Borsch - Comedy Scholar

Monday, June 20, 2011
The key was not under my brother

I didn’t know this beforehand, but it turns out Billy Gardell’s mom and my mom have something in common: They both seem to not quite grasp the intricacies of hiding a house key under the front door mat.

My first question was, "Who is Billy Gardell?"

Gardell, star of the hit television series “Mike and Molly,” is also a successful stand-up comic, and like most comics, his ability to observe human nature and then turn it into compelling storytelling can be quite entertaining.

Do comics really engage in much "compelling storytelling"? I Googled Mr. Gardell and found the following information about his "hit" show: he stars as "Mike Biggs," an overweight police officer (his name is BIGGS! GET IT???). He meets a woman at an Overeaters Anonymous meeting and they become "an unlikely pair" (comedy - and fat jokes - ahoy!).

But watch out - they must confront "comments, jokes and criticism" from Mike's "fast-talking partner." Other characters are a "slim, drug-addicted sister," a "nymphomaniac mother" and "a Senegalese waiter" (foreigners are funny!). This show sounds terrible, and is thus right up Borsch's alley.

So there were plenty of laughs to go around Friday night at the Keswick Theater in Glenside. And the key for comedians is to tell stories that the rest of us can relate to.

Wow, attending a local show at the Keswick! If only it was the Sellersville Theater, the cliche would be complete. I like how he's pontificating about comedy like he teaches a college seminar on it or something.

I didn’t get all the details because I was giggling too much, but one of Gardell’s bits included something about his mom leaving a house key under the front door mat for him, then leaving a note on the front door telling him the key was under the mat.

So at the Dennis Miller show, Borsch didn't laugh as much as he hoped. For comedic genius Billy Gardell, he was laughing so hard he couldn't even hear the jokes.

During the summer of 1978, I had completed my first year of college, which for me meant that I had completed my first year of college partying. By the time that summer rolled around, I wasn’t exactly interested in ending the college party season.

This "all I did at college was party" thing is becoming a prominent Borsch trope. It also makes me wonder how he got this job.

One night I was out with my buddies, doing what 19-year-old guys do, and I didn’t get home until around 2 a.m. I’m not sure why, but my parents had not given me a house key.

Compelling storytelling at its finest here, folks.

I opened the screen door to see a note, in my mother’s handwriting, on the front door, barely illuminated by the street light. It read: “The key is under your brother.”
In my state of heightened unawareness, my first thought was: “Why is my brother on the front porch and why is he sitting on the house key?” Six years my junior, he would have been around 12 or 13 years old and it would have been well past his bedtime.

Imagine a stand-up comic using this material. It would bring down the house, right? Right? The crickets would be chirping so loud you couldn't hear the jokes.

It took me a few moments of controlled confusion to deduce that I did indeed know where the key was.

Wow, "heightened unawareness," "controlled confusion"... he's really trying to sound brainy here.

My brother’s name is . . . Matt.
I often wonder if a burglar who hadn’t been out with his buddies all night would have been able to figure it out. Apparently, my mom didn’t think sober burglars would know my brother’s name.

The end? I know I often complain that Borsch uses one lame joke for an entire post. Does it count when a post literally exists to tell a single, lame joke?

Labels: Billy Gardell, Keswick Theater, Mike Morsch, Montgomery Newspapers, Outta Leftfield