PICTURE: L-R: Bil Dwyer, Jose Sarduy (2nd), Tony Daniel (5th), Rodger Lizaola (3rd), Paul Myrehaug (host), Matt Billon (4th), Steve Monroe (1st), Beth (Steve's hug helper tonight)
The last shall be first...and so will the almost last, as was proven on this, the second night of Preliminary Week One of the 30th Annual Seattle International Comedy Competition. On a night not nearly fit for man nor beast, our intrepid sixteen comedians in this week braved the bridges to make their way to Kirkland for tonight's show at Laughs Comedy Spot in the Totem Square Mall.
After getting to see everyone for the first time the previous night, it was interesting to see who stayed with their game plan and who chose to make adjustments to what they'd planned to do. Los Angeles' Steve Monroe ditched nearly everything from his first night set to go with a more crowd pleasing performance that incorporated some clever audience participation....and he did this as the 16th and final competitor on what is always a rather long night of comedy. It turned out to be the right move...as he jumped from almost last to tonight's top spot in the mind's of our judges.
Also making some changes to move up in the standings was hometown hero Tony Daniel, who seemed right at home on stage at Laughs and hopes to seem right at home in the nightly top five for the competition.
Here's how the judges saw tonight's show:
5th) Tony Daniel (seattle)
4th) Matt Billon (toronto)
3rd) Rodger Lizaola (seattle))
2nd) Jose Sarduy (miami)
1st) Steve Monroe (los angeles)
The night was topped off by a set from the performer who will be headlining this coming weekend at Laughs Comedy Spot, Bil Dwyer.
And then came the lightning, thunder, hail, high winds, street flooding... In other words, a typical night in the course of nearly EVERY Seattle International Comedy Competition.
Friday night takes us to the Auburn Avenue Theater, a venue the competition is visiting for the first time ever. It will also be a night run to "tv clean" standards, which should make things quite interesting.