Ladies and gentlemen: Your World Series of Comedy winner, Andrew Norelli (Pictured above). The winner gets 37 weeks of feature work at clubs from Providence to Pittsburgh, from Moorhead to Marco Island, from Sioux Falls to Sunnyvale. (Says the Female Half: “The loser gets 38 weeks!” We kid, because we love!)

That’s Matt Falk on the left and Matt Markman on the right, who came in second and third, respectively.

It’s generally agreed that the whole WSOC was a success and a lot of folks– talent and bookers alike– are hoping it repeats again next year. There’s some tweaking that needs to be done, but nothing major needs to change. There was surprisingly little bitching or strife when you consider that 101 comics went up, in a contest, over six days. No controversy– to our knowledge– and few if any regrets on the part of those who participated but did not win. This might be because, after elimination, the contestants found themselves in Las Vegas! It’s the ultimate place to grieve, to assess, to drown any sorrows. And– big bonus– eliminated contestants were still able to avail themselves of the other offerings– headshot session for thirty bucks, meet and greet with industry bookers/club owners, poker tourney, golf outing, etc. Though the main attraction may have been the contest, the overall feel was that of a convention. And many of the comics took full advantage of the gathering to network, to party, and to bond. It might be argued that upping the convention-type features might be a wise idea.

Tony Camacho, General Manager of Brad Garrett’s Comedy Club at the Trop, with Traci Skene, The Female Half of the Staff at SHECKYmagazine.com, at the Fryers Club on Friday night.

What might need to be changed, you might ask? Little things. Like the dynamics of the Meet & Greet. The ballroom was lined with long, cafeteria tables, behind which sat the bookers, one to a table. However, there was no chair for the comedian. Hmmm… so, in some cases, you had a comedian or two kneeling during his conference. Not good “optics” as the political consultants like to say. (Especially bad for the female conferees!) So… either the bookers might stand, or the comics might be given a place to sit. (One comedian, Jeff Bodart, suggested a “speed-dating” format, complete with those little hotel desk bells! Ding! Switch! Perfect! The same mechanism that eliminates a lot of the awkwardness in the speed-dating process would eliminate it in the speed-schmoozing process! Both comic and booker would be virtually axiety-free! Speaking of Meet & Greet: Why was a comedy club manager– Cindy Nelson of Zanies– handing out brochures for Comedy Boot Camp? Instead of letting hopeful comics in on how best to get booked at her club, she was shilling for an expensive seminar? That fails the sniff test, if you ask us.

The Male Half with Boston’s Dave Russo, at the Fryers Club on Friday night.

The Male Half participated in the poker tourney across Harmon Ave. in the Hard Rock’s poker lounge on Friday afternoon. He hung in there for a little over an hour! He went all-in with Clayton Fletcher on a hand and it was lights out! (We hear Fletcher is a pro poker player, so the Male Half’s pride is intact! And we also hear that Fletcher was subsequently eliminated shortly thereafter, so the Male Half’s taste for vengeance has been satisfied!) It was a festive affair, well-attended by comics and bookers alike. Lowers– no slouch when it comes to poker playing– obviously had a blast, as it was an opportunity to get out from under what must have been several weeks of pressure leading up to the WSOC. Rocky Whatule, who emceed the Registered Comics shows (and who handled the “tallying up the votes” spots) was the winner. Congratulations, Rock.

The Male Half with comedian and Vegas resident Kenny Thomas.  Thomas is from Pennsauken, NJ, the hometown of The Male Half!  What a strange coincidence!  Thomas grew up over on the other side of Rte. 130, near St. Pete’s.  The Male Half grew upon a block and a half up from Friendly’s on Westfield Ave.  (Of course, this only means something to someone who grew up in Pennsauken!)

On Friday night, we took off to hang at the “Fryers Club”– an informal gathering of standup comics. The idea is that they converge on a super-secret location every Friday night to blow off steam after getting off of the various stages throughout Vegas. Geechy Guy and Todd Paul are the brains behind the party. (They are also two thirds of “The Dirty Joke Show,” which takes place every night but Friday at 10 PM in the Iowa Theater for the Performing Arts at Hooters! The premise: Paul, Geechy and Mickey Joseph sit around “in an alley behind a comedy club” and tell dirty jokes, ostensibly offering audience members a peek into the world of three comics after a show. It sounds intriguing. It’s getting tremendous reviews!) We had a blast hanging at the Fryers Club! We saw some folks we hadn’t seen in years and we saw some folks we hadn’t seen in hours!

Toronto’s Martha O’Neill, left, bonding with Boston’s Dan Crohn, in the bar at the Alexis Park, Friday night.

And we had a blast hanging out at the WSOC. We met a lot of new comics. And we reconnected with a few that we had worked with previously. (Out of all those dozens of comics, only two were complete dicks! Pretty good batting average! Hmmm… this is not imply that some were partial dicks… it just that “complete dicks” sounds better.)

Left to right: That’s Dwayne Perkins, Darren Carter and Geechy Guy!  They were all hanging at the Fryers Club Friday night.

We had the immense pleasure (“We” being the Halves of the Staff and Goodnight’s proprietor Brad Reeder) of being guests at Thursday’s Carrot Top show in the Luxor’s Atrium Showroom.  FOS Charlie Viracola opened and Carrot Top did an hour and twenty.  We will say this:  The comedy world owes somebody an apology.  It was rollicking!  Later on, we recounted our experience to another comic who replied that Carrot Top does the prop thing better than anybody out there.  To which we had to reply that Carrot Top also does straight standup as well as anybody out there– a good chunk of his show was pure, propless standup– solid as a rock and alternately goofy, energetic, clever and self-effacing.  Some of  it was augmented by audio and visual snippets– a large screen behind him show brief video clips and a well-oiled crew punched the buttons on sound effects and other audio clips.  The effect was hilarious. The presentation was exciting.  It flew by.   (Favorite line of the night: “If you’re gonna do the anal beads joke, ya gotta follow it up with a cock ring joke… it’s in the book!”  We missed the next joke or two, so hard were we guffawing.)  Those bitter comics who seek to tear down The Top had better find someone else to denigrate… it’s obviously not working.  He’s continuing to sell out consistently in Vegas– even during these hard economic times.  A fellow comic opined that dumping on Carrot Top is officially hack.  We agree.
We hung out with Carrot Top and crew afterward and, though the man may be a big star/cultural icon, the atmosphere was relaxed and the night turned into just a bunch of comics sitting around telling road stories.  Great fun!