Madison's finest stand-up comedy moments (and a seated one) of 2009

Much like music in Madison, stand-up comedy in Madison doesn't always reward those with short attention spans or little patience, but offers quite a lot in little pieces scattered here and there. This year, we got a visit from one of stand-up's reigning curmudgeons; more opportunities to check out younger local stand-ups during their formative stages; and even some good stuff in between. The A.V. Club looks back at some of the highlights. (And, before you ask where Tim And Eric, Flight Of The Conchords, or other perfectly worthwhile comedy things are, we did try to keep this specifically focused on stand-up).

The Dan Potacke Show (every other Monday at The Frequency)
Madison comic Alan Talaga may created his character Dan Potacke as one of the most useless people on Earth—he's constantly launching failed business ventures and breaking down in whiny fits of despair—but the fictional host's bi-weekly variety talk show turned out to have a very practical way of bringing together diffuse bits of local culture and entertainment. One regular, short slot features a rotating cast of local stand-up comics, and guests have ranged from Mayor Dave to rapper Rob Dz to a meth-addicted alchemist (this last one seemed suspiciously fictitious as well). What's even more impressive is that Talaga manages to milk his character's comic potential (his favorite song is Sheryl Crow's "Soak Up The Sun," and he's never been outside the Madison area) without overshadowing the other talent he brings in.

The Big Deuce Open Mic (Wednesdays at Comedy Club On State)
Aptly launched on April Fool's Day, this weekly open-mic is a relatively risk-free way to sample Madison's crop of stand-ups: The cover's only $2, and even if there are 15 comics signed up, they'll all be held to their five-minute time slots in strict fashion. This applies as much to a guy who came on completely wasted one recent night (and another who joked about biting the tips off of condoms) as it does to fairly consistent regulars like Adam Waldron, Sean Moore, JoAnne Poniatowski, Dave Labedz, and Dave Fisher. While the regulars and some newcomers often seem caught up trying to outdo each other in the sick-joke department, plenty of them are still growing their own voices, from Labedz and Fisher's English-major geekery to Mark Kump's disturbing, absurd takes on the comedy song.

Aristocrats contest (May 27, High Noon Saloon)
As we said, local comedians don't need additional excuses to pile flaming scat and sex into their bits. Yet Dane101.com gave them just that, hosting a competition in which local stand-ups (and other assorted folks) performed their own version of "The Aristocrats," a joke about a fucked-up family's performance act. Instead of just making the contestants sicker, it spurred their creativity: Blunt Rapture bounced all over the stage and jittered through a sweeping, surreal version, and Labedz did his in not-entirely-dainty rhyming couplets.

Bill Cosby (April 11, Overture Hall)
If you can sum up an event with "a 71-year-old man came out in Crocs and sweatpants, sat down, and rambled for two hours straight," chances are you're describing the most boring show ever, or some kind of sadistic social experiment. But that description leaves out the comedic command Bill Cosby maintained as he talked a rapt audience through a smoothly connected stream of bits on the droll miseries of domestic life. The aging process has only made his delivery more brilliantly indignant: "I WANT... A CHOCOLATE-CHIP. COOKIE! BUT MY WIFE... DOES NOT WANT ME TO HAVE! THE CHOCOLATE-CHIP. COOKIE!"

Louis CK (April 24, Barrymore Theatre)
As we all complain about how slowly our iPhones are loading as we try to check e-mail on the crapper, Louis CK admonished an ungrateful species: "The Wright Brothers would've kicked us all right in the cunt." CK was already one of the finest stand-ups going before he rolled out material for this year's Hilarious tour, but this time around he made his work even funnier by rattling the audience's conscience. He's moved on from how much his kids suck at hide-and-seek to accidentally traumatizing them by explaining the concept of the end of the world. His ultimate indicator of how fucked-up and bored people have gotten came at the end, with a tale of overhearing a guy in a Starbucks drool out the word "hilarious" in reply to a nothing anecdote: "We have to go to the top shelf with our words now," he lamented. And as extreme as CK can get himself (see his story about one of his kids taking a dump on the floor), it's rare to see such a meeting of plain English and passionate word-craft.

Mike Birbiglia (Sept. 30, Barrymore Theatre)
The audience on Mike Birbiglia's I'm In The Future Also tour witnessed a transitional performance as the comedian made the switch from stand-up to monologist. He's a regular contributor to This American Life, The Moth, and The Bob & Tom Show, which have already highlighted his storytelling skills with tales of being bullied so badly he had to change schools, and of being found at fault in a horrific car crash due to police clerical errors. The benefit of seeing Birbiglia retell these stories live is the relaxed pacing he brings to them, as well as his ability to deal with such unexpected interruptions as trains rumbling along the tracks near the theater. During the encore, Birbiglia's seemingly vestigial stand-up background came to the forefront when he brought out an acoustic guitar and sang-told jokier, fan-favorite material that rightly takes Christian-rock and guitar guys at parties down a notch.

Eugene Mirman (April 26, Overture Hall)
Eugene Mirman stands pretty tall on most of the smaller club stages he usually plays, so it was odd to see him so dwarfed by the auspiciously grand Overture Center stage when he opened for Flight Of The Conchords in April. Still, his conversational tone kept the evening intimate and proved that it's not the size of the man in the act, but the size of the everyday minutiae the man is willing to rant about in the act that counts. Touching on inappropriate Internet advertising and absurd religious intricacies, Mirman finished by trying to launch a grassroots campaign against Delta Airlines (which lost his bag and tried to replace it with the luggage of some woman named Barbara Riddle) by handing out postcards addressed to the airline that featured a semi-angry note and "I hate you" scrawled in crayon on the front. The A.V. Club kept the postcard (on our fridge), but hasn’t flown Delta since.

...and more
This year offered plenty of other reasons to try the veal, including Christian Finnegan's show at the Majestic, Neil Hamburger's annual stop at the High Noon, and Brent Weinbach's surreal run at the Comedy Club On State. And we're making ourselves a "one free cyanide" coupon for missing Jerry Seinfeld's sold-out January 2009 show at Overture Hall. (None of us caught Gallagher at the Majestic, either, but that's a plus in terms of saved laundry bills.)