Find the Funny!

I won Spite Club last night.

Actually, nobody really cares who won. It's only reason for existing is to be entertaining to an audience. If you have a poor show, but you win Spite Club, you feel like crap. If you make people really laugh, you feel great.

Both Todd and I feel great.

I had stacked the audience in my favor. Brought about 12 friends. Since Todd doesn't even have 12 friends, I had the advantage. Todd won the trivia round, then I won the insults. I think the freestyle round was close, but the fact I had so many friends there helped me edge him out. I had people tell me my set was great, and Todd often heard that he should have won. Seems like a dead heat to me.

In the trivia round, the questions were written by Matt Bearden. They all followed an anti-George-Bush theme. One of the questions was to spell "hypocrisy". I dinged in and misspelled it "hypocrasy". And while it's true I look like a doofus in front of the many friends I brought, what I really regret was that I didn't find the funny.

There was funny in the question. I'm 31 years old, and I found myself in a spelling bee. What should I have done? I suspect that if I had spelled "G-E-O-R-G-E B-U-S-H" that Matt would have counted it correct. But I really should have asked for a definition, and to use it in the form of a sentence. I bet Matt had something prepared for that, and even if he didn't, he could have made something up. I also could have asked for the etymology, but that would have been pushing it.

Always find the funny.

I also regret a comment I made during the insult round. It wasn't part of the insult, and it was kind of funny, but also racist. Not targetted at anyone in particular. I didn't have to say it, in fact, I had planned to yank it, but it's out there. I don't think anyone was offended, but still, I should have kept that one to myself.

Lots of the insults, obviously, went blue. You would have needed one of those clicky things to count the fellatio references. But I think the best laugh of the insult round was a clean one. It was when I said that all Todd's work in comedy paid off, that he made his big show business break, that you could catch him every night at a comedy club performing -- his dishwashing duties. A totally clean, well-written line. I ought to try doing more well-written material.

One thing -- the winner of Spite Club used to be able to choose where he went in the list for the open mike. Last night, the open mike host, Art Mack, put me way near the end. Open mike started at 10, I went up well after 12, and it was all over at 12:30. Obviously, all my friends (who had been there since 9:30) were gone by then. I like the old way for that reason -- it's a way the club can say "thanks for bringing the audience". I understand that there's a good chance that after I go up, most of them will leave. But now, I'll be less likely to bring them in the first place. It's a tradeoff and I think they've made the wrong choice.

All in all, a very fun night. Todd says he'll help me write against whomever I'm up against next.

Bring it on.