Talking Back to Bagg

Ian Bagg openly defies the audience to break the Hermosa Beach Comedy & Magic Club's rule against talking during the show. Otherwise he wouldn't have an act.

But before Bagg -- whose performance credentials include Late Night with Conan O'Brien; HBO Comedy Showcase; Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist; The Tonight Show with Jay Leno; and The Late Late Show -- could get anyone to talk back to him Tuesday night at the club, a few opening comics warmed up the nearly sold-out crowd.

Starting the night was Dan Gabriel, who has performed on Comedy Central and The Late Late Show. His best routines were at the expense of the Winter Olympics -- especially the oddities of curling, which he likened to sliding a tea kettle across a frozen lake.

Next came Ty Barnett, who was featured in Last Comic Standing. He quipped about how hard it is to be a cool dad as his daughters grow up -- and how Obama makes black people care about things they normally wouldn't (like baseball).

After Barnett came a surprise appearance by Comedy Central's Tosh.O host Daniel Tosh. Anyone familiar with his show would expect a heavily sarcastic tone and pointed humor, but it was interesting to hear him talk about something other than the latest big thing on YouTube.

Instead of focusing on one topic, he jumped around, bouncing from his girlfriend to Tiger Woods to buying stamps ("Send you a check? I don't even know how to write a check anymore!").

Next, magician Farrell Dillon performed a few fast-moving card tricks, colorful thimbles and color-changing handkerchiefs. His final act was escaping a straitjacket while balancing on a wooden plank (shaped and painted like a surfboard) on top of a pipe on top of a wooden turntable. He compared it to escaping a straitjacket while surfing, which it definitely resembled.

Bagg's performance was a complete reversal from the monologue style that dominated the evening. Instead of talking to the audience he talked with them. Bagg was quick to single out attendees, discover something interesting and assign nicknames. He dubbed one woman "Honk" after she said it was written on her car's steering wheel.

Though his interactive style might resemble an insult comic, his aim was more to be befriend and tease the audience rather than outright taunting.

"Not at one point do I ever try to be above the audience," Bagg said after the show. "It's like being with friends at a family dinner. There's an art to teasing; it's a fine line."

The audience took awhile to get used to being teased. It wasn't until near the end that people yelled out or did anything other than laugh or shyly answer his questions.

Still, Bagg managed to pull out a few gems from his targets (or, more often, the people sitting around them). He found a salesman whose date's mother said he worked as a dancer in the Las Vegas show Thunder From Down Under. When Bagg asked what song the man danced to, his date's mom answered for him: "I'm Too Sexy." Bagg quipped, "When did you meet him? 1985?"

The show, although different from the typical stand-up act, was not too out of the ordinary for Bagg.

"I do a lot of crowd work every time," he said.

Bagg has two more shows, tonight and Thursday at 8 p.m. Tickets are $15 and limited parking is available for $5 (cash only).