On Aug. 15 Proud Larry’s hosted “A Night of Comedy” featuring Lee Syatt as the headliner. Katie Stewart, Hunter Boros and Forrest Bopp performed as the opening acts. Syatt is a co-host with Joey Diaz on the podcast “The Church of What is Happening Now.” Stewart, Boros and Bopp are all close friends that live in Nashville, Tenn.. Boros and Bopp started their own podcast earlier this year called “Open.”
A common theme throughout the comedy show were the jokes that would fall flat because of the delivery, one-dimensional aspect and the use of the same gags throughout multiple different shows.
Proud Larry’s mainly hosts musicians and rarely has comedy acts featured in their shows, so the announcement that comedians were traveling to Oxford to perform created buzz. It turns out the material of Stewart and Bopp had little deviation from their bits throughout different sets. The same jokes made at different shows led to disappointment because hearing the same joke delivered the same way makes the experience feel less special and boring. The repetitiveness of their material left the viewers unentertained and not inclined to go back. Their material felt artificial because, while the jokes themselves are original, not hearing new material throughout different shows seems lazy. It felt as if they found material that got a great crowd response, so they added it to all of their set lists instead of coming up with more material to make it easier on themselves.
The one-dimensional jokes were very apparent when throughout the set list it lacked diverse topics. The jokes had three topics throughout four different comedians: crude, demoralizing and self-deprecating jokes. All of the comedians had a crude aspect to their jokes that can be funny, but they were delivered poorly, making the jokes feel more uncomfortable than funny. Stewart would make demoralizing jokes towards women throughout her stand-up act, depicting women as objects that men can observe and use in any way they see fit. These jokes would only be found funny by a certain demographic and lack entertainment for the rest of the audience throughout the set. Syatt, who is known for being on the shorter and heavier side, would obviously play to his weaknesses as strengths and make jokes about his physique not being ideal for the dating life. Bopp tended to do this as well when he would also make jokes about himself being fat. These self-deprecating jokes can be funny in some instances when delivered correctly and not overdone. Both of these self-deprecating jokes had a crude aspect that they did not require, which ruined the joke and atmosphere.
Stewart, Boros and Bopp had an underwhelming show to say the least. Their material felt very one-dimensional and lacked depth. Syatt did a good job as a whole, but the expectation was higher compared to the openers considering his popularity as a comedian. Overall, each one of these comedians had a handful of funny and well-delivered puns but fell short because of the repetitive material throughout different shows and the demoralizing and self-deprecating jokes being poorly delivered.
