NH Day 2: More Portsmouth, Keene, Monadnock, and Lowell
So I'm gonna divide this one up talking about comedy first and then travel stuff afterwards. Because I watched a real show as opposed to an open mic, I'm gonna try to do a bit more of an analysis of it because that's what's interesting to me as a comic (and hopefully you, the reader) but if you want to just skip to pretty pictures of New Hampshire, that's more than fair.
The Comedy Show:
So I went to Mondo Monday Comedy at the Luna Theater in Lowell, MA, which is a really cool venue as it's normally an independent movie theatre. It's located on the fourth floor of one of the historic Lowell Mills and absolutely had the most comfortable seats I've ever seen in a comedy venue. It's maybe cheating a little to see a show in MA, but the host, Greg Boggis, is from NH and puts on a lot of shows in both NH and MA. He, and a few of the other comics as well, actually commented on how there aren't as many opportunities for New England comics outside of Mass.
The audience in Lowell, I noticed, was a bit older and slightly more conservative than audiences in Boston. So they weren't particularly receptive to jokes about sex, which proved to be a little tough for the opening comedian as that was much of the last half of her set. Yael Gavish, a comedian from Israel which to me is hugely impressive because comedy is so language dependent that to perform in a language that isn't your first (even though her English was really perfect minus an accent) is crazy to me, started the show strong nobly falling on her sword and doing a bit of crowd work to warm up the audience. As an opener this is really great for the show at large because it builds momentum for the whole show, but it's pretty tough for the actual performer because the crowd isn't A. that ready or B. that drunk to really participate, so it maybe doesn't seem as funny even though it's not really the comic's fault. She did some funny relationship bits that were well-received, but then she did an extended bit about her ex's small penis that had some really clever stingers but was not super well received by the more conservative crowd. This strikes me as a bit of a double standard because when she did self-deprecating jokes about having small breasts, it got bit laughs, but as soon as she did jokes about a small penis the (mostly male) crowd tensed up a bit. I feel like male comedians (not really at this show, but very frequently) talk about penises all the time to pretty strong receptions so it's really weird to see some, to be fair probably subconscious, biases come into play.
The second comedian was a special guest so unfortunately I didn't write his name down and it's not on the website of the event. He was also pretty good, but definitely dealing with a crowd that was still warming up. He started with some political bits about statues that got a kinda mixed reaction, but he smartly pivoted quickly to sillier material about hating dolphins. This was pretty cool to see as a performer, because a lot of people when they start out will try to keep going and save a bit that's not working, but really the smartest thing is usually to read the room, drop the bit, and go into something totally different if possible.
I don't know what if anything this says about the state of comedy in the north shore of Massachusetts, but something I noticed tonight was that every joke a comedian made about an animal absolutely landed.
The third comedian, Matt Kona, is a regular around the area and delivered a strong set that was mostly a mixture of clever one liners and more story driven bits. The sillier one liners landed pretty hard, but the dirtier ones got more mixed reactions which seemed indicative of the crowd's sense of humor in general. He probably had my single favorite joke of the night though which was "I was in a failed barber shop quartet. It was me and two other guys"
The headliner, Lamont Price, has gotten a lot of buzz around New England, and after his set I think it's all very well deserved. He really had a very sharp ear, and totally knew how to work the crowd, reading there energy levels and thinking fast on his feet. He told some jokes about the venue that were really funny for how recently he must have thought about them, and whenever a joke didn't land quite hard enough, he always had a knack for improvising just the write thing to get the audience's reaction to where he wanted it. His delivery and crowd work wasn't all bluster without substance though, his material was really sharp and funny. He had one story about an older white woman reacting to him in New Hampshire that effortlessly blended commentary on race, gender, and aging behind a really silly story. He also smartly structured his set so that he didn't do political stuff until later on in the set after he had already won over the crowd, which allowed him to dig into Trump and still get big laughs.
After the show, all the comics were just hanging out and were really friendly (they said it was okay to name drop them otherwise I probably wouldn't have gone this in depth) and I got to witness a really great moment where an older woman gave Lamont a bag of Twix that she just happened to have with her and had featured in one of his big bits. It was a nice little tag (to use a technical term) to a solid night of comedy
Travel:
Here's a video of some fine New Hampshire views:
This video also accurately captures the experience anyone who has driven with me should recognize of me going into fun facts that are not always fun and dubiously facts. Feel free to mute my talking and just look at NH
The day's highlights: Went back to Portsmouth to see an cool community record store called Bull Moose and get some coffee at Breaking New Grounds; visited Keene, saw the Parrish Shoes sign from Jumanji, left a flower, looked at some local souvenirs (see below), and had one of the best coffees I've ever had at the Prime Roast; climbed roughly half of Mt. Monadnock, realized that I am horribly out of shape; drove to Lowell, got an amazing apple and bacon grilled cheese at Coffee and Cotton.
Weird Things I Really Liked: A big sign that said "Meatloaf Mondays!"; a solar powered cafe; a gas station called Mr. Gas; a waterfall called Noone Falls
Albums I Listened to in the Car: Acton Town Hall Firefighters Benefit Concert by Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros; Adult Swim Single "Between Villains" featuring MF Doom, Earl Sweatshirt, and Captain Murphy (Flying Lotus' rap alias); Aerial Ballet and Aerial Pandemonium Ballet by Harry Nillson; After The Goldrush by Neil Young; The Age of Adz by Sufjan Stevens; The Age of Insects by Skandalous All-Stars; The Agent Intellect by Protomartyr
Regional Observation: Almost everyone I passed on the mountain said hi to me, which is either a testament to how much friendlier people from New Hampshire are than people from MA, how pathetic I looked trying to climb a mountain, or some combination of the two
People's Favorite Jokes:
What's green and sings? Elvis Parsley
Two Muffins are sitting in an oven. It's starting to get hot so one muffin turns to the other, and says, "Uh oh it's getting really warm in here!". The other muffin starts screaming and says "AHHH a talking muffin!"
