By Diane Wells
I don�t consider myself a prude. Certainly, I�m an experienced �cougar�, albeit even older than the so-pegged 39-year-old woman in the audience at Hamilton�s Yuk Yuk�s on October 25/03. Having said that, my ears were burning at times with certain topics and profanities irreverently being delved into - everything from penile appellation to retardation � and this early show might be the �restrained� version.
The videotape showcase (and even these technicians were not exempt from the performers� barbs) featured local superstar-in-waiting Jason Rouse, with opening performances by the Master of Ceremonies, Casey Corbin, Manolo Santana (lovely name!) and Ron Josol.
There�s no question that the quartet of comedians� major themes revolved around sex, drugs and, to a lesser extent, rock�n�roll, but Casey had me chuckling at his ingenious (but very naughty) prank to thwart boredom while standing in line inside a bank. He also impressed with his penile analogy to Toronto�s CN Tower. North Bay took a good-natured beating when he was asked why he was happy to be in Hamilton (he�s an Ottawa Valley lad). Stoney Creek (�a little town in Italy�), Binbrook, Grimsby, Caledonia and Ancaster did not escape unscathed either. I almost left the venue thinking Hamilton was a metropolis.
Manolo Santana personified �the nice guy-loser�. He began with a rather rude but truthful statement about humanity�s natural tendancy towards voyeurism and then began a quest to discover whether anyone had come up with something more original than �dick� for their private part, but the audience participation wilted away fairly quickly here. He raised the age-old issue of women striving to change their partners, only to dump them once successful; there�s a moral to that story - perhaps the only blatant one that evening � but it got the expected reaction � applause from the guys and sheepish grins from the girls.
Ron Josol, raised in Scarberia (a.k.a. Scarborough) was a guy with an identity crisis (Filipino/Mexican?). He got some big laughs talking about Filipinos expressing themselves in English and there was a great skit about smoking dope. He also came up with an interesting theory about women and stuffed animals. The toilet humour and the bit about anal beads were rather gross, though�but wait � here comes Jason.
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