Lucas Lewis Week continues with this piece on Boston's tradition of comedy in Chinese restaurants. - Nick
By Lucas Lewis
BOSTON — There’s something about Chinese restaurants that seems to bring out the best — and the worst — in Boston comedy.
Back in 1979, it was Barry Crimmins establishing the first full-time comedy club in town at the now-legendary — and now-defunct — Ding Ho in Inman Square. Today there’s the Comedy Studio at the Hong Kong in Cambridge, perhaps the most revered and respected comedy club in New England (see “The Studio”).
But across town, in the shadow of Fenway Park, there’s a lesser-known venue forging the Chinese comedy connection: Grandma’s Basement, an intimate lounge connected to a Chinese restaurant at the Howard Johnson Hotel. In Boston, as elsewhere, comics congregate around the shows they can get on — mostly small showcases and open mics. Grandma’s has the added allure of being a small room (a dozen people makes the 44-capacity room look full) run by one of their own, and as a result it has become one of the premier hangouts for local comedians in the past year.
Bar manager and sometimes host Benny Bosh (nee’ Boshnak), who shares booking, hosting and bartending duties with fellow comic Tom Dunlap, is happy that this happened when it did.
“We’ve grown in popularity at a perfect rate alongside our — mine and Tom’s — comedy performance,” Bosh says. “That is to say, I’m glad it wasn't this popular a year ago, because then I would've looked like a complete idiot on stage. Now I just kind of look like one.”
The insider cache — along the Chinese restaurant bit — is a marked similarity to the Ding Ho, which Crimmins designed to be a comedy clubhouse. “The secret of the Ding was that it was of, by, and for comics,” he wrote in a 1999 retrospective for The Boston Phoenix. “The Ding treated all its acts like stars. Comics didn't pay for drinks — ever. They could put anyone they liked on the guest list.”
Grandma’s Basement has other parallels to the Ding Ho, too. On Fridays and Saturdays, Bosh or Dunlap are usually behind the bar, slinging strong — and on occasion free or discounted — drinks to the comics assembled.
A typical weekend show (which is canceled when the Red Sox have a home game that starts later than 1 p.m.) will feature around 10 comedians doing 5-7 minutes apiece, though there are exceptions: Earlier this year, local comedian Shawn Donovan recorded his first album, Few Mourn, at Grandma’s Basement.
“Donovan’s album recording I still think of as one of our greatest successes as a comedy venue,” Bosh says. “He is without a doubt one of my favorite comics in Boston and in comedy, and I’m so happy he got that out there and I was able to help achieve that.”
As for Chinese restaurants bringing out the worst in Boston comedy? The Ding Ho was as notorious as it was noteworthy, with comedians nearly running the place into the ground with their bar tabs and after-hours shenanigans. Grandma’s Basement hardly ever approaches that level of debauchery, but The Phoenix did recently dub Thursday’s open mic “The Best Worst Night of Comedy” in Boston for 2011.
Bosch, who hosts most Thursdays, wears the distinction as a badge of honor.
Showing posts with label Ding Ho. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ding Ho. Show all posts
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
The Boston Scene: Looking Back and Forward to 2009
This was a year of transition for the Boston comedy scene. The Comedy Connection left Faneuil Hall for the Wilbur. Mottley’s Comedy Club opened to give Faneuil Hall a different, more indie-driven vibe. The Comedy Studio kept chugging despite losing staples like Micah Sherman and Myq Kaplan to New York. Dick Doherty stepped up his programming at the Vault.
There were rumblings about what would become of the scene, the usual concerns about hemorrhaging talent to New York and Los Angeles and speculation about the club scene. But at it’s base, this scene isn’t about the clubs. Never has been. The clubs, like the old Ding Ho and Catch a Rising Star, and more recently the Connection and the Studio, are just the facilitators. This scene is about the comedians, and from what I’ve seen over the past decade covering comedy in Boston, this scene will never lack for good comedians.
Nine years ago, I saw the Ding Ho reunion at the Somerville Theatre. I had been in town for about a year, and seen a few shows, but really hadn’t gotten my feet wet in the scene yet. At that reunion, I saw Bobcat Goldthwait, Steven Wright, Barry Crimmins, Jimmy Tingle, Don Gavin, Steve Sweeney, Lenny Clarke, Mike McDonald, Tony V., DJ Hazard, and probably twenty other comics whose roots were firmly planted in Boston.
It was an amazing array of talent, and an exhausting night as comic after talented comic took the stage. People took turns hosting just to get through it. You can read about the history of this scene all you want, but seeing wave after wave of comics of whom I was already a fan and hilarious veterans I had never heard of drove home just how rich the Boston comedy scene is, how deep its history. And the fact that I had laughed for more than three hours was proof this wasn’t just talk – these people were funny, and there seemed to be an endless supply of them.
A few weeks ago, I saw a lot of the same people at Showcase Live when Steven Wright was introduced into the Boston Comedy Hall of Fame. Crimmins gave us a glimpse into what it’s like to tour with Wright (Theme song --- “No Woman, No Press Charges,” and tequila and acid were staples, acid for the audience so they’d better understand the show). Bob Lazarus had the best set I’d seen him do. Ken Rogerson, Tony V, Don Gavin, Jimmy Tingle, Steve Sweeney, Lenny Clarke, Mike McDonald – the audience knew and cheered every one of them. They were old friends, a constant in an ever evolving city.
