11.08 Local Comics ~ The Future of Funny

Worcester County knows funny. We breed funny here. Think Denis Leary and Doug Stanhope. These guys have established themselves on the national and international scenes, but it wasn’t long ago that they were doing stand-up gigs in local clubs, working on the acts that would make them famous. And following in their footsteps is a whole new generation of comedians and comediennes who promise to make us laugh just as hard and keep Central MA on the comedy map for a long time to come. Their styles, subject matters, and mediums vary, but they’ve got one thing in common: they are the future of funny. So put your hands together for Mike Birbiglia, Sarah Blodgett, William Donoghue, Orlando Baxter, Michelle Hopkins, and James Dorsey.

Mike Birbiglia
By Tine Roycroft

Ask Mike Birbiglia, comedian and star of both stage and set, where he comes from originally, and he will answer with pride…and a full explanation in case you don’t get the full picture.

“I’m from Shrewsbury, Massachusetts,” Birbiglia, 30, told Pulse Magazine. “It’s a suburb of Worcester. Which is a suburb of Boston. Which is a suburb of America.”

And although Birbiglia might not have his bearings when it comes to geography or zoning, he certainly knows how to please a crowd with comedy. He brought his “Sleeping While Standing Tour” to Boston’s Wilbur Theatre on October 11 and brought the house down with laughter. But although he is a king when performing in front of hundreds of laugh-seeking fans, Birbiglia’s bed-headed good looks and simply stated jokes prove him to be an everyman despite the bright lights.

Birbiglia started out learning from the best. He was influenced in his earlier years by comedic greats such as Bill Cosby, Woody Allen and Richard Pryor. He attended Georgetown University where, he said, one particular lesson which really stayed with him: “Never take classes before 11am. And maybe 11:30am.”

Birbiglia said that when he saw Stephen Wright perform live, the would-be comedian knew that he had found his calling. But as any truthful laugh master will admit, the road to Oz was not paved with yellow bricks. It was paved with bad jobs that paid the bills until the comedy could.

“I was a busboy, an administrative assistant at Pfizer, a data entry person, a waiter,” Birbiglia said. “I would always fall asleep, which I knew was a bad sign.”

With the day jobs leaving him narcoleptic, Birbiglia was inspired to work even harder. Finally, with his tight writing and perfect comedic timing, he started performing at colleges, which proved to be not only financially lucrative, but refreshing to the funny man’s soul. It was then that he “quit his sleepy day jobs,” he said.

Birbiglia’s dedication has paid off and today his show “Sleepwalk With Me” is being performed in 21 cities, clubs and colleges across the United States. “In the show,” Birbiglia said, “I tell the craziest, funniest sleepwalking story you may ever hear.”

Promises of humor aside, this Shrewsbury boy is the picture of humility. He recently was married at City Hall, which he believes to be the most important of his “gigs.” He likes a good slice of pizza and uses the early works of Dylan to open his sets. And yes, he has been arrested. And yes, the story is a funny one.

“I borrowed my friend Brian’s Ford Escort,” Birbiglia revealed, “and got pulled over for speeding. Then I got arrested for having a suspended license. The cop took two photos and he said he was going to keep one in case I got famous.”

The arresting officer must have had some X-men foresight about him because these days, Birbiglia is no longer rolling around in borrowed Ford Escorts (that we know of!). In spring 2008, he did a pilot for CBS. The premise of the show involved a man who accidentally gets engaged and the drama that surrounds the planning of the wedding. Birbiglia has also opened for amazing comedians such as Mitch Hedberg, Lewis Black and Dave Attell, and intends to perform “Sleepwalk with Me” off Broadway.

After much admitted trial and error, Birbiglia feels that there is a divine recipe ~ a mixture of talents ~ that one must have in order to become a successful comedian.

“You have to be delusional,” he said. “Especially early on. Because you have to tell yourself it’s going well when it’s really not going well. Otherwise, you’d never get onstage and you’d just think ‘human beings don’t like me.’”

