Y’all should be very proud of us — we managed to bestir ourselves to go on an actual date, probably for the first time in a year. (I didn’t manage to get a picture of Kevin looking at the camera, sorry!) It definitely helped that we only had to walk a few blocks to our date — it was a gorgeous evening, the clouds looked really pretty, and it was just nice walking with him.
We checked out the new comedy club in Oak Park, ComedyPlex, and had a good time — laughed more than I have in a long time. The headliner was Vikram Balaji, and I really enjoyed his set — Kevin laughed a lot too, which is pretty unusual for him. Nice to see after such a hard week.
Enjoyable mostly Indian-American humor, and he has a really fun riff on being the least favorite kid — I was tempted to buy his Least Favorite Kid t-shirts for my kids, but wasn’t QUITE sure they’d think it was funny. It IS funny. 🙂 Balaji’s also quite charming and charismatic in person — Kev and I particularly liked it towards the end of the set, when he was being a little more authentic / vulnerable. Plus funny!
You can check out Balaji’s comedy on his website — there’s a brief clip there, though I think it’d be nice to have more links to his work (YouTube, I’m guessing), and maybe a way to buy the t-shirts? https://vikcomedy.com
What I didn’t expect, having never been to an actual comedy club before, was how much I’d be sympathizing with the comedians. There was a host and a warm-up act before Balaji, and they both had some funny bits, but when jokes didn’t land, I was just DYING for them.
I’ve done a lot of readings and been to a lot of readings, but even though sometimes I have funny bits that I’m hoping will get a laugh, it’s a very different thing from trying to keep people laughing for a full 10-20 minutes. Brutal!
Order drinks (and snacks), tip your waitstaff generously, and come prepared to clap a lot and laugh a lot.
Also, expect some of the jokes to be in poor taste. It’s a fine line, humor — trying to figure out how to be funny without punching down. I won’t say they always succeeded, but it’s a tricky thing, so if you come, I’d come prepared to extend some grace on that front. Humor is so individual. I personally didn’t love the r-word jokes (two of the three comedians had a bit of that, which also felt like a lot), but I’m apparently fine with the dead parent jokes.
Locals, I encourage you to check it out — I’d love to have live comedy stay available in our town! We’ll be back. Tickets were $20 each, and there’s a two-drink minimum; they do sell bottled water and non-alchoholic drinks, in addition to beer, wine and cocktails. I tried a whiskey sour and a White Cosmo — the latter was not so much my kind of thing, but I think they made it fine. The whiskey sour was yummy!
