...and her name is Iliza Shlesinger.
We decided to go out for another Saturday night, just us. I'm really beginning to enjoy these nights out. We got ourselves a sitter and went out for dinner at the Black Swan (thank you SUTP coupon book!) and had reserved seats for the show at Yuk Yuk's - it's not every day that a winner of Last Comic Standing hits your fair city...
First and foremost, I have to say how enjoyable it was to see Lori Gibbs as our host and MC for the evening. I don't see her near enough, and just being in the same room as her does something for me. When I was pregnant, I always had high blood pressure every time I went to see my doctor. I really disliked my doctor and she didn't care for me much either. One day, Lori just happened to be in the waiting room (her son goes to the same clinic) and we had a lovely chat. That day, my blood pressure was the lowest it had ever been. Coincidence? I think not.
Anyway, the show was late starting and Lori had so many celebrations in the crowd to acknowledge she didn't get to do much of her actual material. So we had to settle for crowd work and she brought up Erica Scott from Ottawa.
I have to say I wasn't feeling Erica. I don't know if the volume wasn't loud enough or if it was the wait staff chatting loudly in the kitchen right next to where we sitting, but I couldn't always hear her and when I did, didn't really think she was that funny. There's a point when self-deprecation gets tedious and about 5 minutes into her set, it tipped it over the edge for me. Does every larger woman's set have to be entirely about her size? No. Please, no.
Or maybe I was just so excited to see Iliza that I couldn't wait for Erica to end.
Once Iliza hit the stage, everyone was quiet (finally) and she took control. You don't get to see comedians of her caliber that often - she's not old and jaded and brings a fresh face to the stage. She's a little on the dirty side, but her presentation cuts the edge off. We could tell that she had been listening to both Lori and Erica, as she did call-backs to their material throughout her set.
Iliza did a great job of relating to the crowd, and really got us all on her side when she brought her dog Blanche out and incorporated her into the show. We all loved Blanche - I couldn't believe a dog would be so mellow in front of an audience, but she did a great job and was really well behaved.
Iliza kept going high-energy for a whole hour, and I could have sat there all night. I have not laughed that hard in a very long time. Thanks for putting on such a good show!
After everything was over, Iliza stood at the door and was doing autographs, selling t-shirts and was gracious enough to pose for a picture with me and Blanche.
Aren't they adorable?
And tonight I get to go see Simon King at Derek Sweet's Going To Hell Sundays. Life is good.
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