For more information on Mike Birbiglia, go to www.birbigs.com/index.html.

Sarah Blodgett
By Christina Collins

It’s not easy to be a female comedian ~ especially a good-looking one. Take it from Sarah Blodgett, a Worcester-born stand-up comic who is envied by women and stalked by men. Blodgett, 28, has been doing stand-up comedy for four years now, and performs all over New England. She’s a regular at comedy clubs in Boston, including her personal favorites, The Comedy Studio in Harvard Square and the Beantown Comedy Vault. Blodgett is full of surprises, and Pulse got to discover some of them first-hand.

PULSE: According to your MySpace bio, you have “the face of a model, the body of a stripper and the personality of a drama nerd with a splash of ghetto fabulousness.” That’s impressive. How do you keep up this image?
SB: I’m not perfect. It’s my flaws that make me funny; they make me interesting. I get the ghetto fabulousness from living in Worcester. I think it’s a ghetto fabulous city.

PULSE: And we agree. Do you think success in comedy is harder to achieve as a woman?
SB: I think it is much harder as a female comic, especially an attractive female comic. There is some kind of misconception that pretty girls can’t be funny. I don’t think it’s that pretty girls can’t be funny, it’s that usually we stop trying because guys spend so much time staring at our chests that they don’t listen to what we have to say anyway. There are many times when I feel like I need to work twice as hard as the male comics to get half the credit.

PULSE: Describe your “self-involved” humor.
SB: On stage I mostly talk about my own life experiences. The great thing about it is that after shows I’ve had other young women come up to me and tell me that they can identify with what I’ve been through. It’s almost as fulfilling as the laughter…almost.

PULSE: You were the only stand-up comic in the 2006 Miss Massachusetts Pageant. What was that experience like for you?
SB: Well, I had never done a pageant before and I decided to challenge myself. It was a fun experience, but even though I looked like I fit in with the other girls, I didn’t feel like I fit in. But after the pageant I went to a comedy show and I didn’t look like I fit in, but I felt like I did.

PULSE: How have past experiences affected who you are today?
SB: I was overweight as a child, so I was picked on a lot by other kids…While I was in college I decided to really take my weight loss seriously and I lost about 60 lbs. The irony of my life is that now everyone treats me like I was the cheerleader that was mean to them in high school, when in fact I was the one that everyone picked on.

PULSE: So you have humor, beauty, and brains. You must have a lot of stalkers.
SB: Do guys on MySpace that ask for pictures of my feet count as stalkers?

PULSE: Absolutely. What’s the worst joke you’ve ever heard?
SB: Some nights I get to a point where, if I have to hear one more comic talk about fat chicks, I’m going to scream.

For more information about Sarah Blodgett, visit her website at www.myspace.com/sarahcomedy.

Orlando Baxter
By Allie Bombz

Orlando Baxter is one of them cats who makes anything funny. He has opened for Eddie Griffin, Tommy Davidson, and countless other A list comedians. He graduated from The College of the Holy Cross. He grew up in Great Brook Valley. “If you can make it through the Valley, you can make it anywhere.” Orlando has been in hot pursuit of a hot comedy career for years, takin’ himself from L.A. to the finals of the NBC Diversity Fest in New York City last year. You can catch him at Boston comedy clubs on the regular, but he will be living in Worcester ‘til his final day on Earth. “Worcester is cool. We’re right in the middle. We ain’t as bad as Springfield. We’re kind of like Springfield on ecstasy.”

Orlando started his on-stage comedy career in L.A. at an open mic. First night went well. Second night, “I bombed.” Third night, “I bombed.” Fourth night, “I bombed.” He managed to get up a fifth night, and split some guts. “Other comedians were like, ‘How many years you been doin’ this?’ If I fooled them, maybe I could fool everybody.”

