comic-bill-farley

Comedians @ AMUSEum

Bill Farley • Comedian

Bill Farley
• 1975 - 1981 •

Funnier than Robin Williams

Six years ago, Bill Farley rewrote the history of comedy— for one night, at least

Mercury News • Van Nuys • by Staff Writer, David N. Rosenthal • September 3, 1982

Somewhere in a closet or on a shelf or in a grungy old box in a garden apartment in the San Fernando Valley is a trophy. It’s not for bowling or swimming or softball. It’s for comedy. Only six people in the world have one like it, with a seventh to be added Saturday night. Bill Farley, has this one, even if he can’t remember where it is. Robin Williams does not.

“I really did win, and Robin finished second,“ Farley usually tells the audience at the start of his standup act. “I sure showed him, didn’t I? He’s in ‘Garp’, and I’m playing the Vaseline Room.“

Bill Farley an impish, curly haired, Catholic kid from Brooklyn, never intended to get into comedy in the first place. It just sort of happened as he grew up…

And then there was that [1976] summer’s San Francisco International Open Stand-up Comedy Competition, top prize $100. A couple of dozen comedians entered, not all of them voluntarily.

On the last night, several hundred people shoehorned themselves into Joe Nobriga’s Showcase on Franklin Street, an L-shaped room about the size of an airport lounge.

The finalists were Williams, who was first after the semifinals, a position which carried no weight in the finals; Bob Sarlatte, who was second in the semis by a 10th of a point; Mark Miller; the late Mitch Krug; and Bill Farley, who had actually finished sixth in the semis. The only reason he got into the finals just because 5th-place Lorenzo Matawaran had a collapsed lung and couldn’t go on. As might be expected, Robin was everyone’s favorite. Even then he was special.

“I really believed I could win,“ Farley says convincingly now. “Maybe it was lunacy to believe that with Robin in it, but it was real lunacy when everyone else said, ‘maybe I’ll come in second’. If you felt that way, why the hell bother. I knew he was playing to win, and so was I. I was prepared to come in fifth, but I wanted to win.“

Williams tore the place apart. Kidder recalls that of the 20 biggest laughs The man would be Mork got 12. But Paul Krassner, one of the three judges that night, remembers he wasn’t perfect. “He was too anxious,“ Krasner says. “He was really sweating. It was like he wanted it too much. Bill was much more relaxed.“

But the contrast between them went beyond just nerves. While both have acting backgrounds, Williams was more spontaneous, flying off in a dozen directions at the same time until it seems no one could be that quick. Farley was more structured, more personal, more tightly wound.

Midway through his routine that night, much of which dealt with the Bicentennial and the absurdity of pornography, the lights went out.

“Shhhhh,“ he said, keeping his cool. “Now remember, when he comes in, everyone, yell, “Surprise!“The laughter from that ad-lib. might have been heard for blocks. And when the electricity went off again, a little later, as Farley built toward his funniest material, he was annoyed, but unrattled enough to quip, “Don’t worry. My wife’s away. There’s no one down here.“

When the night was over, and they added up the scores, Farley was first — by a mere 3/100 of a point, Kidder says, not counting the full point he got for finishing within the 15-minute time limit. Williams, to the crowds dismay, was second, Sarlatte was third.

“Did I think Farley was funnier?“ Krassner responds to the same question. “As I told Robin in a note, I sent backstage once at the Boarding House, ‘Even if I didn’t vote for you, I’m going to say I did’. If you ask any of the judges now, probably no one voted for Farley.“

While Krassner was only kidding, as the years have gone by, others have seriously said that Farley was lucky to win and have denigrated the fact that he did. The fact he was persuaded to come back and defend his title the next year (after first refusing), and finished fourth, has only given the skeptics more ammunition.

“You know, I’d rather defend motherhood or something important,“ Farley says when he talks about his victory. “It’s not like I won the Nobel peace prize, and they screwed it up. It didn’t make me Mother Theresa, that’s for sure.

“It really only matters to me when people try to rewrite history. I don’t begrudge Robin a thing. He deserves it. But he’s a human being and that night, I was funnier. He might’ve been funnier than me on 19,000 other nights, but on that night, when the money was on the table, I was funnier than he was.“

Best Review

One from my dad and one was a radio review on - I believe - KCBS AM.

