Checking out the new Funny Farm with ‘In Living Color’ alum Tommy Davidson

The comic did very little, if any, set material. He mostly winged it for an entire hour, which takes a certain amount of hutzpah to pull off. He mostly targeted a handful of people for an hour. For instance, he laughed himself silly first mocking a black man in a Russian Cossack hat, then imagining a bunch of kittens living in there. At the end of the show, he grabbed the hat and wore it himself. (left) Bottom line: he was comfortable on stage and the audience went with it.

It helps that Davidson seems to have reels of old films in his head. He could do entire scenes from Bruce Lee's "Enter the Dragon," replete with sound effects.  He can imitate sounds and voices like a jukebox on-demand. And he can ape virtually any singer, from Hall & Oates and Pat Benatar to Usher and Sisqo (yes, the "Thong Song"). He didn't pull out any of his celebrity impersonations. In fact, it was a rare show he didn't actually do his Obama impersonation.

Now let’s get to the venue, which is clearly a work in progress:

The new Funny Farm is a restaurant during the day and located inside an arcade/fun park. The space, from a design perspective,  is utterly non-descript with all the warmth of a Chuck E. Cheese. The old Funny Farm, also in a now-closed ”entertainment complex,” actually possessed a modicum of charm, steeped in rich reds and adorned with eclectic wall ornaments.

It’s also far more spacious than the old Startime space, but not in a good way. When working smaller clubs, comedians tend to like it tight, which helps fuel laughter (if not necessarily comfort among the patrons). If things are too cavernous, laughter gets swallowed up. That’s part of the reason why a cramped place such as the Punchline has worked all these years.

The small stage is set in a corner, not idyllic. An operator would rather have  a stage take up an entire side so more people have front-row seats. It’s also right next to the entrance, which is potentially distracting for both the comic and the audience. Davidson would make commentary as people came in and out, dubbing one white guy “Kenneth Cole.”

The center of the room is dominated by an upraised circular space, which breaks the flow of the room. Club manager Mike Stiles (a former producer for the Steve & Vikki show when it was on Star 94) said Chiles has considered making it an "in the round" club, which would be unusual and challenging but give everyone in the room a good view of the comic. Operator Marshall Chiles said he will likely tear down the circular space and move the stage away from the entrance. I expect things will look a lot better within six months once Chiles rejiggers the layout and injects the place with some personality.

Here’s a video sample from Saturday night of Davidson mocking an Asian dude, then a black woman’s weave, a white girl in the front, then her date and the guy in the cossack hat. Warning: he does curse a bit:

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