On this night at the Baltimore Improv, BIG Ben Kennedy knows this could be his big chance. He's reached the final round of the competition to declare a "Funniest Person in Baltimore."
Backstage at the comedy club, Kennedy deals with his usual pre-performance woes -- clammy hands and dry mouth -- with his "quiet time." "He definitely changes [before a show]," says his No. 1 fan, his mother, Jenny Mehsling. "He gets real quiet."
In June, Kennedy, 24, earned first place in the semifinals at the Improv, beating 10 others. It wasn't the first time he had set foot on the Improv stage -- he was once pulled from the audience by actor-comedian Brad Sherwood of Who's Line Is It Anyway? and The Drew Carey Show to perform sound effects for a skit -- but it was the first time all eyes were on him.
For Kennedy and the other comics hoping to be named the "Funniest Person," the competition's grand prize of $300 is welcome. But much more coveted is the chance to open for the Improv headliner of his or her choice. Recent acts included actor-comedian John Witherspoon and MAD TV cast member Pablo Francisco, someone Kennedy admires and wants to emulate. He opens his wallet and proudly removes Francisco's autograph, signed on a clean and barely wrinkled napkin that he carries as a good-luck charm.
Kennedy, whose "day job" is driving a van for a nonprofit agency that finds work for the developmentally disabled, has been doing stand-up comedy for about two years -- no time at all for a young performer chasing his dream. He would be happy to become a touring comic. "To make me euphoric, though -- sitcoms and movies," he says.
No stranger to the limelight, Kennedy had a comedy song on 98 Rock last Christmas called "Santa Claus Just Hit On My Hon." He has also appeared as an extra in a few movies, including The Replacements, which starred Keanu Reeves as a football player and was filmed in Baltimore in 1999. More recently, he played a young boy in a Severna Park Pizza and Sub commercial that aired on cable in Anne Arundel County.
His next work includes a summer song for 98 Rock (working title: "Redneck B-B-Q"). He plans to release a compact disc, the introduction of which will be performed by his 3-year-old nephew, Devon.
Kennedy, of Glen Burnie, performs at clubs two or three times a month but would love to do so more often. One of the reasons he feels he has done so well, thus far, is he always accepts constructive criticism from other comics. A headliner will watch Kennedy's 8 p.m. show and tell him to incorporate something, or stop doing something, "like running my fingers through my hair," and by the 10 p.m. show, he's done it.
Kelly Terranova, a touring comic, interrupts Kennedy to say, "That's why he's risen through the ranks so quickly."
People, not politics
A self-proclaimed class clown, Kennedy was born in Baltimore and grew up in various places around Maryland. Mehsling, who now lives in Glen Burnie, went where the work was to support her children. ("God bless her! She kept us fed and clothed," Kennedy says.)
Kennedy began performing early and was in every school play starting in kindergarten, according to his mother. "He has a great singing voice, and he can draw and write, too," she adds.
Mehsling, who has never missed one of Kennedy's shows, says that they are very close and that he often tests his new material on her. "He bounces everything off me," she says.
Like most comics, Kennedy draws his material from people, events and pop culture, but he steers clear of politics. He thinks that people are hit with political news all day, from television newscasts to late-night talk shows, and he wants to offer an alternative. To see what kind of jokes an audience responds to, he listens to the act that precedes him. Then he makes the necessary adjustments to his routine.
What about the foul language favored by many comics? "It's almost like a second language now," Mehsling says. "I tell him, 'Why are you cussing so much?' " However, she doesn't think her son curses frivolously, but as the audience's response dictates. And he agrees, "I read my audience and see if they want it."
To his mother, Kennedy is a cut above the rest because "he is so intelligent, and he puts that intelligence to good use." But Kennedy thinks it's not necessarily his material but his physical presence -- he is tall and heavyset -- that plays a big part in his appeal.
"I'm big. I'm teddy-bearish. These are things I've been told."
His teddy-bear frame could lead you to incorrectly assume that the BIG in BIG Ben Kennedy refers to his size. In fact, BIG is an acronym that stands for, as he puts it, "Brian, Gabriel, and I am in the middle." Brian and Gabriel Kennedy were Kennedy's father and half-brother, respectively. They died in November 1995 in Severna Park, when Brian Kennedy shot 7-year-old Gabriel, then turned the gun on himself.
Kennedy does not like to discuss the deaths. A tragedy can make you cry and mourn forever, he says, or you can grieve and come out of it "smiling and dancing." Mehsling agrees, saying her son used comedy as an outlet for his grief.
Fire fueled by tragedy
On Aug. 17, 2000, nearly five years after Gabriel was killed, the memory of the boy gave Kennedy the strength to take his first comedic steps. Kennedy had his set ready and was going to perform at an "open mike Thursday" at Winchester's Comedy Club in Baltimore, but he just couldn't muster the courage to do it.
Then he looked at his calendar and realized Aug. 17 would have been Gabriel's 12th birthday. Although Kennedy was nervous and scared, with a terrible case of dry mouth, he went on, and made it through, with a little help from his brother.
"I felt like I had an angel on my shoulder that night," he says. "Gabriel was the match that started the fire deep inside of me."
That fire burns bright in Kennedy on July 2 as the final round of the "Funniest Person" competition begins, and again as he takes the stage.
His seven-minute set, the last of the evening, has the audience in hysterics. He recounts an incident with a multi-pierced teen-ager who wanted to start a fight at Marley Station Mall in Glen Burnie. Kennedy observes that this skinny kid is the reason all the triple-X clothes he has to buy are sold out, referring to the extremely oversized clothing style favored by many teen-agers.
Such humor resonates with Kennedy's youthful audience.
"BIG Ben Kennedy is my hero," says Kenneth Plumley, 20, of Severn. "He can take the most random object and turn it into the funniest thing in the world."
Dave Johney, 20, of Glen Burnie finds Kennedy appealing because "he speaks for the everyday man."
Kennedy is on a post-performance high. "It was awesome to play to all my idols," he says, referring to the large pictures on the Improv's walls of the famous comedians who have appeared at the chain's 12 clubs around the country.
And the winner is ...
Tension mounts as the 14 contestants -- who include a handful of Baltimore radio personalities, such as Mix 106.5's Jo Jo and Kirk McEwen and Mark Ondayko of 98 Rock -- await the judges' decision. The judges include WMAR's Jamie Costello, Bill Bateman's bar manager Brian Carmen, Sun columnist Kevin Cowherd, Food Network's Best Of host Mark Silverstein, Howl at the Moon's piano bar manager Bonnie Graves and Camden Yards lemonade shaker Michael Rosenberg.
Mike Storck takes third place. In second is Brenda O, the only woman in the final round, who excited the crowd during her set when she removed her wig and replaced it with a Charlie's Angels-esque one. And the winner is ... Mark Voyce, one of the people Kennedy beat out in the semifinals.
If the other comics are disappointed, they hide it well. Their camaraderie, both in their banter in the Improv's Green Room and in their support of each other's acts, is felt all around.
For his part, Kennedy says it is great "that I was worthy enough to share a stage and that at any point they found me a threat [competitively]."
He also says "the networking experience of the competition was awesome." Some of the DJs he's met want him to appear on their shows.
Although he wasn't chosen as the "Funniest Person in Baltimore," Kennedy is more than excited about the whole experience and about his future as a performer. The audience had great energy, he says, and being able to play to a sold-out house at the Improv is a dream come true.
Is there anything he would have done differently in the competition?
Getting back to his dry mouth woes, he says, "Taken a glass of water on stage."