Being funny is one thing; being funny for a chance to hit the stage in Las Vegas is another.
For the last two weeks, he Comedy Catch has hosted 18 comics spread over two nights, all competing for the chance to have their entry fees paid and an automatic spot in the Qualifying Round of the World Series of Comedy, set at the club April 6-9. The winner of the Chattanooga round will move on to the finals, held in Las Vegas from Sept. 19-24.
There are numerous of these so-called satellite rounds being held around the country over the next four months.
Two more satellite rounds will be held at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday at the Comedy Catch, located inside the Chattanooga Choo Choo. Eight winners and two wild-card comics will compete during the finals on March 31 for the right to compete in the Qualifying Round. Admission for spectators is $5.
“I get four automatic entries to the Qualifying Round,” says Comedy Catch co-owner Michael Alfano, “and I wanted to use two of them as prizes.”
Alfano, along with local comics Spanky Brown, Karen Mills and Jerry Harvey, are the judges for the Satellite Rounds.
“We’ve had some good new comics who I’ve never seen before, including Jen Snyder from Columbia [S.C.],” Alfano says. “She killed it the other night, and she has a future. But it’s also been fun to watch people die. We critique their performances a la ‘American Idol’ and it can get pretty brutal.”
Snyder called her Comedy Catch performance “one of the best sets ever in my life”
“I did all my top-notch jokes. My favorites. The ones that always get a laugh, and I went dead-on at five minutes,” she says. “I was putting the mike in the cradle as the timer went to zero. Timing and awareness are important.”
Snyder was one of two comics who advanced to the next round, and she says the experience was a confidence boost in her five-year career. The evening proved to her that she was “professional-ready,” she says.
“I’ve been working professionally for about two years,” she said. “I’ve loved working in a real comedy venue. I usually work bars and nightclubs.”
She describes her humor as observational and says it deals mostly about being gay and how people react to her and she to them.
“I did one about people saying to me, ‘You’re overweight. You must hate yourself,’ I say, ‘No, I love myself. So much so I indulge myself. If I want a blunt in a cupcake, I get a blunt in a cupcake.’ That joke always gets laughs.”
Contact Barry Courter at bcourter@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6354.