Local stand-up vets Jason Black and Joel Decker have assembled a showcase of some of the best comedians from Oklahoma for "OKC Comedy Night 2007," a Friday-evening lineup of nine comics to be headlined by Nathan Anderson, who was featured on Comedy Central's "Open Mic Fight" competition.
"He's a guy that, from the first time we saw him on stage, we both thought he was really funny," Black said. "He's a nerdy little guy and you root for him because you want him to do well."
"We haven't heard from him in a few days and we assume it's because 'Halo 3' came out," Decker added.
PRACTICE
Black and Decker "? yes, ha-ha "? have been putting together shows for years and say they've watched Oklahoma City's comedy scene steadily improve, but
"not everybody can tell a joke and not everybody should," Decker said.
Just because someone is funny in the lunchroom at work doesn't mean they will be funny on stage. According to Decker, success in stand-up is partly practice, but also boils down to being comfortable and natural. They see a lot of the same mistakes under the spotlight.
"There are the people that it's evident that they don't write their own material," Black said. "Comics all the time buy jokes, that's fine. They have writers, I don't have a problem with that. I'm talking about the guys who buy an issue of Playboy just to read the joke page and then puts it back out there."
"?Charles Martin
