The San Francisco International Comedy Competition

San Francisco Stand-Up Comedy Competition 2008

VOLUME 1621 • ISSUE 07 COMEDY'S ORIGINAL SOURCE

~ 2008 ~

TOP STORY

SIDELINES

2008 Winners

SAN FRANCISCO _ Television roles and movie stardom have come to dozens of past finalists in the San Francisco International Comedy Competition. This year, Steve White flipped the script.

White took a pause from a television and film career that includes roles in Coming to America, Do the Right Thing, and Malcolm X, to win the most prestigious comedy competition in the country.

“I’ve won awards for acting on stage and won awards for acting in movies but I’d never won an award for stand-up comedy,” White said. “I rank this pretty high.”

Left to right: Derick Lengwenus, (Wyoming), Tyler Boeh (Boston), Leif Skyving (Idaho), Brent Weinbach (San Francisco) and Steve White (Los Angeles).

It’s an accomplishment that almost didn’t happen. White has family in Santa Cruz where the Crow’s Nest, a staple of the competition, is located. When he inquired about getting booked there, he was recruited to enter by competition producer Jon Fox.

“It was an especially gratifying year in terms of the depth of talent and the good will between the competitors,” Fox said. He added that it was a great year in terms of new venues including the Clark Center in Arroyo Grande and the Montbleu Casino in South Lake Tahoe.

“In tough times people do seek out reasonably-priced entertainment and much needed laughter,” Fox said. “So we’re doing our civic duty, too.”

For White, who started his comedy career in 1984, the competition format was a change of pace.

“It was like on the job training. I just stayed focused and said ‘I’m going to do it.’”

The on the job training came in putting 3,589 miles on his Prius while dealing with the competition’s month-long format of different audiences, different venues and different judges every night. The focus came from a more unusual place.

“I saw it more as a competition with myself so I just focused on the mind of the champion,” he said. “I channeled Michael Phelps, Michael Jordan, Beyonce, Oprah, Chris Rock. Those people are amazed when they don’t win.”

Before one show he saw an interview with Nascar champion Jeff Gordon.

“I’m not a Nascar guy but I heard him say, ‘away from the course I like all those guys but when I get in the car I want to slit their throats,’” White said. “I thought well, I can use that too.”

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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...