Salty Humor
Comedy in Hampton will be back
In early 2008, Paul D’Angelo headlined the Old Salt’s first Thursday night comedy show. Comedian and promoter Michael Smith presented two more that year, a couple more the next, and three in 2009. It’s grown ever since; 14 events were booked this season, which kicked off in January with Steve Sweeney and again included D’Angelo, on March 5.
Prior to the coronavirus, there was a solid schedule booked for upcoming comedy nights. Brad Mastrangelo was scheduled to perform the 100th show of the series April 2, standup legend Lenny Clarke on April 16, and a youthful showcase with Corey Rodrigues and Nick Lavallee April 30. The season would have wrapped up with Robbie Printz and Jason Merrill on May 28. Though shows have been postponed and the schedule for the remaining season is up in the air, the success of the comedy nights means that at some point, the show will go on.
In the meantime, Smith talked about the Thursday night shows.
“Who’d have thought we would be here … 100 shows later?” Smith said recently. “It really was a humble beginning, getting people to come out at seven on a Thursday night, but we built a solid clientele and became a regular event.”
Smith handed a lot of the credit to the venue’s owner, Joe Higgins, and manager Michelle O’Brien.
“They are great people to work with,” he said. “They love comedy and have given us the freedom to bring in the best in the business. We hope we’re there another 13 years.”
A strong New England bloodline runs through the lineup. Dave Andrews, who was scheduled for March 19, cut his teeth in the heady days of the Ding Ho in Harvard Square, a club chronicled in the documentary When Standup Stood Out. Though he never worked there, being pulled out of the audience one night by Chance Langton boosted Andrews’ comedy career early on.
“I did a bit with him,” Andrews said by phone recently. “At the end of the show, he comes over and goes, ‘I’m playing over at such and such tomorrow night; if you want to come in and we can do the same thing. I’ll get you in for free.’ It was spontaneous. I didn’t even know him.”
Andrews is a musical comic, who does things like impersonate Johnny Cash singing “American Pie” at the proctologist’s office. He’s blended the two forever; as a youngster, his Italian grandfather would set him atop the dining room table and have him sing “O Sole Mio.” He can play it straight, too — his version of “Fly Me to the Moon” is a crooner’s delight.
Although he studied masters of the form — Steve Martin in his banjo-playing days, Dana Carvey doing impressions of Neil Young and Paul McCartney — Andrews is more inspired by old-school standups like Rodney Dangerfield, Don Rickles and Henny Youngman.
“I do a lot of quick hit jokes, with guitar in the middle of it, and a fair amount of impressions,” he said.
Crowd management is a big tool in his skill set. Andrews claims to be expert at dealing with hecklers. What’s his secret?
“I try to make friends with them, develop a rapport … make them think that they’re part of it,” he said. “As long as you stay relaxed up there and they’re not totally disrupting your set — and you just can’t get angry. You also have to remember that you have a microphone and they don’t, which is a big advantage.”
One thing Andrews doesn’t do in his act is get topical.
“I might make one little reference but not usually; it’s not my thing, and I’m not real good at it,” he said. “I don’t want to piss people off, I just want to entertain them.”
Asked what people should know about him, Andrews isn’t circumspect in the least.
“He wears a hat, plays guitar and does a lot of one-liners,” he said. “If you don’t like one joke, there’s another one pretty quick.”
— Michael Witthaus