friday, november 9, 1979
daily nebraskan
Stand-up comic works with individual style
By Peg SheWrick
"Comedy," said T. Mamie Vos, "is a happy way of
looking at a hurt."
For T. Mamie Vos, one of Lincoln's few stand-up
comedians, it also is an occasional means of making a liv
ing. Though she hardly fits the "stereotype of the up and
coming comic (that being a glib, tuxedoed young man on
,the Borscht Circuit), Vos has been plying her trade quite
successfully for some time, most recently at last week's
comedy night at O.G. Kelly's. '
Her act doesn't fit the stereotype, either. Vos avoids
what she calls "I-don't-care stand-up," which involves a
series of unrelated one-liners.
"I like to do a routine that has a through line," she
said. "I'm not saying that it's not funny-it's just not my
style. I wonder if I have a style. Maybe I should get one."
According to Vos, "comedy is common in everyday
life."
Of course, anyone who would wheel her ten speed next
to. a fur-wrapped lady in a Lincoln Continental and
challenge her to a drag race can make that claim with
some validity.
"Sometimes I get carried away at work," she said.
"That's just energy, I guess." Her energy leads her to liven
her 32 hours a week as night manager of a local taco res
taurant by telling customers the hot sauces are brought in
daily from Mexico by burro train. She also has been
known to stage taco shell relay races among her em
ployees, as well as occasionally sending hapless helpers out
back to clean the fly paper.
COMEDIC ENERGY has been part of her life a. long
time. As a child, she couldn't resist trying for laughts,
'even under the tensest circumstances, she said.
She remembers walking into an elementary school class
late one day. Instead of slinking dutifully to her seat, she
stopped inside the doorway and shouted, "ATTEN
TION!" ' .
Everyone looked up.
"ATTENTION! ... I tove ATTENTION!"
It was the same at home.
"I used to like to make my sister laugh when I was
small," she said. "My peak (was when) I made my sister
laugh so hard her milk came through her nose. That was
, my new goal."
V 9 ' H
k r
m
From left, Wayne Rollins, Jeffery Johnson, Chauncey
Blakely, and Kathy Morrow collaborate on a song at Tra
ditional Jazz night at O.G. Kelly's.
Photo by m aggie Golon
Spontaneous performance 'cooks9
Surprises common at O.G. Kelly's
By Bill Graf
, .
At O.G. Kelly's Traditional Jazz Night Wednesday it
was hard to tell who was having more fun-the crowd or
the musicians.
The Traditional Jazz band, which consisted of Mac
McCune on trumpet, Del Whitcombe on guitar, Jeffery
Johnson on drums and Andy Hall filling Randy Snyder's
place on bass, exploded into their first set with their
theme song "Jumping At The Woodside".
But after they had finished the fomality of playing
their theme, all organization was thrown to the wind.
By the end of the first set it seemed as though guest
performers were coming out of the woodwork.
Singing a collection of funky blues tunes, Kathy
Morrow was the first to pool her talents with the band.
Also taking advantage of the open stage were singers
Wayne Rollins and Chauncey Blakely, clarinetist Charlie
Phillips and alto sax players, Jerry Boster and Ed Love.
Because the format was intended to be informal and
spontaneous, nobody knew what would happen, not even
Jeffery Johnson, jazz night organizer.
However, except for a little confusion between tunes,
the music was high quality. The Traditional Jazz band
members seemed to have enough tunes up their sleeves to
allow the guest artists to perform at their potential.
Hall, playing his first gig with the band, said, "This
isn't what I expected. K's refreshing to have all these cats
playjng with us and have it fall together so nicely"
Hall added that the crowd also was a big factor in ,
getting the band "cooking."
Blakely explained that he enjoys sitting in because the
format is "loose and relaxed".
Whitcombe, a Traditional Jazz band regular said 'The
secret of the success of the jazz night is that it is relaxed
and spontaneous."
McCune said the Traditional Jazz Night is more "free
wheeling" than his job as leader of the Mac Five.
