A few days ago I attended my first comedy show in Tampa at the Side Splitters Comedy Club for a Frank Caliendo show. I was gifted a ticket to join by the girlfriend, so was excited to experience this with someone who could answer my dumb questions. I didn't know who Frank was prior to this event as comedy isn't really my thing - so this is my experience.

Venue

Pulling into a common Carollwood area unaware that the building at the end of the strip is a comedy club was an interesting discovery. I had this notion in my head that attending a comedy show would be at like a concert venue, but this was a tiny building near an ice cream shop.

Atmosphere

Walking in I was met with photos of people everywhere which must have represented all the folks who've performed at this location. My first thought was the place looked rather cheap with very rigid metal chairs.

It kinda felt like those old school sports bars that never remodeled in 20 years. It wasn't anything to be negative about, but it just felt old. I was hopeful that once those doors opened and we were seated that the atmosphere would change, but it didn't.

The chairs for someone with a bad back weren't great at all. Thankfully this wasn't a 2 hour movie, but under 2 hours of sitting in one place with solid AC.

Processes

Prior to seating I was struggling to understand how this 2 food/drink minimum would be tracked, but they made it clear with signs everywhere. Drinks in the lobby did not count towards that total and your wait staff made it clear when you were at minimum.

With all of us collecting in the lobby I was wondering how we were going to collectively find our seats, but Side Splitters had this down to a science. As groups walked through the door they were checked for a ticket and a revolving line of wait staff was ready to escort the group to their seat.

I didn't expect the chairs to be seated around tables all facing the stage, as it made our seats (on the front) have the table behind us. When trying to place 4 drinks and a pretzel it was some awkward movement to constantly turn around for a sip or a bite.

Food/Drink

The drinks were high in either sugar or liquor and once again reminded me of a cheap old sports bar that keeps people by contributing large amounts of liquor to their thought process.

I was excited to order a buffalo chicken dip, but alas that item was not available this time so we ended up with a pretzel. After two years of doing bar trivia at a modern bar when this pretzel came with 2 individual long bread pieces with packets of mustard I knew I was going to be disappointed and I was.

I guess that's to be expected though - this is a comedy club and not a bar/restaurant. So it was a nice snack with some liquor heavy drinks, which warmed me up for the performance.

Opening Act

The performance started with videos being played about how cool Side Splitters is as well as a comedy iteration of "here are the rules". When a comedian finally went on the stage without an introduction I was confused if this was an opener or the show.

Thankfully in like 2 seconds I realized this was an opening act followed by another opening act before the main comedian took the floor. For my first comedy show the 2 opening acts were rough.

It seemed like both individuals were going for a "shock and awe" approach where they tested the crowd with some hot topic issue in a joke, then pushed forward or reversed depending on the crowd's reaction. One tended to tie everything back to his weight while the other tied everything back to him marrying a Cuban woman. I couldn't really get into a laugh or flow with either of the opening acts, but I guess everyone needs practice to tune this art.

Main Act

When Frank finally took the stage - it started with energy and laughs near instantly. His ability to mimic voices of past and present presidents was insanely cool. Having someone jump between voices on a moment's notice is an acquired skill that is amazing to witness live.

Additionally his ability to jump in/out of character was extremely elegant, which led me to understanding that impressions is just as much facial behavior as the voice. It was very fun listening to each character he could pull off and I was further surprised when the audience kept calling out more names for him to show off his skills and he delivered.

I'm not sure where the line in the sand is between impressions and comedy, but they are clearly interlinked. It just seems like I can't draw comparisons to the opening acts as they had no forms of impressions.

Parking

When all things were said and done - it was time for ~200 people to rush out into the parking lot to leave. Since we are trapped in a little strip center of stores in a tiny parking lot with ~200 people arriving for the next show - it was a mess. Nothing like ~200 people trying to leave and ~200 people showing up.

I kid you not cars were just sitting in the parking lot trying to find a place to park, which blocked cars trying to reverse or leave. People were walking around with no care for heavy vehicles getting increasingly anxious to find a way out. Backing into a spot would have made this easier and cars arriving for the later show not clogging the parking lot would have made everyone's life easier.

What felt like 10 minutes was probably not, but it took forever once in my vehicle to move a few feet.

All in all - I had fun once the main act started and enjoyed it greatly. I guess everything else you just deal with in hopes that the main performance will be worth it. I don't think these are the type of events I'll actively seek out myself, but if another opportunity arises - I'll probably attend.