“Bring the Funny” was a 2019 reality TV show (halted during COVID) encompassing all kinds of comedy from magic to puppetry to sketch to pretentious guitarists and mixing them with the traditional stand-up variety. And I’m obsessed with it. It’s one of those things that’s like apples and oranges but wouldn’t it be fun to judge apples and oranges (along with some cantaloupes and pistachios) along the same scale and see who moves to the next round with sudden death battles and audience picks?
One problem, however,
is the show’s three judges—Jeff Foxworthy, Chrissy Teigen, and Kenan Thompson—don’t
give very much nitty-gritty critique. They likely are prevented by the rules of
tact from being too harsh on the contestants (no Simon Cowells in this bunch,
which is its own plus). They also don’t have very much reaction time or much
time on the whole to articulate exactly what’s wrong and right with the
comedian. Fortunately, I have more time to spare and don’t care.
My pick for the top
twelve (where the show demarcated semifinalists out of the original 40) in order::
The Valleyfolk-(Competition winner)-The 4-person sketch group
had premises that ranged from simple (an outcast at a mutant school) to pretty
clever (an incomprehensible cowboy, a monster under the bed who wasn’t good at
scaring) but they really had the ability to execute. The four best sketch
actors in the whole competition were the four members of this group, so they’re
lucky they found each other…..except six days after winning the entire
competition, three of the sketch members fired the other member after working
together for five years. They have a humongous Patreon and YouTube following
but about 98% of it is not sketches and the band broke up so why follow?
Andrea Lopez-(Second rounder)-Fun fact: Melissa Villasenor once had an act like this on America’s Got Talent where she did a lot of voices on stage. She catapulted from that to Saturday Night Live making her (possibly) the only reality show contestant to land on the iconic sketch show. Lopez is far more clever and made complete sketches from her voice imitation talents and appears to have a wider range.
Erica Rhodes (Semifinalist)-Somewhat reminiscent of Maria Bamford, Rhodes wraps thirty-something female singledom into a bundle of self-doubt and insecurity with a sharpness and authenticity that made her one of the strongest voices on the show. You just wanted to jump onto the screen and give her a hug. Many of these comedians who latch onto loneliness in their routines might not necessarily be lonely in real life but they do those routines because lonely people in the audience need someone to reassure them they're not the only lonely person in the audience.
Frangela-(Semifinalist)-I’ve known about this duo since the mid-2000s with their hilarious takes on pop culture news on the VH1 show “BestWeek Ever.” With their powers combined (like Captain Planet), they are one of the best voices in comedy, let alone this show. Why they didn’t reach such high heights was because their comedy is largely reactive and they were entrusted with being the main stunt here. In their first outing, for example, they were the people talking too loud in the movie theater and while it was pretty funny, one had to wonder what the actual movie was that they were reacting to. It’s unclear why they decided to go sketch rather than stand-up where they could have killed it more, but watching them take their talents in new directions and their final sketch (possibly the best in the whole competition) was extremely well-suited for their immense talents from start to finish.
Drennon Davis-(Second Rounder)-A manic impressionist who models his act off a shock jock with occasional hand puppetry thrown in. You have to see it to believe it. He’s a little raw but I found most of his material to be very cleverly conceived. His impressions always have a good twist to them. The best comparison might be the shock jock played by Jimmy Fallon (when he was funny) on SNL. But it's hard to find a really good comparison because this guy's a true original.
JK Studios (Semifinalist)-Originally called Studio C, this BYU-based sketch group has a popular YouTube following among the Mormon community and random people who like sketch comedy because they have pretty clean material. Six of those members appear to have broken off into a new group (including the best actors like Matt Meese and Natalie Madsen, fortunately) and showed off a proficiency in writing and performance that made them stand out. Their best sketch was a man who matched with Emma Stone on Tinder causing his long-lost father to want to reunite with him, a priest to lose faith in the lord, and a friend to come out of the closet. The sketch does a lot of zigging where you expect it to zag and adds a lot of great twists.
Kristin Key (Second Rounder)-The comedy guitarist had two catchy ditties that were great at taking things that seem pretty obvious and showing you they were under your nose the whole time like the fact that Cinderella is likely an ungrateful floozy. She really knows how to write a song.
Ali Kolbert (First Rounder)-She had an ingenious comedy bit
comparing dating styles to Amazon and the Postal Service. The “Why can’t I find
a guy” routine gets old but she found a really good spin. Check her out on the
YouTubes and she’s performed on Fallon. Her comedy never hits easy targets.
