Rosemary Raths
rnr002@marietta.edu
The audience at the Lafayette Gun Room on Saturday night was crammed into booths, chattering over baskets of popcorn, when comedian Carlin Hagerty strolled onto the stage. Suddenly the room was silent in anticipation of the night’s show. Hagerty asked who wanted a Carlin Hagerty T-shirt and whipped the shirts into the crowd of outstretched hands. Moments later, those who caught them were humorously disappointed to unravel them and reveal that they were just plain white Gildan XL T-shirts.
This happens every Saturday night from November until March at the Lafayette Comedy Club in Marietta.
“I tease them and pull one over them, and it helps us to bond,” Hagerty said about his “T-shirt bit.”
Hagerty first filled the position of master of ceremonies two years ago when he decided that, “if you want to do something- do it.” Fifty-nine days later he was doing stand-up comedy. He eventually ended up at the Lafayette, and has been treated “like a rockstar” by them ever since.
“I am on the lowest rings of the comedy level,” he said, “and they treat me like the biggest headliner.”
The Lafayette Comedy Club began over 10 years ago to give Marietta residents and visitors something to do during the winter for only $10 a night, Lafayette general manager Sheila Rhodes said. Rhodes is in charge of putting the event on Facebook and the website while Hysterical Management books the talent and organizes each night.
“Come down and enjoy the show,” Rhodes said in an attempt to gain a wider audience.
In his first season at the Lafayette, Hagerty came up against his most formidable audience member to date: a baby. Each time he spoke into the microphone the new-born began to scream.
“I got heckled,” Hagerty joked.
Hagerty, who has been a car salesman for the last 17 years, is hopeful that after a few more years as emcee at the Comedy Club, and on other stages, he will be able to quit his day job. Last year he drove 9,000 miles to 67 different shows and gave away over 230 T-shirts to polish his set.
“To become popular for paying gigs you have to be fairly clean–like PG-13 clean,” he said. “And that’s not what I do.”
The hotel, however, has no problem with his sense of humor.
“He’s been a hoot,” Rhodes said.
As Hagerty clambers off stage Saturday, accompanied by a cacophony of applause from the audience, it is clear that the crowd agrees. Several now wear their plain white Gildan XL “custom” Carlin Hagerty T-shirts.
