Stand-Up “Group B”

Filed Under Aspen Comedy Festival, Stand-Up Comedy

It feels weird calling these by letters; but it’s actually almost sincere. They’re thisclose to cattlecalls in a way. The stand-ups in this group were Baron Vaughn, Anthony Jeselink, Aziz Ansari, Deon Cole and Russ Meneve, with Robert Kelly MCing. The audience was a little off by some accounts, but I actually enjoyed this group quite a bit. Baron Vaughn, a former winner of our Aristocontest, had some fantastic work including iPod users dismissing him for his ancient “Phantasmagorical CD Player” and on Jack Daniels’ hometown of Lynchburg (“There were a lot of negros, and then there weren’t”).

This was also the first time I’ve seen Anthony Jeselink’s faux-egotistical style (“this is about to pay off” was how he introduced himself). Favorite line: “My friend just told me he had cancer. And I know there’s nothing funny about that. But it’s the way he said it.” Anthony was right, these are “great jokes.”

Aziz had a fantatic set, with my favorite bit being the tag on a joke about Kanye West’s bragging where he “wrote that joke on a Tuesday and I refuse to compromise the wording.” He also kept the egotistical vibe going with a joke about being too connected: “Comedy badboy Aziz Ansari AKA comedy hearthrob Aziz Ansari was killed in a car crash today while he was googling his own name.”

I’m also a big fan of Deon Cole’s notepad, which he uses to check off and cross out jokes in his set as he goes along. (Best line: “I see men beat on women. That ain’t cool. it’s funny, but it ain’t cool.”)

Did I mention the crowd was a little difficult? Russ Meneve was the most referential to the crowd’s quiet, admitting “look these jokes aren’t for everybody.” I don’t see why that would be? What could be more audience friendly than making jokes about have sex “human style” when your dog is lying on it’s back.

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