By no means was I a huge fan of Bobcat Goldthwait when he was in his prime, or should I say when he was most recognizable. The Police Academy films in which he starred in three of them, were a beacon of passable mediocrity and the squeaky voice was charming in short spurts but could grow tiresome after too much exposure. Nevertheless when he came to my town, I made sure I was there first thing to greet him… because after all, who doesn’t know Bobcat Goldthwait?
Also he did lots of other more interesting things than what he was known best for. There were some very good films in which he starred: Scrooged, One Crazy Summer, Disney’s Hercules. Plus there were some great sitcom appearances too: Married…with Children, That 70’s Show, and Dave’s World. Plus some other oddball and interesting things, from a Twisted Sister video to a role in the defunct Epcot attraction Cranium Command to working in Penn & Teller Sin City Spectacular. He even hosted MAD TV, starred in E.R., and occasionally did work on Hollywood Squares. Upon reflection, Bobcat’s career was quite lucrative indeed.
So now he was doing stand-up comedy, and apparently in some pretty small venues – like Wiley’s Comedy Club. And that was great for people like me. This is where Carolyn and I had twice seen Emo Philips, and again we got tickets for the Thursday show on May 28, 2015. I always figure that when a comedian is playing in town for the weekend, the first show is the least attended.
Wiley’s was under new ownership and had re-decorated the place since I had last been here. The food was a little better but other than that it was mostly the same. It’s a small venue to start with and it was only about 65% full for this show (Im’ guessing), which was unfortunate because this was a great show.
Chris Siemer was the emcee and David Bizianes was the opening act and both were funny. I didn’t know what to expect from Bobcat, but I was very pleasantly surprised. He had dropped the squeaky voice, and instead he was relatively soft spoken, very engaging and interactive with the audience without being insulting, able to improvise on any subject, and consistently funny. I think he liked us too, as the show went nice and long, but it didn’t feel too long.
At the end of the show, the big question is always of course: can we meet him? We ran into our friend Dara at the show and as we chatted, sure enough I noticed that he had come out and was standing near the main entry. So unless you had left out the side door, you really didn’t have any choice but to meet him. He noted that too: “I feel like I’m forcing people to say hi to me,” he said in his relaxed, slightly self-deprecating voice.
My only blunder of course was once again not thinking about bringing anything for him to sign. This goes to show once again how my focus has shifted on the encounter/photo ops in favor of the autographs. In any case, he happily posed for pictures with Carolyn and me, and with us together.
No question about it, Bobcat won me over.
Return to the Memorial Day posting here…
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