The first time I heard Craig Shoemaker was on the KLOS Five O’Clock Funnies. To this day, he remains one of the most popular comedians on that feature. During my years at KLOS, Craig was consistently an outstanding in-studio guest. We even had him perform live at some Mark & Brian events. A couple of years later Craig and I both worked at the ill-fated Comedy World Radio Network.
It was great to see a comic of Craig’s caliber on the schedule for Side Splitters in Knoxville. He was booked for one night only, sandwiched between gigs in Charlotte and Atlanta. Anyone who stayed home to watch Peyton Manning vs. the Titans missed a night of great laughs. Before the show, I went to dinner with Craig at the Parkside Grill, where we encountered some of his fans on their way to the show.
Featured comedian Rich Aronovitch got good laughs with his material about Facebook. Rich traveled with Craig and helped sell some Lovemaster merchandise after the show.
Shoemaker killed with a chunk about women laughing when their men fall down and get hurt. He said his ex-wife trying to hold in her laughter looked like Katharine Hepburn in a windstorm. I loved his material about getting free samples at Costco because I do the same thing at Sam’s Club. The men sitting in the front are all drafted into his machine-gun sound effect bit, which works every time.
Craig made a brief reference to Paul Lynde that I would like to hear more about. He said that as a kid, he read that Lynde was single, which prompted him to write a letter to the “Hollywood Squares” star suggesting he date Craig’s mom.
