Monday, April 22, 2013
Comedy is Hard
This weekend, the 2nd annual Spring Celebration
in Ellicott City featured four comedy acts in addition
to a wide assortment of bands on three stages. I was able to catch partial
performances of two of them; Michael Freidman at the Tiber Park stage and an act
called SM Stefano Stratakis at the Wine Bin stage.
I came to the conclusion that grassroots loco comedy is
hard. Just because someone tells you that you are funny doesn't necessarily mean that
funniness translates into a successful stand up act. Both of these acts
struggled to elicit any kind of audience reaction. As a few people pointed
out, all successful comedians likely started out this way. I couldn't help but
think that this is a very hard road to travel.
Other than the comedy acts, you’d have to call the Spring
Celebration a big success. The weather was perfect and the crowds turned out.
Dave Carney told me that the ECBA is working on a summer festival too, most
likely to occur in mid July.
You can see additional pictures of Saturdays’ event here.