Jeremiah Wins Big On Saturday Night - GLL Comedy
Jeremiah Martin accepting his OHS prom trophy and the grand prize of $250.
A flurry of activity all around describes what was happening this last Saturday at The GhostLight Lounge. It was electrifying, as if an anomalous wintertime southern storm was brewing and ready to wreak its havoc. This storm would prove to be nothing from the heavens, but instead one of words. What were those words, one may ask? Well, those words would be ones carefully crafted. Meticulously put together as if by the Greek god Hephaestus, or Vulcan, if you’re more familiar with Roman paganism. These gods themselves, if they are or were indeed real, would be familiar of the contents of these words, as the concept has existed since the beginning of organized civilization. These words that I, the author of this article on a silly bar website am alluding to, are what we know conceptually of as comedy.
Comedy, in its current form, would be hardly recognizable in its current form to the aforementioned ancients. This natural evolution of this concept begins with Greek political satire, which still carries heritage to today’s modernity with late night hosts like Colbert and whatnot, but back in this age of bronze and truly fair democracy (Athenian democracy wasn’t actually open, but instead limited to the aristocratic oligarchy) it was performed theatrically as great epics. This wordiness and inflated set up has been distilled by time into a finely sifted craft. One which requires precise timing and wordplay to illicit a perfect response, laughter.
Speaking of wordiness and inflated set up, I’m not done yet, and am returning to the plot of my story.
I entered the bar at exactly 7:30p.m. that fateful night. Late, as per usual, but as this was a normal trend that has been established it wasn’t really a problem. The lights were dim, and the curtains drawn as our fearless leader and manager, Alex Jorn, was setting up for the night. We were all in a rush to be ready for this gathering storm, and I still had work to do. In an effort to get these comedians higher visibility and name recognition, I had been creating name slides to put on our display on stage. This would encourage our patrons to remember more of each person, as they now had a name to the face. (All of this is meaningless drivel, but it’s written to serve as an illustration to the activity and stresses of making these shows a higher production than just packing people into a bar.) The time was ticking, the namecards had been finished, and the clock had struck 8. Go time. In came the huddled masses at the door, the activity became even more flurried. A critical mass of this energy had to be reached! But when? I would wonder as we approached showtime. Our fearless leader would give her little announcement to our crowd, a survey. These surveys kicked off of our shows and can range from painfully unfunny because I’ve heard it so many times, to downright hysterical, and the latter is what I had received. Alex, bucking the trend, had swerved entirely away from the survey on the very first question. This was a question of relationships, and it proved so fruitful that these conversations between her on stage and the audience would be revisited more than a couple of times during the show. (I’m not going to disclose what exactly was discussed here, you’re just going to have to be there next time to know.) Moving on, Alex concluded that opening survey with only that one question asked, and the audience was already in a frenzy for the first comedian.
Janice Barniak delivering her set as our first comedian of the night.
Up first, the one and only, Janice Barniak.
Janice came into comedy months before at one of our open stage nights last year. Notepad in hand, she showed a lot of promise with her witty story development derived from experiences in her life. She’s taken the stage here at The GhostLight Lounge for our main show a few times now, and has never ceased to provide her ever-evolving comedic skill. This time, her set consisted of a story about attending a workout class in the basement of a rural church. Why a workout class in the basement of a church? Well, she explained that it’s because it was the only place that could fit that many ladies in such a small town. I won’t give too much of her set away, but her story revolved around how out of place her dress was for the occasion, as she hadn’t realized that this workout class was essentially an impromptu church service.
Our second comedian now had to step up to the plate, and that he did.
Jeremiah Martin, the man, myth, and legend, delivered a great set the ensured a victory even over the following tremendous comedians. He is a very strong writer and delivers his routine with confidence and authority. At the end of this article is a lot more on this comedian, including an interview on his process and comedic ideas.
After a killer set from Jeremiah, Jimmy needed to bring the energy.
Jimmy Lee is a comedian who is lightning quick. He speaks with a hurried, energetic cadence, and also keeps his comedy succinct and to the point. He opens his set with stating that he’s crazy and a growing boy that needs to eat, and then contrasts that with speaking to animals as if they’re people. Jimmy will sometime give a commentary about social norms and expectations, providing valuable insight and experience from life for us all to enjoy.
After Jimmy Lee, who conveniently shares a surname with this comedian, Layson Brooks took the GhostLight Lounge stage.
