Last week, I totally lucked out and managed to score an All Access Pass to see Louis CK and four of his favorite stand-up comedians perform during the New York Comedy Festival.
Obviously, having an All Access Pass meant that I got to stand against a wall for the nearly three-hour show time. (Because, you know, nothing but the best with an All Access Pass.) But I really didn't care. It was a nice wall, Louis CK is one of my all-time favorite comedians, and since it was only a few days after the election, I got to hear Louis and his his friends' reactions to the big news while they were still fresh…
Aside from admitting, "Every time I see a black person, I have this weird impulse to congratulate them," Louis seemed pretty reasonable and laid back about the whole thing. He sees America as a self-cleaning oven. It makes an awful mess of itself every so often, but then it does eventually make things right again.
He seemed most awestruck that places like Iowa actually voted in favor of Obama. "How did that happen?" After having recently toured through Davenport, Iowa, he simply just cannot imagine any of the people who came to his show to make his life miserable could have walked out of that club and into a voting booth to vote for the black guy. "I'm proud of them," he said in amazement.
He then went on to do about 72 hours of brand new material and the show ended too soon for me.
Robinson, a black guy, set all us white guys in the audience straight. Just because we have a black president now, it doesn't follow that we've seen the last of black people complaining for fair treatment. On the contrary: "The bitching has just begun." And he warned that "There's gonna be a lot of collect phone calls to the White House."
He also made one really good point that I hadn't thought of before. John McCain may be too old to be president. "He'd make a hell of a Pope, though." Very astute observation.
With a last name like that, I should have seen it coming, but I didn't somehow. Just like everyone of my extended family back in Jersey, Dipaolo is a conservative. But he was very gracious about McCain's loss. In fact, he began his set by saying, "Congratulations, you liberal cocksuckers." That put me immediately at ease.
Like Louis, he was bewildered by Iowa's turnout. "That's not exactly the birthplace of Hip Hop," he reminded us. Which was good, because I'd forgotten.
Then came Todd Barry. Todd Barry did not mention the election once. For
all I know, he wasn't even made aware of the election. But, he was very
funny, so I guess he gets a pass.
By far, the most excited comedian of the night was Ted Alexandro, who admitted to spending the past several days "alternately weeping and dancing around," and that he's incapable of being gracious to McCain supporters, even though he knows that "Barack Obama doesn't approve that message."
And he did make a very interesting point that I hadn't even considered. Now that we have a black president, we can't ever go back to having a white one. "Because, you know what they say…"
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