What’s more memorable than a parking space? Bridget Tooley.
What do you get when you combine 9/11, artificial insemination, and random Wikipedia facts about animals sexual habits and genitalia? You get a Bridget Tooley Friday night set at Dallas Comedy Club.
Unrelated to the previously mentioned subject material, the room already had a very strange vibe that evening.
Maybe everyone stayed at home in preparation for Dallas’ St. Patrick’s Day Parade the following Saturday. Or maybe it’s just one of those nights where the crowd simply didn’t show up. Regardless, the room was half-full (at best) and the person consistently laughing the hardest was the sound engineer. The rest of the crowd was stone faced with their arms crossed, as if they were forced to be there by some sort of court mandated community service program. To say it was a rough crowd is putting it lightly.
Still, it was far from the worst turnout I’ve witnessed at a show. And I was already riding high off of the fact that I found a free parking space on the same street as the club! No matter what happened after that, the night was still a win! Yes, I know I’m getting old when a parking space intoxicates me.
But as oh so sweet as that parking space was, Bridget Tooley was the highlight of my evening. For those of you that aren’t in my age bracket, that’s genuinely glowing praise. Imagine if Hank Hill said she was more divine than propane? I’ll put a link to King of the Hill for those of you that have no idea what I’m talking about.
What made her set so much fun is that you could truly tell she was being herself. The material that she was covering was so silly and strange that it must be unique to her. Many new comics make the mistake of trying to write something they think the crowd will find funny. It felt as though Bridget talked about things that she finds funny and fascinating, and just hopes the crowd will be willing to take the journey with her when she takes the stage.
If that’s the case, it’s a bold strategy. On one hand, not all crowds will relate to her. However, the ones that do (myself included) will think it’s absolutely hilarious and will be thrilled that they went on the journey with her. As I’m typing this, I’m also shopping for motivational posters that say cliché things like “Fortune favors the bold” and “Be yourself, everyone else is taken.”
More importantly, I never got the impression that she just made something up. I mean seriously, of all the things you could dream up to turn into a white lie just for a stand-up set, why would it be that you were researching Wikipedia facts about a penis museum in another country? I genuinely believe that she spent a few hours at home reading about just that.
Bridget is also a self-described “socially awkward homeschooled kid.” Ok, big deal. It’s not exactly a secret that a lot of stand-up comics are a little socially awkward. What makes Bridget fun is that she has an equal mix of confidence and awkwardness.
At different times throughout the set she was risking a cringe response from the crowd by discussing topics such as the volume of different mammal’s ejaculate, she didn’t at all seem concerned that the bit might not land. She just seemed genuinely enthusiastic to dispense the information. I’d be willing to bet that if I had met Bridget that night at a bar, she would still have found a way to weave those facts into our conversation.
Is it unusual? Absolutely. Is it information that I need to know? Absolutely not. That’s exactly what makes it so interesting and engaging. Most of us are stuck in looped conversations about the weather, politics and that gosh darned sports team that just won’t do sporty stuff as well as they typically sport. Are you bored yet? Me too.
That’s why Bridget’s comedy is so much fun. It goes well beyond the normal social conversation and reminds you that there are actually interesting things to talk about. Imagine you’re on a first date, and instead of asking your date what they do for a living, you ask them if they know that Panda’s might die off because they refuse to have sex with one another?
I mean, you won’t get many second dates, but I guarantee you, the person that does agree to a second date after that is probably the one you need to put a ring on.
Admittedly, Bridget is relatively new to the comedy game and her stand-up material still needs some polishing. That doesn’t distract from the fact that her foundation is sound, and her material is funny. I have no doubt that if she continues to write and work on her craft, that the rooms she performs in will start to fill up with others that find her as funny as I do.
I feel very fortunate knowing that I was able to watch her in a half-empty room on a Friday night. One of these days I’ll be the annoying guy that said, “yeah, I watched her in an empty room once talk about animal pornography. I remember that night like it was yesterday because I had an extraordinary parking space!”