The Bridgetown Comedy Festival is a few nights in, and until now I’ve spent all of my time in the cool and dark depths of the Doug Fir Lounge. I began Thursday night at Troy Conrad’s Set List, a show that calls for comedians to be confident and funny while improvising zany and uncomfortable material sprung on them via teleprompter. It was bound to get messy, and that’s part of the fun. Plus, when you start to see comedians bringing their A game over and over again throughout the fest, it’s nice to see them change it up, even through force.
As expected, the cringe factor was strong. Bridgetown co-founder and Portland native Matt Braunger was required to mansplain the made-up term “semansplaining,” and later improvise a story about drugging a clown at a childhood party. All of this strange and uncomfortable material was performed while his mother sat in the audience covering her face. When asked to speak on the topic of “dick pics vs. penis pics,”Laurie Kilmartin balked initially, shouting “I’m a mother!”, but when curiosity got the best of her, she proceeded to give out what seemed to be her real phone number, urging someone in attendance to settle the score.
It was Quincy Jones (the comedian, not the Thriller producer) who stole the show with his confident crowdwork. Jones, who went public with his battle against stage-four mesothelioma cancer during an appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show last year, just released his HBO special, Burning the Light. He also happened to be celebrating his birthday. When the subject of “Nursing Home Motivational Speaker” appeared on the prompter, Jones wasted no time getting into the thick of it. “A lot of you are going to die soon. That’s okay. Death is a natural part of life, but did you maximize your potential?!” After taking some suggestions from the audience on preferred ways to die (acid, skydiving, in our sleep), Jones retorted, “Does anyone want to die happily?!” His ability to take this improvised set to a very real place, a scary one at that, while still squeezing the difficult subject matter for plenty of genuine laughs was remarkable. I’m excited to see Jones perform more of his prepared material throughout the weekend, and I’ll be checking out his special once Bridgetown comes to a close.
Elsewhere, Eddie Pepitone’s always-great podcast appearances have made him a favorite of mine, so there was no way I was going to miss his Bloodbath show, which featured solid sets from J.P. McDade, David Huntsberger, and Dulce Sloan, followed by a 45-minute tangled rant from Pepitone himself. Fueled by his world-weary anger and a seemingly (and later admitted to) basic knowledge pertaining to some current event headlines, Pepitone effortlessly worked himself into a frenzy. It was a delight to witness in person, even if the comedian rarely completed a thought before moving onto his next grievance. Huntsberger’s heady philosophical material on the origins of life, the afterlife, and the future provided the perfect apéritif for Pepitone’s ramblings on the impending apocalypse, Snapchat, and our obsession with Game of Thrones. You have four more chances to see Pepitone before the festival concludes Sunday night, starting with today's Julian Loves Music.