Jose was as strong and as long as it had been for his encore point.

And with every contestant announced in a higher place than Jose...Hooper in 4th...Sean in 3rd...Travis in 2nd place...the outrage grew stronger...and then, when Rodger was announced as the nightly winner...the outrage turned to outright hostility and boos...so much so that we decided not to take the "Nightly Winner" picture on stage...for fear of the audience's reaction.

Now, this has to be said...Rodger was not the villain on this night. He went out and did his best to get good scores...and the judges gave him good scores. This was the first time in three previous attempts in this Seattle competition and his run in this year's San Francisco competition that he'd ever won a night--and yet, he couldn't celebrate it or be proud of it...because the audience's reaction was so strong.

Travis, too, had ended up with a very high score for 2nd place--a result of being only 1 point on one judge's score sheet off from Rodger's top score total...could not actually be happy about having basically earned himself a second nightly win for the week, as he would have been under different circumstances.

And Jose, who took it like a pro...who didn't go ape shit, who didn't complain, who accepted the vagaries of the scoring process of a comedy competition...how frustrating it must have been to KNOW that THIS was your night, THIS was your crowd, THIS was your moment...and not only be denied it...but to be given the lowest scores of the night...

It's one thing to have been really funny but having offended the judges more than the audience...but Jose couldn't even own that explanation, as his set seemed candy coated for this very room.

I've poured over the scores, trying to make some sense of it...and the only thing I can come up with is that 3 of the judges really didn't like Jose...and each of those 3 judges were young men. The older guy liked Jose a lot...and the female judge liked everyone... Am I paranoid in thinking that they might have seen him as a threat...or that his being in the Air Force Reserves might not have sat very well with them, if perhaps they had ties to the Navy--could it have been THAT petty?

All I know is that I had a long drive home by myself, thinking about how the night had gone...and how heartbreaking and bittersweet the night was... Heartbreaking for Jose, because without a nightly win and with two scores lower than he'd want them to be, his chances going into the final night were damaged by his performance in Bremerton, rather than boosted and bolstered by it. Bittersweet for Rodger, because he earns himself his first nightly win and everybody seems mad about it...and he didn't even gain much separation from his other contestants, because the adjusted scores all ended up pretty high...so, his victory wasn't worth as much as Sean's or Paul's from the previous two nights.

And now, there was no more margin for error. There would only be one night left...one more score to try to grab. And everyone should be excited about that...but it truly felt like this night has cast a dark cloud over any excitement.

As cruel as math could be, the competition--which seemed to indicate that after a possible 44.00 points have been given out so far that the difference between first place and last place was 1.83 and that everything was very close--might already over for some of our brave contestants, because with the drop score, there'd be a limit to how much ground could be made up on the last night.

That hardly seemed fair...but that seemed to fit the tone for the night.

pg--Still love Bremerton and good on them for cheering for the act that they truly enjoyed...but I hated seeing them boo the people the judges had scored well. They'd made their point by cheering so loudly and so long for Jose...it's not like we could ignore the scores that the judges THAT THE VENUE PICKED OUT FOR THEIR ABILITY TO REPRESENT THE WISHES OF THE AUDIENCE THERE had given us.--seattle

PS--Our final night takes place at The Moore Theater for the first time in ages... Should be a big finish for what has been a great year, regardless of the unfortunate drama from a Saturday night in Bremerton.

[pg13]

As a Director of Talent, you want to help craft a compelling competition. You want to include a wide variety of styles and skills...you want representation from comedy scenes local and distant...you want the creme to rise to the top and you want it to be a battle right up until the end.

And, as the Director of Talent for the 30th Annual Seattle International Comedy Competition, I felt a growing sense of pride as I walked in to The Moore Theater in Seattle for the final night of the finals week of the competition.

I felt I had done my job well...that we have had a very compelling competition...and that it would be a battle right up until the end.

That's what I wanted.

That's what everybody wanted.

How awesome is THAT?

