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About The Clackamas print. (Oregon City, Oregon) 1989-2019 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 18, 2004)
F ebruary I0VIERTABVME2VT 18, 2004 T he C lackamas P rint • 7 Local troupe makes Fridays fun Faye Dodds T he C lackamas P rint One of the funniest, most gut splitting events in P-Town that anyone could possibly end up a participant of is simply identified as “ComedySportz.” Most people haven’t experi enced comedy as a sport, nor have they encountered sports that involve comedy—unless tennis counts. This all must change. Here is a proposal of an entire ly new Monday night event ... only; one might find him or herself out in the cold and rain if they went on a Monday. But the laughs provided on a Friday or Saturday will last through Monday night and beyond. Snuggled neady into a small building at 1963 Kearney Street in Portland is the lovely ComedySportz Arena, as it is called. Anyone can enjoy the night of their life; and potential week long lung and stomach ailments, after attending an event. Shows are scheduled for Friday nights at 8 p.m. and Saturday nights at 7 and 9 p.m. Attendees should be prepared to call 9-1-1 in the event that laughing too hard causes some one’s ticker to fail. Following Friday night shows, at around 10 p.m. they feature a “free-wheeling and long-form improv ¿nd sketch,” for further entertainment. Usually, two teams of “comedi ans” face off in events very similar to the television show “Who’s Line is it Anyway?’’ A referee awards points and keeps subject matter within boundaries of offending people. Shows are considered an interactive improvisational experi ence and aufiience suggestions are a gas, sometimes literally. The troupe’s website, www.comedysportz.com describes an average live show as “interactive, hilarious, different, clean, fool-proof, fast-paced, posi tive and fun.” To that, they offer a guarantee which over 2,000 past performances can support. ComedySportz. often focuses on entertaining college students. Performances have been located at many campuses nationwide, including Georgetown University, Brigham Young University, Duke University, UCLA, Stanford University and many more. Tacoma (Wash.) Community College called a recent perform ance a “slam dunk chuckle fest!” Another opportunity offered by ComedySportz is classes. Their classes use comedy to focus on team-building among major cor porations. Businesses such as Apple, AT&T, Kaiser-Permanente, Kinko’s, Microsoft, Oscar Meyer, Pillsbury, Union Pacific and the White House Communications Office have all stumbled upon the benefits of ComedySportz, not only for the team-building pro gram but for entertainment and fun as well. The Portland' location of ComedySportz has been perform ing since 1993. National competi tions are held as well, where 18 teams from various U.S. cities compete for a national title of comedy. Portland brought home the award in 1999 and has been keeping up with the competition ComedySportz’s special brand of improvisational humor is guaranteed to leave its audience in stitches well into Monday night. Don’t let the laughter interfere with work. ever since, hence the growing fan population. On Feb. 13-14, the Pordand chapter featured a quite historical (or perhaps hysterical) version of the “Battle of the Sexes.” Monday nights carf still be spent thumbing through the deli cate pages of Ladies Home Journal or even something grand pa can go to, like bowling. But the only way to make sure Friday’s paycheck is well spent is by attend ing ComedySportz in Portland. For reservations call (503) 236-8888. Audience crazed leaves band unphased at The Aladdin Jadon Triplett T he C lackamas P rint Pop-punkers Mest played Portland at the Aladdin Theater last Tuesday night, keeping the kids jumping pogo-style. The band played a great set, sticking to their more punk numbers and completely forsak ing the two songs that brought them closest to mainstream recognition in the past: “What’s the Dillio” and. “Mother’s Prayer.” The highlight of some idiot climbed onto the stage at the end of one of their songs arid decided to dive onto the crowd. Just as the moron was about to run and jump, Mest lead singer/guitarist Tony Lovato told him to wait until the next song started. He explained he was going to count to 1-2-3 ... and then the guy ran to jump again, and barely stopped in time when Lovato yelled, “Wait!” When Mest finally started the song, the guy ran, jumped and hit nothing but floor when the crowd parted to let him get what he deserved. As far as songs go, the best the band performed included “Rooftops,” “Hotel Room,” “F*** the Greyhound Bus,” “Yesterday,” “Jaded,” “Cadillac” and ‘‘F***** Up Kid.” The band dedicated the last of these to “every person who is in a band of their own, and music is your life.” Before Mest took the stage, Fallout Boy played a tight 40 minutes of emo-pop. While this band played a good set, what really stole the show had nothing to do with the music whatsoever. About halfway through Fallout Boy’s set, two girls crowd-surfed to the' stage. The first girl grabbed the second as they were about to head off stage and immediately com menced in an intense display of mouth-to-mouth action. It was one of those random, unexpect ed moments that make a simple, pop punk' show a night to remember. After the show, Mest drum mer Nick Gigler was signing autographs by the merchandise table. When I went over there I noticed a homemade CD enti tled “Starving Artist” by some Sargo's ! Subs j Simply The Best one called Stomach Ache. This turned out to be Gigler’s solo rap debut, featuring songs about food, Nintendo, and his cell phone. I was curious about it, so I asked Gigler to rap the song about Nintendo. He did, and it was, for lack of a better word, the shiznit. Look for a review in a future issue. Mest may be little more than corporate pop punk in the vein of Good Charlotte and Simple Plan, and I may only be giving this a good review because two girls happened to swap saliva, but the show rocked. This show gets 3 out of 4 stars from me because it was a great all- around experience. Buy this Honey Mustard [ Chicken Sub With Bacon ■ EggjjCBSso Bar ■ (formerly Pogy’s Subs) J 1630 Beavercreek Rd. | , I Oregon City» OR 97045 Z?' 5(503) 655-9070 < INTERNET PHOTO The lads of Mest (from left: Nick Gigler, Matt Lovato, Tony Lovato and Jeremiah Rangel) rocked The Aladdin. ■ I • No Cash Value • One Per Party • Not To Be Combined With Any Other Offer • Must be present • Must Have Your Student or Faculty ID card Valid Only At Thia Location expires February 24, 2004
