DAN'S PAPERS, September 12, 2008 Page 55 www.danshamptons.com
Arts & Entertainment Up-and-Coming Comics at WHPAC’s Last Comic East By Tiffany Razzano Some of the area’s hottest up-and-coming comics will coming to the Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center on September 20 for Last Comic East, a show to support some of the East End’s high school athletic teams. With Dan Wilson hosting, the line-up also boasts Amy Schumer, Joe DeVito, Jamie Lissow and Rodney Laney. Some of the proceeds will benefit Westhampton Beach High School’s wrestling team and Eastport High School’s girls’ lacrosse team. “This show, I’m really happy about,” said Mark Maningo, of The Kellman Corp., which organizes a couple of comedy shows each year. “This is a shot for people to see some of the more up-and-coming young comics out there.” Relatively new to the stand-up comedy scene, Schumer, who grew up in Rockville Centre and is known for her irreverent, quirky humor, made a name for herself on NBC’s “Last Comic Standing” last year, when she came in fourth place during Season 5. Since the show, her career has really taken off. She appeared on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show,” “Best Week Ever” on VH1 and has starred in a show on Comedy Central, “Reality Bites,” which poked fun at reality television. Each episode took aim at a different reality show, with episode titles such as “Amazing Disgrace” and “Are You Smarter Than a Monkey?” She has also been working with a theater/production company developing original works for stage and screen, as well as producing comedy shows in New York City that have featured comedians such as Demetri Martin, Michael Ian Black and Laurie Kilmartin. “Last Comic Standing has done wonders for my career,” Schumer said. “I went from being completely unknown to having a fan base. It’s been a crazy year. But I feel the same. I still love comedy. I just don’t have to sort mail to make a living anymore.” Schumer graduated from Towson University in 2003, where she studied theater. She’s taken on both dramatic and comedic roles, studying acting further after college at the William Esper Studio, and also working with several improv groups. “I loved both the comedy and the drama,” she said. “My favorite performances were ones where I could make the audience cry with laughter, then make them cry with me. I really got cast in both [types of] roles, the roles where you needed good comedic timing but had to be able to pull on people’s heartstrings.” She actually began her career as a stand-up comic on a whim, when, while walking by it, she decided to find out how she could get on stage at Gotham Comedy Club. As it happened, the club had a slot available that night. The only catch was that she needed to bring four people. So she called her mom. “I said I was going to try stand-up and asked if she could come into the city that night,” Schumer said. “She said, ‘Do you have any jokes?’ and I said, ‘I’ll figure it out.’ I have the VHS of that first time. It was pretty horrible, but I got a good response, and people couldn’t believe it was my first time. Ever since that night I’ve just been pounding the pavement and doing it every night.” DeVito, who performed at Gurney’s in Montauk this summer, is also a “Last Comic” veteran, making it to the semi-finals of the show the same season as
Amy Schumer Schumer. “On the plane to LA we hit really bad turbulence and they made us put everything under the seat so it wouldn’t fly up and hit us in the face,” he said. “I held Amy Schumer’s hand on the flight to
LA. I don’t get enough credit for that. I played a pivotal role in her success,” he joked. Despite not making it to the finals of the show, “Last Comic” proved to be a huge stepping-stone for DeVito, who grew up in Connecticut but has lived in Nassau for 10 years, as well. “It was a big boost to me,” he said. Prior to that, he was doing some stand-up, while freelancing as a writer. “Last Comic” allowed him to focus solely on his career in comedy. “To get that TV time is what I needed to get to the next level. It allows you to get on the road and move from being a middle act to a closing headliner. And that’s a big difference. With finances the way they are, it’s very hard to travel. Sometimes all your pay goes to getting to the gig.” Having gotten his start in publishing, working for Doubleday and Book-of-the-Month Club, DeVito has also written for MTV, FUSE and Stuff magazine, as well as the documentary Super Size Me. He was a featured performer on Comedy Central’s “Live at Gotham” and recently appeared on “The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson” and, Fox News Channel’s “Red Eye” and “Animal Planet.” Soon, you’ll be able to watch him on CNN’s “Not Just Another Cable News Show.” As for the show in Westhampton Beach, DeVito is excited not only toshow off some of his new material (“I like to write a lot. I get restless that way.”), he’s thrilled with the line-up. “It’s the kind of show where if someone were to say to me, ‘You have two hours of comedy to fill,’ that is very close to what [my line-up] would look like,” he said. The show starts at 8 p.m. on September 20. Tickets are $55 and can be purchased by contacting The Kellman Corp. at 631-471-1221 or e-mailing kellmancorp@yahoo.com. For more information about Schumer and DeVito, go to myspace.com/amyschumer and myspace.com/joedevito.
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