Standup comedy is no joke, no pun intended. People get up on a stage in front of a paying crowd with the hopes of making them laugh and easing their everyday pain, quietly harboring a need to silence their own self-doubt. It's not a hobby or something to take lightly.
When I heard one of my favorite actors, Jeremy Piven of Entourage fame, was touring around the country, I was confused. What was he doing? Was this an act, storytelling, or real hardcore comedian work? I had to go see for myself what Piven, who has crafted a fine career stuffed with three Emmy Awards in decades of work in front of the camera, exactly had in store for St. Louis comedy lovers at The Helium Comedy Club in Richmond Heights.
By the time the second show on Friday ended just after 11:15 p.m., I had my answer, and it was a mixed bag.
After local comic Kenny Kinds killed his set with a plethora of hilarious bits and jokes, Piven took the stage around 10:30. Wearing a brown cowboy hat, a jean coat, white t-shirt, and jeans, Piven hit the stage like a WWE wrestler. The man was pumped up and ready to make people laugh...maybe even a little too much.
It took him 15 minutes to get his footing, as he fumbled through jokes about his Jewish upbringing and shot down hecklers in the audience. If Andrew Dice Clay made a beautiful spectacle out of people in the audience, Piven was playing defense with the few who tried to trip up his routine.
Being a hard working Hollywood scrapper who had to earn the success found in his film and television career, Piven turned the chip on his shoulder into jokes about his journey from poor Chicago kid to award winner. He took shots at himself in the process, describing how he is "follicly challenged" by detailing a situation with John Stamos in a bathroom, marveling at the Full House star's head of hair.
Piven leaned heavily on impersonations during his act, with some missing the mark (the 53rd imitation fo Mike Tyson) and others producing big laughs (Sylvester Stallone).
There were only a couple mentions of his famous Ari Gold, with the last bit revisiting reading lines from the profanity-lacked HBO show with his mother, which included plenty of homophobic jokes. Whenever Gold was brought up, it was out of reluctance. Piven doesn't seem to want to talk about his most successful role as much. Maybe he can detail how it's like getting thrown off a roof by Denis Leary or having Robert De Niro steal his shirt.
There's a bit of "me against the world" in Piven's act, as he cracked jokes about Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson having no acting classes, yet being the highest paid actor in Hollywood and making several films with Kevin Hart. An unfortunate occurrence at a Maxim party that may have killed his cinematic A-list status was also brought up.
Suddenly, after the Entourage line reading bit with his mother was finished, Piven bolted off the stage almost as fast as he took it. It was an abrupt exit for a guy promising something special all week during interviews. He spent around 45 minutes on stage and charged $35 dollars for the time, which put off some customers. I drove a party home after Saturday night's show, and they were unimpressed. If you asked them for a review, a "meh" and shrug of the shoulders was all you got. I picked this group of people up a little after 11 at night, meaning his Saturday show was shorter than Friday's closer.
Here's the thing. Piven tried very hard on Friday night to make the crowd laugh, looking like someone desperately trying to get into a party that he bumped a few people in line for. It's only natural to look this way when you are first starting out, but it spells a fair amount of confusion and intrigue as to what brought him on tour in the first place.
One could say it was a required career change due to unforeseen road blocks. There are sexual assault allegations that haven't been legitimized, yet also haven't exactly gone away yet. They have lingered for over two years now, during which Piven has seen two television shows, Mr. Selfridge and Wisdom of the Crowd, come and go. One could say he wanted to try something different-or needed to make a change for the sake of staying relevant. By the way, Piven didn't mention the allegations at all during his set, which was probably for the best with a female-heavy audience.
The 53-year-old entertainer left me wanting more on Friday night, but I did laugh a few times and on a couple occasions, quite heavily. If he chooses to work at it, Piven could become something in the world of comedy. It's not just something anyone, theater trained or not, can jump up and do. It takes hard work and sacrifice, as a talented comic like Kinds can attest.
Without looking like a complete pretender, Piven showed he is a ways off from being a true comedy contender over the weekend in St. Louis.
