About Last Night
by Sam Pierstorff, Executive Director
This I believe: Modesto is on the cusp of a major arts movement that will one day rival the Beatnik Generation of the 50s & the grunge era of the 90s. I don't know what genre will break through first, and I don't care. They all hold tremendous value as art to the creator and to the consumer. What I believe is this: Modesto, the city, the town, the region we call home is going to break through nationwide as one of the most vital and influential places for the arts to thrive.
Exhibit A
Winners: Gabriel Alexander (Grand Prize) & Glory Magana (Audience-Choice)
Last night at the State Theatre 300 people came out to see six comedians compete for $3000 and a weekend feature at Deaf Puppy Comedy Club in Manteca. The crowd was energetic and wonderfully diverse, including some of our friends from the Downtown Streets Team, and the competing comics represented some of the best working comedians in northern California who came from Carmichael, Sacramento, the Bay, and beyond. They all came here to our town with their A-game stand-up sets to perform for Modesto's enthusiastic audience.
American Laughiti: Modesto's Annual Comedy Competition was not just a stand-up comedy show. This event brought Showtime-at-the-Apollo level production to town with walk-up songs for the comedians, local luminaries as judges, and the audience even getting to participate by voting for their favorite comic. If you were there, you were there, but for a couple hours you felt elsewhere, transported to a big city to watch major comics perform. But this wasn't in a city two hours and $50 in parking and toll fees away. This was in downtown Modesto where hundreds of us gathered to laugh and enjoy a few hours of fun as we shined a light on comedians by providing a huge stage, a huge prize, and a huge audience to some of the hardest working artists in the game.
Exhibit B
Equipto with Joe Zimmerer
When the comedy show ended, we walked one-block north, passing underneath the State Theatre's vintage neon to experience a historic night of hip-hop at LoFi Laboratories. They were hosting a rap show featuring Equipto.
The show started with local rappers doing their thing. The artistry and beats were solid. As a poetry professor, it is my nature to key in on the words of a song first and foremost, and I was blown away by the lyricism and the dexterity of the performers and their ability to create energy and a sense of connection with the crowd.
And then came Equipto. What a brilliant and prolific performer! Admittedly, I didn't know him until he was introduced to me by MAM's Hip Hop Ambassador Joe Zimmerer, but after his set, I walked away with a record, an autograph, and a sense that I had just experienced something both historic and profoundly beautiful.
Verdict: Guilty of Being Awesome
Hip Hop and comedy have often lived in the shadows of Modesto's art community, but last night, both essential art forms were on display, lighting up downtown with lots of laughter and love, reaffirming to me that Modesto is truly on the verge of something great.
