1988 THE YEAR IN REVIEW : Comedy

W as 1988 the year of the dead in the Orange County arts scene? Well, it was the year Pacific Symphony conductor Keith Clark was termed “a dead fish,” the year William Shakespeare was nearly a dead duck in Garden Grove and the year the rock zanies in Oingo Boingo held yet another “Dead Man’s Party” at Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre.

Jokes notwithstanding, there were encouraging signs of life locally. South Coast Repertory Theatre won major national recognition with the 1988 Tony Award as best regional theater in the country. The Grove Theatre Co. triumphed over considerable civic adversity that threatened for a time to shut down the county’s only annual Shakespeare festival. The Pacific Symphony demonstrated new enthusiasm , with concerts led by guest conductors vying for the soon-to-be-vacated music director post.

Local rock bands seemed to flourish, live and on record, despite a paucity of clubs in the county that would book them or radio stations that would air their music. The Improv in Irvine paved the way for a significant increase in the quantity and quality of stand-up comedy in the county.

With that in mind, in the following four pages critics for The Times Orange County Edition offer compendiums of the best--and in some cases, the worst and the silliest--that the county had to offer during the year in art, music, dance, theater, pop and comedy. (In alphabetical order):

*Richard Belzer at the Irvine Improvisation: In comedy circles, this veteran comic is thought of as someone who has already peaked; on any given night, his sets can range anywhere from brilliant to dreadful. This July 18 one-nighter found him pretty close to “brilliant”--blistering political commentary, incisive observations and anecdotes on other topics, numerous quick-witted exchanges with the audience.

*Bob (Bobcat) Goldthwait at the Celebrity Theatre in Anaheim: Among the reasons this Aug. 13 show was remarkable was that it provided further evidence that Goldthwait has tuned down the bellowing and turned up the thoughtfulness. But he’s hardly gone soft. He was still enraged, railing most frequently and vehemently at various types of hypocrisy, but in a way that was smart, insightful, funny and--surprise!--endearing.

*Allan Havey at the Irvine Improvisation: This guy has the potential to become a stand-up star of Leno-esque proportion, though he is probably too interested in an acting career for us to ever find out. He not only has a wealth of sharp, inventive observational material, he’s quite gifted at weaving pieces of it together with strands of audience dialogue and happenstance. And he has an edge .

*Paula Poundstone at the Irvine Improvisation: There’s no one quite like her, which also means she won’t be everyone’s cup of tea--especially in an unexceptional show. Those who like their stand-up material linear, tightly focused and loaded with big punch lines that yield big belly laughs need not apply. But those who like their comedy shows improvised and customized, featuring an enormously bright comic attuned to everything in the room, who will chat with the crowd--incorporating some wonderfully original material--should have been at this April 12 show. *Jerry Seinfeld at the Laff Stop in Newport Beach: A prolific writer--probably the pre-eminent one in stand-up--Seinfeld has also become a frequent visitor to Orange County; he did several local shows this year, but his Aug. 31 performance was clearly the best of many good ones. He can have emotionally flat, unimpressive sets, but he was in peak form this night: His selection of material was great, his timing and rhythm were exquisite, his mood was playful--he was really “on.”