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Aaron Hertzog – $30,000 John McKeever – Magnum Pete Kuempel – Dolphins Steve Gerben – Watching Sports Darryl Charles – Hatchet Unfortunately, video of this bit does not exist but his exasperation at the fact that a man could murder an entire building full of people with a hatchet, complete with out-of-breath act outs was the only bit Darryl did during his run to a second place finish at this year’s Philly’s Phunniest Person Contest. Check him out live to see the hilarious bit in action.
2011 Witout Awards: Best Host Nominees
Rob Baniewicz and Paul Triggiani Rob and Paul get together on stage at Philly Improv Theater every month and have a TV Party. They find the best worst television from the past available and present it to a crowd full of often drunk and always eager fans waiting to laugh – both at the shows and with the hilarious commentary provided by the two.
Every Monday night Carolyn and Mary turn the back room at The Urban Saloon into one of the best open mics in the city, Laughs on Fairmount. The two take turns introducing acts and keep the show moving with their own charm and sense of humor. They often start the show with a short sketch that highlights the chemistry they have with each other and gets the audience ready for a night of great comedy.
Chip Chantry is a busy man. He is the host of two monthly shows at major Philadelphia comedy venues. Facetime with Chip Chantry is a talk show at Helium Comedy Club that features Chip performing sketches, jokes about the news, and conducting interviews with each of his guests. Chip Chantry’s One Man Show (with Special Guests) moved to Philly Improv Theater after its’ successful run at The Khyber and features Chip hosting for many of the best acts Philly Comedy has to offer.
Twice per month on Friday nights Aaron Hertzog hosts Hey Everybody! an evening of stand-up comedy at Philly Improv Theater. The showcase features many of the best stand-ups in Philadelphia and the occasional visitor from out of town. Aaron is known for yelling “Hey Everybody” at the top of his sets, and getting audiences ready for the show with his jovial invitations of friendship.
Doogie’s monthly Ministry of Secret Jokes has been one of the best nights of comedy Philadelphia has to offer for years. Doogie packs the show with not only great stand-up and sketch comedy but games, contests, and audience participation. The show is run like a meeting of a secret society, and Doogie often opens his shows by having the audience recite an oath that they will not reveal what they see to anyone. Judging by the packed in crowds upstairs at Fergie’s every month, many people have been breaking that oath.
Chip Chantry Chip is a fixture in the Philadelphia comedy scene. He performs as a feature act at Helium Comedy Club (and clubs around the country) and is also the host of two monthly shows. Facetime with Chip Chantry is a variety talk show at Helium Comedy Club that lets Chip showcase his monologue and interview skills. Chip Chantry’s One Man Show (with Special Guests) is a Monday night variety show at Philly Improv Theater that features performances by many of the best acts in Philadelphia. Chip also recorded his first comedy album in 2011 at Helium Comedy Club. Chip seems to find himself a finalist in Philly’s Phunniest Person Contest every year and was named one of the top ten comedians in Philadelphia by Comedy.com. Steve Gerben Steve is a former Philly’s Phunniest Person Contest winner and a feature act at Helium Comedy Club as well as clubs around the country. He was also named one of the top ten comedians in Philadelphia by Comedy.com. He is the writer and producer of several short sketches that became popular online this past year including “New Age Medic.”
Aaron Hertzog Aaron was the third place finisher in the 2010 Philly’s Phunniest Person Contest and performs as a host at Helium Comedy Club. In addition he hosts his own stand-up comedy showcase Hey Everybody! at Philly Improv Theater. In 2011 he performed in the North Carolina Comedy Arts Festival and the Out of Bounds Festival in Austin, Texas. He too was named one of the top ten comedians in Philadelphia by Comedy.com. Aaron is also a member of improv groups Hate Speech Committee and Hey Rube. Brendan Kennedy Brendan was a semi-finalist in this year’s Philly’s Phunniest Person Contest and hosts his own show, Guilty Pleasures at Philly Improv Theater where he finds horribly written scripts and performs stage readings of them along with some of Philly’s best comedians. Brendan is also a member of sketch group Camp Woods and improv group Hate Speech Committee. He was most likely best described by comedian Kent Haines as “a silly misanthrope.” Tommy Pope Tommy was the winner of the 2011 Philly’s Phunniest Person Contest at Helium Comedy Club, where he also performs as a host. He is a member of Bird Text, a group that produces sketch comedy and live stand-up shows. Bird Text was behind the popular sketch series “The Real Househusbands of Philadelphia.” Tommy also produces regular comedy shows in Philadelphia and the surrounding area. Mark Leopold is a Philadelphia improviser, sketch comedian, employee, driver-who-talks-on-his-cell-phone-but-is-constantly-scanning-the-road-for-police-officers-because-then-he’ll- totally-just-drop-his-phone-into-his-lap-and-pretend-he-was-just-resting-his-head-on-his-hand- and-they’ll-never-even-have-a-clue, and a friend. He is a member of the PHIT house team Hey Rube as well as a new addition to the cast of Comedysportz and he does sketch comedy with his group The Hold-up. When he isn’t doing