Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Your above average intelligence brought you here. It deserves above average absurdity. This is The Last Show with David Cooper. Imagine doing stand-up comedy for cats, full stop. Okay, maybe not full stop, but imagine going to a comedy showcase at a cat cafe with little critters running around while the comics are trying to make jokes. That is exactly what my friend Marty Cunney does.
He puts on a show at a cat cafe here in New York. Marty, welcome to the show. How's it going? It is going well. Before we start, what is a cat cafe? And side note, how can they serve coffee? How does the health board even license this place? Well, let's start with the fact that calling it a cafe is a bit of a stretch. It's really just an adoption center.
It's a shelter that has, during its regular hours, people pay to go hang out with cats for half-hour increments at a time. And then there's other activities they do. I know they do a cat yoga there. They'll have the occasional music night. I think they had a Peyton sip, that kind of thing. But we're a monthly, bi-monthly event doing comedy there.
And so, yeah, there's like... The cafe itself at any time has at least 100 cats. But they're in separate wings of the cafe itself. So the portion that we're in is probably about 40 cats running around at any given time. So... And it's not like the pound where they're all in cages. Like they are literally running around, running amok, getting into fights. These are free range cats.
They are... They own the space. I mean, if you know cats... It doesn't matter how many of them are fighting for an area. They're all just kind of like, this is my spot. A stand-up comedy show in that environment.
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Chapter 2: What is a cat cafe and how does it operate?
How much of that show is about the comics and their material? And how much of that show is just about observing the cats, commenting on the cats, the cats getting into a fight, humping each other, doing things like this while you're trying to do your act? Let's say 80-20. So 80%. I mean, the show was good. The show was great. I mean, because the comics on it are really strong.
They're really funny people. but the cats provide just enough distraction, you know? And like, I feel like every comic has ADHD. So like they can't not talk about the cat that's like walking in front of them. I mean, I do my best to pick up every cat and talk to them. I had one time, two cats fighting behind me during my set. And it's like, well, We're done with jokes now.
We're going to talk about the cats fighting behind me. Was it like a play fight or was it like a full-on like two tomcats with the rear and things like this? Oh, I mean, there was some noises for sure. They were... I couldn't have gone around that. I mean, it takes very little to distract people with cats, right? And so...
If even if it wasn't a full on fight, it would have been pretty distracting. But this was a pretty full on fight. And they were like on like a ledge, too. So it was it was high stakes. It felt like a movie. Do you get to know the kiddies that you're performing with like week in, week out? Or do they get adopted?
I do because because I run the show on there like every month and every so twice a month usually. And so I see a lot of repeats. So I get an idea of who's like a real trouble starter and who would be fun to bring on stage because they're not going to scratch me. Which I, and even, you know, sometimes I'm wrong. Sometimes they'll scratch me anyways. They don't care. Cats. How about them?
You and I are both secretly cat daddies. Well, me not so secretly. I've, there's no secret. Yeah. Do you like dogs at all? Because I feel like dogs teach you about unconditional love, but cats teach you about boundaries. I've heard that you should only date men who know cats because they'll be good respecting your boundaries.
Yeah, or well, that's I feel like that can't be true because I do not respect my cat's boundaries, but they also do not respect mine. So, you know, there's a little give and take there. I see where people come up with that statement, but that is assuming you have a prototypical cat. And I don't think I do. I got the like likes to slap on the butt, yells at me, you know, loves a belly rub.
I mean, I have a dog-like cat. I like dogs, but I feel like being a cat sounds more appealing, and I'm trying to learn from my cats on how to be more mean and cantankerous, but still have people love me. Now back to the show. Have you ever had like a success story where an audience member was so captivated by a cat that they saw while performing that they went and adopted it?
I think we've had a couple. Yeah. I, you know, I don't get a follow-up from them, but we've definitely had some people there that are people that have adopted from the cafe. I know I've, I know a couple of comics who have gotten pretty close. Oh, interesting. We met because I used to do stand-up. I was terrible at it. Still am. Don't do it anymore. But crowd work always used to stress me out.
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Chapter 3: How does stand-up comedy work in a cat cafe environment?
Why shouldn't we all be on this board? I mean, because that's part of comedy. It's just everybody kind of being on the same page. Everybody being in the same room on the same energy. So the people kind of get on that same page.
Chapter 4: What distractions do cats create during comedy shows?
They're okay with what you do. And I think as long as everyone knows, like, we're here because we love cats. Like, just love the cats. Have fun with them. Although I will say this. It is very fun when I occasionally book someone who does not like cats. Okay, what's happened with the comic who can't stand cats? I wouldn't say he couldn't stand them. He's more afraid of them. Even better.
So the cats would be sneaking up on him during the set and he would be freaking out. And it was very funny. And he was trying to understand their behavior and was just flabbergasted by it. And he legit seemed pretty freaked out when one of them jumped up on the thing behind him. And he had kind of a jump and a yelp. And that was...
Although I will, and then occasionally I will book comics who don't tell me until after the show that they're allergic. Are they like sniffling the whole time? Yeah, they're like, I gotta go. My throat's starting to close up. I'm like, why'd you book this show, you dummy? Or tell me that ahead of time, you know, so I know to like get you out of there quickly.
So the two that fought behind you, that's high on the list of unforgettable moments. Have there been any sincere moments, sweet moments where a cat just nuzzled up into an audience member and fell asleep in its lap or something like that? Oh, absolutely. I mean, they're doing that constantly. I mean, they'll nuzzle up and chill. A lot of the audience members will have treats too.
So like the cats will run up to them. Bribery.
There's like kind of a, there's like, it's mostly like seats, but there's like kind of couches in the back where the cats like, the funniest is when I walk in and I, you know, in comedy, you want people sitting up close, but because the cats decided to take over two of the chairs in the front row, it's like, well, those, those are cat chairs now, you know? So you have cat audience members.
instead of people and they don't move because they don't care, you know? I know the feeling or like a cat goes on your lap, falls asleep and you can't get up or you're going to get scratched. Yeah. And so some people will be stuck during the show like that too, because the cat's just there now.
Does performing comedy in what feels like a maybe adversarial environment, at least in the sense that there's so much distraction all the time, does it help you grow as a comedian? There, there's your deep question for the interview. Absolutely. I mean, I love, I've always been at the forefront of producing as much chaos comedy shows as I can.
I used to produce, I mean, there's this tip, the typical chaotic comedy show is like your, your bar comedy show where it's just a bunch of drugs who might yell at you, you know, who might like come in and like try to, you know, try to say stuff like, you know, that's, that's the usual chaos. I like to introduce a new element. So like, this is a pretty chaotic show.
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