Las Vegas - The Comedy Stop

Entertainment event number 2 of 3 for my one night in Las Vegas was the late show at The Comedy Stop at the Tropicana. It was a good show, featuring three comics.

Mike Reynolds was the MC and warm up act, but he was great value all by himself. He reminded me strangely but consistently of my old friend Llama in Australia. Even in a short and interrupted set he gave me something I was definitely not expecting: a genuinely new masturbation joke. Mike expressed his amazement, considering how much men masturbate, that handshaking is as common as it is. I almost fell off my chair. Perhaps, he wondered, that could be why the Japanese bow. (Japanese accent) "Oh no," (bowing), "You jerk off too much." (end Japanese accent)

My favourite Mike Reynolds gag was about the price of fame and being recognised in the street. For example, there was an Asian woman who shouted his name as he walked along a busy boardwalk. "Mike Reynolds!" He turned and waved. "Mike Reynolds!" What could this woman possibly want? "Mike Reynolds!" He walked closer and realised that she was shouting "Bike Rentals."

The second comic was another guy whose name I'd never heard. That doesn't mean they're not famous. I'm from the other side of the world, remember? Chris Coccia was one of my favourite things in the world, a genuinely likable comic. He wasn't a high status comic who always has to be clever, and he wasn't a low status comic who always has to play dumb. He was just a really nice guy who told funny stories on stage. He could be my neighbour, if my neighbour was a whole lot more cool and funny.

Having spent so much time on the road lately I loved all his material about road travel, especially the stuff about road works: "It actually merges into no lanes! You know the bit I'm talking about? It's a V. I had to vaporise my car and reform it on the other side." I've been on that road ... twice. "I hate merges too because they should work. Everyone should slip in and boom, we're all on the way. But there's always that one guy who tries to go as far as possible before he moves in. You know that guy? The winner of the merge."

He also did some cool material about male/female relations: "I was at the mall the other day and I caught my wife checking out another guy. You know what I mean? Yeah. I said to her "Honey if you do that 7,000 times that's it, we're even.""

The headliner was Mitchell Walters. He was slick and funny and got big laughs, but he was actually my least favourite of the three performers. It isn't that his set wasn't good. It's just that his style of humour doesn't charm me in the same friendly way as Chris Coccia, or the giggly enjoyment of Mike Reynolds. Mitchell Walters did have a few great riffs about his partner's teenage kids, like finding a stash of marijuana and being horrified by its poor quality. "If she paid for that she's being punished."

He did have one unusual gimmick. He could name the telephone area codes for every neighbourhood in the United States. Any hometown that anyone called out from the audience, he could name the area code. I thought I'd stump him when I called out "Sydney, Australia." He didn't miss a beat. "Australia? No phones."

Mike Reynolds came back on to wrap up the show and told another joke that I really liked. He was talking about the price of a Hooker in Las Vegas. He said he had attempted to hire a prostitute who told him that the rate for full service was $3,000. "Really?" He asked. "How much for self service?"

I think we got the best deal on the strip by seeing this show for just $15 each.