December 15, 2010
Comedy at 10:30 AM???
Joe Bolster III
Comedian
Minutes of the 13th Meeting of the 69th Year
Robert Varrin had to use several raps of his president’s gavel to quiet the lively crowd and call the Old Guard of Princeton’s 13th meeting of its 69th year to order at 10:15 a.m. Don Edwards led the invocation and John Rassweiler read his minutes of the December 8th meeting.
Joe Bolster introduced his wife, Tink (“as in Tinkerbell”), and their oldest grandchild, Martha McKinley. Cyril Franks introduced his wife, Violet, who in 60 years of marriage “has never thought of divorce, but murder often.”
In order to eliminate any thoughts of parental bias, Joe Bolster, Jr. quoted an article in a Comedy Journal to introduce his son, Joe Bolster III. The oldest of Joe and Tink Bolster’s 14 children, Joe the third is a successful comedian and writer. He has appeared on and written for the top late night television shows, starred in his own HBO comedy special, won comedy competitions, and written for television sit-coms and award shows.
Mr. Bolster began a half-hour of his unique observational comedy by commenting that “there is an old show biz maxim that you know your career is peaking when you’re doing a show in an engineering building at ten thirty a.m.” More than once he returned to the incongruity of doing stand-up comedy before noon, if not before eight o’clock in the evening.
A few of the three-dozen topics that received his humorous attention included the desire for a Princeton address – at some distance from Princeton, the sleeper-beeper, TSA frisking, dumb signs, baseball announcers, the Mets, Roman ruins, buying a Smoothie, ninety-year-old women pedestrians, internet scams, and slow-churned ice cream. He commented that when he Googled himself he found there’s a ‘Little Joe Bolster Pillow’ at Walmart, waiting for a big Joe Bolster to order one.
He used his large family as material – they need a parade permit to walk on Nassau Street; his mother is a good Catholic and works on a commission basis for the Pope. And for this Princeton audience he had a personal reminiscence about Sam the Plumber.
During a half-hour Q and A period Joe provided an insider’s look into his profession, both as a performer and writer. The middle position is the best slot in a comedy club evening and the best night is Saturday. The last show on Friday is the worst, and Thursday is a good night for new material. Theater shows are better than clubs because there isn’t the distraction of contending with alcohol enhanced audience.
His favorite comedians are Bill Cosby, Woody Allen, Steve Martin, Richard Pryor, and George Carlin. As for current shows, he admires Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert and commented that the writing for both is exquisite.
When he first saw Jerry Seinfeld he realized that it wasn’t necessary to be off-color to be funny and Joe doesn’t have any blue material in his repertoire. He likened using R-rated jokes to making par, but hitting from the women’s tee. The challenge is a clean joke from the men’s tee.
Joe’s interest in comedy started when he noticed his father only watched the comedians on the Ed Sullivan Show. Joe thought they came out and ad-libbed their five-minute routine and only later realized those five minutes were the result of months if not years of fine tuning the words and timing. He pointed out that comedy is one profession where training is all on-the-job. You can go to the basement and practice violin, but a mirror doesn’t laugh.
The title of Joe’s talk was “Comedy at 10:30 a.m.???.” By the time the meeting adjourned at 11:30 a.m. it was clear that the talk was in reality “Comedy at 10:30 a.m.!!!.”
In the jargon of his profession, he killed.
Respectfully Submitted,
Jock McFarlane
Joe Bolster introduced his wife, Tink (“as in Tinkerbell”), and their oldest grandchild, Martha McKinley. Cyril Franks introduced his wife, Violet, who in 60 years of marriage “has never thought of divorce, but murder often.”
In order to eliminate any thoughts of parental bias, Joe Bolster, Jr. quoted an article in a Comedy Journal to introduce his son, Joe Bolster III. The oldest of Joe and Tink Bolster’s 14 children, Joe the third is a successful comedian and writer. He has appeared on and written for the top late night television shows, starred in his own HBO comedy special, won comedy competitions, and written for television sit-coms and award shows.
Mr. Bolster began a half-hour of his unique observational comedy by commenting that “there is an old show biz maxim that you know your career is peaking when you’re doing a show in an engineering building at ten thirty a.m.” More than once he returned to the incongruity of doing stand-up comedy before noon, if not before eight o’clock in the evening.
A few of the three-dozen topics that received his humorous attention included the desire for a Princeton address – at some distance from Princeton, the sleeper-beeper, TSA frisking, dumb signs, baseball announcers, the Mets, Roman ruins, buying a Smoothie, ninety-year-old women pedestrians, internet scams, and slow-churned ice cream. He commented that when he Googled himself he found there’s a ‘Little Joe Bolster Pillow’ at Walmart, waiting for a big Joe Bolster to order one.
He used his large family as material – they need a parade permit to walk on Nassau Street; his mother is a good Catholic and works on a commission basis for the Pope. And for this Princeton audience he had a personal reminiscence about Sam the Plumber.
During a half-hour Q and A period Joe provided an insider’s look into his profession, both as a performer and writer. The middle position is the best slot in a comedy club evening and the best night is Saturday. The last show on Friday is the worst, and Thursday is a good night for new material. Theater shows are better than clubs because there isn’t the distraction of contending with alcohol enhanced audience.
His favorite comedians are Bill Cosby, Woody Allen, Steve Martin, Richard Pryor, and George Carlin. As for current shows, he admires Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert and commented that the writing for both is exquisite.
When he first saw Jerry Seinfeld he realized that it wasn’t necessary to be off-color to be funny and Joe doesn’t have any blue material in his repertoire. He likened using R-rated jokes to making par, but hitting from the women’s tee. The challenge is a clean joke from the men’s tee.
Joe’s interest in comedy started when he noticed his father only watched the comedians on the Ed Sullivan Show. Joe thought they came out and ad-libbed their five-minute routine and only later realized those five minutes were the result of months if not years of fine tuning the words and timing. He pointed out that comedy is one profession where training is all on-the-job. You can go to the basement and practice violin, but a mirror doesn’t laugh.
The title of Joe’s talk was “Comedy at 10:30 a.m.???.” By the time the meeting adjourned at 11:30 a.m. it was clear that the talk was in reality “Comedy at 10:30 a.m.!!!.”
In the jargon of his profession, he killed.
Respectfully Submitted,
Jock McFarlane