Colleen Watson performs at the San Francisco International Comedy Competition at Crow’s Nest Sunday.
It’s one thing when you go to a comedy competition where you don’t know any of the performers, and it’s so obvious how much better some comedians are than others, and you don’t even have to care. After all, you don’t even know them, which means you don’t have to see them afterward and either genuinely tell them they kicked ass, or fake tell them they kicked ass.
Perhaps the lesson to be learned is if you’re going to have a friend who’s a comedian, for chrissake make sure he or she is a talented one. I am lucky in this regard, as I have only had to watch one person I care about go from “Hey, I think I might give stand up a shot one time at this open mic coming up” to “I think they are actually going to pay me gas money to do this show in Modesto” to “Come see my three-night stint in San Francisco opening for Will Durst.” She happens to be one of the funniest people I’ve ever met, so watching her go from three-minute walk-throughs to 45-minute headlining sets over the course of a couple years has been surprisingly painless, and extremely entertaining.
So yeah, Colleen Watson has done all the work, but which of us really has more comedy expertise at this point? For instance, many a night hanging out at comedian showcases with her has taught me that newbies tend to be the one who go for the easy shocks, while more experienced comics develop a unique style. As Watson prepared to come to the Crow’s Nest Sunday for the San Francisco International Comedy Competition, I asked her if even she, an actual comedian, had realized this.
The answer, obviously, was yes. In fact, it turns out she is the one who pointed it out to me like two years ago. I totally forgot! It pertains to the evolution of her comedy, as well.
“Dicks don't star so heavily in the newer jokes,” she admitted. “And there is more of me in most of my newer stuff.”
I also asked her if her intense comedy schedule—some weeks I have known her to do five or six nights of shows, and then spend the free nights going to see other comics—is a necessary part of building a career. But no, she’s just really creepily obsessive.
“I like to see how others tell their jokes,” she said. “I think it's amazing how some people's minds can look at ordinary things so differently and make it hilarious.”
Colleen Watson performs at the SF International Comedy Competition at the Crow's Nest in Santa Cruz on Sunday, Sept. 15, 9pm.