one of these things he is busy doing other things, like working and laundry, and so while he sincerely wishes he was able to be a real interviewer, the best he is able to do is interview people in his head while he drives different places. Today, while on 476 north, Mark took some time to sit down in a very quaint coffee shop in his head with Philadelphia comedian, improviser, sketch guy, and Hey Rube teammate Aaron Hertzog. MARK LEOPOLD: Hey Aaron, it’s me Mark! AARON HERTZOG: (laughing) Hey Mark. ML: I’m glad you took the time to sit down with me today. AH: I’m happy to do it Mark. ML: So let’s just dive right in, who are you and what have you done with my son? Aaron laughs and Mark joins him. Aaron stops laughing and looks at Mark expectantly. ML: Do you want money? Is that it? AH: I don’t have your son, I didn’t even know you had a son. ML: I don’t in real life, but I do here. AH: Here in your head? ML: Yes. Here in my head at the coffee shop which, now that I stop and think about it for a second, is just the coffee shop from Inception where Leonardo DiCaprio explains the premise of the movie to Ellen Page. AH: You want to make everything explode? This is your day dream after all. ML: Get real Aaron! That would be so derivative. The coffee shop explodes but, since my memory isn’t great, the way it is rendered leaves a lot to be desired. AH: That was fun. ML: Eh. AH: You didn’t think that was fun? ML: The whole thing just felt forced. AH: …okay then. There is a moment of uncomfortable silence as Mark looks at a speck of something that is floating in his coffee. He hopes it’s just a coffee ground, but with all the explosions and everything, it seems more likely to be a piece of debris. He picks it out of his coffee and wipes his fingers on a napkin. Aaron tries to force small talk. AH: I don’t drink coffee. ML: No? AH: No, I don’t like the taste. ML: Yeah, I could see that. AH: I guess I’m not an “adult.” ML: Do you still like the smell of gasoline? AH: Yeah. ML: Me too, but not as much. AH: That’s weird how you grow to like some smells when you grow up and you stop liking others. You always hear about acquired tastes, but you don’t hear much about acquired smells. ML: Like body odor. AH: I don’t think that’s true. ML: I think I read somewhere that Matthew McConaughey doesn’t wear deodorant because he thinks women like the way he smells naturally. AH: I bet he smells like vanilla. ML: …but like, really manly vanilla. AH: That wouldn’t work out as well for me. ML: Yeah, me neither, I’m an Old Spice man now. I made the switch. It took a little while for my armpits to stop burning when I put it on, but I think the nerve endings are dead now. So it was tough, but hey, I really like their commercials. AH: Well you had no choice then. ML: True. Op! This is my exit Aaron, I gotta run. AH: See you! Friendship! ML: Friendship! The coffee shop re-explodes.
How and why did you get into comedy? I started doing stand-up in 2006 after a long flirtation with the idea of doing comedy. I always wanted to be a writer, and still do – and started because I had a friend (Pat House) who had been doing comedy for about two years who finally made me get up and do it. I thought stand-up would be a good place to meet people to write with and work on sketches and other projects. I started improv earlier this year because I thought it would be a good place to work my mind muscles to help come up with stand-up material, and it also looked like a lot of fun. So far, it’s been both. How would you describe your style as a comedian? What influences and factors do you think contribute to that? I would say my style is silly. I think anybody who’s ever seen me perform would say I’m pretty much a big, silly, idiot. I like that. I’d also like to say it’s smart idiocy, but I can’t say that about myself. If somebody else would like to say that I would appreciate it. No? OK. Do you have a favorite show or venue you like to perform at? What about it makes it fun or special for you? Philly has a lot of different great places to perform, and I like them for different reasons. A packed, jazzed-up crowd at Helium might provide the most energy – but there’s also something awesome about the kind of response at an alt room, like a PHIT show, or The Ministry of Secret Jokes. I think, for me, my style is more alternative, so in a way it feels better when I do well in a more mainstream room. I expect people in an alt room to like what I do – I write for them – but when I make a room full of people I don’t think I have anything in common with laugh – it makes me feel good – and also a little like a judgmental asshole because I doubted them. Do you have a single favorite moment in Philly comedy or one that stands out? There are moments every now and then that stand out, and they always involve some sort of variety show where a lot of people are on it, and we all hang out after the show. Like when Chip had the Moon sketch contest, or any of the roasts, or Doogie’s bachelor party Ministry of Secret Jokes. That’s the best part about doing comedy here, the #friendship! Do you have any sort of creative process that you use with your writing or your performance? For stand-up, I like to write about things I think are weird, or things that scare me or confuse me (which are a lot of things.) I like to explore a topic and keep adding stuff to it to the point where my joke is way too long. I think I’m the same way when I write a sketch (which is less often). I’m still too new at improv to say that I have a process – my process right now is observing other people and trying to figure out what their process is