Thanks to Mani Khawaja for sending this in:
I was lucky enough to attend Mick Foley’s comedy show last night and had an amazing time out. The event was very well organized and everyone in the audience got a chance to have a picture taken with Mick or get something signed before the show began, despite it being a sell out.
Mick Foley was a consummate professional, although towards the end of it, he seemed understandably worn out. I told him I occasionally blogged for the Express Tribune (sort of like Pakistan’s Huffington Post) and was going to do a write up on his charity work with RAINN and he asked me to stick around after the show and he would let me know about a raffle he is doing for the charity (www.realmickfoley.com/mania) with amazing prizes that include 2 tickets to wrestlemania, the hall of fame and Monday Night Raw amongst others.
The audience was primarily built up of wrestling fans, something that was evidenced when Chris Brooker, who was the host of the evening, asked for a show of hands of people who were comedy fans but not wrestling fans, not a single hand went up.
Even the opening acts, who were respected comedians in their own right, were huge wrestling fans and it showed. Chris Brooker came out to Chris Jericho’s entrance music, wearing a Sting T Shirt. After doing all the Jericho poses for the audience, he apologized saying that his light up jacket was at the cleaners, where two minimum wage staff had just gotten electrocuted. He quipped that at least they weren’t working for their benefits at Tesco which got a big laugh from the audience, because there has been quite a bit of a ruckus here in the UK about Tesco allegedly hiring unemployed people for unpaid work stating that the applicant would only receive Jobseekers’ Allowance plus expenses.
Chris talked about his love for wrestling, having attended wrestlemania 25, and not honestly being able to tell his girlfriend
that sex with her was better than wrestlemania because it had Shawn Michaels vs The Undertaker. He was quick witted and managed to improvise on the go, adapting to audience reactions. The next comedian was Jim Smallman who came out to CM Punk’s theme. He routine consisted of the differences between men and women, and he recalled an incident where a female critic who he was supposed to impress called him a misogynist. He showed how big of a wrestling fan he was when he unveiled a tattoo
of Mick Foley on his arm.
My favorite comedian of the night had to be Brendon Burns who seemed to be the most passionate about wrestling. You could actually see how excited he was to be touring with Mick Foley. His set of jokes were all wrestling based and extremely hilarious,
especially one bit about making The Great Khali break character when he heckled him in a match with Carlito alluding that in the saying that “So and so was such a great technician that he could have a match with a broom and make it look good”, Khali was the broom, and taunting him with “What was actually supposed to happen there?”
Mick Foley came out to his entrance music and a huge “Foley” chant. He feigned frustration at having to come out to that music and demanded something more appropriate and dignified for a five time New York Times best selling author and then stormed to the back. He then came out to Brodus Clay’s entrance music dressed in the red tracksuit with a “red pimp Santa Claus hat”, doing the whole entrance routine which also included the opening comedians with their T-Shirts tied in knots gyrating everywhere and doing the claw. That was by far the highlight of the night.
While Mick’s act was never belly ache inducing laugh out loud funny, it was always entertaining. He’s a gifted speaker and he had the audience in the palm of his hands, recounting old wrestling stories. He talked about his Hell in a Cell match with Undertaker, freaking Kane out with his intense preparation for his Wrestlemania match with Edge and getting motor boated by Velvet Sky.
One anecdote I found really amusing was his chance meeting with George W. Bush and the former President going “Bang! Bang!” complete with the hand motions. He jokingly made a deprecating remark about TNA, but immediately followed up with, “I’m only kidding! I know they did an amazing show here in London.” He did a question and answer session where he was asked where they
were going to hang the cage if they are doing it in an open air stadium. He laughed and said that if the WWE can manage to make a bolt of lighting appear out of nowhere in an Undertake match, he is very sure they will think of something. He was asked that in a parallel universe, who would win in a triple threat match between Mankind, Cactus Jack and Dude Love, which he answered by saying that it was the stupidest thing he had ever heard and he did not know, because he does not live in a parallel universe. When asked about who he wants to win the Rock vs Cena fight, he tried to give a diplomatic answer about respecting both guys and just wanting an amazing match, which made the audience boo him, prompting him to exclaim that after being choke slammed off a cage and having a tooth lodged up his nose, he was entitled to say whatever he wanted to say.
The last question asked whether it was true that Sid Vicious “shit his pants” at Wrestlemania 13 against the Undertaker. Mick Foley said that while he did not know for sure if it had happened in that particular match, it wasn’t uncommon for wrestlers to do so, him included. He wrapped up the show by singing the rebuttal to the Barry Manilow’s song Mandy, from the point of view of the girl which resulted in him hilariously cutting an intense promo on Barry Manilow for treating her like a dog.
When I met him after the show, during our conversation I told him that I loved his political insights and mentioned a conversation he had with AJ Styles on TNA’s Spin Cycle. He told me that he always tries to make sure that his comedy routine is inclusive to people of any political leaning, for example, George Bush was a big wrestling fan and Obama wasn’t. All in all, it was a great night out, and I would recommend it to people who are deciding on whether to go. For about 20 pounds, I would say being treated to three solid comedy opening acts, as well as getting to interact with Mick Foley, the shows are definitely a bargain!
Nick was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, and lived there until the age of 18, when he decided to pack his flack jacket and move to New York City.
