SICC-33: First Night Jitters

Going into the first night of the Finals of the 33rd Annual Seattle International Comedy Competition, our five finalists had performed in four straight big rooms to close out last week’s Semi-Finals:  two theaters (Edmonds and Olympia) and two casinos (Skagit and Snoqualmie).  So, it must have been a strange feeling to start the Finals Week with an intimate night in the Washington Athetic Club’s Crystal Ballroom for a members only private show.  The internal sensors that tell a performer when they’re doing well and when they have to work harder needed some instant recalibration to adjust.

Also, our five finalists needed to adjust to the longer set times of the finals.  In the Semi-Finals, they were asked for a ten minute set…but in the Finals, they now need to do a 15-20 minute set.  And this was their first time putting their long sets up for competitive judgment.

The end result of this was a show that was certainly entertaining for everyone in attendance but it felt a little tentative.  (Perhaps that also had something to do with a stage that was built in a “T” shape and had a significant drop to the floor if a wrong step was taken.)  Even our judges were a little unsure of themselves–with each judge having different favorites on the night.  And the end result of our judges’ scores ended up being different than the “popular choice” that the Washington Athletic Club members tally on their own from ballots received from all of the audience on this night.

So, let’s share the WAC Choice winner for this year…that award goes to Joe Klocek! 

L-R: WAC Choice Winner Joe Klocek and Drew Barth (host)

Congratulations, Joe!

Now, here’s how the judges scores saw things (and, in the end, it is the judge scores that count towards determining who will be this year’s champion):

Finals Week-Night One Nightly Top 5

1. Tyrone Hawkins (Tacoma, WA)  
2. Joe Klocek (San Francisco, CA) 
3. Michael Malone (Los Angeles, CA)
4. Landry (Atlanta, GA/Toronto, ON)
5. Elliot Maxx (Ballard, WA) 

So, taking the top spot on this night…and pushing past the WAC Choice to earn those top honors, was Tacoma’s Tyrone Hawkins.  He was the last of our competitors to take the stage on this night and delivered a set that was full of goofy highlights (his tangent into wanting to become rich enough to buy, own, pimp out and ride a moose through downtown was inexplicably hilarious) and the set pieces that had earned him his spot in the finals. 

L-R: Tyrone Hawkins (SICC-33 Finals Week-Night One Winner) and Drew Barth (host)

Congratulations to Tyrone!

So, on this night…we honor two winners–though, really, when you get right down to it…EVERYONE was a winner on this night at the Washington Athletic Club.

The Finals Week continues with our traditional Thanksgiving Eve show over on Vashon Island at the Vashon Theatre–perhaps, some more sensor recalibration will be needed for that show as well?  (We’ll find out soon enough!)

NEXT SHOW:
SICC-33 Finals Week–Night Two
WEDNESDAY–November 21, 2012
Vashon Theatre, Vashon
Showtime:  7:30pm