Us folks in the South Bay don’t get much in terms of atmosphere as in the likes of a San Francisco comedy club. You know, those gritty halls or upstairs abandoned wrecks where you would swear that a murder happened recently.
I recently discovered a clubby haunt on the bright and cheery Stanford University campus in Palo Alto. It is the Bing Concert Hall, opened in 2013, that brings the world’s top jazz and classical elite and emerging artists to the stage. I have attended performances in this finely tuned auditorium where every seat in the semi-circle venue offers prime viewing and acoustic pleasure. But never have I ventured down into the bowels of the building known to few as The Studio.
Designers have created a hideaway that seats 160 with low cocktail tables, a corner stage less than two feet high, plus a small bar in the rear selling snacks and drinks. High ceilings with inset lights, a few chandeliers, and lots of luxurious drapes to absorb sound make it an intimate spot to listen to a jazz quartet or solo performer.
In May, the comic Zarna Garg came to the Studio where she slayed the PG-13 audience with her show: Practical People Win, full of American-versus-Indian-culture gags. “What is this modern parenting where parents want to be friends with their children?” “My daughter is going to Stanford to make clay pots. The villagers do that in India because they have nothing else to do.”
The new-to-the-world comedian with a degree in law and finance has hopes for her children to have MD as their preferred pronouns, and Zarna’s shocked that her daughter is required to take a Stanford University class in wellness. Much of her immigrant parent humor pulls on the heart strings of daily life. Her decision to stay home with the children while her husband worked outside results in this joke: “But 16 years of being with the kids full time, I learned something: I’m not that into them. “
Her content is free of crass jokes, so we felt well prepared to bring our kids, even though they are young adults. I guess, we were more comfortable in an atmosphere of clean humor which takes more cleverness to nail down.
The evening was a riot, for Zarna knew who to pick on in the crowd, how to respond to outlandish quips, whip-lashing the audience within nano-seconds. The Indian mother of four (with one eldest son she brags is “very handsome”) never missed a beat and was self-deprecating when pretending to be flustered. The added bonus of the night came when her Stanford University daughter Zoya came up to the stage do a Q&A with her mom.
The Studio was the perfect setting to sit up close to this mom whose candor made the audience of mostly parents and families like us laugh until we cried. In terms of the vibe, the dimly lit studio rivals any sumptuous cocktail lounge out there, minus the smoke. Stanford Live has nailed it again with a lineup of sublime guests, from classical pianists serious about their craft to the Zarna Garg, who happens to be serious about being funny.
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When You Go:
Visit the Stanford Live website: www.live.stanford.edu