Laughter rings off the walls of the Saratoga, Calif., coffeehouse, the Blue Rock Shoot, which is packed for “Clean Comedy Night.” Several adult comedians struggle to keep their routines in bounds. But the show’s 11-year-old star has no problem.
“Clean comedy” is the only kind Sarah K. knows.
In an age when people wring their hands over Chris Rock’s stint as Oscar host, “clean” and “comedy” don’t seem a comfortable coupling. Swear words routinely explode at comedy clubs and on cable television.
But veteran comedians say Sarah also has discovered a very profitable comedic vein.
“I tell young comics … if you want to make big money, clean it up,” says “Chicago” Steve Barkley, a comedian who says he can make as much in 30 minutes at a corporate gig as in a week (that’s 8 to 12 shows) at a club.
But for Sarah, it’s just tips, so far. She’s chasing her dream at “Clean Comedy Night,” created by another entertainer to show-case Sarah’s talents.
A keen observer
The 6th-grader pokes fun at the world around her. Like good comics, she’s a keen observer. During her 10-minute set last month, Sarah aimed most of her humor at what she knows best: her family and herself.
She exaggerates her parents’ accents. She drops impressions of Steve Urkel from “Family Matters,” the Fandango puppets and Al Pacino from “Scarface.”
“I’m a girl in the 21st Century having to struggle with parents from the 16th Century,” she confides to the crowd, making Valentine’s Day at her house sound like “Oklahoma!” meets “The Honeymooners.”
The audience howls as the girl in jeans, high-top tennies and pigtails takes a bite out of dieting–low carb, high carb, no sugar, low fat, high protein, Weight Watchers. “Where does chocolate come in?” she asks.
One of her funniest bits involves her parents responding to their car’s navigation system–“the lady in the box.” Her mom is totally dependent on the aid; her dad ignores it.
Sarah explains where she finds her humor: “Everybody around me is funny. Nobody speaks English. Everybody is on a diet,” she says. “I just have a funny life.”
Her laughs are a lift
When she hears something she thinks is amusing, Sarah writes it down in a spiral notebook or asks people to repeat it into a tape recorder. Then she crafts her bits and practices in front of a mirror.
“Pretty much anything my parents say is funny,” she says. “If my parents say something about Arnold Schwarzenegger or Steve Urkel, everybody can relate to that. But if it’s just something that happens at my home, that’s riskier.”
Sarah only has been doing her standup act for about a year. Both Sarah and her mother, Shari, trace it back to her grandmother’s death several years ago. Her mom was depressed, and Sarah made her laugh by imitating her and exaggerating her accent.
“I don’t have a problem laughing at myself,” Shari says. “Sarah really lifted up my spirits.”
Sarah says: “Then I wanted to do it for everybody. It became my hobby.”
And her dream.
Finding an outlet for her talent
Sarah took singing, acting, improvisation and dancing lessons–more fodder for her act–and attended a performing arts summer camp.
One of the outings was to Blue Rock Shoot to see the weekly comedy night organized by Dan Edwards, a program manager by day and a standup comedian by night.
The next week, Sarah was back, being asked to tell a joke.
“She did three minutes and just killed,” Edwards says. “I thought, ‘A talent like this has got to have an outlet. What if I put together a show.’ “
Edwards started the first “Clean Comedy Night” last November, and the show has been packed ever since.
“One day I’m sure we’ll all look up on the TV screen and see her performing,” he says.
Sarah says she’s learning from the older comedians: how to order her jokes, pacing, delivery. “I work on whatever they tell me.”
The biggest thing she’s learned? “Stop where people want to laugh and don’t cut off the laughter.”
———-
ctc-kidnews@tribune.com
