Post by funnybones on Mar 10, 2014 23:53:15 GMT
I just read the part about Belzer (pages 98-100) being the MC at Catch A Rising Star in the 70's. I knew he had done stand up (He somehow made comedy central's top 100 standups of all time!), but I had no idea that he was such a rockstar at Catch back in the day. However, it seems like the subtext is that he was kind of a coked-up dick with not a lot of material but a coke- fueled desire to riff on the crowd, and he had a lot of power over the new comedians. I can almost hear the sound of everybody sucking up to him to try to get stage time and get passed. It echoes a situation I encounter every week.
I live in a small city. We have only 3 comedy clubs. The biggest club, where the biggest names come to play, has had the same emcee for the last couple of years. The guy is like our Richard Belzer. He decides who gets up on open mic, and he has the club owners ear. He is not prolific, he is not original, yet everyone treats him like he is a rockstar because if he doesn't like you then you don't get stage time at that club.
Maybe I'm just kinda bitter about the politics of my local situation, but when I read the part about Belzer all I could think of was how many people probably hated the guy but because of his power they all sucked up to him anyway.
I live in a small city. We have only 3 comedy clubs. The biggest club, where the biggest names come to play, has had the same emcee for the last couple of years. The guy is like our Richard Belzer. He decides who gets up on open mic, and he has the club owners ear. He is not prolific, he is not original, yet everyone treats him like he is a rockstar because if he doesn't like you then you don't get stage time at that club.
Maybe I'm just kinda bitter about the politics of my local situation, but when I read the part about Belzer all I could think of was how many people probably hated the guy but because of his power they all sucked up to him anyway.
