comedian

Ralphie Mae performs at SUNY Delhi.

I’m jealous of people who live where there are comedy clubs readily available.

I fully believe if I lived anywhere near a comedy club and the ticket prices were affordable, I’d go often. I’d especially like to go on open-mic nights to be able to see different things and people.

I can’t really explain what Ralphie May is talking about here as I’ll keep it clean on the blog. But let me say it was absolutely hilarious!

Comedy has long been a part of my life. From watching many big-name comedians at a local college (George Carlin, Howie Mandel, Michel Winslow, Carrot Top, Jay Mohr, and Sam Kinison, to name a few), to seeing smaller shows all over the place, I’ve long loved stand up comedy.

I’ve had the chance to see many different comedy places. From a cool little spot in Montreal, where we met and struck a friendship up with comedian Steve Caouette, to little dives with people hoping to make a few bucks in the world of comedy. Whether 15-minute quickies or an hour and half of pure hilarity, I’ve loved pretty much every comedy show I attended.

With that in mind, it’s pretty safe to say, whenever I get a chance to go, I like to do so.

On Sunday, I added a comedian toward the top of my list.

Chad, Ralphie May’s opener, got the crowd revved up and ready.

Ralphie May, well-known through his Comedy Central specials and for his appearance on Last Comic Standing, came to SUNY Delhi. He’s been to Delhi before, but I had never had the chance to see him. He was supposed to have a show a year or so ago, but had to cancel because of health reasons.

Allow me to say it was well worth the wait to see him perform.

First, his opening act, Chad of the Smash Brothers, was hilarious. He got some solid digs in on a few people in the front row, told some extremely funny stories and had the crowd warmed up amazingly for May.

Here’s one thing though — this definitely wasn’t a “family friendly” show. In other words, profanity and things along those lines were open game.

That made it really good.

Ralphie May and Marty following the show at SUNY Delhi.

His topics included pretty much anything, including some politics, racial lines, himself, and of course, some adult topics. He also utilized one of the students Chad had picked on a bit and got some good digs in as well.

It’s also safe to note that I was in stitches most of the night. I love a good laugh. It makes you forget anything else going on in the world. It can help make you forget anything bad going on and it gives you a way to kind of ignore anything else and just have a good time.

This was also the final big comedy show at the college under the watch of Marty Greenfield, SUNY Delhi’s Student Activities Director, who is retiring at the end of the semester. He’s been at the college for more than 25 years and has brought some amazing shows — comedy, music, sports (Globetrotters etc.), wrestling and so many more things.

Ralphie May was an excellent closing big comedy show. It’s safe to say the students and community members who attended the show went home happy, which is one of the main things a student activities director could ask for.

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Steve Caouette performing at The Comedy Works in Albany in 2010.

In 2006, several of us took a trip to Montreal.

This trip was somewhat of an annual thing. A guys weekend, if you will. We’d bar hop a little, check out different things each year and whatever else. I’d always find a way to do some photography and it was a nice weekend away from it all.

I have always thought of Montreal as being able to visit Europe in North America.

This year was a bit different than normal, however. Two of us went up even earlier, making it a five-day trip. The others came up Friday.

Steve’s note that he wrote in my “Montreal 2006 Travel Notebook.”

One thing I decided to do during this trip was take a notebook with me and have people sign it. It could be people we meet, or each other, or whatever else. But the idea was to capture the trip in that notebook with the idea of being able to one day check back at it, remember the trip and smile.

It’s where I met Steve Caouette.

Caouette is a comedian. And, to be honest, he’s one of the funniest comics I’ve ever watched — and I’ve had the fortune to see many. I don’t know where I’d rank him among my all-time favorites who I’ve seen live, but I would be willing to bet he’d easily make my top-5 without a doubt.

His act is hilarious, he interacts with the crowd well and his noises and imitations he does are fantastic.

But I digress…

It was the second night of the trip to Montreal and we were sitting on the outside patio of our favorite Montreal watering hole, the Mad Hatter. The bar was emptying and we got chatting with these two fellas nearby.

We got the two of them to sign the book and they mentioned Steve was a comedian.

I’m willing to bet we asked him to say something funny. We were probably idiots like that. Ahh well, it happens, right?

Anyway, we were asked to come to the Comedy Nest the next night to see Steve perform. And, we were told there would be tickets waiting for us. For some reason, I didn’t buy it. But we agreed to go to the Comedy Nest the next night.

We arrived expecting to have to pay for tickets. We saw Steve’s poster plastered all around the area and we went to the front door. The conversation basically went like this.

Me: I believe there should be tickets for us?

Door guy: Name?

Me: P.J.

Door guy: Yup, here they are.

I was shocked, I won’t like. Further, we were seated at a table in the front. And what a treat that was. Talk about hilarious.

We hung out with Steve one or two more times that weekend. We even went back and checked him out a second time. And after that, I’ve kept in touch with Steve through the years, whether it be through Facebook or texts or whatever else.

Steve Caouette at The Comedy Works in Albany this past weekend.

A year or two after Montreal, he was scheduled for a show in Albany. So a couple of us went up. There wasn’t much of a draw for the second show that night, so we didn’t get to see him perform. Instead, it was a stroll to visit some fine establishments downtown.

I then got the chance to see him in 2010 when he hit Albany again, this time at The Comedy Works newer spot. He was hilarious, as per normal. I was in stitches just watching. The photo at the top of this post is from that show.

Steve was performing in Albany again this past weekend and I had the chance to get up there Friday night to see the show, which was held at The Comedy Works new spot. Let me say that the new spot for this club is outstanding. I’m sure it will take a little time for it to catch on at this locale, but it’s comedy only now. The food was excellent, the showroom felt like a great comedy club and the people working were all top notch and personable.

Back to Steve.

His show was, as it has been every time I see him, outstanding. But taking photos, I started realizing one thing that Steve is amazing at — his facial gestures. These sell his jokes so well and when interacting with the crowd, the faces he makes work for the situation at hand.

And that’s what I will be ending this post with — Steve and his countless faces. Below is a selection of those faces from the show in Albany this past Friday. I am leaving these images without captions — I hope you enjoy.

If you want to see more on Steve, visit his website.