I was in my second year of teaching and doing very well, when I told my parents that I wasn’t going to get my masters degree (which you had to do in NY within 5 years of starting to teach) and instead I was going to audition to go to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. To say that conversation didn’t go well, would be a gross understatement. My mom quickly came around and actually told me a great story about how she had wanted to be a dancer – which I had never known. My dad, not so much.

Despite success at the American Academy and later in Off Broadway productions – he remained unhappy about my choice. However, when he came to San Francisco (from NY) and saw me do standup a number of times, he became one of my biggest fans. My dad attended the party for the premier of the comedy television special, The Last Magazine Show. The party was at The Saint Francis Hotel and was hosted by Richard Hart and his spectacularly wonderful wife, Cheryl Ruby. At the end of the show, my dad leaned over and whispered, “You were the best one in the show.” Perhaps a thing any father would say, but it was awfully nice of him to say it and a long way from where his opinion had once been.

The next day as we were leaving San Francisco – driving back to Los Angeles – I only had an am radio and it was tuned to the news. We had gone just a few blocks when a gentleman came on and started to review last night’s The Last Magazine Show. I was so nervous waiting for what he was about to say that I pulled over and we sat there listening. He gave the show a very nice review, and then it came – at the end of his review he said that all of the bits were funny – some funnier than others – but the one he liked the best was Solo (the piece that I had the lead in) – and he repeated one of my lines from it and laughed and said “Funny!” I had tears in my eyes.

I looked over at my dad and he said, “I told you; you were the best one in it.” Priceless. The ride back to LA never seemed so short.

Quick Takes

First Gig

The Intersection Cafe

Open mic at the Intersection Cafe. I was new to the Bay Area when I read a story in the Pink Section that a man named Frank Kidder was running a comedy workshop at the Intersection on Thursdays and putting on a show there on Fridays. You had to audition at the workshop to get to play the show on Friday. I was to find out that the Intersection wasn't a club. It was actually a performance space in the basement of a church. That appearance changed my life. It was at my first appearance that I met several comedians who became lifelong friends - Lorenzo Matawaran, Jose Simon, Tony Depaul, Bob Barry, and Mark Miller - to name but a few.

Home Club

Eulipia in San Jose

The Eulipia adopted me as their own because at the time I lived nearby in Mountain View. I played there a lot, and it was always special. Spectacular audiences - mostly students from San Jose State, in a really large room. I played the Eulipia with Mark McCullum once. We were booked as co headliners. When Dave McWalters asked who should go first and who should go last, neither Mark or I cared one way or the other. But I said that I usually got to go last there, so why not have Mark go last. I opened and did quite well, but Mark followed and had one of the greatest sets I've ever seen/heard. As I watched him tear the audience apart, I thought to myself, "Thank God I went first because I sure as Hell wouldn't want to try and follow that."

Fave Room

Holy City Zoo

When I was doing standup in the Bay Area, the Zoo on a Sunday night was magical. You would often find yourself performing on the same bill as Samuels and Cohen, Robin Williams, Lorenzo Matawaran, Bob Sarlatte, Carrie Snow, A Whitney Brown, Carl Ray, Jim Giovanni, Will Durst, Dana Carvey, Bill Rafferty, Mike Pritchard et al, and you better bring your A Game!!! We broke every fire safety law on Earth in those days as the Zoo was so packed you had to literally fight your way to the stage.

Best Press

Pink Pages • Mercury News

The Pink Pages. It was a story in the pink pages about a comedy workshop that got me into comedy in the Bay Area. The way comedy was covered in the Chronicle in general and the pink pages in particular were a great reason why the comedy scene flourished in the early days. The (San Jose) Mercury News' Entertainment section was awfully good to comedy through the years and also did several articles about me. One of its writers, the late Dave Rosenthal, and I became good friends in the wake of an article he did on me for the paper.

best Room

Joke You wish you wrote

Last Magazine Show

Producers

CanDan Productions

I'd also add the late great Tony Depaul, and both John Cantu (Comedy, Comedy, Comedy!) and Pat Daniels at CanDan Productions, Dave McWalters aka Morgan Hill, and Paul Miles - a special group of people - a funny, kind, talented woman and four great guys who went out of their way to always included me in whatever comedy show they were putting on.
Note: The Holiday get togethers - like at Thanksgiving - that Pat Daniels and John Cantu hosted were absolutely wonderful - they were the essence of what the comedy scene was like at the time. A wildly diverse group of people who fate had drawn together and who really cared about one another and who, by their efforts, turned the comedy scene into something fantastic. To be doing standup at that time in San Francisco was like living a dream that you never wanted to end.

