Nantucket COMEDY Festival

Boxing rings and comedy are not usually associated but it was the theme chosen for this years comedy competition billed as a SmACKdown. New York comics and others from Boston competed against one another for who is funniest. It was judged rather than voted upon by the audience. One of the judges was Lewis Black, the famous comedian who appeared the night before in a stand-up show here.

Everything in Nantucket has to have the word ACK in it, maybe it's the law. smACKdown is one of these. The recipient of the festival's profits go to ProjACK Comedy. I think if a person started to have chest pain and had to go the the Cottage hospital, you would be admitted with a "possible heart attACK."

The event was held in a tent and in the center, "in the round" except it was square, was a Boxing ring, and each comedian showed up wearing a boxing robe and there were ring announcers and all the trappings of a boxing match. The comedians were humorously disrespectful of the mostly white wealthy audience whom one referred to as "Milfs and hedge-fund douchebags." Nobody got a free ride. There was a funny routine about the few "Afro-americans (no wait, that sounds too much like a hairstyle) what do we call you today? in the audience. By going to a comedy show, you tacitly agree to be abused in some way or another. One line that got a good laugh was " Being gay is not a choice, being flaming is." So, nobody got left out...Latinos, or latinas, chicanos, hispanics, spaniards, and why nobody in South America "ever" spoke latin so WTF? Speaking of "F" there was a lot of that word in all of its forms.

The comedy festival was generally worth attending even in a dutch oven tent on the beach. Most of the comedians were very funny. For some unknown reason they had this kid as an opening act one night. I would ordinarily be kind and gentle in my comments about his performance but he "sucked" and had no reason to be among professional high-quality comics. If he anticipates becoming a professional comedian, he's better get used to having stuff thrown at him and getting heckled by the crowd. The Nantucket audience of Muffys and Biffs patiently sat through his schtick. In New York he would have gotten the "hook."