30th Annual Seattle International Comedy Competition
Finals--Night Five
The Moore, Seattle--November 29, 2009
NIGHTLY ORDER OF FINISH

5) Rodger Lizaola (Gilroy, CA)
4) Travis Simmons (Seattle, WA)
3) Jose Sarduy (Miami, FL)
2) Sean Kent (Seattle, WA)
1) Paul Hooper (Charlotte, NC)

No one knew what to expect going into The Moore and the final night of the finals.

Would the disappointment and confusion that reigned over the Saturday night in Bremerton show continue to impact tonight's efforts? Were the scores as close as they seemed or had most everything already been decided? What would it take for someone to actually win this thing???

And recent previous years of the competition, the last night was held at the Comedy Underground--a hot "club" night, packing the place with 200 audience members, after a string of theater shows... Those same 200 ticket holders at The Moore would make the 1100 seat theater seem like an empty cavern.

Luckily, the show drew far more than that...and they were excited and ready for a great show.

We had excellent judges for this final show...including Marty Riemer--host of Marty Riemer Funny Fest, David Schmader from The Stranger, Rebecca Davis--host of the Stay-Up Late Show, Jodi Rothfield from Casting Associates and Will Davis from the Global Vancouver Comedy Fest

We had five finalists who knew what was at stake and what was expected of them...and some of them even knew what they had to do.

So, we got things going and we decided to see how everything went.

Our host for the night is the incomparable Kermet Apio--who is a former champion of this very event, and he's also the most recent winner in the Great American Comedy Festival contest (run by Eddie Brill.) He was a gracious, positive and accommodating host and we were lucky to have him in charge of this very important night.

Sean Kent, the man barely ahead of everyone else in the weekly standings (.17 over Travis Simmons, who went into the final night in second place...and yes, that's 17/100ths of a point separation after all of these shows) was hoping that Rodger's earning a nightly win out of the cursed bullet spot wasn't just a fluke of weird Bremertonian judging...but something he could build upon...because he would be taking the bullet on this most important night--and he knew he needed a good score...and a nightly win would assure him of a championship.

If Sean had been working up a greatest hits set throughout every week of this competition, then he put it all together on this night of all nights. He was smooth and vibrant, expressive and emotional...he didn't undercut himself and he didn't follow any blind alleys. He was simply a strong, confident performer given a big stage and told to rock the mic. He did that. He certainly did that.

But competition judging is a very odd thing--you can't count that by the end of the night, that the impression you made early in the night will linger long enough and strong enough for people to accurately represent your strength compared to the different strengths of others.

You also didn't know how the individual judges would react to some of the bolder choices that Sean made tonight. He ended with his "gays should serve in the military" bit--which would have been foolhardy for him to have done in Bremerton the night before...but it held a certain value in progressive Seattle--a value in the shock of Sean saying what he was saying...and also a political message that resonated more than just a simple positive acknowledgment of a commonly held belief.

Fortune favors the bold, as the saying goes...and that's what Sean was counting on.

He made his impression...and it was then up to local hero Travis Simmons, who was right behind Sean in the standings, to make his own. Travis later told me that he felt like his set plans were upset by a couple of unexpected elements of Kermet Apio's opening set--how Kermet's having told a joke about a Big & Tall store diminished the strength of his own Big & Tall store joke (although, as Travis admits, they are quite different jokes that don't overlap on anything other than both jokes being about a Big & Tall store...and Travis did the professional comedian thing by linking his joke to Kermet's previous bit) and how Kermet's use of Bill Cosby as his example in practicing the encore point made him push his own bit where he does an impression of Bill Cosby back further in his set.

Honestly, I don't think Kermet's set (which was twenty minutes earlier than when Travis performed) really would have impacted what Travis had planned to do originally...but the adjustment to push the Bill Cosby bit deeper into his set, a decision Travis made all on his own based on his concern over what Kermet had done--unnecessary concern, in my opinion, DID impact his set.

Again, Travis' set was very top heavy--and again, Travis did his Louie Armstrong bit very early...earlier than ever, actually...and I still believe that Travis might have been unstoppable had he closed on that bit, rather than nearly open with it. But what happened on this night is that by moving the "I like Seattle because I feel safe in the rain" bit--which ends up with his Bill Cosby impression involved--later in the set...and after his "I like Seattle because of the weed" bit, when throughout the competition it had been the bit right BEFORE the "weed chunk", ended up messing with the rule of escalating intimacy...and it hurt him in generating the kind of empathy that he'd need later in the set.