Agents

Comedy Competition

Winning!

John L Wasserman's On the Town column excerpt. • SF Chronicle • September 1, 1976

'A Funny Thing Happened…'
WE ALL KNOW how comedians start: as class clowns. And we all know where successful comedians finish: with fame and fortune. But what about the period in-between?
On Sunday night at Joe Nobriga's Showcase, a night club at 900 Franklin that specializes in giving exposure to local singers, musicians and comedians, a small part of the answer surfaced at the First International Open Stand-Up Comedy Competition: Five comedians, all unknown to the public but the victors in preliminary trials, which eliminated more than 200 of their colleagues, did 20-minute routines to a standing-room-only crowd of friends, family and aficionados of the burgeoning local comedy scene.
They were competing for prizes of $100, $50 and $25, but more, for the kind of professional recognition and prestige that comes rarely to those who do it for love. At five minutes to midnight, it was over. The audience had remained remarkably receptive through a long, stifling night. Farley won. Williams, Sarlatte, Miller and Krug followed. Not the way I would have picked them, but OK. Except for Krug. funny man. No way Krug finishes last.
Unless the judge is Robert Mondavi.
A funny business, comedy.

worst Audience

La Salamandra

The audiences at La Salamandra in Berkley and the Coffee Gallery. In both clubs - you never knew - one night - a set of your dreams - another night - so this is what Hell is like. There are a million stories about La Salamandra. It would often be great. One night I got three encores and a standing ovation. But this was the late 1970s and there were other nights when the audience was made up of very angry street people. An old friend from NY came out to visit and wanted to see me do standup. I told him some of the clubs I played could be difficult. The first several clubs went great, but the night before he was leaving, we went to La Salamandra. I told him beforehand - this is one of those clubs. When the show got started there was a couple sitting near the front - two young women - and they were arguing. People started complaining and the owner of the club, Al, went over and told them to knock it off. They were quiet for a few minutes and then started arguing louder than before. Al came over to their table again and said that if he had to come over to them again, he was going to throw them out. When he left, the younger of the two women stood up - she was wearing jeans that were white - and she said, "I hate this place. I hate it so much I'm going to pee in my pants." And then she did something I would have thought impossible. True to her word, she stood there and peed in her pants. You could see the front of her jeans getting wetter and wetter. Mission accomplished. Al quickly threw them both out. After the show, my friend didn't say anything to me - not a word - until we were about in the middle of the Bay Bridge. He then turned and said, "You don't see that every day."

best or worst EMCEE

The Coffee Gallery

After the second time I performed at the Intersection, I was approached by Mark Miller and Tony Depaul who told me that they performed at another club that was nearby - The Coffee Gallery. When I heard the name, I thought that the club would probably have poets in between the comedians. And at one time, it had, but I was soon to find out that times had certainly changed. As I approached the club there were real Hell's Angels standing outside, and I used to say in my act that they were standing outside because they were afraid to go in - which was not far from the truth! Mark Miller used to call the Coffee Gallery "the waiting room for Hell." I was actually scared when I saw the audience. The waitress who came to our table looked like she was 12 years old. Anyway, Mark had signed me up to perform. The MC was also a performer. She sang a few songs - and had a nice voice. Maybe this wouldn't be as bad as I thought. After she finished her second song, the audience started chanting her name - which I came to find out was a signal for her to take off all of her clothes - which she did - and I mean ALL of her clothes. Needless to say, the audience was very appreciative! She then introduced Tony who went up and was laughing so much he couldn't perform, so he said goodnight and left. The MC came up to the mic again - still naked - and did some jumping jacks. The audience really seemed to be into fitness and her actions once again went over well. She then said, "I don't know who this next guy is. His name is Bill Farley. He's supposed to be funny. I'll be back when he's done." She was back very soon.