Orlando went to South High, by the airport. Keepin’ it local, he put his Worcester-bred brain to the task of earning a degree from the prestigious College of the Holy Cross. Orlando spent a year abroad in Leicester, England. The difference between Leicester, England and Leicester, Massachusetts? “Teeth!” Following graduation from Holy Cross, he moved to Los Angeles and worked on the lot at Universal Studios. Wasn’t what he was lookin’ for. He next lined himself up with a job in finance ~ wasn’t cutting the mustard. Orlando got a job teaching school. “I teach, coach basketball and volleyball. And I don’t know sh*t about volleyball.”

He’s come a long way from Great Brook Valley. “You can tell they don’t want nobody to leave the Valley. There’s a store bus. It’s a bus drivin’ around with all the stuff you can get at the store. There’s stores right down the street, what we need a store bus for? I grew up in Curtis Houses. Nobody knows who Curtis is. But it definitely shaped me up for comedy. I had glasses. I knew people was gunna joke, so I had to attack first. I knew ‘Urkel’ was coming.”

His mother used to watch Benny Hill, Sanford and Son, and Redd Foxx, and she loved to laugh, so there was his inspiration. Add his uncle’s Richard Pryor records from the basement, tapes of Abbot & Costello, Robin Harris, Jerry Lewis, and Bernie Mack, and it was on.

If you get a chance, go see Orlando perform ~ he’s working at a comedy club somewhere on the east coast just about every weekend. Check his MySpace page for upcoming show dates, and support the kid. He’s a piece of us ~ of Worcester ~ and he’s out there makin’ his mark with unique , hilarious outlooks on life. Watch the DCU marquis for his name, comin’ soon!!

www.myspace.com/orlandobaxter

James Dorsey
By Matt Erhartic

You may not recognize James Dorsey by name, but Worcester area residents are likely familiar with his work. Seen the TV ads for The Irish Times? Co-starring the club’s owner Scot Neri, the commercial has Dorsey popping up at the end, brandishing a Rodney Dangerfield-like mug: “Irish Times…Brilliant!” While some may giggle and others may groan, James Dorsey pulls off a vital element of stand up comedy ~ getting a reaction.
Dorsey has never had difficulty in the attention-getting department. The St. John’s High School and Assumption College grad admits to being a bit difficult in school, stemming all the way back to the second grade when he received a D minus for conduct. “My grandmother asked me what a 7 year old boy does to deserve a D- in conduct. Swing from the chandelier? ‘Grandma, my classroom doesn’t have a chandelier,’” Dorsey recalls. “She was not amused.”

While his love of entertaining an audience always earned him [sometimes dubious] acknowledgments such as “class clown” and “funniest” by his classmates, James was basically cutting his comedy chops in school, behavior that also landed him in the principal’s office on a regular basis. “There was a popular after-school program for funny people like me – detention.”

Using his everyday life and topics like family, relationships, and timely material such as the Fung Wah Bus Company in his comedic arsenal, Dorsey has been hard at work firing away in any setting that’ll take him. Corporate functions, private parties, fund raisers, bachelor parties, theatres and colleges are just a few venues that Dorsey has worked, looking for laughs. “Work hard to get in front of as many people as possible ~ I believe in fate,” James explains. “I feel if you are working hard and are constantly trying to improve yourself you will get to where you deserve. It is hard work to be a comic. Not only are you the writer/talent, you’re the agent, manager, and promoter.”

Wearing many hats has paid off for the newcomer, recently winning Twin Rivers Casino’s “Catch a Rising Star” comedy competition. Battling it out against 150 comics over 10 weeks, Dorsey claimed the grand prize, an all expense paid trip to Reno, NV, to perform at the famous Silver Legacy Resort and Casino. The competition was a true test of Dorsey’s abilities. “When I walked on to the stage I was looking out to what seemed like 10,000 people. People as far as I could see,” James recalls. “The room had so much energy, so much life…I felt possessed for those ten minutes.”

Although he is determined and hopeful about his future in comedy, as any comic can tell you there are ups and downs in the business, including playing the occasion bomb. As talented as Dorsey is, he’s had a doozy or two and was quite humbled. “If a comic tells you they have never bombed, that comic is not telling the truth,” James laughs.

