Full House for Stand-Up Comedy Night
By Shirley Gilbert
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Cross-section of the full house audience that laughed their way through the evening.
There wasn’t a serious face in the Fukaya A room in the Fremont Main Library as 80 attendees laughed their way through a hilarious and fun-filled evening of stand-up comedy in Tuesday, January 22nd.
It started with an explanation by AAUW’s Jo Szeto of what One Book, One Community is all about. She made it amusing by asking the audience to shout out the books our team sponsored in the first four years. Then she told the packed audience of over 80 — we kept adding chairs and adding chairs — what we’ve done thus far with Lots of Laughter to put them up to date on this fifth year of the program.
The book that Shirley Gilbert reviewed for the evening was stand-up comic Joan Rivers’s I Hate Everyone Starting With Me.
Joan heard that Costco wouldn’t carry her book because of the “cuss words” on the back cover. She went to the discount chain with a film crew, chained herself to a shopping cart and started shouting her complaints to customers through a bullhorn. It was hailed as the best book publicity stunt of 2012.
More of the audience of over 80 that enjoyed the comediennes.
The book reads like stand-up comedy and you can hear Joan’s raspy voice throughout. She enumerates in it all the things she hates and Rivers’s list of hates is as long as the Yellow Pages.
“If you love to laugh,” concluded Shirley, “then you’ll love Joanie’s book. The only thing that’s missing in this book is Joan Rivers’s great delivery and voice.”
Next on the program was Molly Sokhom who was a warm-up act for mainliner Karinda Dobbins, very seasoned comic.
Next on the program was Molly Sokhom who was a warm-up act for mainliner Karinda Dobbins, very seasoned comic.
The two Comediennes and members of the One Book, One Community Leadership Team ham it up during their recognition at the end of the evening. They are (left to right) Molly Sokhom, Shirkey Gilbert, Kathy Garfinkle, Jo Szeto, Genevieve Angelides, Ann Macloud and Karinda Dobbins.
Molly talked about her lack of height — she’s from Cambodia and loves the idea that Asian women look so much younger than any other women. She made us all laugh when she described her appearance on The Price is Right in Hollywood. She came home, she said ruefully, with a lamp, yes a lamp.
Karinda has been in the Bay Area for five years but has been doing stand up for over 15 years in Detroit, where she’s from and in San Francisco. She talked about her family — grandmother, mother and 19-year-old daughter, and contrasted her own upbringing by her mother with her daughter’s — who is given the whole world by Karinda’s mom and grandma.
After the two women performed they pulled up two chairs and answered questions about their lives as stand-up comics. Here are a few of their perspectives:
- Someone asked if not being able to “do smutty material” affected their acts. They said that 75 percent of their material contains words you can’t use on the air and so they really need to do a very different show this in the library from what they would do in a comedy or night club.
- They talked about how tough it is being a comedienne and getting gigs. You really need to have other jobs. Molly has two other jobs and Karinda has a job in biotech aside from doing stand up.
- Further, they said that sometimes they don’t get paid for performing for one reason or another.
- They both felt there was prejudice against women comics. Molly said that someone in charge of getting the acts will say that he only wants one woman on the show tonight. Molly likes to line up comedians for shows herself and just chooses those acts that are really funny — without thinking of gender.
- Do they sometimes steal material? No, they try not to do that. Comedians hate when someone steals their jokes and when they do they get called on it. It’s really frowned on.
- How do they get their material? Karinda said that she couldn’t afford a writer — you need to be really famous to be able to hire one. She sees and thinks of funny things each day and writes them down so she’ll have them for a show.
- Bottom line, they both said, there’s nothing nicer than being up front and getting the laughs. That, they said, makes stand-up all worthwhile. And they really appreciated the audience in the library.
Jo Szeto ended the evening by recognizing the Leadership Team of One Book, One Community. Many were home ill because of the flu epidemic — but there was plenty of applause for the team members who were present.