Comedians incorporate audience at Bear's Place

There were only 17 people seated around the stage at Bear’s Place Ale House & Eatery, but New York native Jordan Cooper was still able to take advantage of his audience.

Monday’s Comedy Caravan was headlined by Florida-based comedienne Valarie Storm and Cooper as the feature comic.  

Cooper’s jokes included self-deprecation and “social commentary” on terror alerts in Indiana.

“You guys have nothing to worry about,” he said.

Cooper also said he doesn’t understand the existence of condom machines in men’s gas station restrooms, wondering who feels the need to have sex in a Speedway “right now?”

“How many we got out there?” Cooper said to a crowd that originally wasn’t biting. “How many of you guys have homes?”

Another Cooper was in the audience. Bloomington resident Dave Cooper was on a date with Lori Little, a continuing studies student and local resident. They were unrelated, but their dialogue back and forth seemed to suggest otherwise, as they
discussed pedophilia and a potential family reunion.

Jordan Cooper also poked fun at his graduate school, Nassau Community College in New York.

“‘N’ stands for knowledge,” he said.

An anonymous chuckle let loose in the dark room. Whoever it was wasn’t laughing at Jordan Cooper’s last joke, and told him so.

“That is the worst thing you could ever say to a comedian, and it’s beautiful,” Jordan Cooper said right before he spotted a reporter and a photographer from the Indiana Daily Student.

Jordan Cooper made it clear what they were to do: “Get the statistics. Ninety-six percent of the audience will laugh at this one. Can we get an obituary of the jokes that died tonight in the paper? Driver’s ed and sex ed were taught in the same car where I went to school because it was so poor.”

He also noted that he liked cheese and wanted an argument against those who liked cheese to “hit the printing presses.”

The cheese set out before the audience molded into something dirty when headliner Storm hit the stage at the end of Jordan Cooper’s set.

Her trademark humor recalled memories of living in Florida, relationship crises and raising her 15-year-old son as a divorced mom, whom she lovingly referred to as her “own personal cockblocker.”

Storm shared an anecdote about “passing through.”

“You have to go through Georgia first,” she said. “It’s a scary state, especially if you can read.”

Storm went on to say that the cops don’t really care about one’s intoxication level when they pull people over from other states.

“They’ll have you do your ABC’s and your 123’s, but they don’t think you’re drunk, they just want to know,” she said.

About her son, Storm commented on the biggest mistake parents can make: “Teaching them how to speak.”

She rationed her son’s fear of monsters as a small child to be her own fault.

“Sometimes you just gotta kick their door open, they’ll shut up. ‘Mommy did you hear that?’” Storm said. “I may not be mother of the year, but my nights are peaceful.”

It was Little’s favorite joke of the night and her first time at Bear’s Place to see a comedy show.

Dave Cooper also appreciated Storm’s fresh material.

“She’s a real comedian,” he said. “She came with stuff rolling off her tongue, and that was nice to see.”