Did you ever notice how much funnier you are around your friends – meaning the ones who WILL tell you that your joke missed the mark? Well, comedians and best friends Kim Seltzer and Aliya Kamalova took that concept to the stage. The Best Friends Show, at Nerdmelt, is essentially just that – each comedian brings his or her best friend on stage, for a set. And, yes there were some gems throughout the night for the October show.
Hosts and roommates Kim and Aliya met at UCLA when Aliya rejected Kim’s application for a student magazine (That’s some strong forgiveness!). The two delivered the cutest deadpan act – imagine a puppy doing deadpan. This time, they shared a plethora of their random embarrassing moments with strangers. My personal favorite was the bit where they were convinced their Russian movers were talking about them, but Aliyah, who speaks Russian, eavesdropped only to confirm the movers were discussing random “dude” topics- oops, ladies.
Best friends Jacob Womack and Casey Feigh, who met in improv class eight years ago, shared about a prior landlady and acquaintance named Tangerine, Tange for short. As they finished each other’s sentences (aww), they told a tale of a sweet, but wild lady who took Jacob in, after his dad laid him off (ouch). Tange could out-party the both of them, and everyone else apparently, but she took a liking to Jacob. And Casey was able to take her room, when she moved out – thus the classic Los Angeles weird living situation ended and a roommate bromance was born.
I most identified with Jay Larson and Ryan Sickler, because – pranks. Best friends and podcast hosts of The Crab Feast, their relationship is control freak meets prank enthusiast (I am DOWN!). As Jay boasted about the anatomy of his pranks, Ryan reminded him of the times he’d busted the plots – Jay, I can show you some things.
Do you just have that friend who’s lucky, while you’re not? Welcome to the story of Tone Bell and Mark Agee. Tone is the lucky one who wins $800 in twenty minutes, playing roulette; Mark gets dog bites at laundromats. Tone, who’s “not even aware that he’s lucky,” gets multiple lap dances at the strip club, while Mark gets the life story of one stripper all night. They make a great match, as only Tone can balance out Mark’s bad luck.
The sweetest pair, with the nastiest story of the night, were couple Nolan Fabricius and Emily Patton. The pair shared a story from pre-couplehood where Nolan visited Emily, a “modest badass primatologist,” at her workplace, a primate sanctuary. Nolan was “out alpha-ed” by most chimps, with Bob Barker’s rescues, “The Barker Boys,” hating him the most – a perfect scenario to impress a hot chick. One chimp did manage to love him. Actually, the chimp had an armpit fetish and um … really, really liked getting a peak of Nolan’s armpit … either way, Nolan won over a chimp and Emily’s heart. And, it just doesn’t get better than that.
This is a show worth seeing, better yet worth doing. Comics, you know you’re funniest around your friends. And, friends you know you’re tired of just being the joke testers. This show has the potential to get really raw and meaty, because comics can now get called out, too. Not only is it fun to watch the quirky dynamics of these real relationships, you can watch someone’s bit-forming process. Besides, everyone loves to see the smartass behind the smartsass – Can I get an “Am I right?”
Mentions: Catch their next show November 7th at Nerdmelt. Images by Katherine Leon.
CakeMama