 Friday, March 6, 2009
Improv Comedy Club, Fantasy Springs Resort Hotel & Casino
Indio, California
Story by Melissa Schoos
Photos by Cathy Jardine
To see more Cathy Jardine Photos of John Caponera, click here.
I don’t know about you, but I like to laugh. Often. I like jokes. and I like to laugh at them. There are plenty of good clean jokes, but honestly? Why are the funniest ones a little bit off color (crude, dirty, etc)? My problem is that I have an image to uphold and dirty-joke-laughing is not part of that image. So, how can I save my reputation and still get to laugh at “boys’ locker-room type” talk? Is there a place where it is okay to laugh out loud at things that are really dirty/funny?
Well, guess what? There is a place just down the I-10 that provides the perfect location for just that. It is the Improv Comedy Club at The Fantasy Springs Resort Hotel & Casino.
Opening in the fall of 2006, the club has hosted a variety of top name comics in addition to some promising “up and coming” comedians. Budd Friedman, the club’s founder and famous comic in his own right, talent searches the nation for the best and most unique comedians to bring to the desert.
Well, Friday, March 6, I decided to check it out.
 It was the show in which John Caponera was the headlining act. The person that I went to the show with has been a fan of this hysterical man for more than 20 years. Imagine how excited she was!
An audience member and aspiring stand-up comedian who has been a “J-Cap” fan for at least 10 years, tells me, “One of the great things about John is that he makes folks feel comfortable laughing at him. He will do anything for a laugh and usually does. He brings humor into the everyday mundane tasks and situations and the jokes ring so true, you can’t help but bust a gut.”
Beginning his career back in Illinois in 1979, Caponera has had quite a ride in comedy for a man who was initially unsure of what he wanted to do with his life. When Caponera was a senior in college, the final exam for one of his courses was to perform a stand-up routine in front of the class. He received glowing praise from his contemporaries and decided to start hitting the comic circuit. And the rest, as they say, “is history.”
 The thing about Caponera that sticks out in my mind is how expressive and attention grabbing he is. He is extremely demonstrative in a way that reminds me of Robin Williams or Drew Carey. His jokes are funny because they are true. It is real life stuff that can’t be made up. It must be experienced first hand in order to truly grasp the nature of the humor in it. So, it's okay to chuckle at the dirty ones. After all, she’s laughing.
To see more Cathy Jardine Photos of John Caponera, click here.
For additional information about John Caponera and his tour schedule, click here.
For more about Fantasy Springs Resort Hotel & Casino, click here.
|
