20050309

March 3, 2006

Charlie’s Standup Comedy Journal

March 9, 2005: The ‘C-Word’, Part Deux

For a full explanation of exactly what’s going on here, you probably want to have a look at my last Isle set, from last week.

(Or, if the ‘C-word’ bit in the title shocked you, then you probably want to check out one of my other sets, instead. I promise these are the only two that have any reference to the ‘C-word’ — and I’m just about to switch over to using the word, because it’s much easier to type. You’ve been warned.)

So, for those of you too lazy to look up that last show, here’s a brief synopsis: the past two weeks at the Isle, we’ve had one audience member: a giggly, friendly, somewhat raunchy Sicilian lass who comes with one of the comics. And she’s famous — at the shows, anyway — for her use of the word ‘cunt’. Which, as training-to-be-professional comics, we feel obligated to match, onstage.

At least, I do. Some comics handle the challenge differently; we’ve all got our own little color in the rainbow, I suppose. Some people talk to her during their set, others go off on tangents she might like, and still others get dirty — but not necessarily cunty. To each his own.

Me, I’ve taken it as a challenge: find three (for three shall be the number of the counting, and the number of the counting shall be three) places in my material to slap in a ‘cunt’, and try to make this girl laugh. Because when she does — hoo boy. She’s a giggler, folks, and that’s like snorting coke to a comic. Sending someone into hysterics is what it’s all about.

(Except for the comics who actually do snort coke, I suppose. For them, it’s probably very similar, but not quite like snorting coke. Because snorting coke is like snorting coke for them. See what I’m saying?)

Anyway, if seeing or hearing ‘cunt’ makes you particularly squeamish — and I have to believe that if you’ve gotten this far, it doesn’t — then feel free to check out pretty much anything else on the site. I’m not typically so liberal with the cunts myself, but hey — you gotta give the audience what they came to see. And at one point, I’m pretty sure the girl in the audience stopped breathing, so I’m thinking she was digging it. Or trying to asphyxiate herself, to end the pain. Eh, either way — at least I got a reaction, right?

Finally, just so my first comment in the clip might not seem so cryptic, the two comics before me were my good friend Daniella Capolino (performing via phone from her bedroom, no less) and local wordsmith Myq Kaplan. DC’s take on ‘Cunt Night II’ was to bust out her ‘caulk/cock’ material — which is hilarious, by the way. Go see her — preferably on stage, and not in her bedroom, but you’ll have to sort that out with her. Then Myq came to the stage, and riffed off her bit by reciting a few of the lines, but with ‘pussy’ replacing ‘cock’. Which was also highly amusing — but neither of these were cunt. And that’s what the folks came to see… or so I posited, and moved on from there.

So have a look, if that’s your thing. If nothing else, I and the audience chick had a good time — come to think of it, I’ve never had more fun with three ‘cunts’ onstage. Or anywhere else, for that matter. (Unless it was at last week’s show.) And that’s the last — for real, this time — that you’ll hear about ‘cunt’ around here for a while. Unless she shows up next week. What can I tell you? I’m a slave to the people’s will, and to my not-so-secret desire to be filthy onstage. To thine own ‘cunt’ be true, right?

Download Clip of 03/09/05 Set —

Emerald Isle, Dorchester, MA (7 minutes, 2 seconds):