comedic timing

Last night we went to see one of our favorite Korean-Irish stand-up comedians, Steve Byrne, at the Improv theater. The night was weird to start with because Ryan is on a CRAZY deadline and working 15 hour days to get it all done, so the show was his "lunch break" and we basically had to run to get there and run to get home when it was over. Maybe that is what threw me.

We rushed into the theater and got a tiny table off to the side (which was nice, actually, since they seat people as they come in and you generally end up in an awkward seat, sharing a table with strangers) and poured over the menu for lunch/dinner. We got our order in with the waitress and who do I spy being next in line to be seated? My sister. HA! She and her boyfriend got tickets on a whim, had no idea who the comedians were and they ended up being seated directly in front of us. Too funny.

The opening comedian (I don't know his name) was terrible. I think he was improving his entire bit, which was too long after the first 5 minutes and yet he dragged it out another good 45 minutes. Torture! By then our food was gone and we had nothing left to distract us. Torture!

When Steve Byrne took the stage, we were primed for some side-splitting good times. Only... it didn't exactly happen that way. The crowd was an odd mix of people. Half the crowd was acting as if the 2 beer minimum had gotten them completely hammered and oh my god this is the funniest thing I have ever seen and the other half seemed not to know it was a comedy show. The guys immediately next to us were the first half. As was the first-date couple in front of them. The girl was throwing her hair and boobs around like she was 6 drinks in at a nightclub. Slightly entertaining, slightly annoying.

Poor Steve Byrne. He had a list of notes and it seemed like he was maybe testing some new material and it was all an awkward fit. The audience was wishy-washy. The people immediately next to the stage never stopped their conversation (although, in their defense, they had two buckets of beer - that's 12 bottles for 2 people) and were half making out through a lot of the act. It was painful. At least to me. Ryan thoroughly enjoyed it and Shaina gave it a thumbs-up as well. But I just wasn't feeling it.

Kate - have you ruined me on stand-up? Am I a sketch snob now?