REVIEW- TWO FUNNY PHILLY GUYS

I saw the Two Funny Philly Guys show last night at the Colonial Theater in Phoenixville Saturday night. WIP  Sports Radio stars Joe Conklin and Big Daddy Graham were the headliners, with host Glen Macnow emceeing the event. Here are my thoughts...

-  I saw Conklin and Graham several years ago at the Colonial.  As with back then, Conklin was funnier. Everyone likes impressions, and Conklin is great, especially at sports personalities. His routine is always changing, going with the flow of the personalities and current events. Graham's material is stale. He did a lot of routines that I saw several years agao. The jokes were funny but predictable. I'm surprised he doesn't have fresher material, especially with all the local dates he does every year.

- Conklin covered all the local pro teams. The Sixers seem to have the most personalities, with Barkley, Iverson,  and Embiid all mimicked. From the Phillies came impersonations of charlie Manuel and Cole Hamels. Chip Kelly and Merrill Reese were Eagle personalities, and Bernie Parent was a funny Flyers target. Conklin also did some of his WIP personalities, such as bartender Chip Snapper from Kensington, familiar voices from the radio.

Conklin showed off his impressive vocal skills by making all kinds of horn sounds. The audience, composed of an older crowd with a sprinkling of millennials, loved his act. Never gets old.

- Big Daddy works very blue, surprisingly so. I heard many of the older crowd, who may listen to him overnight on WIP, who didn't find him funny at all and were turned off by his frequent profanity and constant remarks about sex and booze.I'm no prude, but his almost obsessive references to sex and drinking left me and others uncomfortable.  Be prepared if you see him that his is not a family -type of show.

Big Daddy used index cards to remind him of certain topics. Not sure if this was intentional, the index cards as a cue for new material he is working on, or a prop.  His strengths are the spontaneous, off-the-cuff remarks. you can tell he has been around the block a few times, and is an experienced club performer.

I'm currently reading a book about  Jackie Gleason ( which is outstanding, called "The Great One- The life and Legend of Jackie Gleason" by William A. Henry III). Gleason was a stand-up early in his career, and his strength also was his quick wit and his unpredictable, unscripted remarks.

- The Colonial remains a terrific place to see a show. It looked like a sold-out crowd on a Saturday night. The buzz was electric. We ate dinner across the street before the show and several people are nearby tables were talking about the upcoming show, and most of the talk concerned Conklin not Graham.

- Macnow did a nice job as host. He got off a few good jokes during his opening and in-between acts duties, including a classic joke about a "pickle slicer". Macnow is co-owner of a new beer joint across Bridge Street form the theater, and with one's ticket stub from last night, Glen gave out a free beer after the show. Great PR tactic.

- All in all it was a fun night of comedy. Conklin went on first, but definitely should be the headliner.  After their sets ( approximately 45 minutes each) there was an awkward question and answer segment which fell flat. No one seemed to have any questions, and when questions were pried from the crowd, they were pretty lame. A segment worth dropping.

Then, in another awkward moment, the three WIP personalities on stage all sang the "Schaffer beer" theme song ("Schaffer is the  one beer to have when your'e having more than one...") to end the  evening. night. Rocky music played the trio out as the crowd dispersed.

While Macnow and Conklin fled across the street, Big Daddy was hawking his so-called book about his father, which he wrote years ago, in the lobby for $10 a pop.

By the way, before Conklin went into his act, the audience were led into singing the Eagles' fight song, the Colonial shaking with the E-A-G-L-E-S chant echoing thru-out the old venue. Also, Philly-related music, by artists such as Bobby Rydell, Pink and Todd Rundgeon greeted the people as they made their way to their seats.

Finally, we enjoyed a show within a show. An elderly usher, new on the job, was shining his flashlight and trying to help people find their seats before the show. He was a pleasant guy. Only problem was that he seemed bewildered by the seating chart, and kept sending the audience all around the theater. We sat back and watched this spectacle for a good 30 minutes, as confused patrons criss-crossed the venue, trying to locate their seats on their own.