Comedy on a Friday in Philly

by Brian McKim & Traci Skene on June 13th, 2009

We heard from FOS Jason Pollock that Jake Johannsen was in town, just across the river at Helium.

This set off a fortunate chain of events.

Before that, we heard that Lord Carrett and Nick Cobb were headed down the NJTPKE to do a private party in Center City Philadelphia.

And Pollock told us that he was headed over the bridge Friday night to catch the MST3K live show at the Trocadero (featuring Joel Hodgson, Frank Conniff and the whole gang), and that afterward, he was intent on heading across town to catch Johannsen’s second show. And The Male Half had a gig (at a Democratic Party fundraiser in Bucks County) on Friday night as well.


That’s Lord Carrett and Jake Johannsen in the green room at Helium Friday night.

So… we all converged on Helium at about the same time, just before the second show of the evening, where we also encountered local comedian John Kensil, emcee/opener for the weekend Vince Patterson, the weekend’s feature (and Wednesday evening’s Helium headliner) Bernadette Pauley and local (transplant from Cincinnati) comedian Geoff Tate. We were soon joined by the aforementioned Pollock, Carrett and Cobb.

It was a regular comedy party, a mini-fest. A rarity in these parts, and a delight to participate in. Introductions all around, met a few people we hadn’t met before, caught up with a couple we hadn’t seen in a while. The sort of thing we imagine goes on in NYC all the time, but something that happens in Philly on an irregular basis.


That’s Bernadette Pauley talking to John Kensil while Nick Cobb: A. snoozes… or B. is listening to the conversation and thoroughly disgusted… or C. is merely the victim of a bad photograph? The answer is “C.” We found Nick to be a splendid individual– energetic and slow to disgust.

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