When it comes to comedy in a week where the world is coming apart, it’s got to be rough for any stand-up comedian. For comedy vet Alonzo Bodden, a long time friend of dosage MAGAZINE who is coming into town at Helium Comedy Club for a three-night stand (March 3 to 5), the pressure is on, but not so much that he will be deterred in showing us all where the laugh lines reside.
Along with praising Philly’s 76ers for its partnership with baller James Harden (“He even lost weight for you guys”) and questioning Sixers’ coach Doc Rivers true winning abilities for Philadelphia (“I hope Doc can pull it off, but he’s really only won one NBA Championship between the Orlando Magic, Boston Celtics, the Los Angeles Clippers and 76ers”) before his visit, Bodden solidly positioned his comedy at a time of terror.
Differently than speaking to filmmakers or music makers, there’s really no way to figure out how a comedian finds the funny within the socio-political present.
“There’s always something funny,” says Alonzo Bodden. “The more serious things are, the more a comedian needs to break the tension. So far. I don’t have material on the Ukraine situation. The President of Ukraine is a superhero. Trump? I’m sick of hearing about him, but he’s been on three different sides of the conflict – including taking credit for saving the same NATO he wanted to shut down. His followers, too are tough, as they’ll do anything to get in the press (The “Nim” and “Rod” that are Biden hecklers Marjorie Taylor and Lauren Boebert) and you have to acknowledge them. The sad and funny part of all this is that they stopped the Africans from getting out of Ukraine. Even at the start of World War III, there’s always room for racism.”
Moving forward from foreign wars to something more American, the anti-vax movement, in Alonzo Bodden’s mind, has brought out the best and worst of the divisions we always knew existed: those who know stuff versus people who don’t know stuff. “In the past, the people who didn’t know stuff kept their mouths shut,” he said. “Now, though, the people who don’t know stuff realized that they are in the majority and are most apt to speak out.”
The other thing that happens now, something we recognized in Bodden from the start of his season on NBC-TV’s Last Comic Standing, is the “escape humor,” the type of jokes that give people a break from the mess and the maudlin. “I’m one of the million pandemic puppy owners, for example,” laughs Bodden. “When I joke about my dog, for this few minutes that we’re together, we don’t have to think about Covid or the war.”
All three sides of Alonzo Bodden (and possibly a few jokes at the expense of his longtime friend, dosage MAGAZINE’s Publisher and Editor in Chief, Allan Lane who the comic jokes “can’t be more manly what with the whiskey, the cigars and the motorcycles”) will be on display at Helium.
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