A Quartet Night of Dirty Comedy

What do you get when you cross Ken Garr, Tony Alfano, Matt Cole and Shawn Halpin? A Quartet of dirty comedy, sore cheeks and side hurting laughter! Yeah! That happened on Wednesday, October 14th, 2015 at the Brea Improv Comedy Club in downtown Brea Ca.

I was in the back of the dim room, taking pictures of the place prior to the show, along with a few selfies, when I heard, "So how'd your selfies come out?" I turned and saw Matt Cole, also standing in the back, but by the entrance of the walkway, talking to people coming through.  I hopped over to him, smiled and said, "Great. I was just grabbing a few selfies to attach to my article. I'm with Center Stage Magazine." He asked me,  "So you writing a review?" I replied, "Yes." Then he said, "You do know this is being taped tonight, so it is going to be a clean show tonight right?" With his best, sincere, cutsie, innocent expression on his face. For a split second, I'm a bit disappointed and say.

"That's probably why I was left free tickets. Ha, ha." But then of course, I do realize who I am talking to and know he is just messing with me. Which he quickly confirms by telling me. 

"NA, I'm kidding, it's going to be all dirty, just so you know." Now with his devilish little, up to no good look, all happily written across his face. He is funny from the start.

I repeat.... "That's probably why I was left free tickets. Ha, ha." But this time really meaning what I said.

I bounce down the aisle and make my way  back to my table, where two others are waiting for me.  BTW. Thanks for the tickets, you know who.  We order our food and drinks and wait for the show to start. It does not take long before the strobe lights start going, and the whole room is flashing, in quick successions of multi rainbowed colored lights. This is the part if you're prone to seizures triggered by flashes, where you cover your eyes. As they announce the show ( we are all about to laugh at ) is being taped so please walk through the center aisle, as to not block the camera's view. So what did we want to do? Jump up of course and block the camera's view, but we do not, we comply...Something my hubby says is very hard for me to do.

Ken Garr takes the faded, red bricked wall, stage first. He starts off strong and quickly has the crowd laughing at all his dating scenario jokes. Being that he is thirty and still has a bedtime. HA!. He states that he is from the South side of Chicago and jokes about comb-overs and sex tapes to breakups and more. Ken Garr really had the crowd going good and laughing hard. But of course, as he lets us know, we are laughing at a pro. No not that type of pro, ha, ha. He is the winner of a San Francisco Comedy Festival, so we should expect no less. He lives up to his title and is very funny.

Then Tony Alfano hops back on stage, but not to announce, this time to show us what he's got... In comedy that is... Looking very relaxed in his black N white American Flag Tee, with an open flannel over it and his backward cap, he looked like he was just kicking it backstage or something. I felt like kicking off my shoes and relaxing too. My drink kicked in, the first guy was funny, I was ready for more. By the looks of it, so was the rest of the crowd. Looking around, everyone seemed to have smiles on their faces. Probably like myself, anticipating more laughter, after all, Tony is one of the reasons we are there in the first place.

He cracks the crowd up laughing at his funny takes on people's car stickers and signs, even going to the naughty takes for shock factor, making us all laugh more. Then he goes into bad religious jokes that make everyone go. "OOOOOHHH! He did not just say that!"  Covering our mouths, in that, trying to appear as if we do not want to laugh, but can't help it, so we will just cover up so it does not look, as if we are laughing at bad religious jokes, and we will somehow be spared. He was too funny! From beard jokes ( which he does not have ) to wing men taking one for the OTHER team, Tony Alfano had the room busting with laughs and hard breaths. Without giving too much away, Tony had the crowd going with his tattoo penis jokes to jobs he held when younger, making our cheeks hurt from laughter. He's definitely one you want to see live.

Who's next? Oh yeah, Mr. pulling my leg, funny man, Matt Cole himself. Who, as they said, runs comedy shows in Orange County five days a week already. So it seems Mr. Cole is a very busy man. Where he finds time to do his stand-ups as well as running shows for our entertainment, must be a juggle, but for us, it was a giggle...and a laugh... and an oh man, my side hurts from laughing. He took stage and went into his crazy encounters on his travels to do shows in other places, and the fans he meets who like to give him advice on his shows after.... You can imagine how that went. We laughed so hard at his jokes about hipsters to rednecks and how he's proud to be the biggest smallest boy in the Big N Tall store. Ha! He was great! I loved the way he delivered his antics. Yes, even his dirty, and boy were they dirty, ones. Very physical in delivery, he gave good visuals and almost made people spit out their drinks, as they could not stop watching and laughing. Matt made good, on his delivery for dirty. As he said it would be.

Now Mr. Shawn Halpin, just got back from entertaining our troops. Hats off and a big Thank You for that. I have Vets in my family and a few active cousins as well. So I was happy to hear that, and the crowd was very happy to hear this information as well. It was great to know, because ladies and gentlemen, Shawn Halpin was so damn funny... We knew if we were laughing this hard, then our troops got some serious funny time in there too. He has a very physical comedy aspect to him as well and made play of the MIC stand to his advantage, in telling his naughty dirty lady jokes, to which I saw, several people bouncing up and down in their seats.  So we knew who those jokes were not really jokes for, as much as telling their secrets, ha, ha. To see such a big scruffy looking man play with a thin little MIC stand in the manner as he did, was just too much! I was frickin crying, I was laughing so hard! Shawn Halpin had the crowd rolling in their seats by the end of the show. It was a great and much needed laugh fest, this night for sure.

So yeah, that is what you get when you cross Ken Garr, Tony Alfano, Matt Cole and Shawn Halpin. A Quartet Night of Dirty Comedy.  I would recommend you catch all four of these guys when you can.  If I would have had the time after, I would have joined them at the Yard House restaurant next to the comedy club after the show.  They invited all to hang out for Tony's and Matt's birthdays. Well, kind of, it had already passed they said, but  they were still just celebrating. I Would have loved to have heard what they all had to say after that performance. Next time guys. Next time.