Stand Up Comedy: Raf (and others)

Over the last few weeks, I’ve heard from two friends, both in the wedding industry, that they’ve been attending comedy school. It makes a lot of sense fo them business wise as well as personally, it would help them with timing, interacting with the public and just sounds like it would be a lot of fun.

I had the opportunity to photograph one of my other friends, Raf, at a few of his first few comedy stand up engagements, two at Rooster T. Feathers (the photos with the red curtains) in Sunnyvale, and one at Tommy T’s Comedy House (those with no curtains), in Fremont.  

As one of the only people who went to three in a row, there was a running joke was that I was I was his biggest fan. 

While I’ve always thought Raf was funny, I was really impressed he had the guts to get onstage and go for it.  I appreciate especially how much fun he was having on stage.

I think it’s fair to say that he was laughing along with the audience almost as much as they were.

 

The staff at both shows were great about letting me take photos as long as I didn’t use a flash (no problem, though the lighting was much better at Roosters).  Ironically my lack of flash usage had the side benefit of Raf not knowing I was taking photos the first time at Roosters, so he was relaxed enough to look natural in the set.

Raf is a very visual comedian, using lots of facial expressions and gestures.

This is great for me as a photographer as it made for some interesting shots. Additonally, when I’m shooting I sometimes don’t hear every word that’s said around me, so I didn’t get to fully hear all of the jokes any of the times I took photos, I am however, looking forward to seeing the videos that were taken of him as well.