Can You Dig It?

Our favorite air talent who defines "smooth" on the radio, Kathy with a "K", reflects back at her early comedy memories.

My very first audio purchase was from Gem in the Windward City Shopping Center in Kaneohe. It was an Eddie Murphy (Delirious, 1983) cassette that was well before the Tipper Gore-slap-happy-explicit-warning sticker made its way upon anything remotely testoteroni-riddled.

Now, this was a very crazy Christmas gift to myself. This was the concert that played endlessly on HBO, curse words, no bleeps and all. The one in which Eddie Murphy thanks the Bus Boys for playing and saying they must get a lot of...play.

I used to play this tape endlessly, to the point where I was able to mimic the bits, "...Norton! Hey, Norton...come here! How would you like to %$&* me up the ? Now I'm going to bend over...and when I do, start " Insane. Nuts. Still stunned to remember that I had ready access to such language, such ramblings, to such a comic wonderment that it opened the door for me to read interviews and search for the influences in the likes of Lenny Bruce, Richard Pryor and even Bob Newhart.

Yes, Bob Newhart. He's one funny guy. Clean...cleaner than Bill Cosby, if you can imagine. I love stand up. Love, love, love to laugh. I enjoy hearing how the bit begins and wanders around before you think the punchline is out there then BOOM! It goes on for another few minutes and returns nearly forty minutes later.

I used to go to the Ilikai and watch visiting comics. There have been other clubs around Waikiki and Honolulu where I would drag a friend to see if they were any good. The downside, sort of, is that once you caught their act, you couldn't watch them again so soon. Sure, Chris Rock's Bigger and Blacker or Bring the Pain is good ten times over as is Dave Chappelle's For What It's Worth...but I'm talking the new kid on stage still working out his or her spotlight persona.

What makes music great? Sheesh, the greater question in my book is what makes a comic great? Politics? Timing? How blue you can go? How clean you can rock it? I really like Dane Cook, Dave Attell, Chris Rock, Augie T., George Lopez, Patton Oswalt and more.

Then at what point does the comedian become a political figure or social commentator and should there be a line drawn for that distinction? Like Margaret Cho, Dennis Miller, Carlos Mencia, Bill Maher, Chris Rock, Dave Chappelle and Jon Stewart...these are the more mainstream known names. Can you even imagine when they were struggling to snag a three minute run on maybe Arsenio Hall or Letterman?

There are so many more than should be mentioned and sought after. Oh...the reason behind the thought about laughing out loud. Damon Wayans, Eddie Griffin and David Allan Grier are coming to Honolulu this summer for shows at the Blaisdell Concert Hall. It's a good venue for comedy; my first stand up exposure there was Steven Wright and I couldn't sit still. I couldn't believe he was in Hawaii; same with Dennis Miller except he was featured at the Sheraton Waikiki (he killed me with the Michael Jackson/Dorian Gray comparative study...).

Local comics or comedians...hands down, Rap Replinger. He's one cat I wish I could have witnessed live. Andy Bumatai, of course. Did you know he had an Andy Bumatai Scrapbook he put out back in 1982, 1983 or 1984...from his small keed days up to when he played at the Monarch Room in Waikiki, fotos of acting on the TV Show "The Jeffersons" as well as details about his "All in the Ohana" show on KGMB?...yikes, speaking about stalkers...

Posted by Kathy





Kathy with a "K" can be heard weekdays from 10AM to 3PM on Honolulu's powerhouse KSSK FM. Enjoying a "Kathy sandwich" are Ben Harper and Jack Johnson. Could a girl get more lucky in Hawaii?


The Time Machine



Wednesday, June 28th, 2006 at 12:49 PM

The most underestimated of performers. Comics. There are so many comedians from several generations that still make me chuckle just thinking about a line here or a dead pan look there.

Just like you, I found myself as a kid mimicing and memorizing monologues from Pryor to Carlin to Cosby to Newhart. Newhart and Cosby were the first comedy records that I listened to over and over followed by George Carlin and Cheech and Chong. It didn't matter if it was Monty Python, Redd Foxx, Franklin Ajaye, David Steinberg or Woody Allen - as long as a comedy album had me laughing that was pure gold to me. The frosting on the cake was the pure genius comedy that also made you think, for that was where the true comedy lay, in the truth of what surrounded us. That truth could be bursting from Richard Pryor or Robin Williams and I don't think there really is a line that can be crossed especially in the political or topical humor of Dave Chappelle, Jon Stewart, Bill Maher or Dennis Miller. Even Saturday Night Live's bread and butter was half gross out and black humor with the other half all political and topical in its golden years.

Just you bringing up Eddie Murphy's album on cassette brings back so many memories. The one that springs to mind is his Mr. T bit which I can't repeat. :)

Of course growing up on the comedy of Newhart made it a no brainer when Steven Wright came on the scene. That album still slays me! "I'm feeling kind of hyper." Classic.

Margaret Cho is another true original as is Wendy Leiberman and Jerry Seinfeld. Rap was KING! If there was no Booga-Booga, would we have been fortunate to have the talents of Rap or James Grant Benton? Have you ever heard James' album with the conversations that went on during the first trip of the Holule'a. I wish I could find that on CD! Truly Monty Python goes Hawaiian. Here I go back to the beginning by stating that there are literally hundreds of talented stand-up comedians and there are thousands around the country the past 20 years that I still haven't caught up with.

Now I'm off to search thru old comedy cassettes and see if they still play in my car (I don't want to even think what I would become if Hawaii got XM or Sirius in our cars here - I'd be locked onto those comedy channels while in stuck traffic giggling to either of the Richards - Belzer or Lewis).