Layson Brooks is a familiar face here at The GhostLight Lounge. He’s participated in a great majority of our shows (and won a few), hosted our first ever spelling bee, and even pops in from time to time. This veteran (of GhostLight comedy and the armed forces) is a lifelong learner, and he displays his knowledge on stage whilst also providing commentary on relatable topics such as home and southern life. A staple of Layson’s routine involves a story about his son and how today’s information age has skewed parent and child communication. The joke begins with Layson describing how he hollered up this stairs for his son, only to receive a text message with one singular word, “What?” In order to preserve this part of his routine, I won’t go into any more detail, but Layson masterfully wraps all of our bewildering and blisteringly paced communication changes into a concise punchline that guarantees a laugh.
After Layson had tied up all of his plot lines, it was now time for the previous champion to take the stage.
Ryan Likens, another champion from our previous shows, returned to provide a unique set for us last Saturday. Ryan is a comedian that is very keen to involve the audience members, either by responding to heckling, or directly singling someone out to either comment or ask questions to spin their responses into an improvisational line or story. Ryan is great at thinking on his feet and can really deliver some funny stuff. He has been a regular performer at our shows, and one of the earliest participants.
Following Ryan Likens, Andy Imlay rolled up onto the scene.
Andy Imlay, entering to Highway To Hell, gave us a fantastic set of one liners and a variety of built up stories. He is a previous winner of our comedy show, and is another regular performer here at The GLL. Andy blends his life into his comedy, and often uses his wheelchair as a prop in the joke. The funniest part to me was when midway through his set, he returned to his intro song and explained that he wouldn’t be able to go the heaven, as it was a stairway and he was unable to climb stairs. But, he was perfectly able to take the highway to hell. A masterful callback.
All that was left was one comedian. One that would deliver his set, and simultaneously, the coup de grâce of our show.
Introducing, previous champion, Antonio Edmonds.
Antonio Edmonds is always a lighthearted presence onstage. When you listen to this comedian give his routine, you feel as if instead of being talked at, you’re a part of a conversation with him. Envision the theoretical scenario of a time in your youth, where a group of friends and you were all gathered with each other. Either around a fire on a warm, nostalgic, summer night, college dorm, or wherever you envision your friends during a time you look back fondly on, Antonio feels like that friend that’s telling you a great story of whatever hijinks he was up to. Antonio often comments on what life is like for him, his unique challenges, and how he has to be a secret service agent to profile people to help him out sometimes. Most importantly, he recounts times spent with acquaintances in his life, and the hilarious conversations he has had with them, His warm, infectious presence invites us all to laugh with him and enjoy this light in what sometimes seems like a dark world. Antonio, this comedian, allows us all to take off whatever hats we may be wearing and enjoy the common community that we all find ourselves in at these shows.
The comedians had gone, the votes were cast, and we were now tasked with tallying the votes. Thankfully enough, this was my specialty and what college had been preparing me for all along with my political science degree. Ensuring that this voting system was safe and secure was my number one priority, that’s why we do it the old fashioned way with tickets and not those newfangled voting machines. (the voting system we use is called first past the post, if you were interested in some voting terminology.) Thanks to Alex’s impeccable counting skills and my supervision, we had finally reached a winner with minimal rioting taking place.
The winner of the GhostLight Lounge’s biweekly Comedy Show is…..
Jeremiah Martin!
After the grand prize was claimed, I tracked down our new champion and asked him how he viewed comedy and his process.
“This was a blast. It was a great contest, a lot of good comedians. You guys packed it out, you get a lot of people that are here for comedy, so that’s awesome because,you know, when you write material you want an audience who is there for comedy. Because, sometimes you go to a bar and you’re kind of sneaking in on their place. So they’re like ‘What the hell is this guy talking about? He’s telling penis jokes and I’m just trying to have a beer and some peanuts, what’s going on here?’ So when you get the opportunity to do it in front of a crowd, that’s good stuff. The way I approach it (comedy) is that I feel like you can talk about anything if you can make it clever. Some people try and talk about things without it being clever and it doesn’t work. If you can make it to where you let them use their imagination somewhat. I’ll give you the vagueness and now your dirty mind is the one to fill in the rest of it, you know? I set you up for your dirtiness, so that’s on you. But, I think about it in terms of, I love one liners and I also tell a lot of stories, so I try to tell a story that’s a bunch of one liners tied together. Just write as much as possible and get on stage as much as possible, it’s just like playing a guitar. You gotta practice. But, with a guitar you can sit in a room by yourself. Comedy, you have to do it in front of people to see what they like.”
If you’re interested in attending the next GLL Comedy Show, check out our events page right here on this website! Alternatively, you can check our Facebook page for the latest updates.