Lissow’s Tiny Tee Keeps ‘Em Clinging

On April 7 the fireplace lounge was graced with the comedic presence of Jamie Lissow. The university oriented humor was enjoyed by a menial crowd. The Thursday night party scene undoubtedly had something to do with the lackluster turn-out. Lissow still performed as if he were at some packed theater at a larger school, and by the time his hour long set was over people were stopping for a good laugh and unexpectedly witnessed his hilarious finale involving his extra small tee-shirt which read “Daddy’s little girl”. The Fireplace lounge is always a hard venue for performers. Watching other acts deal with the students on the balcony and the stair way is at times quite painful. But not for Jamie Lissow, his off-the-cuff style allowed him to use the balcony and staircase to draw a crowd and keep the laughter rolling. Lissow’s interaction with the small crowd was stellar. He tackled some touchy subjects. His condom routine involved a good amount of audience participation. The audience responded with their own reasons not to use them and Lissow made a joke out of every one with perfect rhythm. This was probably his funniest material and showed why he is one of the top college comedians. There were a few poop jokes that failed to really make it work. They were little too blunt and lacked imagination; however, his act did not suffer because of the poop jokes. It was a little creepy how he stared off into space while reciting his jokes. It was probably just because he was nervous, and the crowd was very small. Playing large theaters certainly would make this less noticeable, seeing Lissow in Biederman’s or some sort of bar/café venue might be far more pleasurable. Overall the performance was mediocre, but given the circumstances, Lissow seemed like he had potential. He could certainly drop a couple of his sketches such as the “beeotch” bit and the numerous poop jokes which; he himself condemned, only to follow-up with the only funny poop joke of the night. Lissow’s migration to Manhattan may be a shock, and hopefully will help make his jokes more sophisticated. His Seinfeldesque writing style could only benefit from the influences of the New York comedy scene. Lissow’s big finale was impressive and funny, standing on stage in his tiny tee-shirt still makes me laugh, and you can never complain about a free show, unless it’s thirsty thursday night. Jamie Lissow has made appearances on The Late Late show with Craig Kilborn, NBC’s Late Friday, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (and is a proud Star Search loser).