L to R: A.J. Finney, David Drake, Shep Slater, David Moroz, Marc Maietta, being snapped at the Comedy Castle on the evening of Showcase Two (Tuesday)

The Halves of the Staff were invited to co-host the second of three nights of showcases at the 4th Annual Garden Fresh Laugh Detroit Comedy Festival this year. We flew in Thursday, gigged on Friday, layed low on Saturday, attended the David Alan Grier on Sunday, attended Showcase Show One on Monday, then did our thing on Tuesday. We flew back to the desert on Wedneday.

The great thing about attending a fest that’s sponsored by a company that makes food is that they provide a lot of their product– the Hospitality Suite was bursting with tubs and tublets of hummus and salsa and dip and great, bulbous bags of nacho chips. All of it gluten-free, so the Female Half was able to nosh. (We’ve attended fests sponsored by beer brewers… they never let any of it go for free!)

Jeff MacKinnon went all Martha Stewart on us and combined a crock of cream cheese-based dip with some of the salsa– microwaving the concoction and slinging it out there, where it was devoured. Festival Big Cheese David Moroz endeared himself to the fest participants by providing plenty of free booze– Coors and Heinies and Labatts and Johnny Walker Black(out!) and Maker’s Mark– comics hate paying for alcohol! (Worry not, nanny types, all the imbibers were staying close by, so there was little chance of anyone wrapping a rental car around a pole!)

L to R: Ryan Reaves, The Female Half of the Staff and Kevin McCaffrey, at the Hospitality Suite after Showcase One (Monday)

We’re never understand comedians who make the effort to be part of a festival but don’t show up afterward at the after-party! That’s where all the merriment and the bonding and the networking and the crazy stories are told (and often originate!), so why would anyone skip that part? And you get to see weird shit– like the spectacle of The Female Half getting into a barnburner of an argument with (Unnamed) over (Unspecified) resulting in The Female Half storming out! (We found out the next day that a handful of the showcasers immediately took up the argument and that it raged on until 4 AM or so!)

Monday night’s show was ably hosted by Auggie Smith. Our only personal experience with Smith was back a few years ago, we filled in a the last minute for Smith, who backed out of a gig at Wiley’s in Dayton. (We’re sure he had good reason!) We only mention it because we had to endure an entire weekend of disappointed faces– “Hey… You’re not Auggie Smith… Auggie’s not here? Hey… I thought Auggie Smith was headlining this weekend… you aren’t Auggie.” And on like that. It became a catchphrase around our house for a while. Showing up in a substitute role is a thankless task! Especially when you encounter disappointed Auggie Smith fans!

Packed house (as usual for the Comedy Castle), great and enthusiastic crowds (again, as usual) and a lot of the showcasers for the upcoming nights coming in early to watch their fellow fest attendees work the room.

The Hospitality Suite was located in an upper unit at the Residence Inn-like hotel and it opened each night shortly after the festivities ended at the Comedy Castle. And, in spite of the party poopers, it was well-attended each night. So well-attended, in fact, that the police showed up on Night Two when the three phone calls from the front desk failed miserably to quell the riotous conversation. (The spectacle of an entire roomful of comics trying to whisper is… comical. Each silent period might have only lasted about three minutes.) The men in blue couldn’t have been nicer (or so we’re told– we bugged out shortly before The Man arrived… so refined are our instincts when it comes to avoiding arrest)!

L to R: Kyle Ploof, Jeff MacKinnon, Trevor Smith, at the Hospitality Suite after the DAG show (Sunday)

The hotel was quite foolish for not booking comics into the three units surrounding the Hospitality Suite. They could have avoided any unpleasantness– like five cops breaking up the bash and escorting the entire contingent down the stairs (while, allegedly, Auggie Smith sang “We Shall Overcome”). The following night they moved the whole affair into the lobby.

L to R: Mike Baldwin, Michael Finoia, enjoying beverages at the Hospitality Suite after Showcase One (Monday)

We hosted the Tuesday Showcase. We had originally planned to do “shtick.” A little something together, maybe, as we were co-hosting. But our time got cut down severely, as there was an extra comic– Forrest Shaw, whose flight was delayed out of Miami the previous day managed to eventually make it to town, so he was accommodated on our night and there was a rumor that local-boy-made-good John Heffron might show up and do some time. We have so rarely appeared onstage together, however, that we were reluctant to chance any risky business– we had the others to think about, after all. Wouldn’t it suck if you had a nice slot in a nice festival and the host(s) bombed?

L to R: Emily Wahlund, David Moroz, at the Hospitality Suite, after Showcase One (Monday)

Another packed house for our showcase show. The Halves ran a tight ship, and the show went like clockwork… except for one incident. Prior to the show, all comics were instructed to be back behind the giant, wooden rolling door that leads to the stage at least two acts before their own slot came up. And they all complied. Except for one, Scott White, who dreamed up a dramatic entrance– entering from the audience, stage-right and bounding onstage from the darkness.

Jeff MacKinnon recalls watching The Male Half on the monitor turning toward the giant door and seeing… no one… while simultaneously hearing The Female Half caterwauling from the hallway, “Where the FUCK IS HE?!” Such a breach of protocol is a no-no. It is a giant Fest No-No! We were not happy.

That evening’s schmoozing took place in the lobby dining room, amid the trappings of the free continental breakfast, under the glare of an (inexplicably) unhappy hotel manager. No complaints from other guests were fielded and no law enforcement was necessary, however.

The next night, as we were landing at McCarran, Karen Rontowski was hosting the third and final Showcase. We hear that some of the lucky showcase acts from the previous three nights had the privilege of opening for Rontowski this weekend.

It’s a swell festival to aspire to. If for no other reason than the folks who head it up– David Moroz of Aspen Talent and Mark Ridley, proprietor of the Comedy Castle– are two of the most even-tempered and placid people in the business. While no festival is stress-free, the level of stress is guaranteed to be at a minimum with those two gentlemen at the helm. And there was a smattering of industry there– Jeff Singer added a third seminar to his scheduled two. And festival iron man Rich Miller, among others, was also in attendance.

It’s a good, fun festival with– BONUS– healthy, rabid crowds! So the comics get to showcase, hang with their colleagues and do their thing on the stage of one of the top five or ten clubs on the continent. May it live long and prosper.