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Don't believe clown's hype
By Amanda Degen
Published:
Monday, September 29, 2003
Media Credit: Matthew Kaster
Before the Disgruntled Clown took the stage at Rum Runners� Friday night comedy show, he got �comfortable� at the bar.
This weekend was full of raunchy comedy as Dave Ugly and the Disgruntled Clown spent Friday and Saturday night at Rumrunners trying to cross the borders of good taste.
Rumrunners provides stand-up comedians every Friday and Saturday night, with discounts for college students Fridays. Through October, students 21 and over get free admission with a college ID, and students age 18-20 with an ID get a reduced rate of $5. Seating is limited so I would advise going early.
Friday event did not lack hype. I had heard numerous stories about the clown and his brand of sick humor. Dubbed as a cross between Carrot Top and Andrew Dice Clay, I was anxious to see this performance and curious as to how far his humor would go in terms of bad taste. I had even heard stories from other bartenders working there regarding the clown's tasteless behavior toward some of the female bartenders and cocktail waitresses, which intrigued me even more.
I wanted to know just how strange and crazy this comedian was.
By all appearances this was indeed a strange man. As I waited at the bar for my seat, I saw a six-foot-five, 300 lb clown in a shiny silver and black suit walk into the bar. He sported long, black, wavy hair and black platforms shoes. I figured this was for the purpose of intimidation, and the added height definitely added to his aura of creepiness.
Clowns are considered awful enough, but giant, monstrous looking clowns would be more than enough to make a child wet the bed.
I went to Rumrunners with hope of being disgusted. When I think of Andrew Dice Clay, I think of the one comedian I was forbidden to watch. His crude humor disgusted audiences nationwide and caused a fervor when it comes to tasteful comedy. In my mind, I was expecting something similar. I wanted to laugh and be disgusted at the same time; I wanted the disgruntled clown to awaken everyone's childhood fears of clowns by being a complete scumbag.
I was sorely disappointed. Granted, I may have built my hopes a little too high, but I thought there would be more shock to his humor than I witnessed. Although there were a string of penis and breast jokes, as well as a homosexual joke thrown in for good measure, I found that his rants on the subjects that supposedly made him so disgruntled were not very amusing and a bit old.
One focus of his sketch was on how much he seriously disliked cats. He also focused on the heated debate between smokers and non-smokers.
He would spend endless amounts of time building up to this big argument of how he would prove his ideals correct, when all that huffing and puffing seemed to fall flat on its face.
I couldn't believe that a man with so much hype around him would seriously focus a 10-minute segment on cats. What the hell do I care about cats?
Unfortunately, his act failed to improve on any front. Although he had a deep, gravelly voice - the voice of a true chain smoker - his demeanor just seemed to fail to live up to his image.
Besides the occasional leer at the cocktail waitresses that brought him shots, after a while he just started to look like an old guy dressed as a clown who was trying too hard.
Instead of emanating a creepy demeanor, he just kept stating how weird he was and how hard it was for him to get laid because he was a loser in a clown suit. Even his practical jokes that he and Ugly Dave, his fellow traveling comedian, would play on each other sounded tired and only somewhat amusing.
Ugly Dave was the opening act for the Clown and was just as disappointing. Only so many breast, penis and gay jokes can be told before the audience is just turned off. He insulted his fair share of flat-chested and supposedly homosexual audience members, but the jokes didn't seem very thought-out and have already been done. I knew the worst point had come when he recited a joke I found very familiar.
He was doing a bit focused on sperm, and the issue dealt with the fact that the sperm had not reached the egg to fertilize them: "That's because we haven't passed the tonsils yet!" was the big punch line, and the crowd laughed uproariously. I would have, had I not heard that joke before and, of all places, on a greeting card. I saw the same joke on a birthday card some year and-a-half before at Coborns, and remembered it as being somewhat witty for a card. But for a comedian to be taking jokes off cards and reciting them for paying audiences, I found that to be just pathetic. However, he was more disgusting and dirty than the main act, even with his shorter act.
Although I did somewhat enjoy myself, I've seen better stand-up from comedians who look and dress considerably more conservative and shock the audience with their lewdness and trash talk.
In the future I think I will find myself criticizing hype more.
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