The free comedy night at the Ob on March 16 was uncomfortable. Stand-up comedians Keith Pedro and Nick Reynoldson were very funny, they were, but the crowd did not seem to think so. No one really laughed or responded and it created a palpable tension in the room. The comedians seemed to sense this and it pushed them to more and more cringe worthy jokes. At first it was funny, the punch line of one about snapchat being, “flying dicks everywhere…”
As the night rolled on, however things started to deteriorate. Realizing the sheer obscenity of the jokes at least merited a response, Pedro decided to give the crowd and option. “I got three levels, “shit man, ah fuck, and fuck that mother fucker needs Jesus. Which do you want?” This elicited the most vigorous response of the night; one drunk guy yelled, “All three!”
Although all three levels were bad and elicited cringes from most of the audience, the last was truly putrid. Almost everyone had some sort of grimace on their face. It was the worst of the night and the punch line was, “Ah, I love that new baby smell.” The rest is up to your imagination, but you probably wont get there.
What started off as amusing, though slightly awkward ended up revolting and uncomfortable.
It certainly was not the fault of the comedians however, it was the crowd. A simple auth and a small amount of participation would have done wonders.
Reynoldson learned from his predecessor and attempted to avoid the really raunchy jokes, but the crowd did not respond well to him either and he restored to scorching self-depreciation in moments of severe tension.
All in it was still a funny night, and whatever the cause most people left smiling.