Barbara Holm's It's Gonna Be Okay is the only local showcase that I've seen tout its lack of meanness as a selling point, which in a city KNOWN for its safe-space shows, is next-level when it comes to reclaiming comedy from its reputation as a bastion of obnoxious old white dudes. It's Gonna Be Okay is the supportive slumber party of Portland stand-up, and I was extra-excited about yesterday's installment for the Bridgetown Comedy Fest, which boasted a lineup of smart, funny people including Aparna Nancherla, Guy Branum, and Laurie Kilmartin.
Friends, it did not disappoint. Holm opened the show with material I know and love—discussing going without anxiety meds ("emotionally raw-dogging") and the allure of witch books (I have a recommendation!)—and there were no duds on the bill, which was heavy on women and LGBT comics, and refreshingly free of jokes about how buying pot legally in Oregon is WEIRD and COOL (hi, almost every stand-up I saw on Wednesday).
Ella Gale opened with science jokes (the woman knows her audience) and truisms worthy of Jenny Holzer ("I buy groceries for a version of myself who doesn't exist"). Token straight male Dan Telfer opened his set by announcing that he has testicular cancer, saying, "I'm the only straight male on the show tonight AND my penis is broken. This is a safe space." Oh, Dan Telfer is great. He also described what sports sound like to him ("That panda just blueberried that fish!") and accused public transit manspreaders of pretending to be Beowulf leaning over a banquet ("I'm in the Mead Hall!"). Guy Branum did some amazing crowdwork, laying into libertarian white guys in their thirties, Jill Stein supporters, and Portland's surplus of bridges ("What a poorly played game of Sim City!"). My favorite neurotic Aparna Nancherla told a joke about cat-calling that was everything you could hope a joke about cat-calling would be. She is seriously the greatest.
Other highlights: Always good to see Laurie Kilmartin. Emma Willman's amazing facial expressions. Rhea Butcher on where she, as a white lady who loves Beyoncé, should go to "get in formation"—"on the sidelines, I'm cheering you on."
Severe downgrade: After It's Gonna Be Okay, I slipped into Club Trio to wait until the start of the next show I was going to. Um, that space is NOT conducive to comedy. The stage is little and positioned weirdly far away from the crowd, the leather couches and Stoli signs remind me of the one time in my life I had a friend who enjoyed "clubbing," and the color-changing waterfall is grandiose until you realize you can see an electrical outlet through it (somehow the poignance of an ostentatious visual gimmick ruined by the invasion of the mundane just IS existential dread). Good thing I got to go to Baked afterwards. Look for Courtney Ferguson's write-up of that show, because it was really fun AND funny AND we got another sighting of our main woman Aparna Nancherla.
Up next: Moshe Kasher's live podcast and Baron Vaughn's New Negroes are both on the docket tonight. You will know me by my notebook and a small forest of freshly killed Roy Rogerses.