Again, these are nuances that most audience members would never notice...but for the first time in this competition, Travis came across as a little mean towards women in some of the relationship/sex jokes that he'd been putting at the end of his set--and the only thing I can attribute this to (since the jokes hadn't really changed) was that he hadn't earned enough empathy early in the set to "get away" with what he would talk about later...when he had earned that empathy in every other venue.

The impact of losing the women 2/3rds of the way through his set was noticeable...causing Travis to even react to it on stage, which only drew more attention to it.

This night was also a night where the audience wasn't giving Travis much momentum--he seemed to be moving station-to-station with every joke, which then played up how long his carefully worded set-ups to each joke are...and that made the laughs that he got for each joke seem more sporadic than normal.

Now, Travis would later say that he felt he didn't have this crowd when his Louie Armstrong bit didn't work as strong as it had...but I think that had more to do with where the bit was placed, and how his attempts to rearrange his other material actually ended up highlighting some of his flaws.

In the end, he barely made it to the minimum set time without penalty before he quickly wrapped things up... He must have known that this wasn't going to be the set to push him past Sean Kent to take the lead...but after what happened the previous night in Bremerton, I don't know how ANY of us could feel that we would "know" anything, not with any certainty anyway.

The next person up was Paul Hooper. Paul, in third place going into the night, had become the competition favorite at some point during this process. He has the type of act that Competition Producer Ron Reid truly enjoys...and just watching him walk the tightrope the way he does with every audience every night...and the thrill of watching him barely make it to the other side on some nights...earned him a secret spot in many of our hearts, where we were all hoping that he'd do well on any given night.

This night was no exception, but any concerns that we might have had with how Paul might go over with this particular audience faded quickly--as some of the people seated near me who had clearly announced that they were there to support Travis and Rodger were doubled over in uncontrollable laughter during Paul's set.

This was a night where Paul got more laughs out of telling the audience they should be laughing at him than some of the times where they should have been laughing at what he was saying...but the avalanche, as it had in Kirkland, rolled right through The Moore...and Paul Hooper had the kind of set that you have to have when everything's on the line and you've got the chance to own your destiny.

Paul made an excellent edit to take out one line that was needlessly polarizing to women...but made a curious decision (or perhaps it was a mistake of accidental omission) to take out one of the most successful parts of his closing run of jokes about making lots of money. Obviously, only someone who has seen Paul perform repeatedly would notice this missing bit...and he was on such a roll, he was butter even without it. But you always hate to leave any live ammunition in your gun when the shootout is over.

Again, though...with his withering discussion about tele-evangelists, homosexuality and weather disasters...Paul might get the crowd laughing but run into a judge who misses the larger point for a surface sensitivity reaction...so, nothing was, as nothing is, assured.

But Paul definitely put his best foot forward in solidifying the excellent job that he'd done throughout this competition.

After intermission, it would be Jose Sarduy's turn. He would try to leave behind the disappointment of the previous night in Bremerton and concentrate on once again delivering a strong performance for a great audience.

He made one adjustment--choosing to end a little earlier than he had been closing, on a bit that was more about him and his life...rather than on an admittedly crowd pleasing bit that is disjointed and unrelated to the rest of his rather personal act. A decision like that, about choosing what his story arc with the audience and the judges is going to be on a given night, is what makes Jose a strong comedy competition competitor...above and beyond his performance abilities.

It's a sophisticated strategy...but there's a nagging feeling in the back of my mind that Jose's struggles in the finals week rested solely on the fact that compared to the people above him in the standings, Jose's material isn't nearly as sophisticated. It's crowd-pleasing, relatable, effective and funny...but even Jose admitted earlier in the competition, it doesn't have a lot of edge to it.

Still...worse things can be said about you, as a comedian, than "all he did was make the audience laugh and be happy."

Last up on this night was Rodger Lizaola. Rodger, still coming to grips with the weirdness of the night before (as, Jose, in reverse, had), was given the chance to close out the show...