Chris and Paul Show (Finalist)-This pair are masters at physical humor and can even make miming hilarious. They can also tonally shift sketches from lightweight to dark humor or chatty to a sexy dance between a man and a giant chocolate chip cookie (you had to see it for yourself, though it was a bit gross), on a dime. I felt there were slight tweaks that could have been made to not make situations as melodramatic but it was hard to deny their talent was insane.
Mandy Muden (First Rounder)-Magician/Comedian Jared Fell made it to the semi-finals and he had a certain manic energy that worked but his actual magic was a little thin. Mandy had a persona that was a little less manic but she had a faster pace to her actual tricks which moves the energy. Muden also had a strong persona described by Chrissy as something like a sophisticated yet horny old lady. Pretty accurate. I personally wanted to adopt her as my grandmother.
1. Matt Rife (Semifinalist)-A 23-year-old with a little bit of a douchey image who’s very clever tight with his sets. He
relies a little too heavily on “oh you thought I was A, I’m actually B” but his jokes are strong, his act has a through-line, and he can talk about a lot of different things.
My Picks for the Second Round:
Michael Longfellow (Semifinalist)-Because he
didn’t have a personality, he lacked a strong safety net in case a joke failed,
but pretty much every joke hit. He would be my first runner-up.
Candice Thompson (First Rounder)-Had a lot
of personality, the story about waxing didn’t end in a punchline but it was a
tight set and most of her jokes hit hard.
Daphnique Springs (First Rounder)-A comedian
talking about OCD issues. Her joke about the microwave needed more work but I
found her highly intriguing
Mister Zed (First Rounder)-A robot who
really committed to the bit. His work was slightly satirical of stuff like
hackneyed crowdwork and made me massively curious. We also saw him in the
finale.
Jared Fell (Finalist)-I probably would have
put him through if there was room for two magicians
Jesus Trejo (Second Rounder)-Jesus Trejo
did an extremely tight set about how their grandparents had 21 kids. I got the impression that he didn't use all the time allocated but every word was used well.
Lost Moon Radio (First Rounder)-Their full
sketch about passive-aggressive Lewis and Clark was a little over 30 seconds of
dialogue and that’s too short, but I was curious
Ali Siddiq (Finalist)-He made it farther
than I would have liked but his act was solid and well-researched.
Ian Lara (First Rounder)-A comedian with a
bit about going on a cruise that had a decent amount of energy and punctuation
Audrey Stewart (First Rounder)-She was a
bit loud and obnoxious in a way that’s unusual for white comedians (I’d rate
her intensity level as 60% Kathy Griffin) but I found her unapologetic energy attractive.
Armando Anto (First Rounder)-We didn’t see
much of him, but I’m curious to see how a comic violinist would fare in the
second round. He might even have more widespread appeal than Lewberger
Room 28 (First Rounder)-Their sole sketch almost
felt like an excuse for impression-o-rama like SNL’s Family Fued. Still, the
sketch followed through to the end.
Lewberger (finalist)-The trio who I’ve seen
before doing better stuff on Buzzfeed (history of misheard lyrics is a must) (did they quit?) are a good niche market
if you like operatic parodies of musical theater with a modern twist (hence,
YouTube popularity). In order to make it play to a broader audience, I would have preferred a wider range of styles
Harry and Chris (second rounders)-They were
convincing enough in the opening round to show potential, but their second act
performance was like a lounge act and more like an encore than a main act.
Their subject was differences than British and American English and they
completely missed that mates means a different thing across the pond. They used
up too much of the song time thanking the audience for being there and saying
they wrote a song (when I assume they write all their own songs). A major step
back.
Ali Siddiq (finalist)-He was clever, but I
was not a fan of the sitting down approach and it was indicative of a slight
lack of energy.
Orlando Leyba (second rounder)-Comedy
should be uplifting at heart. It’s ok to show miserable people to make you feel
like your life could be worse. Leyba had some solid material in the second set
but his comic persona felt kind of depressing
ISMO (second rounder)-This Finnish stand-up comedian has been very successful in Finland. In fact, he’s one of just 8 contestants (out of 40) with a Wikipedia page. However, in both his sets, he only had one joke. It’s a tremendous amount of set-up for a moderate punch line.
Willie Appleman (second rounder)-Appleman had two one-man sketches where he monologued and imagined the other members of the room. In the first sketch, he did some light crowd work with the judges but didn’t leave enough time in their responses to show he’s a great improviser. His second sketch lacked coherence as it combined two contradictory ideas (he’s a dentist trying to be cool and he’s in trouble with a cartel making him quite cool). It should also be noted that Upright Citizens Bridge has monologues going on all the time.
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