2006 Seattle International Comedy Competition: Round 2 Night 4

Round 2 Night 4 - At the WAC

(Left to Right: Harrold Gomez (host), Natalie Gray, Jeff Dye, Paul Myrehaug, Manolis Zontanos, Rory Scovel)Photo by Peter Greyy

This is the 3rd or 4th year we've brought this show to the Washington Athletic Club, a stately but not stuffy private club in downtown Seattle with a fairly diverse membership. It features not only athletic facilities, but a hotel, restaurants, and banquet space, part of which housed our event.

It appeared intimidating to a few of the comics. But, as the event coordinator accurately put it, audiences are audiences and perhaps you can spend too much time analyzing the demographics.

In other words, people come to comedy shows to have fun. And the closer the performers got to treating this crowd like just another audience, the better they did. And "encore points" - the audience-response component of the scoring - were few and far between and had to be earned the old-fashioned way.

Note to comedians: if a room has tiny speakers and the sound distorts when you yell - don't yell. Or if your technique requires yelling, hold the mic away from your mouth instead of kissing the windscreen.

Jeff Dye brought his "chicks in the gym" chunk to the Athletic Club - and killed. Of course, he's been doing it all week, but it was never so apropro. Gold medal.

1. Jeff Dye
2. Paul Myerhaug
3. Natalie Gray
4. Manolis Zontanos
5. Rory Scovel