John Grindrod: Big city feel in a small town venue

There are comedy clubs that have achieved legendary status, clubs which have hosted the elite in the comedy world, such as The Comedy Cellar in Manahattan, The Comedy Store in LA and Second City in my birth town of Chicago.

However, comedy clubs are certainly rare in small towns, so when I have an opportunity to see a show without investing a whole lot of driving time, I’m all in. That’s what brought my Lady Jane and me last Thursday evening to the St. Marys Theater and Grand Opera House to see the 7 p.m. show of Middletown’s Jeff Jena as a warm-up and the West Coast headliner who made quite a splash on the television show “America’s Got Talent,” Don McMillan.

The historic building in the heart of downtown St. Marys that first hosted events in the late 1800s isn’t solely a comedy club. It has hosted crowds for a variety of live performances and movies since, after several years of chained doors, its reopening in 2022, thanks to the efforts of many, including five-term Auglaize County Commissioner, Doug Spencer, who serves as each event’s host.

I met Doug at the door as he was greeting people when we arrived, most of whom, as a lifelong St. Marys resident and a former student in my English classes at Memorial High School both as a sophomore and junior once upon a time, he knew by their first names.

To be honest, while I’ve always been a big fan of comedy, both on screen and live, I went to the show a bit jaded. The reason is, as much as I’ve enjoyed through the years the work of performers such as Hope, Skelton, Burnett, Carlin, Seinfeld, Gaffigan and so many others, I’ve always found the moments in my life where I laughed until I literally cried and feared some loss of control of perhaps a bodily function have always been moments shared with dear friends and with family. Nonetheless, I’ve enjoyed comedic efforts of all kinds, including my own.

I’ll also tell you I admire anyone who tries his or her hand doing stand-up. They indeed have a truckload of intestinal fortitude to trod those boards alone under the glare of a spotlight in their efforts trying to elicit approbative applause and laughter while conquering that palpable fear of a quiet house.

As for the show, the warm-up, Jeff Jena, did well, with comedy that was a bit edgier, more in the Don Rickles’ vein, as he interacted with the audience throughout and extemporaneously delivered some gentle jabs based on their responses to questions he asked. Perhaps most impressive was his energetic delivery as he moved around the stage working the room. At 72 years old, he was just a year my junior and made me feel that I wasn’t alone in my aversion to retiring from my own labors.

The 50-year-old McMillan in his former life was a Silicon Valley electrical engineer who was part of the team that designed the first 32-bit microprocessor while working at AT&T Bell Laboratories. If you have any preconceived stereotypical notions about nerdy engineers with pocket protectors loaded with pens whose senses of humor were surgically removed, toss those thoughts out the window when it comes to McMillan.

McMillan’s routine was refreshing, so unique in that he used a PowerPoint presentation, one full of Venn diagrams and mathematical equations to deliver jokes about famous people and the everyday commonalities in all our lives. As a registered non-mathematical-and-non-scientific guy, I’d have never thought such an approach to comedy would work, but it did! McMillan identified the engineers in the house, of which there were several, and had some more specialized humor for them, but even that humor was also packaged in such a way that, based on the audience’s reaction, no one felt left out.

All in all, the night was so very enjoyable from our dinner at John Heaphy’s Beer Barrel off Indiana Avenue before the show to the show itself, and I think everyone there got to feel a little of that big-city entertainment vibe.

For Doug Spencer and so many others who are deeply involved in the ongoing restoration and expansion of this historic building, one once played by John Philip Sousa, I say, “Well done!”

John Grindrod is a regular columnist for The Lima News, a freelance writer and editor and the author of two books. Reach him at [email protected].