Did you hear the one about the four comedians who walk into a Kent wine bar?
Seriously, four comedians walked into the Castle Bridge Winery, 7645 S. 180th St., to compete in the third round Friday night of Laugh the Knights Away, the first Kent Laugh-Off.
Rodger Lizaola, of Seattle, walked out the winner. The crowd turned in ballots ranking the comedians from 1 to 4 to determine the winner.
“It’s always nice to get your name called,” Lizaola said of winning the third round of the competition.
Lizaola advanced to the fourth and final round at 8 p.m. Sept. 18 at Castle Bridge Winery. Tickets for the finals cost $15, which includes three wine tastings or one glass of wine.
The other finalists include Sean Anderson, first-round winner; John Gardner, second-round winner; and Kane Holloway, runner-up at the third show who earned a wild-card spot in the finals.
“I thought everybody was so funny,” said Jennifer Biegler, of Auburn, who brought her husband, Andrew Biegler, to the Friday show to celebrate his birthday. “We’d come back a couple more times.”
Biegler said her mother lives in Kent and told her about the comedy show.
Lizaola, who has worked as a full-time comedian for about seven years, had the crowd laughing the loudest.
Most of Lizaola’s 20-minute routine cannot be repeated in a family newspaper.
Lizaola had one cleaner part of his act when he talked about the primary household role of a man.
“It’s my job as a man to take out the trash, kill spiders and investigate funny noises in the middle of the night,” Lizaola said.
Lizaola had just returned from a comedy festival in Nebraska and plans to compete later this month in the San Francisco comedy festival.
Holloway, of Puyallup, who earned a wild-card spot in the finals, led off the show Friday.
Balding at age 23, Holloway described his receding hairline as two cul-de-sacs on top of his head with a forest in between.
Holloway got the crowd laughing with impersonations of actor Christopher Walken and comedian Gilbert Gottfried.
Lizzy Pilcher, of Seattle, took the stage and said she immediately felt uncomfortable in a wine bar because she knows about domestic beer but doesn’t know much about wine.
“I’ll have a 2009 Miller Lite,” Pilcher said.
The reactions of the crowd surprised Pilcher from what she had heard about Kent.
“This is not rowdy enough to be in Kent, it must be a wine bar,” Pilcher said. “But I’m glad someone’s trying to class up Kent.”
The fourth and final comic of the night simply goes by the single name of Riggs. Riggs, of Tacoma, said the winery sat in the best part of Kent, “because right across the street is Renton.”
If you go
What: Laugh the Knights Away comedy finals
When: 8 p.m. Sept. 18
Where: Castle Bridge Winery, 7645 S. 180th St., Kent
Tickets: $15, includes 3 wine tastings or one glass of wine
Contact: 425-251-0983
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