On the move

We reached Madison in the middle of a packed week. We did Chicago on Tuesday, Madison Wednesday, Detroit on Thursday, and Burlington on Saturday. We had very little time to explore - even on stage it felt like we had to sprint just to make it to the next city.

We were excited for Madison - it kept popping up whenever we talked to other road comics about what cities they enjoyed. Of course the usual suspects popped up (New York, LA, Chicago, etc) but there was a lot of buzz around Madison. It’s Chris Farley’s hometown and a lot of talented comedians come out of there.

Living up to the rep

When we arrived in Madison we weren’t let down. The entire city was buzzing as it was college move-in day. People were out and about and there was live music in the streets. We first knew Madison was going to be cool when a drunk guy in Portland wouldn’t stop talking about it. Then we got there and realized he was right.

The Midwest as a whole is a hotbed of comedy. When you live in a place that’s inhospitably cold you either learn to make jokes about it or drink yourself to death. Just kidding about that last sentence - being a comedian and boozing hardcore are by no means mutually exclusive.

And just because you’re from somewhere cold doesn’t mean you’re funny

People from Wisconsin really are a fun, awesome bunch. We’ll put it this way: anyone who’s willing to get drunk and hang out in the blistering cold with a cheese hat is crazy in the best way.

‘Open Mic’

The show in Madison (at Comedy on State) was very much like the show in Minneapolis at Sisyphus Brewing. It was technically an open mic, but was much better than most booked shows. In both cities, anywhere from 30-60 comedians sign up to get on these mics and only 10-20 get on. Real audiences come to these shows and turnouts are usually huge.

In both instances we reached out to the hosts beforehand to get spots on the show, otherwise we never would’ve got on. These shows usually run on a lottery system and it could’ve taken weeks to finally be picked. Luckily the hosts at both were really accomodating to traveling comics.

Comedy on State was a great venue. The showroom had awesome acoustics and there was a live feed of every performer piped into the bar, lobby, and even the bathrooms.

Weirdness witnessed

At this point we’ve seen all manner of bizarre acts. Here are but a few things we’ve witnessed at open mics.

That night we added a new one to the list. A guy got up and sang the entire song ‘Hallelujah’ but at the chorus instead of saying ‘Hallelujah’, he sang ’Tony Shal-houb’. It fucking crushed so hard. Between verses, everyone knew what was coming and it still killed.

The guy who followed him said “What the fuck was that? How can I follow that freak?” but he actually did really well. I was talking to him after the show when the host approached him and said “Hey, man, I wasn’t trying to sail you down the river on that one. I’ve seen that bit obliterate crowds and I knew you’d be able to follow it”. It was a sign of respect.

Showtime

The show was broken into two halves - each half featuring 10 comics and lasting about an hour. I kicked off the second half and Dan went on two comics later. The crowd was awesome and we both did really well.

After the show, the comedians all went to a bar next door to hang out. It seemed like the Madison comedy scene had a really supportive, tight-knit culture. The city as a whole seemed like a great city to grow and get good.

If we didn’t have to drive straight to Detroit we definitely would have hung around and got to know the comics more. We’re looking forward to coming back!