Modesto area comedians compete clean at Gallo Center event

Good, clean laughs are in store at a new stand-up competition showcasing Central Valley talent this weekend.

The inaugural ModestoView Clean Comedy Competition will pit five experienced area comedians against each other for a night of family-friendly humor Friday, May 20, at Gallo Center for the Arts. The winner will take home $500 and earn an automatic spot into the center’s popular The Valley Talent Project (formerly Valley’s Got Talent) show in August.

Gallo Center CEO Lynn Dickerson said nationally touring clean comedians who have played the downtown Modesto venue in the past, including Brian Regan and Anita Renfroe, have done well. So it made sense to look for homegrown all-ages comedy acts as well.

“There is huge demand for clean comedy in our market, and clean comedians are few and far between,” she said. “As a way of finding a clean comedian to compete in The Valley Talent Project, we came up with the idea of hosting a competition to find some.”

The Gallo Center regularly brings in big-name headlining comics, from Jay Leno to Wanda Sykes and Bob Newhart. But Dickerson said sometimes audience members are shocked by how off-color, or “blue,” their acts are live.

“I get lots of requests for family-friendly comedy and often get complaints from patrons who attend a comedy show expecting it to be tamer than it is, since they are often familiar with a comedian due to his/her television work. On TV, he or she is required to work cleaner than he or she does live. Sometimes there are unpleasant surprises for patrons,” Dickerson said.

But there should be no such shocks at the Clean Comedy Competition, which is being sponsored by ModestoView. The finalists for the show include some well-known and award-winning Central Valley comics.

They are:

▪ Jenny Cahoon, 35, Oakdale – Clean comedian who is a relative newcomer to the area comedy scene.

▪ A.J. DeMello, 25, Turlock – Organizer of the Stand Up for Charity shows at Modesto’s Queen Bean who was a 2015 Best Comedy Modesto Area Music Association Award nominee.

▪ Anthony K, 28, Ceres – Regular area performer who won the 2011 Best Comedy MAMA Award and headlines and hosts shows across the region.

▪ Fred Sub, 48, Lathrop – Indian American comic who performs throughout the region and goes by the nickname the “Hindude.”

▪ Chris Teicheira, 42, Manteca – Seasoned area performer who won the 2015 Best Comedy MAMA Award and writes a regular column for the Manteca Bulletin.

The comics will each do an 8- to 10-minute routine and then be judged by a panel of local judges from the area arts and entertainment community. The Valley Talent Project emcee Aaron Raby will host the show.

Dickerson said making the Clean Comedy Competition a feeder event for The Valley Talent Project is another way to get more comedians into the big show. Since it was founded in 2010, Valley Talent Project has only one local comedian, Drew Monson, enter.

“We want more,” Dickerson said, simply.

This story was originally published May 18, 2016 at 10:52 AM with the headline "Modesto area comedians compete clean at Gallo Center event."