On Friday night, I lost faith in two things. One of these illusions was Mapquest, and the other was my assumption that just because someone is funny as a sketch comedian, that means that he will be funny as a stand-up comedian. Both were disappointing revelations, one much more than the other.
The whole evening began as a debacle as I drove through what seemed like the entire Charlottesville area while re-reading my directions from Mapquest. After driving for over 30 minutes, I finally arrived at the Center for the Performing Arts over 20 minutes late. I missed the opening comedian, but arrived at the start of Mitch Fatel's set.
Fatel proved to be a real surprise and a comedic treat. His set focused on a conversation with a female front row audience member and quickly led into descriptions of his personal love life. He joked about one of his best friends, namely his penis, who "always wants to play." Fatel also complained about how the garter belt has gone out of style and mentioned his hatred of pantyhose and its maker. Who would have thought a comedian could have made women's underwear so ridiculous (certainly not women themselves)? His style of talking in a low and unassuming voice helped to improve his already funny jokes.
After his set, I was anticipating an even better set from Morgan, already one of my favorite actors from "Saturday Night Live." Laughs abound whenever Morgan comes on screen in the guise of his well-known roles, both Star Jones and Domicican Lou. The set began slowly, but I did not get worried initially. However, as the set dragged on, I felt that my laughing was forced and found myself looking at my watch a lot more.
About 20 minutes into the set, I really wanted to leave. His jokes weren't particularly funny and were at times very vulgar. I'm no puritan, but Morgan stretched the limits of good taste (admittedly low for a college audience). The lowest moment of the show had to be while he was imitating a female orgasm and simultaneously yelling profanities.
These vulgar jokes compelled even me, a college student looking for some genuine laughs, to leave the show 15 minutes later, feeling extremely disappointed. Morgan reeled off a few funny jokes - such as when he said that Brooklyn is everywhere and got a "Holla" from the crowd. But besides that, there were no real laugh-out-loud jokes.
I had been looking forward to this show for some time and could not have imagined that I would have ended up leaving early. I will still continue to enjoy Morgan's work on "SNL," but there's no way I could fathom going to another stand-up performance. As for Mapquest's similarly poor performance, that particular Web site may get another chance.
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