The everyday hustle and experiences, good and bad, have educated James Dorsey in another vital element of stand up comedy ~ knowing your audience. “If you are in front of a room of Baby Boomers, leave the bit about your MySpace account in your notebook because chances are they will not relate,” Dorsey shares. “I think every comic works towards creating that ideal set that will kill no matter who is in the room. It is impossible to make 100% of the people in the room laugh 100% of the time…but that is the goal.”

James is available for corporate functions, private parties, colleges or special events. Email him at dors2118@verizon.net.

Bill Donoghue
By Joe Smith

Bill Donoghue is one of those guys who’s unshakably mellow 99% of the time, but when he gets laughing, it’s as contagious as anthrax. A Worcester-born writer and comedic actor (and friend of mine since our days at Forest Grove Middle), Bill graduated from Brown University and moved to San Francisco to join the sketch comedy group Killing My Lobster. With his fellow troupe members, he wrote for and performed in wildly popular live shows and short films before moving back to Worcester where he lives now. You can get an idea of his humor at www.killingmylobster.com/content/view/97/50/ and www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwReI7lNrEo.

He’s held his share of bizarre jobs along the way, including being a guinea-pig for an antacid-testing experiment, a job requiring him to eat a big bowl of chili, wait for heartburn, take what was either an experimental antacid or a placebo, then report the results. He also started a gypsy moving company with a friend and former Brown classmate. During that time, the two collaborated on a screenplay titled Win Some, set in a fictional, slowly gentrifying Boston suburb.

Bill is happy to be based once again in Worcester. He jokes that it’s a place in which you could easily go weeks talking only about the weather and the Red Sox. If you add the subject of how good Spag’s used to be…six months. He’s just now getting back into the funny-making business after taking a few years off. And though he misses the thrill of live performance, he’s also excited about the opportunities for comedy made possible through new technology. Projects on his roster right now include new web videos, some humorous non-fiction writing (he’s currently in talks with this publication), and a highly digressive sports podcast called Sports Chitty-Chat (with Killing My Lobster co-founder Paul Charney).

Though face-to-face he’s no-nonsense and down-to-earth, his place in the future of Worcester comedy would definitely be that of the Wild Card. No stand-up routines about how women all go to the bathroom at the same time, or easy political jabs about McCain’s age. It’s Coach Rockbottom, his character who helms the under-funded neighborhood center’s floor pool (a pool-sized rectangle on a gym floor marked out with tape). It’s the Rezelscheft web short, featuring Bill and others as screaming, huge-headed baby creatures interrupting a fake movie trailer full of small-town scandal and backwards-walking sheep (just watch it at www.youtube.com/watch?v=LulRAMhsVNo).

Some funny people have an almost scientific approach to their comedy. They can sit down with a pen and pad and come up with themes and a structure and a visual blueprint before word one of dialogue is written or spoken. Bill is not one of these people. Bill’s toolbox is some free time, a sense of play that has not dulled since I met him in the 7th grade, whatever is in arm’s reach for props, and perhaps some pizza and a Rolling Rock or two. And a good wig never hurts.

Chamber music it’s not. It’s jazz. It’s difficult to diagram the logic of Bill’s humor, to describe why it’s funny. It just is.

A few final questions for Bill:

Funniest news item in recent memory?
“That cat that chased the bear up the tree…”

Most underrated funny person?
“[‘Saturday Night Live’ cast member] Fred Armisen”

One thing you remember learning in the Worcester school system?
“[from Home Ec.] That dried egg is not technically considered a ‘dry food’ item. Not sure how exactly that works…”

Michelle Hopkins
By Jillian Locke

Comedy was not always the top choice for Michelle Hopkins as far as acting was concerned. “My focus used to be drama. I actually find comedy harder to do than drama,” says the Worcester native. But today, she finds herself as one of the staple crew members for the Lowell-based comedy show “The Bob Show.” Since last summer, Hopkins has taken to broadening her acting horizons with the help of “The Bob Show” creator/writer/actor, Bob McCarthy.