"It's fun to lay back and do what we want. Lincoln has
a lot of decent musicians and we've got good musicians.
However, the good musicians are not real plentiful. To
have a rhythm section like we have tonight makes my job
a lot easier and more fun," McCune said.
"At the first gig we did for the Traditional Jazz Night,
there were only 15 people. But those 15 people had a
good time. Since then, it's grown. Each gig seems to get
better and better," he added.
"Mv mother used to send us into the other room to
rest and I'd make everybody laugh. She'd yell 'Don't en
courage her! Stop laughing!'" Today, her mother encour
ages her to go into comedy, she said.
Though she always had the inclination, her specific
ambition to do stand-up came in high school, she said.
What started out as a one-shot after dinner speech ended
as a first place finish in a statewide speech contest.
After that it was the school talent show, at which her
speech about dieting sparked an invitation to speak at a
Weight Watchers convention in Pershing Auditorium.
Until then, Vos had been writing mainly tor herselt.
She 'then discovered she liked performing her material.
"It was fun to laugh, to get up," she said.
THE DIET SPEECH earned her invitations to such
places as the Hilton Hotel. After entering college, she
found less opportunities to perform.
"I mean, you can do it at Burger King, but . . ."
She used her own writings for performances in a speech
class, which made it hard for the teacher to grade her. The
instructor didn't quite know how to react to a talk that
was supposed to be about dating entitled, "The Gift of
Celibacy."
Her next big opportunity to garner laughs and fanie
was the Bob Hope Talent Search staged at the university a
few years ago. Vos made it to the finals "just because I
was doing stand-up," she modestly asserted. :
Then came a gig at last year's Masquer's Banquet,
where she informed fellow thespians they should strive to
be known "not just as drug addicts and homosexuals but
as people with a cause, like Marlon Brando." She was a
hit, and on the strength of her success has been invited to
appear at a number of local bistros during the past few
months.
. So far, only a few performances have gone badly, one
because she had no microphone, she said.
"People who could read lips enjoyed it," she said.
Working and attending school full time while trying to
' hone her talents is not the easiest way of life.
"It doesn't leave enough time to do what I feel like
doing and want to get better at," she said. -
"IT'S LIKE A DOG chasing his tail. No, it's not. At
least the dog has his end in sight. Sometimes I don't."
Her goal is to move to Los Angeles, which she visited
earlier this year. But that move won't happen until she
can afford it. For now, she's working at her comedy, hop
ing someday it will be a foot in the door that will allow
her to go on to acting and possibly directing.
"Some people can sing very well. Lots and lots and lots
go into acting. Certain poeople are good at stunt falls.
Certain people are good at dancing. All those things make
a person a more sellable commodity," she said. "I can't
sing and I can't dance. When comedy works for me, I
think it could be like a stepping stone. And when it
doesn't, I think about going into arson."
So far she hasn't been heckled. She has "no desire to
exchange vulgarities," she said.
"If I did bad, there are a few people I'd like to say to
me It wasn't so good' and comment on the act," she
"I don't mind that, but I mind anyone to comment on
(anyone's) work in a cruel way, with a lack of sensitivity.
It's easy to sit back and comment, but can you sing? Can
you make someone laugh? . . . Because you dare to be
bad, you put yourself almost above other people, because
you're doing something they wouldn't dare do."
VOS DOESNT CARE for insults from the stage or
from the audience.
"I would not like to laugh at the expense of someone
else's hurt. . . Obscene humor is cheap. I don't think it's
necessary." .
Ideally, "laughter is a healing thing-. . . I think it helps
you move through hard times. You can dwell on things a
certain way."
"There are things that hurt us all, like saying goodbye,
loneliness. (My humor) is not directed toward myself or
others. It's directed so we laugh together."
Vos said she doesn't think much about being a woman in
a predominantly male field. "If you're funny you're
funny. If someone wants to judge me like that, they're
putting those restrictions on themselves. I've never run up
against prejudice."
Vos will appear next at O.G. Kelly's December
Comedy night.