A few days later, the Paradise Rock Club hosted Robby Roadsteamer’s Greater Boston Alternative Comedy Festival. Roadsteamer had assembled some of the best of a new wave of Boston comedians. You can debate the term “alternative” if you’d like (in an awkward moment waiting for a sound cue that seemed like it would never come, host Shane Webb questioned alternative – “It just has to be weird, right?”). You can say it’s a false category, call it pretentious, however you perceive it. But what you can’t do is apply that old chestnut that it’s the “alternative to funny.”
Character comic Chris Coxen showed off his “combat dancing” as Danny Morsel (a mix of disco and punching and kicking) and his smoothness as loungemaster Barry Tattle. Mehran, who I was seeing in person for the first time, had a powerhouse set about being both gay and Iranian (the man is not shy about mining either for laughs). Bethany Van Delft was cool and intellectual, the Walsh Brothers told their wild stories about adjusting to LA, Anderson Comedy sang of Christmas with no pants. Shane Mauss pulled off a neat and seamless set of stand-up with a cell phone sketch sown in. And Roadsteamer clearly had the crowd behind him during his set of musical diatribes about the Boston comedy and music scenes, with help from a couple of muscleheads on my favorite of his tunes, “I Got Construction Boots.”
Two shows within three days of each other. Boston veterans, and a new generation of Boston comics. Whatever else might be in transition, the comedians are here, old and new, and they both have helped me laugh my ass off for nearly ten years. And there are continuing efforts to bring the two worlds together. Mottley’s approach to booking has allowed Shane Mauss, veteran Patty Ross, and Baron Vaughn (back home from New York) to headline. Artie Januario hosts a Wednesday night open mic at Giggles that regularly attracts veterans like Tony V (watch for that to start up again January 21).
My hope for 2009 is that people go out to see these comedians, and realize how lucky they are to live in a city where comedy never dies. And you don’t have to go very far to find it.
There were rumblings about what would become of the scene, the usual concerns about hemorrhaging talent to New York and Los Angeles and speculation about the club scene. But at it’s base, this scene isn’t about the clubs. Never has been. The clubs, like the old Ding Ho and Catch a Rising Star, and more recently the Connection and the Studio, are just the facilitators. This scene is about the comedians, and from what I’ve seen over the past decade covering comedy in Boston, this scene will never lack for good comedians.
Nine years ago, I saw the Ding Ho reunion at the Somerville Theatre. I had been in town for about a year, and seen a few shows, but really hadn’t gotten my feet wet in the scene yet. At that reunion, I saw Bobcat Goldthwait, Steven Wright, Barry Crimmins, Jimmy Tingle, Don Gavin, Steve Sweeney, Lenny Clarke, Mike McDonald, Tony V., DJ Hazard, and probably twenty other comics whose roots were firmly planted in Boston.
It was an amazing array of talent, and an exhausting night as comic after talented comic took the stage. People took turns hosting just to get through it. You can read about the history of this scene all you want, but seeing wave after wave of comics of whom I was already a fan and hilarious veterans I had never heard of drove home just how rich the Boston comedy scene is, how deep its history. And the fact that I had laughed for more than three hours was proof this wasn’t just talk – these people were funny, and there seemed to be an endless supply of them.
A few weeks ago, I saw a lot of the same people at Showcase Live when Steven Wright was introduced into the Boston Comedy Hall of Fame. Crimmins gave us a glimpse into what it’s like to tour with Wright (Theme song --- “No Woman, No Press Charges,” and tequila and acid were staples, acid for the audience so they’d better understand the show). Bob Lazarus had the best set I’d seen him do. Ken Rogerson, Tony V, Don Gavin, Jimmy Tingle, Steve Sweeney, Lenny Clarke, Mike McDonald – the audience knew and cheered every one of them. They were old friends, a constant in an ever evolving city.
A few days later, the Paradise Rock Club hosted Robby Roadsteamer’s Greater Boston Alternative Comedy Festival. Roadsteamer had assembled some of the best of a new wave of Boston comedians. You can debate the term “alternative” if you’d like (in an awkward moment waiting for a sound cue that seemed like it would never come, host Shane Webb questioned alternative – “It just has to be weird, right?”). You can say it’s a false category, call it pretentious, however you perceive it. But what you can’t do is apply that old chestnut that it’s the “alternative to funny.”
Character comic Chris Coxen showed off his “combat dancing” as Danny Morsel (a mix of disco and punching and kicking) and his smoothness as loungemaster Barry Tattle. Mehran, who I was seeing in person for the first time, had a powerhouse set about being both gay and Iranian (the man is not shy about mining either for laughs). Bethany Van Delft was cool and intellectual, the Walsh Brothers told their wild stories about adjusting to LA, Anderson Comedy sang of Christmas with no pants. Shane Mauss pulled off a neat and seamless set of stand-up with a cell phone sketch sown in. And Roadsteamer clearly had the crowd behind him during his set of musical diatribes about the Boston comedy and music scenes, with help from a couple of muscleheads on my favorite of his tunes, “I Got Construction Boots.”
Two shows within three days of each other. Boston veterans, and a new generation of Boston comics. Whatever else might be in transition, the comedians are here, old and new, and they both have helped me laugh my ass off for nearly ten years. And there are continuing efforts to bring the two worlds together. Mottley’s approach to booking has allowed Shane Mauss, veteran Patty Ross, and Baron Vaughn (back home from New York) to headline. Artie Januario hosts a Wednesday night open mic at Giggles that regularly attracts veterans like Tony V (watch for that to start up again January 21).
My hope for 2009 is that people go out to see these comedians, and realize how lucky they are to live in a city where comedy never dies. And you don’t have to go very far to find it.
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