The basic recipe for success in the world of entertainment: make it hot locally or make it not. Well, Eric Albert and company at Slaughter Stand-Up are turning up the heat.
Starting Monday night, June 17, the comedy company will be holding court at Characters Restaurant in Sloatsburg during Summer Showdown, a round robin of comic competition, where the bottom line is make me laugh or leave the stage.
“The big thing is not really who’s the funniest,” said Albert, who grew up in Sloatsburg and currently runs the popular Wednesday Team Trivia nights at Characters as well as a monthly comedy show. “Everybody who participates networks up. We want to get more people in and it’s been nice so far,” Albert said about the response to the Summer Showdown.
The first round of Summer Showdown will run this Monday and Tuesday nights at 8 p.m. And then again Thursday and Friday, June 20 and 21, where 16 comics will get five minutes of stage time to prove they can hold a room. Four comics from each night will move on to the next round, which takes place next Monday and Tuesday, June 24 and 25, and will feature a bill of eight comics who each get 10 minutes of stage time. Five out of the final 16 will move on to the Summer Showdown final next Friday, June 28.
All shows take place at Characters in the upstairs lounge room at 8 p.m. (except the finals, which start at 9 p.m.), with free admission but a requested two item minimum to help, you know, pay the tab.
Dave Saitzyk, another member of the Slaughter group, said Summer Showdown is about helping to build a Hudson Valley comedy network. “We’re pulling comics from probably a 500 to 600 hundred mile radius,” said Saitzyk, who runs another regular Slaughter-sponsored comedy open mic night at A.O.H. in Monroe.
The audience will participate in the judging at Summer Showdown, as well as panel of comic judges.
Slaughter’s Summer Showdown is one of the biggest comedy events of the summer for Hudson Valley comics, with each night featuring a popular comic host. Jerrold Benford is scheduled to headline next Friday’s final. The winning comic will get two headline hosting gigs, compliments of Slaughter Stand-Up, which is quickly gaining a reputation as a Hudson Valley comedy powerhouse, with Albert as the comic engine.
Albert has been been quietly building a comedy home base in Sloatsburg with his monthly Characters Comedy Night gigs, drawing headliners from the clubs of New York City and from around the Hudson Valley.
The Summer Showdown is an all Slaughter Stand-Up effort to bring some lively night life to Sloatsburg, with the hope that if they build it, you will come. So, plan to get out to Characters. You will laugh about it later.
Summer Showcase at Characters is presented by Slaughter Stand-Up and includes 64 comics over seven different nights. For more information, visit Slaughter Stand-Up here. Admission is free with a suggested two item minimum to help cover costs.
Photos include Eric Albert and Dave Saitzyk with the Characters Bear and Slaughter Stand-Up members Eric Albert, Dave Saitzyk and Dan DiMarino.
