MAY 13, 2003

CAPITAL LIVING

What’s so funny about Washington?
Standup comics must play to D.C.’s peculiarities
By Abraham Genauer

Across the country, D.C. gets a bad rap as being stiff, uptight and unfunny. The truth is that because so many people work in politics, people here just seem to find different things amusing, such as federal budget expenditures (“Okay Mr. Farmer, we’ll give you money not to grow corn. Chortle, chortle”). And because folks here see humor in different things, people in the business of comedy have to adapt to the particularities of the D.C. market without alienating the common comedy-show-goer. Such is the challenge for D.C. comedy clubs, two in particular, each with very different styles of comedy.

First up is Comedy Sportz, an improv troupe with branches all across the country. Using the improvisational platform most recently popularized by ABC’s popular show “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” the group performs all new, all made up material with, as the name implies, a sporting twist. The performers are split into two teams that compete for points by playing a wide variety of games that require not just a quick wit but also other performance skills, such as rhyming and mime. In charge of it all is The Referee, the sardonic master of ceremonies who takes the crowd’s suggestions, keeps track of points and officiates using Comedy Sportz’s many, um, interesting rules and fouls.

The show’s real strength is the participation from the audience. More than just sitting and being entertained, Comedy Sportz turns spectators into participants who can greatly affect the tone of the show. A good, responsive audience will give the players interesting and creative suggestions with which to do their thing. A small or humdrum crowd can make things a lot more challenging, which is not always a bad thing. Often it gives the players a chance to experiment, which is when some of the funniest stuff comes out. The players are quick and sharp, and they look as if they’re genuinely having a good time.

An added benefit of improvisational comedy is that you can see the exact same performers many times and never hear the same jokes. And just to make sure, certain popular suggestions that have been done to death are retired to the wall of fame. Any audience member proposing such things as Elvis, luge, Jell-O or Bugs Bunny will get put in his place with an emphatic “It’s on the wall … jerk!”

Another distinctive feature of Comedy Sportz is that it is entirely clean. “A lot of audiences, when they think of live comedy they think of standup comedy, and most people equate stand up comedy with a kind of adult material. We try to offer an alternative to that,” says Jack Reda, the group’s artistic director. “We make sure it’s appropriate for any audience, and we like to say that anyone who comes in here can appreciate it and we’re not going to offend anyone based on race or religion or sex or anything like that.”

That fun-for-the-whole-family attitude runs so deep that it’s even added to the show’s sports motif. Anyone, audience included, who uses language or subject matter deemed inappropriate will be charged with a “brown-bag foul.” The offender is then required to wear a brown bag with the words “potty mouth” written on it for the remainder of the scene.

The second D.C. comedy hot spot is ironically called The Improv (where no actual improvisation is performed), but the name is where the similarity to Comedy Sportz ends. . .