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<\/p>\nBombing is only the beginning at the Banana Phone comedy show at the Creek and the Cave.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of division in this country,\u201d co-host Michael Ridley told the crowd on a recent Sunday night. \u201cBut there\u2019s one thing that unites us: basking in the cringe of someone else\u2019s failures.\u201d<\/p>\n
The comedy show doubles as a form of masochism. Comedians go on stage, do one minute of material, and after they\u2019re done, the hosts and the entire audience heckle and roast them.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople every Sunday yell the most insulting, horrific, terrible things at me, and then I go to work on Monday,\u201d said comedian Trent Bradley, who has done the show dozens of times. \u201cPeople last night were calling me an unfunny loser. You can\u2019t hurt me at this staff meeting.\u201d<\/p>\n
There\u2019s no time limit on the roast portion of the set. It goes on for as long as the crowd has jokes to make. Almost nothing is off limits. Jokes about race, gender, ethnicity, height, weight, age and the quality of the material are all fair game.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey make fun of my hairline,\u201d Bradley said. \u201cThey say it looks like the McDonald’s logo. They say it looks like a V-neck T-shirt.\u201d<\/p>\n
Banana Phone is one of the most popular weekly comedy shows in Austin, drawing a live audience of more than 100 people each week.<\/p>\n
Comedians put themselves through the controlled cruelty to toughen themselves up for hostile and unfriendly audiences.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you can do this, you can do anything,\u201d Bradley said.<\/p>\n
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Michael Minasi<\/p>\n
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KUT News<\/p>\n
Comedians do one minute of material, and then the crowd roasts them. Comedian AJ Higlesias was told he looks like a skateboarder, a GameStop manager, and the lead singer of Nickelback. <\/p>\n
Unkind love and ego death<\/p>\n
Banana Phone has been running for nearly five years now and has undergone many iterations.<\/p>\n
“When I first started,” creator Kandace Medina said, “I would throw bananas at people if they went over their time.”<\/p>\n
Medina kicks off every show by going on stage herself, trying out material and putting herself through the process. She\u2019s also joined by a panel of veteran comedians who lead the heckling.<\/p>\n
Performers are allowed to fire back at the crowd, but the blinding stage lights and barrage of punchlines is incredibly disorienting.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s scary,\u201d Medina said. \u201cIt\u2019s the worst-case scenario as a comic.\u201d<\/p>\n
About a third of the audience each week is other comedians, many of whom have been on stage before. That means most of the time, the people heckling the comics are their peers.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me, it’s this level of connectivity and community that we are able to bring together through this crazy level of clowning on each other,\u201d Medina said. \u201cIt is very Lord of the Flies-esque.\u201d<\/p>\n
When comedians get off stage, they get a chance to bond and network with the people who just heckled them.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere’s something very human about connecting with people in a way that is love,\u201d Medina said, \u201cbut is not kindness.\u201d<\/p>\n
Visiting comics often go out of their way to get on the show.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s like an Austin-specific thing in the comedy world,\u201d said Jamil Linton, a Los Angeles-based comedian who’s been on twice.<\/p>\n
Good comedy requires self-awareness and as it turns out, getting in front of a bunch of drunk strangers who want to hurt your feelings is a great way of learning what people notice about you.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wore these boho overalls,\u201d said Linton about her first appearance, \u201cand Kandace [Medina] told me that I looked like I was doing standup comedy for a Lamaze class.\u201d<\/p>\n
Most of the heckles shouted at performers are vulgar, offensive and juvenile, which means the crowd occasionally goes too far.<\/p>\n
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Michael Minasi<\/p>\n
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KUT News<\/p>\n
From left, Michael Ridley, Nick Cox and Kandace Medina heckle the on-stage comedian during the show.<\/p>\n
“Somebody called me a b—- and I was kind of like whoa and the audience backed off,” Linton said, “but then I clapped right back, and I didn’t know I was capable of doing that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Banana Phone\u2019s hosts walk a tightrope.<\/p>\n
The point of the show is to simulate a comedian\u2019s nightmare scenario, which sometimes looks indistinguishable from simple name-calling.<\/p>\n