Hopkins grew up in Grafton Hills and attended Holy Name Central Catholic Junior/Senior High School. Her love for acting started early, and has carried her far beyond the 508. “I took acting classes in the city during high school at John Robert Powers, a national chain acting/modeling school, but it is closed down now. My teacher was Brian Tivnan, who is now a theatre professor at Assumption College. I also took dance classes at Jo Ann Warren’s Dance Studio. I went to school in Russia at the Moscow Art Theatre School my sophomore year in college, from December 2005-January 2006.” Hopkins has appeared in theatrical productions for Holy Name and Worcester State College, as well as for the NYC Shea Theatre Company.

How did Hopkins end up doing comedy in Lowell? “I replied to the casting calls on www.newenglandfilms.com, and have been involved with “The Bob Show” since last summer,” says Hopkins. Just as Hopkins made the transition from drama to comedy, McCarthy also made a professional transition. “I was doing Pro Wrestling for nine years and decided to leave and pursue other interests. I started hosting a rock music show and then a stand-up comedy show…I started doing short comedy videos with friends and then put an ad out online to get some actors. Before you know it, I was doing my first taping in the studio.” And thus, “The Bob Show” was born. “It just became a path I followed, doing television shows for nine years at my local Public Access station. Once I started getting positive reviews, the show took a life of its own and became stronger.”

The skits have a “Saturday Night Live” feel to them and are created with McCarthy’s comedic influences in mind. “My biggest comic influences would have to be people like Jackie Gleason, Chris Farley, The Three Stooges and Seinfeld.” Citing her favorite episodes of “The Bob Show” as Gemini Dating, in which she plays “Trudy,” and News Now, in which she plays reporter “Jennifer Chase,” Hopkins is thoroughly enjoying the change of theatrical pace. “It’s been an amazing experience ~ everyone cracks me up SO much!” McCarthy shares similar sentiments. “I enjoy all of it and could not do it without my cast and crew, the people that help you up the ladder.” See the Woo-Town native in her favorite skits and plenty more at www.TheBobShow.net, and check out ltc.org/ for show times.

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Comedy Nights Around Town
By Linnea Sheldon

Comedy nights around Central Massachusetts have recently been gaining in popularity as an alternative way to spend your evenings. Local bars and clubs that usually feature music are adding the comedic performances to their weekly and monthly schedules, and comedy shows are popping up in other venues regularly.

Dick Doherty’s Beantown Comedy Escape sets up shop at the Crown Plaza at 10 Lincoln Square in Worcester every Friday and Saturday night at 9 p.m. The nights include both local comedians and national headliners. The shows are 18+ and the tickets start at $15. The buffet and show package is $29.95 with advanced reservations. The Comedy Escape’s lineup for November includes Corey Rodrigues, R-Rated Hypnotist Joey Devito, Orlando Baxter, Stephanie Peters, Frank Santorelli, and many others.

The Williams Restaurant and Tavern in Gardner hosts Williams Comedy Club on the first Saturday of every month. Sheila Van Dyke hosts the evening, and the club showcases professional comedians from all over.

Tammany Hall in Worcester is putting a new spin on karaoke nights by adding in a stand-up comedy component. Every Tuesday night starting at 8 p.m. local comedians have the chance to get up in front of a live audience and give it a go.

3Gs Sports Bar at 152 Millbury Street in Worcester also offers up a comedy showcase. The show has been running in the same slot, every Saturday night from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., for the last three years. The comedians include up and comers as well as veteran comedians from all over New England. The shows are 18+ and it’s free admission. The comedy showcase is immediately followed by a blues jam.

If you’re looking for something different to do, or a great way to let go of the stress from a long work day, head to one of these shows, sit back and laugh while you enjoy a beer, and don’t forget to tip your waiter.