Rodger did the same set he'd been doing...only he chose to switch from the anti-homeless people chunk back to the "gays in a redneck bar" chunk. Unlike Sean's choice to end on the "gays in the military" bit or Paul's "preachers say gays cause storms" bit...Rodger's story, however well meaning and "right minded" comes across rather ham-fisted...and both less funny than those other bits and more discomforting...

And Rodger, who survived a time penalty for not doing enough time on the first night of the finals, ironically, ended the finals week by earning a time penalty for doing too much time on the last night of the finals--again, this from the person with the most previous experience in competitions like this...

All that said, Rodger proved that he's definitely upped his game in recent years...recent months, even...and he is a legitimately strong performer, holding his own on these large stages as well as he is known for working the more intimate rooms. As someone who started comedy at about the same time as Rodger, it was good to see him up there doing good work every night.

So, that was the show...and as a few members of Seattle's People's Republic of Komedy entertained the patient audience with a sketch making fun of the competition (until ending with a quick tribute to the most famous competition champion, the late Mitch Hedberg)...we counted up the scores...and we double checked our counts...and we saw that Paul Hooper had won the night.

That was important...because while Rodger and Jose were actually mathematically incapable of taking the championship, even if they won on this last night...due to Travis Simmons' high drop score (--that's right, Jose could beat Sean...who went into this night with the highest score...but Jose could not beat Travis, a mathematical quirk that can be explained...but not just entertainingly...)...the fact was that Paul was definitely capable of pushing his way past Travis, who got his lowest score of the week on this night of all nights--which became his new drop score.

Paul won the night...but Sean was in second place. Would the separation between Paul and Sean on this night be large enough to push Paul ahead of Sean for the week? Honestly, when we looked at the nightly scores, we had no idea...

We had to switch to the weekly scores...which told us the whole story of the monthly competition...

The whole competition came down to one page on an Excel spreadsheet...everything, from the Columbia City Theater on November 4th...out to Port Townsend, up to Bellingham, down to Longview...and everywhere in between... All of the drama, all of the snap sets, all of the adjustments that everyone made, all of the frustration of doing good work and not getting scores to the confusion of messing up and getting rewarded for it... All of the hard work of the staff to make everything run smoothly, all of the venues and their staff for giving everyone a place to shine, all of the audiences for loving comedy in almost all of the forms that we presented to them... And all of the other talented and worthy contestants who tried but simply didn't make it this far...

And with a click of the mouse, we saw it all unfold...

30th Annual Seattle International Comedy Competition
Final Standings

5) Rodger Lizaola
4) Jose Sarduy
3) Travis Simmons
2) Paul Hooper
1) Sean Kent

That's right...by .13 of a point, Sean Kent held off Paul Hooper to become the newest Seattle International Comedy Competition Champion.

We thought last year's competition was close, as the spread between first and second place was .43...this year, it was ONE THIRD OF THAT!

But as close as it was, there was no denying Sean Kent and his masterful display of professional comedy skills, night after night in this competition. He is a worthy champion and will represent this event well--something he proved over the course of this month long madness.

23 shows in 26 days at 19 different venues
32 comics
1 winner.

Ladies and Gentleman...

2009 Seattle International Comedy Competition Champion: SEAN KENT




It's been my pleasure to share some of this year's event with you. Now, unless there are questions that any of you need answered...if you don't mind, I think I'll sleep until next year's event.

pg--Seriously, this was great fun. Wish you'd been here.--seattle

[gabrielrutledge]

Thanks for the recaps Peter. Always drama. Every year someone kills and doesn't score well, at least at one show. Usually not to the point of a crowd booing though. Wow. Anything with judges (comedy, ice skating) is going to have some controversy. Even not being unlucky, is lucky in a comedy contest. It's usually hard to argue against the person that wins the whole thing though. (says the guy that won by .12 points)
Tommy Savitt, Lamont Ferguson, Sean Kent, it's usually the most seasoned, polished comic that comes out on top.
Go to sleep Peter. Then wake up and began passing on your encyclopedic pop culture knowledge to your baby.

[JenSeaman]

Wow PG... I didn't know you were covering the comp on all of these sites to this extreme, bravo!

Respectfully Submitted of course. =)