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Love/Hate With Brido: I Love Pat Brice
Today marks the one year anniversary of the death of Chicago comedian Pat Brice.
One of the first jokes I remember seeing Pat Brice do was about an old man who would one-up every story you could possibly tell. After Pat told the guy a story about an amazing Little League player from his youth, the old man told him an epic World War II-era story about a Catholic League player named Pot Eye O’Shea.
One time, Pot Eye O’Shea hit a ball into the gap, saw that it was only going to be a triple, reached back and hit the ball again for a home run. “He hit the ball twice.” Strangely enough, only a year after his death, those are the types of stories people tell about Pat.
You probably haven’t heard of him, but you were going to. In the past year, several industry types and festival runners have told me about how big of a star Pat was going to be. They were telling me something everybody in Chicago had already known for years. He would fucking clobber the audience. He was one of the few people I never saw have a bad set. Ever. And he was the same guy off stage as he was on. Loud, charismatic and brutally funny.
From 2005-2007, Chicago stand-up had really hit its stride. Several of those comics have gone on to New York and Los Angeles to do the big festivals, the big TV spots, and even sitcoms and movies. Of all of those people, Pat was still the best. He was our quarterback, our homecoming king and our Most Likely to Succeed. Several other people were great, but I didn’t feel like anyone was better. I still don’t.
Here’s to the Laddy.
(Editor’s Note: We here at Comedy.com would also like to echo Mike Bridenstine’s thoughts. Pat was an amazing talent who is sorely missed by everybody who was lucky enough to get a chance to meet him. Below are some samples of his great work.)
Mike Bridenstine is a stand-up comedian based out of Los Angeles. He is a member of Blerds.com and quite possibly the funniest person of all time. You can contact him at Myspace.com/MikeBridenstine and read his column here every Wednesday.
Tags: columns, love/hate with brido, mike bridenstine, pat brice
