Modified On August 23, 2007
NOTE: This whole controversy could be over in a minute if the people at WYSP were to declare the runner-up in the contest the new winner and award him the coveted opening spot.
If anyone should be upset about how this is playing out, it should be the person who placed second. That’s usually how contests work. Even Miss America had a clause in the contract that stipulated that the runner-up would assume the duties of the winner if the winner craps out.
“Ed McGonigal is a sore winner,” says the Philadelphia Daily News’ Dan Gross in yesterday’s edition (scroll down to fifth item).
McGonigal won a slot on the bill on September 15 when this year’s Traveling Virus Comedy Tour comes to the Tweeter in Camden. The show will feature Bob Saget, Jim Norton, Louis CK, Patrice O’Neal among others.
McGonigal won the spot by competing in a contest held through WYSP’s Kidd Chris Show, on which McGonigal is a regular (‘YSP carries O & A as well, so the audiences for the shows are commingled).
McGonigal, SHECKYmagazine readers may recall, appeared on the Kidd Christmas show in December at Philly’s Electric Factory, so he’s familiar to O & A/Kid Chris audiences… even somewhat of a fave, maybe even something of a draw. But McGonigal is backing out of next month’s show because he won’t be paid for the performance.
According to Gross, “Kidd Chris tore into him for his decision to bail on the show, as did O & A’s Norton.”
“I’ve spent 42 years making bad decisions. I see no reason to stop now,” McGonigal said.
Considering the eye-popping amounts of cash that the others on the bill are no doubt getting (we suspect that Saget is at least getting five figures… and that he can’t be the only one), it is rather unseemly for the O & A people to be so tight.
And it’s totally ridiculous when you consider the hellish reception he’ll no doubt get when he mounts the stage. Again, readers of SHECKYmagazine will recall that even many of the nationally-known acts on the stage at the Tweeter last year were subjected to the most reprehensible treatment. (Bill Burr‘s legendary snapout was in response to that boorish behavior.)
To ask McGonigal to collect his “prize” with good cheer and for no money, and then to berate him for refusing to do so, takes some colossal nerve.