Friday night at Philadelphia's Helium

by Brian McKim & Traci Skene on June 18th, 2007


Rex Morgan, Tom Wilson, Legendary Wid, at the bar at Helium (PHL) Friday night (Photo credit: Patricia Wall)

We found ourselves idle on a weekend and home, so what did we do? We visited a comedy club, of course. FOS John Kensil emailed us that he was in town and working with Tom Wilson at Helium, the Philadelphia comedy club that is just a train ride away.

Also on the bill was Chris White, whom readers may recall from his brief appearance on the premiere episode of LCS. (And, though the chyron said he was “from Washington, D.C.,” he actually hails from Media, PA, making this bill, with Villanova’s Wilson and Kensington’s Kensil, an All-Philly-Area extravaganza.)

We were hanging in the green room when Rex Morgan and Patty Wall (with their adult child, Rachel, in tow) rounded the corner. (Morgan is a member of the comedy troupe Mixed Nuts, who rose to prominence at the Comedy Works at the exact same time that Wilson was honing his craft in anticipation of his eventual migration to Hollywood. Wall, as readers of this magazine know, is the person responsible for badgering the Male Half into doing his very first open mike, thus setting him on his current life/career path.)

Just when we thought the green room couldn’t get any more raucous, The Legendary Wid entered the room. Wid also rose to prominence during the abovementioned era, making this evening a bizarre, historical Philly comedy confluence.

We trained home in time to catch yet another Philly comic– on Conan. Paul F. Tompkins appeared on the late night NBC show in conjunction with his week at Comix in NYC.

Other Philly comic items? The issue of Maxim that’s on the stands (the one with Sarah Silverman on the cover) mentions Todd Glass and Tompkins. The mention is in response to the question, “Who are your favorite comedians today?”