and what I like about it that I can try to incorporate into my performance. I like to “reverse engineer” material. If I see a joke someone else does that I like, I try to think of how the person wrote it, where the idea came from, and how they got from the observation to the joke – then try to apply that line of thinking when I’m trying to come up with material. What is it about improv (or stand-up, or sketch, whatever you do…) that draws you to it? Making people laugh is what has always drawn me to comedy. It’s an incredible feeling, and I’ve always searched for it. It’s how I tried to get people to like me when I was younger and it’s how I try to get people to like me now. Sometimes it even works. Do you have any favorite performers in the Philly scene? Why are they your favorites? My favorite stand-ups are Brendan Kennedy, Doogie Horner, Chip Chantry and Luke Giordano (does he count anymore?) Brendan is my favorite to watch because he’s just an animal – you never know what he’s going to do and he’s just so quick and that kind of silly-stupid-smart (I hope you know what I mean by this…) that makes up my favorite kind of stand-up comedy. Doogie and Chip are inspirations because they are just constantly working and writing and coming up with great material. Luke is a great writer, and his ideas are always ones that I wish I thought of – thoughts that I’ve had that I just didn’t recognize to turn into bits. I think his style as a stand-up is closest to mine so the fact that I like him a lot might also be a bit narcissistic. The Feeko Brothers are my favorite sketch group, and I think they make me laugh more than anybody else in the world. My favorite improv groups to watch are Medic!, Matt&, Mayor Karen, and any other team that starts with the letter “M” apparently. Do you have any bad experiences doing comedy that you can share? A particularly bad bombing or even an entire show gone haywire? Bombing is always terrible, it makes me feel dead inside – but my worst show experience was when I had to take the side of Inspector Gadget against Batman in a “who is the better detective” debate at the Raven Lounge. I won the debate, and then picked up the microphone and berated the audience for being persuaded that in any universe Inspector Gadget could be considered a better detective than Batman. I felt like I betrayed myself. I don’t know how I’ve been able to sleep since. What do you think the Philly comedy scene needs to continue to grow? Like most people will probably say, we need a permanent space – a place that’s going to be open every day that the public will know is a place they can trust to come see great comedy all the time. The performers are here, we have great people doing great things, we just need to build an audience of non-performers who trust local comedy. There are a lot of comedy fans in Philly, people go out to see shows of big-named acts all the time. We just need to get them to know that the local acts are good, and worth coming out to see. Do you have any personal goals for the future as you continue to perform comedy? Ultimately, my goal is to make my living from comedy, so my short term goals are all doing things to work towards making that happen. Which is really, just getting on stage as much as I can and writing and working on material all the time. Not a bad way to spend my time.
As we said a few times before, the Roast of Meg Favreau was on Monday and Philly Improv Theater was on the ball and got the whole thing uploaded yesterday. Here are all the parts:
The premiere of Face Time with Chip Chantry is tomorrow night at Helium Comedy Club. A spin on the traditional late night talk show format, it’ll feature performances by Aaron Hertzog, headliner and Philly native Mike Vecchione, and possibly the final performance of Meg & Rob. [Facebook Event] Comedian Jason Hazelwood has recently completed his mission of writing a short poem a day for a year and posting them all on YouTube. Including , “I Like Pigtails”, and “I Like the Bengals.” [YouTube Channel] Speaking of Meg & Rob, Ryan Carey just featured them in an interview for his City Paper column “LOL With It.” [LOL With It] Luke Giordano updated Everything You Like Is Stupid this morning with a timely humor piece making fun of Jersey Shore‘s The Situation. [EYLIS] Audition slots for Philly Improv Theater‘s new house improv teams are filling up. The new teams are set to be directed by Kristen Schier and Matt Holmes. Auditions will take place on Sunday, March 27th. [Facebook Event] In the age of new media, the podcast is everywhere — providing a sort of replacement for the radio show and can be on any specific or esoteric subject matter available to be talked about. There are a lot of podcasts by comedians and about comedy, but also a few around by Philadelphia comedians. Here’s the rundown of the ones we know of: Bird Text
Cheapodcast
The Feeko Factor
Good Talkin’ with Mike & Jay
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Welcome to WitOut, a blog about the Philadelphia comedy scene. Get in touch with us at contact@witout.net.
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The March Madness Comedy Competition is heating up. The first night of round two took place at Connie’s Ric Rac Last Night and the comedians who advanced to round three were Ian Fidance, Jamil B, Tommy Pancrazio, and Dan Knabb. Tonight, the Madness continues at Comedy X-Change. [
Who does it? Bird Text! (John McKeever, Tommy Pope, and Luke Cunningham)
Who does it? Bosom buddies James Hesky and Darryl Charles. Sometimes Mykal Carter Jackson.
Who does it? 
Who does it? Mike Marbach and Jay Piazza