Timmy P's comedy nights

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Two local comedy nights in town are his babies: Sundays at Goodnite Gracie and the Tuesday Tickler at the Heidelberg. Parkkila is a big, burly guy who worries like a mother hen over his performers, sweating it out in the back of the room if someone is bombing. He laughs out loud at jokes he's heard for three straight weeks.

I saw a Sunday lineup that consisted of a couple of geeks, a girl from Madonna College ("No, it's not a cosmetology school"), some football sex jokes, some simple observations turned funny, and a manic Filipino guy screaming and spitting about stuff that sucks.

My favorite was Jesse Pop. He was relaxed and laughed at his own jokes. Don't know if that's good or bad form in the comedy world, but I liked it. He had the funniest joke of the night, something about how he wished the daily astrology readings would be more specific and say things like "Hi, Steve. You know that guy in receiving, with the brown mustache — Tony? Well, today's the day to kill him." Then you'd read the next day in the paper about how four Tonys were killed by four Steves.