One of my favourite things in the frigging world is visiting the Comedy Store in LA. Picture it: a night full of comedy greats each doing about 15 minutes worth of material, no hosts (the comics introduce each other to keep the flow going), waitstaff bringing out a steady stream of drinks to keep the crowd loosened up and ready to laugh, names like Marc Maron, Chris D’Elia, Iliza Schlezinger, Jeff Ross, Anthony Jezelnik, Dean Delray, Judd Apatow, Chris Rock, Dave Chapelle. The Headliners show takes parts of the comedy club concept and distills them down into a festival-friendly format, but something about it doesn’t quite hit home.
First off, it must be said that each of the comics on Headliners is truly great. Daniel Koren, Ian Edwards, Mark Normand and Sara Schaefer each have their own wildly different styles. Schaefer’s material has a kind of laid-back sarcasm that doesn’t immediately scream ‘energy!’ but her observances are well written and well-performed. Ian Edwards is a really great comic, not afraid take the audience into areas they’re not quite comfortable with (his bit about bestiality videos is hilarious) and then win them back. Daniel Koren’s multimedia extravaganza has an element of Andy Kaufman playfulness about it with bits of that post-Millennial The Lonely Island satire around the edges. And Mark Normand has a frequently dark, effortlessly hilarious take on the modern male experience. All four comics bring something different to the show and they’ve all earned their headliner status.
But it feels like the audience doesn’t quite know what to do or what type of show they’re seeing. It almost feels – and I noticed this seeing an earlier line-up of Headliners at the beginning of the festival with Sarah Tiana, Whitmer Thomas, Jen Kirkman and Mark Forward too – that the crowd would get more into it if the show was longer or if there were more acts onstage for less time each. With each comic doing 20 minutes, it feels like you can always hear some percentage of the crowd thinking “I don’t get this comic and they’re still on for another 10 minutes.” Adding more comedians – at the full 20 or a shortened 15 – would probably loosen up the crowd to enjoy the show more, knowing that if they’re not quite feeling one or two of the acts there would still be plenty more they might enjoy. Headliners is still a show very much worth seeing, but you’ll enjoy it more if you’re the kind of comedy fan who can loosen up and laugh freely.
BY PETER HODGSON
