Photo by Tommy Lau
Dave Coulier is forever marked as the guy who enjoyed his time in the theater a little too much. Lori Loughlin is permanently associated with the worst college admissions scandal of all time. Candace Cameron is an outspoken Trump supporter. John Stamos has never heard Papa Roach. Being a Full House alumnus is a hard job.
But you know who has stayed under the radar as the coolest from the show? Jodie Fucking Sweetin. We interviewed her a few years ago, and it was really fun. In the last decade, she’s managed to endear herself to the LA stand-up and improv scene and done something that few people have succeeded at- she’s progressed from child stardom to a truly respected and admired artist. It takes a lot to get me out to a 10:30 PM show. But, yeah. I need to see Sweetin do her thing.
Smoke Show with Sweetin is a game show, first and foremost. And, if you’ve ever been to a live taping of a game show, there’s always a warm-up comic. We had Austin Kress. He came out with the kinda of stoner swagger that I immediately find annoying and was primed to hate him before he said a word. Well, you know how the key to comedy is surprise? Well, Kress was BRILLIANT. Being sharp and quick while pretending to be dumb and slow made his wit hit so much harder. He was only on stage for like five minutes, but it was a FANTASTIC five minutes. I went from naysayer to fan very quickly. Thank you, Mr. Kress, for forcing me to open my mind.
OK. Now for the premise of Smoke Show. Jodie Sweetin is the game show host. The game? Three comedians compete in a series of games to be crowned the winner. It’s a regular event in LA, as folks are very lucky out there. But, despite coming from SF’s most respected family (The Tanners, of course), we don’t get this show often. It was *almost* good enough for me to want to move.
Sweetin opened the show with a very well-crafted monologue. It’s clear that she is well-studied in the art of stand-up. Her style was very classic, hitting punchlines very well. Exposing her political views with a wink and a nod, she was both very current and, you could’ve dropped this set in any era of comedy; it would’ve been well received. I would love to see her do a full hour of this stuff.
So, yeah. Sweetin was enough. But her panel? I’m a long-time Sara Benincasa fan. She’s fantastic. She was flirty with everyone else on stage, and it worked very well to keep the jokes flowing. Improv legend Michael Hitchcock was, unsurprisingly, amazing. However, MK Paulsen was so bloody brilliant. The right balance of “comfort jokes” (slightly expected jokes from the perspective of being a tall gay man with great hair), combined with really sharp bits, and I am a new fan.
I’m not going to bore you with odds & ends of each bit. You’ve gotta just take a trip to LA and see the show. BUT- the show escalated into messier and messier chaos. The final game? Signing Sweetin’s birthday card without using your hands or mouth WITH a toy caterpillar with a pen in the mouth. (See hero photo) It ended with Hitchcock winning the show and doing a handstand. Bloody amazing.
I want to see this show 100 times again. Please follow Smoke Show with Sweetin on Instagram to keep an eye out for more performances. AMAZING.
