Just for Laughs Chicago 2009: "The Very Funny Show" - Review

June 20, 2009/7 p.m. Show/Zanies Comedy Club

TBS will be debuting a new stand-up showcase series in the fall of 2009, called The Very Funny Show. And, as the sponsor of the very first Just for Laughs Chicago Festival, it makes sense that they would tape a number of the episodes during the festival. Former Saturday Night Live cast member Tim Meadows hosted the shows from Zanies comedy club in Chicago, all featuring a mix of up and coming comics with some seasoned professionals.

There were five different "Very Funny Shows" to choose from, but the timing of other festival shows prohibited me from attending any of the ones I really wanted see (which included comics like John Mulaney, Whitney Cummings, Nick Thune, T.J. Miller, Jeff Dye and Hannibal Buress). I was able to squeeze in the 7 p.m. show on Saturday, June 20, and after the show I was really wishing I could have made one of the others.

Tim Meadows is an incredibly genial guy and made for a fun host of "The Very Funny Show," but was admittedly out of his element performing stand-up; many of his best moments came during the breaks when the cameras weren't rolling. He did a few minutes at the opening of the show (complaining that there was finally a black president and he's no longer on SNL) before introducing the comics, and seemed a little bit uncomfortable the whole time. Luckily, funny is funny and Meadows is a funny guy -- it just didn't necessarily make for good stand-up (Meadows himself said as much).

First up was John Roy, a Chicago comic and the best of the night's seven performers. His delivery felt a little on the too-polished/rehearsed side, but he had strong material and seemed genuinely touched when the audience gave him a great response. If everyone could have been as funny as Roy, I would have had a great time at "The Very Funny Show." Unfortunately, the comics quickly began to have diminishing returns.

Dwayne Perkins came up next and performed a harmless set with a couple of good jokes; he wasn't as funny as Roy, but he was likable and relaxed and inoffensive. The final two comics of the first episode (two shows were taped in this one performance) were Andrew Kennedy, who spoke mostly about being Latin American, and Wendy Liebman, a familiar face from the Rita Rudner school of stand-up. Neither was terrible, but both were a little generic and pretty forgettable.

For the second episode of The Very Funny Show, host Tim Meadows opened up with an awkward bit between him and an audience plant about how Chicago is the greatest city in the world. It was entirely too long and never really paid off. He then introduced the three comics who made up the episode: Godfrey (who many will recognize from VH1's many talking head shows), Dale Jones and Chicago comic Rocky LaPorte. The first two comics were particularly weak -- I remember being put off by Jones' hillbilly-Jim-Carrey shtick when he auditioned for Last Comic Standing and those feelings didn't dissipate in person. Luckily, LaPorte closed fairly strong; his set started a little slow, and for me felt a bit too focused on putting across his whole "Chicago guy" persona. It built really well, though, and eventually scored some big laughs, rescuing the second half of "The Very Funny Show" from being a real mess.

I have every intention of watching The Very Funny Show when it eventually debuts on TBS. Like every stand-up series, I fully expect it to be totally hit-or-miss depending on who the comedians are. Unfortunately, the installments I attended during the Just for Laughs Chicago festival were mostly miss, save for the bookend performances by John Roy and Rocky LaPorte. At least they're both local boys.

Grade: C-