Reporter’s Notebook: A night of stand-up brings out the jokes at Fish Fry
When a reporter hears a public official is going onstage to do jokes, it piques your interest.
So after learning that Bob Ooten — a duly elected director of the Costa Mesa Sanitary District, the public agency charged with keeping sewer and trash services intact — was doing stand-up comedy during the 69th annual Costa Mesa-Newport Harbor Lions Club Fish Fry on Friday, I figured it would be a fun story.
I don’t think I was wrong.
Ooten, 75, has been with the sanitary district since 2006.
Turns out that Ooten, a retired engineer experienced with sewage and wastewater systems, is pretty serious about his stand-up hobby. He has studied the art of comedic timing and style at Flappers University, tagline “Where learning is a joke!”
In an interview prior to his one-night-only appearance at the Fish Fry’s beer garden, Ooten waxed philosophical about the finer points of comedy, using industry terms like “complaint,” “point of view” and “attitude.” I didn’t grasp it all, but I figured all the greats have mastered them, with or without the help of Flappers University.
Ooten — who isn’t up for reelection this year, by the way — said his humor mostly centers around himself. He tries self-deprecating jokes, poking at the perils of aging or his Midwestern roots as a native of Onawa, Iowa.
They’re clean jokes, at that, unless about the dirty job of sewers and trash.
He’s even taken his jokes on the road — or at least up the road, that is, from the sanitary district headquarters on West 19th Street to the Mesa Water District on Placentia Avenue, where he reportedly had a successful appearance.
He tells me that he even won $100 in a contest. Then he advanced to a second round, where he won an entire bowl of chicken wings and fries, but he had to give half of his food winnings away.
“I didn’t give the $100 away,” Ooten says with a smile.
At 7:27 p.m., the comedy show starts later than scheduled. First is Steve Guentner of Irvine, comedy stage name “Just Another Steve.”
The problem with writing about comedy is that the jokes, even if hilarious, don’t come across as well unless you’re there in person.
But I’ll try to relay a few of them and describe the scene, which was filmed by Costa Mesa Brief and will be online.
For both men, the stage is a small brown crate, a few inches high and labeled “Lions Beer Garden.”
Both perform against a backdrop of porta-potties and the Ferris wheel. To their left is an ATM machine, and all around, patrons are drinking brews like Bud Lite, eating fried fish and munching on kettle corn.
“It’s great to be here in Costa Mesa,” Guentner declares. “Or as the real estate people call it, Newport Beach-adjacent.”
He later goes into another one about the city of Irvine banning fortune tellers. Then the next day, Guentner says his Irvine financial adviser goes missing.
At 7:35 p.m., it’s Ooten’s turn.
Ooten, who admits to the crowd that he’s an elected politician and is married, jokes that he did “research” on Tinder, the smartphone dating app.
Girls there are scantily dressed, he says, like 1950s Playboy bunnies.
“I was shocked,” Ooten jokes. “I just couldn’t look — after three hours.”
A few minutes later, he makes a confession: “Stand-up comedy isn’t my problem. Just standing is.”
By 7:42, Ooten’s set is over. Rounds of applause ensue.
As fate would have it, at 7:46 p.m., Ooten got a second chance to make the crowd laugh. By request, he presented jokes about his former life at a sewage treatment plant for 2.5 million people.
Soon enough comes the major punchline: “Your No. 2 became my No. 1.”
Then came another line, something like how the treatment plant got more deposits than the Bank of America.
By 7:47, it was over.
“I think I’ll stop there,” he says the audience. “Thank you for coming.”
After the show, Ooten told me it was fun to perform but he felt a little tired. It had been a long day.
I reminded him that behind his stage was the backdrop of porta-potties, all lined up in a row. He thought that was hilarious.
The three-day Fish Fry concludes Sunday at Fairview Park, 2501 Placentia Ave., Costa Mesa. Hours are noon to 9 p.m.
Twitter: @BradleyZint
