Bars, restaurants, culture and events… Dan Mathers’ weekly guide to what’s going on in Cape May
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I was nervous. Well, not nervous – uncertain. I am a big fan of standup comedy, but the I’ll Have a Manhattan event at Martini Beach was different than any other I’d attended. Adam Sank was the headliner, a comedian who’s been featured on VH1 and competed on NBC’s Last Comic Standing. So, what was making me feel uncertain? In his press photo for the event, Sank – a gay comic – was shirtless, wearing a police hat, sunglasses and a black tie. He looked very much like a male stripper.
To boost my confidence I invited the most confident man I know: my cousin and local lifeguard, Jack Lindeman. I suppose it’s easy to be confident when you’re a blond-haired, statuesque, six-foot-five-inch behemoth of a man. But Jack wasn’t prepared to play off his manliness for this event. “I’m gonna wear my rock star jeans and get us free drinks,” he said.
We went in expecting a very gay audience and were completely wrong. The vast majority of people in attendance were straight couples on vacation. When Sank started off, he asked for a show of hands as to where his gay men were. Only one hand was raised.
But, the best standups take their jokes from real life experiences, and Sank’s show was full of very funny gay jokes. “People used to tell me I looked like Ryan Seacrest,” started one of his more tame jokes, “but I don’t see it. I don’t think I look NEARLY that gay.”
He did focus a significant portion of his set on reading postings from the Cape May area Craigslist personals. And, while this was funny (and disturbing), it struck me as a little cheap. I wouldn’t have heard these things had he not brought them to light, but they were funny in their own right – not because a comic read them.
Second to perform was Karith Foster. She described herself as the “Hillary-from-the-Fresh Prince of Bel Air-kind-of black,” and spoke about her desire to marry a white man. “I’m not black; I’m brown. And if I marry a white guy, he’s peach. So, if we have a baby he’ll be beige which we know goes with everything.”
Between the two comedians, the $5 Manhattans and some airman in the back who was unwittingly offering himself up as fodder for Sank, the crowd was experiencing full-on fits of laughter. In fact, one audience member completely lost control as his chair slipped from beneath him and he hit the floor. Hard.
Many of us have preconceived notions about sexuality, but the truth is that it was a great night. I’ll be in attendance at I’ll Have ANOTHER Manhattan in August. This time I won’t be wary of the gay men; I’ll be wary of the $5 Manhattans. I hadn’t been that hung over in a while.
