MOM + COMEDY = MOMEDY

By Lisa Harmon

My Mom did a set! A real stand-up comedy set, at a real stand-up comedy club! Yes! I can’t believe it either! After years of supporting me at open mics, she finally took the plunge!

Over the years comics have told my Mom how funny she is, and she’s been invited to the stage many times, but she has always refused.

If you’re a comic you may be wondering where my Mom has been. She moved to Florida last year. So I can no longer do even a one person bringer show!

But I’m down here visiting da Muddah and we hit the open mic at Catskills Comedy Club last Monday. They were having a comedy contest - $3 to enter.  $2 of the $3 goes to the pool for the winning comic, and second place wins a guest spot.

Well we’d been there before. We went to the open mic Thursday night, which was just a regular mic. It was our first time there and it was fun. I performed, Mom did not!  I got to meet some comics I only knew from Facebook. And of course we’re comics, we could be on Mars, but if there’s an open mic, we feel at home. So even though I only knew some of these people through Facebook, and even though I was far, far from home, it made no difference. I may as well have been sitting in Tino’s or Frank Terranova’s mic. With comics, it is all the same. All so familiar and comforting.

I signed up for the contest and paid $3. Mom and I bought sodas and sat down. Eventually some more people showed up and they started the contest. The prize money was placed on a barstool on stage. After a couple of head-to-head rounds, the MC announced there was one comic too many. Instead of giving the comic a buy to the second round, he told my Mom (as the sole audience member) she had to do a set and compete! He paid her entry fee! To my surprise, my Mom agreed to do it!

Mom did three minutes, which I taped on my phone. She told me if I ever showed that video to anyone, she’d kill me!  Call me, I'll show it to you!

But it was funny! My Mom is a very sarcastic, acerbic, quick wit. But apparently all that goes away when you hand her a mic and put her on a stage in front of strangers. But she got laughs! She really did! I can’t believe the guts my Mom has!

I tried to give her some advice before she went up there - I suggested she talk about something that makes her angry. I told her to get really animated and let it rip. She didn’t do that. I don’t know why, it would have been great, everything makes her angry. I mean, Europe, reverse mortgages, skirted bathing suits, it isn’t hard to find things that piss her off! But she didn’t talk about any of that. I don’t remember everything she mentioned but I do recall this line “Give it up for peanut butter and jelly.” She’s so crazy. I’m so proud of my Mom. I’m so happy I have a Mom with a mouth and an attitude and a backbone. I’m so glad I wasn’t raised to be a caretaker for some ungrateful family.

I’m extremely lucky because I have a Mom that is loud, opinionated and ballsy. I’m so fortunate she’s not a doormat, slave, second class citizen. I’m very proud of my Mom and grateful for everything I’ve learned from her. And screw material, what you need up there on stage is guts, and the women in my family have plenty. I have to thank my Mom for making me who I am today! And I’m so proud of her for kicking comedy butt! That’s my amazing Mom!