The San Francisco International Comedy Competition

San Francisco Stand-Up Comedy Competition 2007

VOLUME 1508 • ISSUE 07 COMEDY'S ORIGINAL SOURCE

~ 2007 ~

TOP STORY

SIDELINES

2007 Winners

The five finalists in this year’s San Francisco International Comedy Competition could’ve been the set up for an old joke of their own:

An Asian, a Mexican, a Mormon, a stoner and a retired CEO walked into a sold-out theater.

Hawaii native Paul Ogata got the last laugh, becoming the first Asian winner in the competition’s 32-year history.

Left to right, that's Dennis Gaxiola (Sacramento), Kellen Erskine (San Jose) , David Van Avermaete (San Ramon) and Mike Baldwin (Kansas City), with winner Paul Ogata (Honolulu) in the foreground.

“It means a lot to me,” Ogata said. “You don’t see a lot of success and opportunities for Asians in entertainment so it’s great anytime you can make a dent in the machine in a non-William Hung kind of way.”

Ogata touched on his ethnicity but used his 17 years of joke-telling experience to win over crowds with his charisma, high energy likeability and rapid fire jokes from his everyday life.

“You can spot good material from a mile away,” said third-place finisher Mike Baldwin. “When Paul did a completely different set the second night and killed again, I was like this guy is totally going to win.”

Watching Ogata for the first time was a treat for competition producer Jon Fox.

“It's always nice to see someone who is that developed for the first time,” said Fox, who credited Ogata for his range of material. “He does make fun of his heritage a bit but his real killer bit has to do with fending off jewelry store salespeople who want to
sell his wife diamonds. It's a truly unique routine with upscale appeal.”

Fox, also pointed out that while Ogata appealed to every crowd, this year’s competition was the closest in years. Former CEO David VanAvermaete and Baldwin, the resident stoner, were still in the running going into the last night.

VanAvermaete, a former CEO for a $2 billion a year subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, gave Ogata a run for his money. Just one year after 64-year-old Jay Wendell Walker became the competition’s oldest winner, the 56-year-old VanAvermaete threatened to make it another win for the senior class before coming in second.

A longtime fan of the competition, he started to pursue comedy after retiring six years ago. His age gave him an advantage because he had more life experience and having fired people, closed down plants and spoken in front of hundreds he wasn’t intimidated by comedy. But getting laughs in comedy clubs is tougher than board rooms, he said.

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	Great Dane took a bite out of the Competition in 1995 Dane Cook battled it out with Doug Stanhope in one of the best competitions ever Staff report Dane Cook isn’t everywhere. It just seems that way. The San Francisco International Comedy Competition alumni starred in three movies this year, was included in People magazine’s sexiest man alive issue and appeared in an omnipresent Major League Baseball advertising campaign. Oh, and his comedy career is doing just fine, too. He released his third album, which quickly joined the other two in the top five comedy albums on iTunes. Rough Around the Edges, the latest CD/DVD, sold 92,000 copies in the first six days and is also the name of the national tour he is wrapping up to end the year. At the end of the 25-city tour, Cook estimates that he will have performed for 350,000 fans at sold out arenas across North America. “Almost every one of these arenas comes up and says to me ‘we can’t believe that a comedian is doing this.’ They might be a little understaffed and maybe not prepared for the juggernaut,” Cook said in a recorded phone message to his fans on his website, danecook.com. “It’s not always understood that it’s going to be a rock-n-roll atmosphere at a comedy show.” It’s something that those who watched the 1995 Comedy Competition might have an easier time understanding. In one of the most talent-rich exhibitions in the competition’s 30-year history, Cook stormed into the 1995 finals. Most nights, according to Producer Jon Fox, the stage wasn’t big enough to contain his high-energy act. Complete story... __________________________________ Former Champ Carlos Alazraqui sets laughter free on Reno 911! Arresting Development Staff report LOS ANGELES, Calif. – Between roughing up Jehovah’s Witnesses and bringing dates to executions, Carlos Alazraqui has his hands full on Reno 911! The hardest part about shooting the absurdist police mockumentary isn’t getting laughs but stifling them. Currently shooting its fourth season, the improvised show relies on its ensemble cast to keep straight faces. Alazraqui, past winner of the San Francisco International Comedy Competition, is a chief offender for cracking up on the set. But Alazraqui also draws some of the biggest laughs as the racially insensitive and racially confused Deputy James Garcia. “Aside from the Spanish surname he’s a good ole’ boy sheriff, angry, uptight, falsely confident,” Alazraqui said. “It’s great playing someone who is a jerk and confident that whatever he does is right.” Castmate Thomas Lennon, who plays Lt. James Dangle, said that if anyone breaks up laughing it’s more than likely to be the 42-year-old Alazraqui. But if you were riding the wave of success that Alazraqui is, you’d have hard time keeping a straight face too. Aside from his spot on Reno 911!, Alazraqui also enjoyed success as the longtime voice of the Taco Bell Chihuahua. He’s lending that voice to two Cartoon network shows this spring and next year’s feature film Happy Feet starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman. Complete story...