KAILUA-KONA — Considering today’s news cycle, who couldn’t use a good laugh?
North Korea nukes, war, anthem protests, we could all use a hearty guffaw.
As luck would have it, plenty of laughs are out there.
Over the past several years, a number of standup comedians, improvisers and everyone else with a good joke have been a part of an emerging comedy scene here, with open mic nights and improv events popping up at popular venues around the island.
“Comedy is an escape and it’s an opportunity for people to sort of laugh at all of the insanity that goes on in our world,” said Rich Mears, a Kona podcaster and founding member of improvisational comedy group The Alohahas. “And whatever your political leanings or otherwise, it’s an opportunity to really just kind of escape or just laugh at it all.”
Even in just the past year, the comedy scene on the Big Island has “really started to boom,” with local comedians like Tom Campbell, Bryan Rupp, Tony Ridenour, Justine Smith and Kevin Hobbs, said Jose “Dynamite” Figueras, an Oahu-based comedian, promoter and owner of KMA Productions.
“It went from about two and a half years ago where there was just two guys doing comedy to 12 people that are getting on stage and telling jokes,” said Figueras.
And among the crowd of comics on the island, Figueras said there’s a great diversity of voices, meaning audiences at a show will get a range of viewpoints and comedic styles.
“That’s kind of a reflection upon the demographic of Hawaii being a melting point of different cultures, different backgrounds,” he said.
Take Campbell, for instance, who in addition to being command sergeant major at Pohakuloa Training Area, has been performing standup around the island for the past several months as “Campbell Shah of Comedy.”
Although many might try out comedy at open mic night, Campbell’s first go at standup in 2007 was a little different.
It was in Iraq, when a USO show’s aircraft got weathered out, keeping them from putting on their entertainment gig.
“Everybody’s expecting a comedy show, so I got up in front of everybody and started telling jokes,” he said of his sudden start.
Campbell came to Hawaii in 2015 and got back into standup this past February. Since then, he’s performed dozens of shows and has been working to build the Big Island comedy scene. At 8 p.m. tonight, he’s putting on his “Farewell to the Big Island” show at My Bar in Kona, where he’ll be joined by Rebekah Kochan and Dante Rusciolelli.
A Hilo show is slated f
or 8 p.m. Saturday at Coqui’s Hideaway. The farewell show will mark his 40th show around Hawaii.
And that show’s just one of many opportunities for fans looking for a laugh.
Improv another art form
Standup isn’t the only game in town. Local improvisational comedians have also been building a scene of their own in recent years.
“It’s kinda like jumping off a cliff because there’s no going back and you just know you’re gonna land, and you’re pretty sure you’re not gonna die, y’know?” said Kerry Matsumoto, comedian and another founding member of The Alohahas. “Which I guess is easier than jumping off a cliff actually. I would pick it.”
The Alohahas, an improvisational comedy group, was started about five years ago by a handful of people who met in an improv class at the Aloha Theatre in Kainaliu.
Their first show was a hit, Matsumoto said, with more than a hundred people showing up.
Improv, where all or nearly all of a performance is unscripted, also has the draw of including the show’s audience, who can “participate without participating,” Matsumoto said, by giving performers a suggestion for the next scene, such as the location of where it would be set.
“And because we use their location, they’re now invested in this sketch or this little bit,” she said.
The Aloha Theatre has also been the spot for regular “LOL Friday Improv Party Playtime” nights, which evolved out of an improv workshop started by Nicole Gour in 2015. LOL Friday gives community members the chance to try their hand at improvisation games in the vein of “Whose Line is it Anyway?”
“It allows a safe place where people can come and just be their weird selves, be their outlandish selves, be outspoken about something all in the name of just having a good time and making yourself laugh, making other people laugh,” Gour said. “And it’s OK to fail. It’s a safe place that you can go and try and fail, and then you just brush yourself off and you try again.”
Matsumoto said events like LOL Friday show that there’s a demand, saying she’s seen crowds of 40 people come out for an evening.
“And what I see then is talent in the rough, just waiting,” she said.
And those in the business say the local comedy scene’s only likely to grow from here.
“If there’s one thing I do know about local people, it’s there are a lot of people that have a really good sense of humor,” said Figueras. “People got funny stories; they got funny uncles or aunties or nephews or whatever and people like to share their stories.”
That’s a point Mears also raised.
“There are some hilarious people on this island, whether they’re on stage or not,” he said. “You know, you see it at the Aloha Theatre sometimes with some of the characters that are up there and, yeah, I think anywhere you go, there are — hidden in the nooks and crannies — there are some exceptionally funny people out there.”
Don’t be scared to give it a try
While there’s some who might get some stage fright, Campbell said in his experience, Big Island comics are all supportive of one another.
“There’s not one comedian that doesn’t really want the other comedians to succeed,” he said.
Mears also pointed out the opportunities technology also offers aspiring comedians. Three months ago, he and Matsumoto started “Improv-ision,” a podcast in which the two discuss an episode of a given television show and jump into an improvised scene. The podcast is available on iTunes and other podcast sources.
“And all we’re doing is what we already do anyway, which was get together and talk and do improv,” he said, “If you have a fear of being on stage, do something like that. Just sit down with a recorder or a microphone of some sort and record something.”
But in order for the scene to keep growing, the local talent says it’ll require collaboration and a reliable schedule and venue where audiences can regularly expect to see comedy performances.
A big step, Gour said, would be to bring together those passionate about comedy on the island — whether standup, improv or sketch comedy — to collaborate, set some dates and make it happen.
“If you pick the dates and you have a couple of core people that are dedicated to making it happen, it will happen,” she said.“But if you don’t have that, it starts to fall through the cracks.”