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Mark's Friggin' Night of Comedy at Rascals Comedy Club - Saturday, May 31st, 2003This write-up marks the one year ''anniversary'' since I started going to all of these great comedy shows. It all started back when I went to see Stuttering John's comedy show down in Atlantic City, New Jersey, May 31st, 2002. Comedian Craig Gass helped make all of the rest of these stories possible by getting me backstage that night. After that it was Doug Goodstein, Jim Florentine and Reverend Bob Levy who helped keep the fun times rolling. Thanks guys, it's been the best year of my life! Sad but true... Yes, I went to another comedy show. This time I didn't have my girlfriend to go with me because she was out visiting her family out in Colorado. A couple of people backed out on me when I invited them but an old co-worker of mine, Chris, and his friend Lou met me at the Rascals Comedy Club in West Orange, New Jersey to see KC Armstrong from the Stern show, Lisa Lampanelli, Reverend Bob Levy and Nick DiPaolo. Geno Bisconte was hosting for the evening. I got to the club around 7pm and waited for my friend Chris to show up. While I was waiting in the front entrance of the club I got a little bit of a music show. The lovely women behind the counter where you get your tickets were singing along to a boy band song. They didn't realize that I was standing over to the side of the window there so they had no idea they had an audience until someone came up and told them. I thought it was kind of funny but they were a little embarrassed. KC showed up shortly after I got there. He came in with a bag full of stuff and looked like he was ready to play a game of whiffle ball or something. I didn't even ask what that was all about. He headed downstairs to the club after saying hello to me. Comedian Paul D'Angello, who I'd seen the week before at another comedy show, came up a short time later as he was heading out to get something from Bob Levy's car. He also said hello and joked around with me for a minute. Chris and his friend Lou showed up a little later so we headed down to get our seats. We got some good seats just to the side of the stage and right where the comedians walk past to go up on stage. We got our drinks and the guys had some food as well. I talked to Chris about what's been going on at the place I used to work. I love hearing about how fucked up that place still is and how things will never change. Incompetence runs rampant there. Anyway, enough about my past, back to the fun stuff. Comedian Geno Bisconte started the show off sometime after 8 o'clock. while he was doing his opening act he caught sight of me sitting in the crowd and said a quick ''Hey Mark!'' The crowd sounded like they were having fun right away. Geno had them laughing and introduced the first comedian, KC Armstrong. KC has gone in a little bit of a different direction with his comedy lately. He's started to move away from the chile molestation jokes and has started to do some more ''main stream'' comedy that went over really well during this show. He didn't do any of his ''YOU KNOW WHAT I HATE?'' bits during the 8 o'clock show but I did hear him doing some of that at the 10:30 show. After KC Geno brought up the always funny and God-Like Reverend Bob Levy. Levy killed during his time on stage. He was unbeatable, just like Christopher Reeve's dick. Bob got the crowd all pumped up for the next act, Lisa Lampanelli. I'd never seen Lisa's act but did hear her on Howard's show back in November, 2002 when she talked about how she has to date black guys because she hasn't been able to get any good white guys. I had no idea what to expect when she got on stage. She got up there and insulted just about every ethnic group that was in the crowd. It wasn't mean though, it was just funny as hell. She had the crowd laughing their asses off and killed. The great Nick DiPaolo was up next after Lisa. Nick's comedy is a little more laid back and after having so much energy from Bob and Lisa the crowd seemed a little worn out or something. They didn't seem to mind Lisa calling people ''Spic'' or ''nig*er'' but when Nick made a cancer joke or something they seemed shocked. It was kind of strange. He was still great though and killed during the second show which I ended up hanging around for. I've seen him a couple of times in the past year and he always kills. He has a CD called ''Born This Way'' that'a available through his web site NickDip.com. After the show I hung around with Bob and Lisa who I finally got to meet. She'd advertised on the site a few times so it was nice to finally meet her in person. I also met her boyfriend... and he is a black dude so she's not kidding about that when she talks about it in her act. I ended up hanging around until Bob brought me back to the room where the comedians hang out. Back there everyone was watching the NJ Devils game. KC had some money on the game so he had to watch it. He asked where my sister was because I've brought her to a few shows that he's been at. She thinks he's pretty hot so we just about have to put a bib on her to catch the drool. I told him that she was six months pregnant sitting home. I later told KC that she's having a boy so maybe she'd let him come over and play with the kid. KC gave me one of his infamous ''NICE!'' comments for that one since he seems to like that child molestation humor so much. Not long after that I heard him doing some of that humor in his act during the second show. NICE! I hung out ''back stage'' through most of the second show. I got to talk to Nick a little bit about his work on Comedy Central's ''Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn'' which I've been watching since it started. For some reason they've tried to make him ''nicer'' on the show which seems pretty dumb to me... but what do I know, I'm just a viewer who watches every friggin episode of that show. Later in the evening I went out during Nick DiPaolo's act and watched him kill at the end of the show even as the waitresses were handing out the bills to their customers in the middle of it. When he was done and the show was over I watched Bob selling some of his comedy CDs (available at RevBobLevy.com) and Lisa Lampanelli selling her ''Queen of Mean'' DVDs (at InsultComic.com). I said my goodbye's to everyone shortly after that and headed out for the hour-long drive home around midnight. As always, if any of these comedians are appearing in your area, go check them out... and if you're able to talk to them after the show, tell them you read about them on MarksFriggin.com. Check out their web sites below to see where they're appearing. I'd also like to thank Rascals for the great show. Check out their web site as well. They have clubs in West Orange, Cherry Hill and Ocean Township, New Jersey and one in Phoenix, Arizona. Here are a few links to some of the comedian's respective web sites:
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