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Comedy night fun

Just wanted to share my take on this week’s Candidates Comedy Night—an event I’ve been writing about since 2002. I knew what to expect—basically anything and everything political peppered with laughter.

Being at Finnigan’s Wake is an experience in itself, with four levels of bars, and the most affable and personable owner, Mike Driscoll, who gives his business, time and name to help the Variety Club, a charity for kids. Daily News columnist Stu Bykofsky has done an amazing job since he started this event 20 years ago. This one-time event was such a hit it had to be repeated—and it has been every year since 1990. This year was another sellout, with elected officials, candidates, media and politicos of every stripe out in force.

We went upstairs to where the event was being held. The room bustled with activity—with Joe Conklin, comedian extraordinaire doing a soundcheck; CBS3 TV personality Bob Kelly spinning the records; candidates walking up to Bykofsky; electeds shaking hands with everyone (no one asked what side you were on). Of special note was the mistress of ceremonies with Bykofsky—fellow Daily News columnist, Jenice Armstrong. She is beautiful, articulate, and added the perfect balance to a worthwhile evening.

For those of you who don’t know, the Variety Club helps children with special needs. One camp is located in Worcester, Montgomery County and it serves 350 campers. It provides programs to those with disabilities that address their physical, social, medical, educational and recreational needs without regard to economic status, race, creed, sex or type of disability. Kelly Green, Variety Club executive director, was most appreciative of last night’s event.

And what a helping hand  for them it was it was:  Tom Corbett, Dan Onorato, Patrick Murphy, Bryan Lentz, Joe Sestak, Pat Toomey, Pat Meehan, Chaka Fattah, Bob Brady, Dee Adcock, Rick Hellberg, Manan Trivedi all performed.

Most electeds were humorous and poked fun at themselves—and sometimes their opponents. I say most because Fattah went negative and basically gave a stump speech. The audience was not impressed. In my opinion, the winner of the night was Trivedi, the Democrat running in the 6th District who cracked jokes about his Indian heritage.

Stu Bykofsky’s event just keeps getting better and better.

August 11, 2010 at 2:00 pm

--Beth Hegedus

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