BobCat’s First Audition Night
Bob Goldthwait’s first performed on a Monday auditions night – no one was sure whether his voice was real or character.. there were very few laughs until the audience grasped his unusual brilliant style – then they immediately loved him.
The Dating Game!
Nervously, I entered the unusual and hilarious community-involved Tuesday night event called The Dating Game – and Won! They needed an extra player, and the question-asking contestant was an improv comedienne named Barbara Scott! We went to the SF Comedy Contest Finals for our date – it was a blast! I was thrilled and made a friend for life.
Paula boards the empty 33 Bus!
After the 33 bus passed by and it was empty, Paula Poundstone decided to get on the bus to help the driver not feel so lonely. She left the stage the next time round to board the bus…
The audience watched and cackled as it took her some 10 minutes before returning to tell about her experience.
As the doorman on open-mike nights for 5 years (rough estimate tells me I’d seen 11,000 sets of comedy at The Other), I have a lot of great/fun/crazy memories. For instance…
One night, as I watched the comedy from my stool at the door, someone driving by threw a coupla dead fish at the window on the Cole Street side (for God-knows-what reason). I recall that whoever was on stage handled it beautifully. After the show, a few of us strung one of the fish from the Carl/Cole street sign 10 feet from the front door. While we were at it, we used a marker to change the Carl sign to read “Cool”. The sign was eventually replaced, but, as far as I know, the fish is still there.
It was a very odd, very goofy, very fun night…and a very, very “Other” moment. Yet, it was also quite typical. But hey, ya like that one? I got a million more of ’em!!!
Anyway, my “Other” years were some of the most memorable of my life. My good friend Harmon got me working there shortly after I moved to San Francisco and, to this day, he and his wife, Debbie (who also worked there), and I still reminisce about our “Other” days. I’m looking forward to the reunion, and seeing many of the people we’ve only been able to reminisce about for all these years.
I also remember Bob Goldthwaite coming in for the first time when no-one knew him and he did something that I thought was brilliant. In his wierd wavering voice and struggling to pull out his own hair, he starts his set with “I lost my job……well i really didn’t lose it ….I still know where it is…..it’s just that when i go there , there’s another guy doing it” that gets a good laugh and he goes on with his set, which is hilarious, but, then he ends with “and I lost my girl friend…..well I really didn’t lose her……I still know where she is…..” he doesn’t even have to finish with the rest of it. They get it. He just says “thankyou goodnight. WOW
Hard to decide if the best stories were in the audience, the green room, the Other Other after hours or Robin and Becca’s apartment at four in the morning. Probably the latter. When you have transient room mates like Geechy Guy and Jeremy Kramer some funny shit is gonna go down.
I miss hearing Warrens laugh from the back of the room.
excellent !