Recap Madison's Stand-Up Comedy Competition Finals

While a sold-out crowd waited in line to attend the final round of Madison's Stand-Up Comedy Competition Thursday night at the Comedy Club on State, it was an encouraging sign to find many of the eliminated contestants waiting right along with other audience members to support finalists Sean Moore, Mike Schmidt, and Kevin Kunkel. The three comedians were given six minutes each to win over a packed house and a team of guest judges. There weren’t too many surprises for anyone who had attended the previous three rounds. Instead, the finalists tightened up sets of the knee-slappers that got them to the final round in the first place.

After a brief opening set from club manager Joe Buettner (whose ability to destroy hecklers almost outshines his jokes), Mike Schmidt hit the crowd with his signature blend of surreal sleaze, cynicism, and overall awkwardness. “I used to have a problem beating my wife, but then I turned to the Bible and it helped. Because that book…is heavy!” Schmidt’s sadistic jokes made quite a pair with his low-key, deadpan delivery and his purple sweater vest. Schmidt closed his set with a joke about how different kinds of alcohol lead him to different disasters. The bespectacled jokester acted out conversations in which booze mascots like Captain Morgan, Jack Daniels, and Jose Cuervo trick him into showing his penis to a “pack of fat girls,” getting beat up, and pissing himself.

Sleeper hit Kevin Kunkel followed Schmidt with a set of parody TV commercials. Kunkel narrated and acted out advertisements for a show called OBGYN Trauma and an erectile dysfunction pill called “Bonitar.” The former, of course, was a giant pussy joke that supposedly starred David Schwimmer as a gynecologist: “Give me the specs on that Anderson cooch!” Kunkel said, while appearing to mime a reach for some kind of, uh, utensils. After Kunkel wrapped up his set accordingly (with a giant dick joke), Sean Moore hit the stage and sent the room into frenzied laughter.

“How you guys doin’?” Moore asked after hitting the stage, while surveying the room with creepy bedroom eyes. “Unh, yeah. Mmmm. I’m getting drunk tonight. Like, Mel Gibson drunk. Like, morning-after-pill drunk.” Moore then asked the crowd, “Why do people think it’s weird when I talk about hanging out with my boyfriends?” He then talked about how he couldn’t wait for the weekend, because he was going to “draw a bath, pull out some Boone’s Farm, and invite a few of his boyfriends over.” The closing joke involved Moore dancing to Michael Jackson’s “Bad” as he wielded two index cards (“Sean” on one and “Moore” on the other). Somewhere within Jackson’s melodic gibberish in the chorus, there are a couple of words that sound remarkably close to “Sean Moore,” during which he held the two cards up.

Moore went on to win first place, which included $500 dollars, a $30 gift card to Ian’s Pizza, and a feature spot opening for a headlining comedian at the club. Schmidt won second place, and Kunkel took third. Even though 30 of the 33 contestants had to go home empty-handed, most of them attended all four rounds, cheering on their fellow stand-ups. Instead of getting cutthroat, the comedy competition made Madison's stand-up comedy scene look strong.