Comedians may live for the applause. They may perform to hear that laughter. Some may even strive to see their name in lights.
But in the end, they do it because they can.
Because, as one comedian put it, “if you ain’t funny, you ain’t going to be doing it for very long.”
Comedy venues dot the region, and Hartford has long been a stop on a circuit encompassing the Northeast and mid-Atlantic states. Hartford is a “B” stop, comedians say. It doesn’t have the concentration of clubs that New York City or Boston does, or the big-room stops of Atlantic City and other entertainment destinations. But Hartford offers regular gigs with appreciative audiences.
“I’ve played the ‘C’ rooms,” said Stamford-based comedian Derrick Eason, shaking his head at the horrors. “So that when you hit a town like this, people are ready to laugh, they are looking to have a good time.”
Hartford has two stops on the comedy circuit: The long-running Comedy Revue, which operates monthly in the Holiday Inn’s ballroom; and Brown Thomson & Co.’s reincarnation on Main Street, City Steam, which offers traveling professionals a basement room from which to ply their craft.
Comedians from the region often travel the Eastern seaboard, occasionally stringing dates together in large Midwestern or Southern cities, or even to the West Coast.
Pittsburgh native Eddie Ifft, 24, remains geographically based in New York City. There, the rookie can cut his teeth performing seven or eight shows a week while snagging commercial acting jobs and writing assignments.
On a recent weekend, he took a train to Hartford’s Union Station and was put up for a night by City Steam in a budget motel. He anticipated having to snag a bus back to New York in the middle of the night.
Philadelphia native Joey Callahan, part of the comedic lineup that performed three shows during the two nights, gave Ifft a lift and also dropped Eason off — all this after their show ended at 1 a.m.
For Callahan, 31, who juggles four or five weekly dates with freelance comedy writing, telling jokes helps pay the mortgage and also helps him raise his year-old child with his kindergarten-teaching wife.
For Ifft, standup is a way to help hone his comedic writing and prepare for a future writing screenplays.
Eason, 37, is ready to leave his marketing research job and jump into standup full-time, a step he hopes eventually blossoms into a career as a versatile entertainer.
“All comics are writers — or thieves,” Eason said.
Most comedians make a habit of jotting down joke and story ideas wherever and whenever. Some tote cassette recorders. Almost all keep notebooks — or wind up with ideas scribbled on napkins, matchbook covers and business cards.
Most scour newspapers, magazines and other media outlets for ideas. And just about all habitually observe and self-examine.
“You can work on delivery, timing and presence afterward,” said Hartford-based Bob Cohen, who has performed part-time for 30 years, a sidelight to the comedy booking business that he and partner Al Korman operate. “The No. 1 thing is the material. You got to have it.”
Comedians use a variety of techniques that can be honed with practice: exaggeration, storytelling, irreverence, physicality, self- deprecation, delivery, timing and stage presence.
Being quick-witted helps, too, said Korman, who has been producing the Comedy Revue for 15 years. Comedians welcome interaction with audience members, Korman said. The key, though, is polish.
“A good comic makes it seem as if the heckler was placed there as part of the act,” Al Korman said.
Comedians typically break down material into categories, based on a show’s setting, audience and other considerations. There is the “road act,” the “showcase set,” the “prop act” the “blue act.”
When new comedians are “dying” on stage from lack of audience response, they may resort to the rapid-fire, one-line maxims often categorized as the “hack act.” The categories evolve as much as the genre of comedy.
Comedic opportunities are typically broken down by setting: Nightclubs, private parties and corporate or college settings. Ordinarily a set lasts 20 to 40 minutes. On a recent weekend at City Steam, Eason went on for nearly an hour.
“Standup comedy is a trade,” Callahan said. “It’s blue-collar theater at its best.”
During a recent late-night Hartford show before about 80 people, Ifft, Callahan and Eason showed the intersection of their experience, style and personality.
Ifft was exuberent while surfing through material, but too often laughed self-consciously at his jokes. Callahan probed the audience, mining material when promising laughter emerged. Eason displayed a deft touch, pausing for pacing, soliciting club patrons, and weaving anecdotes around the give and take.
After the show, the three retreated to a harshly lit 6-by-10-foot room to grab their belongings. In the room, which contained a table, two chairs and walls papered with the salutations and signatures of comedians who’ve played here, they grabbed their coats, Ifft slinging a knapsack over his shoulder.
Upstairs, bar patrons enjoyed another round or two before last call. Ifft, Callahan and Eason headed for the door.
