Soupy Comedy
I don’t think I’ve mentioned this on here before, but Tracy and I are big fans of the TV show, “The Soup.” It’s a weekly show on E! hosted by comedian Joel McHale that reviews the previous week in pop culture and offers biting commentary on the clips. It’s really the only way I keep tabs on celebrity gossip and the like, but not like I really care what Paris Hilton is up to anyway. Hell, if I didn’t watch The Soup, I would have had no idea who Jon and Kate are, but still am not sure why their divorce is a big deal (I think I would be more annoyed seeing them on the cover of every tabloid if I didn’t know they had their own reality show).
At the end of a recent show, Joel mentioned that he was performing his stand-up routine in Cleveland and we decided it would be fun to drive down for a mini vacation and see him in person. As an added bonus, Tracy would also get to visit Mike Symon’s other restaurant, Lolita (the first being Roast in downtown Detroit).
All in all, it was a pretty disappointing weekend. First of all, the hotel we booked was overrun with little kids, as it was the site for some local soccer tournament. We were awaken this morning to a prank phone call at 7:30 a.m. Secondly, we should have went Lolita before Roast, as the food just wasn’t as good. It was more of a bistro than a high-end restaurant. We could only get reservations for 5:00 p.m. and I’m convinced we would have been lost as missed it if not for Karen.
When we got to the theater, it was located inside a high school with no air conditioning. That should have been the sign to leave. We sat in cramped seats in complete blackness as the warmup comedian came out. He was decent, but he kept constantly plugging his Soup spin-off on G4.
Then Joel came out and the crowd went nuts. The first half of his set was almost like an episode of The Soup: ripping celebrities, mocking bad TV shows and of course, taking shots at Ryan Seacrest. While all that works on the show, it just felt tired and forced live. The people around us didn’t seem to mind, as they were practically rolling in the aisles. Tracy and I looked at each other and thought we had heard all these jokes before. And if you had never seen an episode of The Soup, you would have been complexly clueless.
After about half an hour, he switched over to jokes about his wife and kids, and that didn’t seem to work either. Maybe I was already turned off or that wasn’t what I expected as his original material, but I didn’t find it that funny either. I mean, if I wanted marriage jokes, I would have went to see Ray Romano. While walking back to our car, we decided he must have some good writers on the show, as he wasn’t as funny off-camera. We’re not sure how we’ll feel watching the show on Friday, as most of his luster has been removed in our eyes.
At the end of a recent show, Joel mentioned that he was performing his stand-up routine in Cleveland and we decided it would be fun to drive down for a mini vacation and see him in person. As an added bonus, Tracy would also get to visit Mike Symon’s other restaurant, Lolita (the first being Roast in downtown Detroit).
All in all, it was a pretty disappointing weekend. First of all, the hotel we booked was overrun with little kids, as it was the site for some local soccer tournament. We were awaken this morning to a prank phone call at 7:30 a.m. Secondly, we should have went Lolita before Roast, as the food just wasn’t as good. It was more of a bistro than a high-end restaurant. We could only get reservations for 5:00 p.m. and I’m convinced we would have been lost as missed it if not for Karen.
When we got to the theater, it was located inside a high school with no air conditioning. That should have been the sign to leave. We sat in cramped seats in complete blackness as the warmup comedian came out. He was decent, but he kept constantly plugging his Soup spin-off on G4.
Then Joel came out and the crowd went nuts. The first half of his set was almost like an episode of The Soup: ripping celebrities, mocking bad TV shows and of course, taking shots at Ryan Seacrest. While all that works on the show, it just felt tired and forced live. The people around us didn’t seem to mind, as they were practically rolling in the aisles. Tracy and I looked at each other and thought we had heard all these jokes before. And if you had never seen an episode of The Soup, you would have been complexly clueless.
After about half an hour, he switched over to jokes about his wife and kids, and that didn’t seem to work either. Maybe I was already turned off or that wasn’t what I expected as his original material, but I didn’t find it that funny either. I mean, if I wanted marriage jokes, I would have went to see Ray Romano. While walking back to our car, we decided he must have some good writers on the show, as he wasn’t as funny off-camera. We’re not sure how we’ll feel watching the show on Friday, as most of his luster has been removed in our eyes.
Labels: Comedy, Restaurants, Road trips
posted by Brian Schick @ 4:21 PM
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