Modified On July 29, 2005
In an interview to appear in this Sunday’s Seattle Times, this exchange takes place between Seattle Underground proprietor Ron Reid and the Times’ news weasel Mark Rahner:
Q. How much harm did TV’s “Last Comic Standing” show do to the business?
A. I don’t think it did any damage to the business. I think it actually was good for the business.
Q. Those people stunk!
A. I know they stunk. But people go, ‘Hey, the guys at the Comedy Underground are better than those guys. Let’s go see them.’
We suppose it’s tough to tell a reporter to his face that he’s full of brown matter. (Although we’ve never had trouble doing so–and no one has ever had trouble telling us that our shit tank is on “F.”) But, those people stunk?
At the Just For Laughs Festival held this month in Montreal (the largest festival of its kind. You may have heard of it.), there were no fewer than eight comics present who owed much of their current notoriety to Last Comic Standing (Kathleen Madigan, Gary Gulman, Alonzo Bodden, John Heffron, Tom Cotter, Kerri Louise
Dan Naturman, D.C. Benny). We’ll admit that the show was not an ideal showcase for the talents of any of the comedians involved, but for anyone (in the media, in the club business) to make the pronouncement that they stunk… well, it stinks.