Todd was right about Ein-stein’s

David Reuben runs the room at Ein-Stein’s

A few months ago I went to a comedy night at Ein-Stein’s with my friend Andrea. I was not terribly impressed. Not that the quality of the comedy was any worse than I have seen in other rooms around Toronto – it’s just that the set-up did not seem conducive to a good experience for either the comics or the audience.

The stage is in the middle of this college bar so anyone walking in off the street has to walk right in front of the comic. Although the bar staff are friendly, the punters seem generally uninterested and for the most part talk through the acts. The seating is odd – and the sight-lines are terrible. There aren’t many places to sit where you can get a good view and not be right in front of the comics. All in all – an odd venue.

I was talking to Todd Van Allen about this in McVeigh’s after a show one night and asking why anyone would play Ein-Stein’s – what was the point? He got quite insistent that every comic should do the difficult rooms so that they would get used to being able to play any venue and said that in his experience, both in Australia and the US, Canadian comics did much better than their local counterparts because of venues like Ein-Stein’s, which give any stand-up the chance to learn how to fight for attention and deal with random heckling.

Ruby (David Reuben) defended the room in the same way when he appeared on Todd’s podcast (which I will be doing next week), saying that when he began his comedy career there was really only the open mike night at Yuk Yuk’s where you could go and practice, which was quite a bear pit, but toughened up new comics right away. Now that there are so many rooms to play in Toronto, new comics die on their arse (my words, not Ruby’s) when they play gigs outside the big smoke.

So when Chris Brazeau approached me after my set at Yuk Yuk’s and asked if I would like to do Ein-Stein’s, I jumped at the chance. And it turned out to be a not unpleasant experience.

Arie Kizel was the MC and a thoroughly nice bloke. A couple of my friends were on that night, a couple just visiting. There were only a handful of audience members, but again, this isn’t so different from a lot of other rooms in Toronto where you’re playing mainly to other comics. I had a good time and my new material seemed to go well. Ruby booked me again right away and I will be glad to go back.

Thanks, Todd, for talking me out of my cock-eyed disdain and convincing me to do this worthwhile gig.

Related posts:

1. My turn to be on Todd Van Allen’s podcast
2. Talking Bollocks Episode 5 – Todd Van Allen!
3. Talking Bollocks Episode 6 – Todd Van Allen Again!
4. Einstein’s is cancelled!
5. One whole year of stand-up!