15 comedians and 2 dogs

Headed on over to the Punch Line Comedy Club which I had pre-booked. On Sundays they do something called the Comedy Showcase where 15, yes 15 comedians all do a 10 minute routine each. It is a testbed for new material some got huge laughs, some got uncomfortable silences! It seems that self racism, self sexism or any kind of minority abuse based on your own ethnic background is the order of the day in SF. Which given the comedians included a gay bloke, 3 black guys, a Jewish guy, 2 Chinese guys, a Japanese woman, a Mexican woman and a Puerto Rican guy you can begin to get the picture... (Everyone picked on the Mexicans though, don't understand that.) Most of the jokes were very good, but some were disgusting and in my opinion out-of-order. What is strange is the things I found OK compared to those I didn't. The Jewish guy making jokes about jacking off whilst at Auschwitz, believe it or not, was actually quite funny (you had to be there, the club that is not Auschwitz). But Scott Capurro - white middle aged guy who was actually the headliner based his humour on base level racism. Now he thinks he was being clever no doubt, playing on our insecurities and values to get a reaction - but I just thought he was a cock. I also was uncomfortable with some of the jokes around pedophiles and rape. In it's context it was sometimes amusing (Why not put all old people on an Island and send child abusers to care for them thus solving two problems) but that doesn't make it right. It also seems the easy way to get a laugh rather than working your jokes on observation or situational comedy. Coincidental I read an excellent article this morning on the current comedy standards in the Guardian and it refers to this nob head I saw. The new offenders of stand up comedy Well worth a read.

Anyway, more hilarious was the fact I was seated next to a English guy who lives in SF with his two kids who came to see him. They were in their 20's, both from Barnsley (which isn't the problem) but both thick as pig sh*t. "Do you think this pizza comes with English cheese or American." "I better not order Stella as it makes me violent" Makes ya proud to be British huh!?

Next day after a massive breakfast at the hotel I went to work. The office wasn't that impressive but I did question my sanity when I noticed two dogs wondering about. Turns out it's quite normal in SF to take dogs to work.. WHAAAAAAAT!!!?

That's it, off for summin to eat.