Modified On November 30, 2006
Seattle comic Brad Upton guested on the op-ed page of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, giving the persective of a veteran comic:
If a person were to start yelling at a singer, or speaker, or pianist or stage actor, they would quickly be hustled out of the room by security and the rest of the audience would look at that person with absolute disgust and feel bad for the performer. Why is it that a comedian is expected to learn to deal with it? There is no harder job in show business than stand-up comedian. None.
It appeared Monday and there are 106 comments so far.
And Brian Miller (definitely not a comedian), writing for the Seattle Weekly alt-rag brings his hackneyed cliches and jaundiced view of comedians to work in a piece entitled “Laugh Riot.”
Like piano-keyboard ties, acid-wash jeans worn high with white Reeboks, and a pre-Seinfeld Seinfeld with a full head of hair, stand-up comedy seems a relic of the Reagan years.
And that’s just the first sentence! Read the rest for a thoroughly disheartening view of a once-great comedy market.