A string walks into a bar and orders a drink.
“Get out of here,” says the bartender. “We don’t serve strings.”
Perturbed, the string slips into the alley where he twists himself up into great snarls and rubs himself up and down until he’s a complete mess. The string goes back into the bar and orders a drink.
“Hey,” says the bartender. “Aren’t you the string who was just in here?”
“No,” says the string. “I’m a frayed knot.”

It’s ugly, yes, but you know what they say: Comedy is not pretty.

It may not be pretty, but comedy is hot. In a time of economic slide, where people are cutting back on just about everything, most will still fork out a few bucks for a babysitter if there’s a comedy act in town.

In Maine, this is the season of laughter. Comedians are being booked at all the hot spots while smaller venues are also trying to cash in on the vulnerability of the funny bone.

Stand-up isn’t just for comedy clubs anymore. Churches, veterans groups and medical societies trying to raise money and shine a light on their cause are also banking on the idea that laughter will draw crowds.

“We need comedy,” says Larry Thibault, of the Knights of Columbus in Lewiston, where a comedy act performed just last night in place of the traditional autumn dance. “With everything going on with the economy and the elections and all that, people need some place to turn for relief.”

“When it’s done well and done live, comedy can sort of help you press that reset button.,” says Dave Rattigan, a comedian out of Beverly, Mass. “Even if it’s just one night or just a couple hours, if you get out there and laugh, it’s going to help you change your perspective about things a bit.”

Who needs a reset button more than Mainers, who are essentially snowed in with their various woes and neurosis between November and April?

Fortunately, as much as Maine loves comedy, comedy loves Maine.

“I went out with one woman. On the first date she told me she was a sex addict. On the second date, she told me I cured her.” — Dave Rattigan

Rattigan has been a comedian for 14 years. He has performed around the Northeast and in 2005 did a series of shows in Kilkenny, Ireland. He performs each year at the Boston Comedy Festival, as well as the top clubs in New England.

“In Boston, you tend to get that ‘show me’ attitude. ‘What have you got?’ In Maine, the people are out to laugh. I drive up to Maine as much as I can,” he says. “If you ask most comedians, I think they’ll tell you that Maine, for whatever reason, has the best audiences overall. It’s a sharp crowd. They give you both: We’re happy to be here and we’re going to get your jokes.”

Rattigan will perform at the Fireside Inn Nov. 28 and again on Dec. 12. If he’s just sucking up to us, other laugh production professionals are in on the conspiracy.

Two blondes are sitting on a bench. One blonde says to the other, “Which do you think is farther away, Florida or the moon?” The first blonde answers, “Helloooo…can you SEE Florida?!” — Karen Morgan

“In Maine, people are respectful. In other places, New York for example, they can be brutal,” says comedienne Karen Morgan.

Morgan is a former trial lawyer-turned-comic who recently appeared at the Abromson Center at the University of Maine in Portland for a show to raise money for the Cancer Community Center. After moving from Georgia to Maine, she discovered that audiences here are more clear about what they like than those in other parts of the country.

“It’s funny. In the Midwest, they’re nice too, but there are differences,” she said. “They’re more stoic about it, I guess. In Maine, they’re not shy about laughing. You know they’re having a good time.”

Which works out well for Jennifer Nelson, who has brought in comedians such as Maine’s own Bob Marley to help raise money and awareness for the Cancer Community Center. Morgan helps her put together the shows, and each year the turnout is good. Comedy is almost always a sure thing, where other ventures might fall flat.

“Everyone is up for a laugh,” Nelson says. “They can get a babysitter, have dinner, come to the show and be home by 10 o’clock or so.”

I am not good at sports. But I love parallel parking. Because unlike sports, when you are parallel parking the worse you are, the more people you have rooting for you. — Joe Wong

Earlier in the year, Joe Wong had a unique experience. He performed his act on the “David Letterman Show,” a high place in the world of television stand-up. One night later, he was in Auburn, Maine, to work a crowd at the Fireside Inn.

“I remember that night,” Wong said. “At the Fireside, a group of four or five women walked by me and said: ‘That’s him.’ That’s all they said. They just kept walking.”

Wong came to United States from China in 1994, landing first in Texas and later Boston. By 2001, he was doing stand-up in New England.

“I love Maine. I go up there a couple times a year,” Wong said. “The audiences there are very nice. I’ve never had a bad time up there.”

Maybe that’s why comedy is appearing where you might least expect it these days, such as the basement of churches where leaders try to bolster attendance and cheer up gloomy worshippers. You’ll find regular acts at the Fireside Inn, but also across Auburn at the American Legion Hall at 71 South Main St.

“We have quite a few followers,” says Brenda Hebert, a bartender at the club. “Everybody loves comedy. The crowds are always very good.”

On Friday, Nov. 20, the Legion has a comic coming in from the Boston area, opening the door to the possibility that Maine itself will become fodder for humor.

“They like picking on us a little bit,” Hebert says. “But they pick on everybody.”

Which begs the question: If you are a jokester from Boston or anywhere else in the world, do you come to Maine and start tooling on the people here because we talk funny? Because many of us drive pickup trucks and have armies of rusty car parts on our front lawns?

Upon return from his summer vacation, my friend noted how neighborly the folks in Maine were to New Yorkers. Every time he asked a local where he could grab a cup of coffee, he got directions to New Hampshire. — Mitch Stinson

“As far as stereotypes,” says Stinson, a former aircraft-carrier aviator who was born in Maine but who grew up in New York, “the only one I incorporate into my act is that of the obnoxious out-of-stater invading the sanctity of the wholesome Maine environment.”

“I try to avoid the stereotypes,” says Rattigan. “I don’t find them all to be true. For another thing, if other comics are already doing it, there’s no reason for me to go there.”

“I’ve been here 15 years and I don’t try to do a Maine accent,” says Morgan. “It’s endearing and all, but I can’t do it.”

“Those Maine stereotypes,” says Wong, “I mean, the same things could be said about people in Arkansas or other places. There’s really nothing I can do that Bob Marley hasn’t already done.”

It might as well be called the Marley Factor. For 15 years, Bob Marley has been making a killing with an act that focuses almost entirely on his home state of Maine. He was born and raised here. He can make all the jokes he wants.

The same is true for Tim Sample, who was born in Fort Fairfield, raised in Boothbay Harbor and is still making merry after 30 years. These two comics seem to have nailed down all the really hysterical stuff about Maine. Others comedians can’t compete.

There are other things they won’t try up here because it doesn’t go over well with most audiences.

“They tend to be a little uncomfortable with racial jokes,” says Wong. “They’re not sure if they should laugh or not.”

Which is OK, because there is no end of things to make fun of, in Maine or anywhere else. By and large, people have a lot in common with one another.

As Rattigan explains it, we’re all consumed with the never-ending need to fulfill our own fundamental needs: food, shelter and security. Hit them with a joke that touches upon any of those and it almost always lands.

“And if you have all of those things,” Rattigan says, “you’ll find something else to make you miserable.”

Or as the comics put it: jackpot!

Laugh locator
The Comedy Connection, Portland, 774-5554
The Gold Room, Portland, 221-2343
The Fireside Inn, Auburn, 777-1777
American Legion, New Auburn, 782-1118
Comedy connections
Dave Rattigan www.daverattigan.com
Karen Morgan www.karenmorgan.com
Joe Wong www.joewongcomedy.com
Mitch Stinson www.mitchstinson.com
Bob Marley www.bmarley.com
Tim Sample www.timsample.com

Copy the Story Link