Feel the Sting!

I did a show last night at Stinger's Lounge & Grill in London, Ohio. The show is run by my good friend, comedian Matt Horn. London is his hometown. I had a lot of fun at the show.

It's always a coin flip when I do one of these shows. How much of an audience will be at the show? Will they care? Even if they do care, will they like my act? I've done shows in towns the size of London that were filled up and they won't laugh. So, it's always fun to have the anticipation for whether I will just be talking on a stage for a half hour or people will actually laugh and be entertained.

Stinger's is a good, local place with a bunch of Stinger's-related items behind the bar including stuffed animals and figurines. I asked fellow comedian Mike Kolar if he wanted to buy one of the figurines. Then, I realized it likely wasn't for sale. This isn't the Hard Rock Cafe. Nevertheless, Mike and I contemplated if we would accept our payment for the show in figurines.

When we arrived to Stinger's, there were two separate other events that would be going on. Bike Night was from 6-9 pm. Comedy Night is at 9 pm. Then, DJ Elmus is at 10:30 pm. What a Friday night at Stinger's! I was particularly excited because Bike Night is always my demographic. It appears no one really showed up for Bike Night. While some of the people already there looked like bikers, I saw no bikes around Stinger's.

We set up the tables and then the show began. While the crowd was small, it was mighty. By mighty, I mean that I turned to Mike and said, “This feels like we're going to be doing comedy on a bus.” That's because each person in the crowd looked weird for completely different reasons. Matt Horn had a good thing going with a drunk man in the front named Craig. He then didn't have a good thing going with a drunk woman to the left, who apparently was so offended by a Cleveland Browns joke, that she left. There was then a racially ambiguous man in the back corner of the room.

Horn did a fine job as did Jake Tyler and Mike. I then went up on stage, and opened by saying, “We are only 25 minutes away from DJ Elmus!” which was an exciting fact. While Jake and Mike had taken a lot of time to talk to inebriated Craig, I was more curious about the racially ambiguous man. While he appeared weird at the beginning, he turned out to be a really nice guy named Miguel. He was not ambiguous. He was Puerto Rican. He enjoyed what I had to say and so did Craig and the others in the crowd. It's all you can ask for in comedy: to have a fun time on stage and entertain a crowd.

Prior to the show, I had given an Over/Under on how many times I would say “Stinger Splash” at 2.5. It ended up being 4 times. As I was about to go into my final joke, I shouted “Stinger Splash!” then attempted to explain to Craig what that was. In order to give the full effect, I demonstrated the move on a speaker on the stage. Imagine a skinny Indian guy in a sweater and chinos doing this:

The post-show dynamics got even better. Some bald guy with a beard and earrings (remnants of Biker Night?) came up to me and said, “Hey, are you at the Funny Bone?” I said, “Yeah.” He said, “Yeah. What's the sandwich? Onion sandwich!” I said, “Yeah,” and laughed, then cried on the inside knowing that if I died today, that would be my legacy. Hilariously, this guy watched none of the show, yet was the most talkative person to me post-show.

Once the show ended, DJ Elmus hit the tunes! The Lynyrd Skynyrd and Usher were flowing! Some woman was dancing around a pole by herself. Later, this woman felt the need to approach me and stroke my beard without saying a single word to me. Stinger's!

Well, it was time to go. It was another fun night of comedy. Above the bar at Stinger's, it has a sign that says, “I LOVE THIS BAR.” I totally agree. STINGER SPLASH!