Monroe proves why he was on Last Comic Standing…
Monroe Martin is a rising comedian who has been featured on NBC’s “Last Comic Standing.” He is such a talented comedian and for the first time ever he brought his show “Six Foot Nothing” to the New York Comedy Festival. But make no mistake, Monroe is a pro in every sense of the term and there is a reason that he made it so far in “Last Comic Standing.” Monroe started off with a topic that most people can relate to, which is the struggle of being in a relationship. According to Monroe, every girl is out to pretty much break his heart, so he figures that the only way to win at this is to break up with the girl first so that she has no chance of doing anything to him, which of course, is flawless logic that everybody should apply to their lives. Monroe holds nothing back in his performance going from topic like how people should have the common sense to not kidnap hood kids because they are so materialistic, to things like how he wishes a zombie apocalypse would happen because to him, it would all play out like in “The Walking Dead,” and that in the end, he would just be making new friends. He had the crowd laughing from the start of his set right to the end and is one funny guy.
Next up was Menuhin Hart, a talented comedian who had a lot of things to say that night. He talked about a variety of topics like dealing with his anger issues and how the aging process is vastly different amongst the races and according to him, “Black people age like cats while white people age like bananas.” That line alone was enough to sell himself to the crowd. He talked a lot about race such as how he is representing the black community and because of that he can’t do anything stupid because that would set back the black community so much if he did that. Menuhin’s performance was great and he had some very, very funny moments that will be forever seared into our minds.
Following Menuhin was Ian Fidance who right off the bat, started off with crowd work. His ability to talk and relate to the crowd was something to make note of because many comedians can crash and burn depending on their ability to work the crowd. He spoke about a lot of relatable topics like how he doesn’t understand all these fancy job titles. If it were up to him, every single job title would be short and sweet and when you say your job description, you ideally wouldn’t sound like a pretentious snob. He also made some jokes about race, such as how when you’re black and announce that you want to be famous, everyone will support, but when you’re white, it’s harder to get that same support. It’s hard to imagine someone making people feel bad for white people, but he seemed to accomplish that which is something that needs to be mentioned. Ian was one funny guy.
Subah Agarwal came on the stage next and she didn’t waste any time in making the audience laugh. Her set touched on a lot of the struggles of being Indian and how nobody is afraid of Indian people, which in fact, is completely true. She discusses how she is disgusted with the idea of people thinking that after the first date, the girl should sleep with the guy and how interracial dating never works because everyone gets jealous of you. In fact, Subah just hates dating in general and thinks that there are too many rules, all of which had the crowd laughing not only because it was funny but also because it was sadly true. Subah had a great energy around her and her laughter towards her own jokes was so infectious that it had the audience laughing alongside her.
Tom Cassidy followed Subah and he went right into his set by talking about Ebola and how he is confused on why the media only shows a picture of the virus, because, really, how effective is it to show people a picture of a virus. According to Cassidy, it’s not like someone is walking down the street and can identify the Ebola virus based on the random squiggles that the media has constantly been showing us. Through his set he made a few “The Godfather” references and when you have the ability to seamlessly integrate “The Godfather” references into your set, that’s when you know that you are a great comedian. Then there was comedian Chris Cotton who explained how hard it is to be fat. He talked about how nobody respects fat people, especially kids, and his delivery was what made his set really stand out from the rest. He was a very funny comedian and is someone people should definitely check out. Some other comedians on the lineup were Dave Temple and Derek Gaines who are also very talented comedians.
Overall, the lineup was great and the jokes were fresh.
-Vinesh Vora (@vineshv1206)