The show\u2019s panel addresses bullying from the audience by turning the crowd on whoever crossed the line.<\/p>\n
“I can’t control what a hundred people are going to do,” Medina said. “We self-police by bringing back public shaming.”<\/p>\n
They also try their best not to let somebody suffer on stage for too long if it becomes clear the response is spiraling out of control.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I ever see someone go up and that person’s face is clearly shifted to where this is actually making them sad and they\u2019re not enjoying themselves, then I try to get them off,\u201d co-host Nick Cox said. \u201cBecause if somebody gets upset for real, it kind of changes the temperature of the room.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cox has helped heckle and roast hundreds of comedians over the years. He says the only way to survive the show is to accept the things you cannot change.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to be able to go up there and just surrender to whatever is going to happen,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s like ego death.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Michael Minasi<\/p>\n
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KUT News<\/p>\n
Comedian and Banana Phone co-host Mohamed Yual takes his turn on the stage. Performers are allowed to fire back at the hecklers, but the stage lights and barrage of attacks can be disorienting.<\/p>\n
Freeze under fire<\/p>\n
Near the end of a recent show, Medina welcomed a newcomer.<\/p>\n
\u201cGive it up for Freeze the Comedian,\u201d she shouted as he walked on stage.<\/p>\n
Freeze, whose real name is Chris Winfrey, is originally from North Carolina and has been doing standup for a year. He\u2019s a heavier-set gentleman, which is what he focused his entire set on.<\/p>\n
\u201cWherever I go, it takes all of about 30 seconds for somebody to talk about Ozempic,\u201d he told the crowd. \u201cI asked my doc, how do I get diabetes so I can get it cheaper? He said, just give it a minute.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rolling laughter kicks up.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t got that kind of time, man,\u201d Freeze went on. \u201cI’m one brisk jog away from heart failure.\u201d<\/p>\n
After his set, Freeze received a standing ovation from the drunken crowd.<\/p>\n
\u201cThank you. Thank you,\u201d he said. \u201cNow let me f—— have it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The audience and hosts immediately began to rip into him. Almost all the jokes are about his weight.<\/p>\n
\u201cOh, Lord Jesus, I ask that you give us an ocean big enough to baptize this man,\u201d Medina said.<\/p>\n
\u201cLord, I ask that you keep the butter away from this big old boy,\u201d co-host Michael Ridley said. \u201cI hope you clear a path in the arteries of sin that flow through this body.\u201d<\/p>\n
Freeze sat back in the audience after getting off stage.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was shaking a little bit when I first went up, but I mean that’s just your nerves,\u201d he said. \u201cThat’s going to be natural. I have anxiety disorder but don’t let that affect me whatsoever.\u201d<\/p>\n
He spent nearly 10 minutes on stage \u2013 far longer than the average comic who signs up.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’m so glad that they chose to roast me more than some of the other comics,\u201d he said. \u201cIt lets me know they care more.\u201d<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
Michael Minasi<\/p>\n
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KUT News<\/p>\n
Comedians and the audience can mingle before and after the show on the Creek and The Cave’s outdoor patio. <\/p>\n
Comedy is cruel.<\/p>\n
The rejection is constant, the pay is nonexistent and most comedians never break out. The only way to survive is to find your people. Banana Phone helps.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just got to Austin,\u201d Freeze said. \u201cI just want to put my mark on and let people know and I’m here to f—— stay.\u201d<\/p>\n
The comedians brave enough to go on stage come away with thicker skin and access to a community.<\/p>\n
All it costs is their dignity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bombing is only the beginning at the Banana Phone comedy show at the Creek and the Cave. \u201cThere\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":142525,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133,59880,29239,4037,59882,59881,59883,216],"class_list":["post-142524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-banana-phone","tag-comedians","tag-comedy","tag-comics","tag-creek-and-the-cave","tag-heckling","tag-tx"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142524"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142524\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/142525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}