| | Ducked into the Comedy Cellar last night, saw the 11 pm late show. The crowd was to capacity but as the night wore on the crowd grew more restless and drunk each passing minute. Sometime around 12:30 am, a guy shows up in the doorway, right next to my table. He seemed to be motioning to want to get on stage. The host of the night, William Stephenson was a bit annoyed. He called out from the stage, "Did you clear it with Dave (Attell, the next comedian scheduled to go up)?"
"Yeah. He's cool with it."
"Did you clear it with Estee?"
"Uhh... no."
"Well you better clear it with her first."
"No, no, it's cool. She'd say yes".
"Fine, whatever. Coming to the stage... he's a musician. John Mayer."
A less-than-sober John Mayer runs in and jumps on stage (as he's wont to do; just youtube it). This clearly wasn't planned or encouraged.
To the non-comedians reading this, this happened at THE Comedy Cellar. It is the mecca to pretty much every comedian (especially us here in NY). There are comedians with 10-15 years under their belts who can't crack the club and this guy runs in and jumps on stage and did about 15-18 minutes (more than you're supposed to), cutting ahead of pro's. I can't tell you HOW disrespectful that is to comics. It's one thing if Seinfeld or Rock come in and cuts the lineup. They're 20+ year veterans who earned it. But this guy who does comedy as a hobby, who probably just got OFF stage somewhere else in front of however many people doing a show of his own, and needs MORE attention so he crashes the Comedy Cellar and decides to do more stage time, should be nowhere near the Cellar. Go do a bringer. (That's comedian parlance for ... an awful show, lets just leave it at that).
He got on stage and did his comedy, got an extended grace period for being a celebrity and "celebrity laughs" from the crowd. At one point he sat down at the piano on stage and started futzing around with that. Finally, he gets off stage and the vein in my temple subsides.
And what proceeded was nothing short of watching a master composer. I can't even really do it justice with these stupid words but I'll try my best. Dave Attell came onto the stage. He said, "How 'bout a hand for John Mayer folks...", who happened to still be in the room. "John Mayer, folks. He's a great singer, musician..."
Mayer, from somewhere in the back, called out, "I'm also a comedian."
Attell's face changed, "REALLY???" The crowd erupted with laughter. Attell turned back towards the audience, "How many question marks just came after YOUR 'really'?"
It was mayhem. Mayer was talking to Attell from off stage. Drunk people were yelling at Attell from the back. There was cross-crowd conversation. A table of Icelandic tourists (I'm not making this up) was so loud the bouncer had to shush them THRICE, then got up and left midway. Then Mayer walks BACK on stage! In the middle of Attell's set! My head almost exploded... I can't tell you how shitty a thing that is to do to a comedian. He walked right up on stage and started Sonny n' Cher-ing with Attell, who was so cool he didn't even mind. Attell just went with the flow (and possibly recognized it was the only way to shut up some of the crowd). Mayer sat back down at the piano on the stage and started PLAYING the piano while Attell performed (because he can't possibly out-joke Attell, so he does what he does best: music). Attell quipped, "Oh god, this is so UCB."
Attell turned to Mayer, "So what do you think about Oprah leaving TV?" Mayer leaned into Attell's mic and replied, "She's not leaving blah blah blah She'll be back blah blah blah..." and rambled on for a few more seconds to blank stares from the crowd. Attell looks off into the distance, then pulled the mic back towards himself, "Okay, let me try to FUNNY that up... What he was trying to say was..." The crowd erupted again.
Everytime Mayer had something to say (that would potentially sabotage Attell's set), Attell had something quicker and funnier to say back. He was never at a loss. Just slow and methodical and in control. The crowd never completely shut up from just seeing John Mayer come on stage. Three drunk Irish guys (I'm not making this up) moved up to the front row and started TALKING with John Mayer on piano, in the middle of Attell's set. Attell turned to the Irish guys and said, "Hey Starfuckers, you wanna listen to me?" Laughs.
What Attell did that night wasn't crowd work; it was MOB work. It was one of the most bizarre comedy situations I have ever witnessed: a drunk ass A-List (?) star hijacking a comedian's set in a room full of drunker European and Midwest tourists on a Tuesday night show at approx. 1 am in the morning... and the COMEDIAN came out on top.
Only in New York City.
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| | Posted 12/3/2009 2:18 AM - 893 Views - 2 eProps - 2 comments
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