Highlights from JFL’s First Virtual Fest. Sit Down Comedy Sessions: Howie Mandel with Bob Saget, Ms. Pat and Bobby Lee
In a time when people need comedy more than ever, the Just for Laughs comedy festival found a way to keep the world laughing. The JFL team partnered up with Kevin Harts’s on-line network, LOL and streamed two days of nonstop comedy with their first ever digital festival. This year, I’m going to focus on three shows in my annual Just for Laughs write up; one of which highlights the history and tradition of the Just for Laughs comedy festival and reminds us of what keeps us coming back year after year, the second grounds us in the here and now and verifies the magical partnership that exists between comedy and tragedy and the third celebrates the future and spotlights comedians who are making their way up the ranks and into our hearts.
The Sit Down Comedy Sessions with Howie Mandel: Bob Saget
Howie Mandel sat down with Bob Saget, Ms. Pat and Bobby Lee to explore who they are, how they cope and why they chose comedy. This show was comedy at another level because in order to work, Howie and his guests had to be willing to completely bare their souls AND have the comedy chops to know how to make the topics they discussed funny and boy did they deliver on both fronts! Howie opened the show with his long-time friend, Bob Saget. Howie and Bob discussed the ways they’ve both used comedy to help them get through their darkest days and dove straight into a conversation about their fathers’ deaths. Bob shared that his father was his comedy inspiration and told super funny stories about the things his dad would do to make him laugh. His dad was so funny and his sense of humor was so dirty, it made wonder if he was the genius behind Bob’s, The Aristocrats jokes. I loved the way Howie described the importance of being able to see the comedy in our tragedies; it was totally inspiring. Howie told us that he was emotionally broken after his dad died but in the depth of his despair, while sitting shiva for his father, he mistook a piece of human poo for a piece of candy and picked it up off the floor! This yielded such a visceral response that it completely snapped him out of his funk and has given him something to laugh about when reflecting back on that very difficult time. Bob then told a personal story about working with Richard Pryor and pointed out that when you “scrap away the humor” from Richard’s jokes, he is actually talking about addiction, violence and abuse. Richard Pryor’s comedy was truly rooted in tragedy and his humor was found in the truth. This first “Session” was perfection and I could not wait for more!
The Sit Down Comedy Sessions with Howie Mandel: Ms. Pat
The next Sit Down Comedy Session featured comedian, Ms. Pat. Howie opened their conversation by asking if she remembered the first time they met. They told the story, but I already knew the answer because I was actually there when it happened! It was at JFL last summer, I had just checked into the hotel and was walking to the elevators when I saw Howie Mandel standing there as a woman was telling him about the time she got shot in the nipple. I asserted myself into their conversation and said, “Ms. Pat?! As soon as I heard your nipple story, I knew it was you! You’re a legend!” She and I talked about this story when I interviewed her over the winter. How cool is that?! Howie told her that from the moment they met, she was fascinating to him and asked her to share a little bit about her upbringing. Ms. Pat gave the abridged version of her book, Rabbit: The Autobiography of Ms. Pat which included her teenage pregnancies, being molested, dealing drugs, going to jail and being shot by her children’s father. Then she stepped back and said that the more she’s told these stories out loud, the more she has started to heal and to me, that was a testimony to the power of comedy and the concluding reason why absolutely no subject matter should ever be off the table. Howie asked her what advice she would give someone who was having a really hard time in life and couldn’t find their way into the light? She said that she has been to the bottom and even gotten to the point where she considered suicide. Her advice would be to, “Keep it moving. You cannot change the past so don’t dwell on stuff you don’t have control over. What I don’t have control over, I give to the higher power.” Howie pointed out Ms. Pat’s gift for storytelling and her ability to make people laugh, even at the most tragic of subject matters. Ms. Pat said that she tells people all of the time to “find a way to laugh at the darkest things in life, just find a way” … and that is exactly what Howie Mandel’s Sit Down Comedy Sessions are all about!
The Sit Down Comedy Sessions with Howie Mandel: Bobby Lee
The final segment of this stellar show brought Bobby Lee to the hot seat. He did a tremendous job sharing his truth and being absolutely hilarious all the way through. Bobby started off being a little more guarded than the first two guests and kept the conversation light with his self-deprecating humor. Then, Howie Mandel asked him about his childhood and it only took Bobby a couple of beats to slowly ease off of the jokes and shift into his story and from the moment he took off his sunglasses, it was on! Bobby completely opened up, found the perfect harmony between comedy and tragedy and shared that he was molested, battled drug addiction since the age of 12 and grew up in a house where he and his mother were physically abused by his father. Howie asked him how he first got into comedy and Bobby said that one day he showed up to the coffee shop he worked at and there was a sign in the window that said, “Closed Forever.” He then noticed that the building next door had a help wanted sign on the door and that building was, The Comedy Store. Little did he know how much that moment would change the trajectory of his life forever! Fate is a beautiful thing! He started out as a bar back but eventually caught the comedy bug and with zero preparation, signed up to do their open mic. Despite the fact that he totally bombed, Bobby said that for the very first time ever, he felt alive and even though it was embarrassing to bomb, he still felt a sensation of feeling proud of himself for walking through his fear and with that, a comedian was born! Just six months after his first open mic, Pauly Shore asked Bobbly to open for him in Vegas. Bobby was terrified, but he did it and when he got off stage, the one and only, Mitzi Shore walked up to him and said, “You’re a regular.” Five years later he did The Tonight Show and booked MADtv. Bobby closed his “session” with the time in his life after his dad died. The death of his father resurrected all of the trauma that had been stored in his body and mind since he was a kid and this caused him to relapse onto drugs. Bobby was at a real low and was physically unable to hold food down. Bobby has been working on himself ever since and will have one year sober at the end of November. Before watching this show, I had no idea all of the things Bobby Lee’s endured but I love him even more now that I do.
Right here, right now, this show is exactly what the world needs and I feel like I am a better person just for having watched it. I absolutely loved this show and if Howie decides to keep doing Sessions, I strongly recommend Annie Lederman. She has an amazing story and is an open book. Sit Down Comedy Sessions with Howie Mandel is my new favorite Just for Laughs production and I am sincerely thankful to Howie Mandel and all of the guests who were brave enough to share their stories and talented enough to find comedy within their tragedy.
Just for Laughs’s first digital comedy festival is a wrap but I’d like to thank everyone involved for being completely dedicated to comedy, working with what they had to find a way to make it happen and for sharing the joy of laughter with the world at a time when comedy has never been more essential. On behalf of comedy fans everywhere, we appreciate you and we thank you. See you next year!
Read more JFL Highlights from Sara Dahms:
Andy Kindler’s State of Comedy Address 2020
Sit Down Comedy Sessions: Howie Mandel with Bob Saget, Ms. Pat and Bobby Lee
Variety’s Top 10 Comics of 2020
Read more comedy news.
Sarah Dahms is a comedy superfan hails from Chicago and travels all over the country checking out the best comedy everywhere.
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