Motor City

After the awesome show in Madison we hopped in the van and drove seven hours to Detroit. Detroit was another city we were looking forward to -- it’s like Philly’s brother from another mother. Both are blue collar cities, both are gritty, and both have a rough reputation. Although the news runs a lot of negative stuff about Detroit, it’s perfectly fine.

It’s easy to pick on Detroit but it was honestly nice. A few years ago when houses were advertised with a $1 dollar pricetag, things were probably different - but in 2019 everything was looking great. We asked Google about safety in Detroit - but whenever we select answers, we always choose articles with the oldest dates possible because the answers are way funnier.

For example - If you Google something like “What should I do if my dog bites me?”, an answer from an article posted in 2019 will read along the lines of “Get a tetanus shot and enroll your dog in a behavioral adjustment course”. But if you select the answer from an article published in 2002, it’s like “Slap a band-aid on, then bash that dog in the snout”.

In fact, Detroit probably has an even better reputation than Philly at this point. Here are some things people have said or asked about after discovering we’re from Philly.

Reppin’

It’s not all bad, though. Philly has a good reputation as a comedy city -- a sort of hardworking, underground respect. Let’s put it this way - if someone says they’re a New York comic, everyone instantly thinks “Ohhh, look out. Here comes Mr. Big Shot!”. It’s like saying you went to Harvard.

But when people hear Philly, there’s no automatic negative impression; no ‘too big for its britches’ vibe. Like Detroit, Philly has this sort of hardhat-and-lunchpail workmanlike perception. A lot of good comics come from both cities but the grind to the top has a grittier aura.

Another good thing about saying we’re from Philly is people give us a certain amount of street cred right off the bat. They think we’re hardasses. To be clear: we’re suburban pussies, but we’re not going to correct anyone.

A passion for the arts

Detroit has a vibrant art scene and lots of spaces set up for live performance. On the night of our show alone there were performances in various media: standup, sketch, improv, and karaoke.

The teams that performed improv at the show did awesome -- they had great chemistry and the laughs came effortlessly. A lot of standups we know poke fun at improv but we actually enjoy it. There’s a bit of a rivalry between the two forms I guess. Standups say that improvers are a bunch of losers playing make-believe but of course that’s not true.

While we’re on the topic, the thing people use to describe the ultimate loser is “A guy who lives in his mom’s basement”. We don’t understand why there’s so much hate on basements. They’re cool, cozy, and little light gets in - meaning you sleep much better.  Would these guys be more respected if they lived in a different room in their moms house?

Showtime

The host of the show really hooked it up for us. We reached out totally last minute and she bumped some local guys so we could go up (sorry, local guys). The show was arranged with standup first (host, Dan, myself) followed by improv and sketch teams. The host did 7 and Dan and I did 10 minutes a piece.

The audience was almost exclusively comedians (and … improvers? sketchers?) so it made for a fun show. It was a very low pressure situation where we got to try new material mixed in with crowd work.

Saddle up

Detroit was a great town. It was one of those places where the people and shows were so good that we genuinely wanted to stay longer. But, as is often the case, our schedule dictated that we had to go. Our next show was set up for Saturday night in Burlington, VT and the drive took about 12 hours - we had no time to lose. Until next time, Detroit!