Seriously Funny’ gets a special guest

Last night marked the third installment of Smith’s Olde Bar’s “Seriously Funny Show...Seriously,” and Atlanta’s newest weekly comedy show continues to impress. While last night’s show was supposed to showcase Atlanta’s least experienced (but still talented) comedians, professional comedienne and cast member of The Sarah Silverman Show, Tig Notaro, showed up and performed a brilliant 20-minute guest-spot for the pleasantly surprised audience.

Tig’s performance made two things evident - first, no slight to the rookie comics, but there’s a clear difference between amateurs and headliners. Though Smith’s Olde Bar has created a great room for local comedy, the noise of the music from upstairs that inevitably trickles into the room continues to be a minor disruption to the show. While the fresh faces were on stage, they could hold the audience’s attention, until the door opened with the cocktail waitress, and music would temporarily blast over the comedy. It threw off the timing and rhythm of some jokes, as well as the volume of the comedians’ voices heading into their punchlines. When Tig took the stage however, the door to the room continued to open at unpredictable moments, and she never once spoke louder than a kindergarten teacher reading a story at nap time, but still had the audience hanging off of her every word. No song too loud, no punchline too soft could dissuade the crowd from silently and eagerly anticipating each and every turn of Notaro’s hysterical recollection of the several times she met 80s pop-singer sensation Taylor Dayne.

The second thing that Notaro’s performance made clear was that Atlanta’s comedy scene is gaining national respect. Tig was in town performing at the Laughing Skull Lounge all weekend, but the fact that she hung around ATL after the paid gigs were satisfied, simply to get more stage time, showed the respect she has for Atlanta’s comedy scene and its crowds.

Keep supporting live comedy around town, you never know who might show up!