September 5, 2020 By: Rebecca Brando
David Spade and Rob Schneider's Stand-up Comedy Show Leaves Ventura Fuel of Laughter.
Amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the organizers of CBF Productions found a way to safely bring back live entertainment for large-scale, socially distanced, drive-in outdoor events and concerts at the Ventura Fairgrounds.
CBF productions was one of the pioneer event companies to start hosting drive-in concerts amid the pandemic in California. Their proven success has now created a blueprint for many drive-in event producers and stand-up comedy shows that are popping up everywhere.
CBF's “Comedy in Your Car” event attracted hundreds of cars at the Ventura Fairgrounds on August 28th. Each car had a designated space with at least 6 ft of distance from each other, and concert staff also kept a distance of 6ft apart from concertgoers. When not being used as a concert venue, the outdoor stage is transformed to a makeshift drive-in movie theater.
Upon entering the Ventura Fairgrounds, the level of security and social distancing measures for each car that entered was really impressive. The ticket suggests that guests show up 90 minutes early. We arrived about an hour before the show to a very breezy and cool fairground parking lot situated between the “surfer’s point” and California street. The venue has signs everywhere to tune your car radio station to an F.M. channel to listen to the show in stereo.
Everyone was there to see legendary comedians, David Spade and Rob Schneider.
The night opened with David Spade’s friend, Bobby Miyamoto, joking about the upside of his recent stroke before introducing Schneider to the stage. Schneider began his set with his signature catchphrase, “You can do it!” made famous in countless Adam Sandler films such as; The Waterboy, Little Nicky, 50 First Dates, The Longest Yard, Bedtime Stories and more.
He then instructed the audience, “just remember. It’s one honk if you’ve heard it before. Two honks for that was a good one’,” said Schneider. “And if you’re about to piss your pants laughing, it’s three sustained honks. OK?”
Much of this performance took bits and pieces from his Netflix stand-up comedy special, Asian Momma, Mexican Kids along with some funny new material related to the current pandemic and more.
Among his many jokes, Schneider’s took a shot at California Governor Gavin Newsom saying “Gavin Newsom, this asshole releases all the prison firefighters, we need these sex offenders to fight the f****en fires,” said Schneider.
He continued to finish out the joke by saying “the only thing they are good at instead of sexually assaulting people is putting out fires, we need these assholes!”
His jokes were met with a sound off of horns and some cars even let their alarm go off as a sign of laughter. Schneider was referring to the lack of prison inmate firefighters as help for the first responders team this year. The coronavirus swept through correctional facilities, infecting many California inmates, and leaving fewer available to help contain more than 700 fires that ripped through various parts of California this summer. Schneider closed his set out to a sea of laughter, proving that he can still do it and do it well.
By the time David Spade took the stage, the audience was already hooked, and greeted the former SNL cast member with blaring car horns and flashing headlights. The 56-year-old comedian's set started out by following up on Miyamoto’s stroke story, where he joked that he had a case of “good guy syndrome” when he saved Miyamoto life by calling an ambulance after Bobby had been terribly sick for a few days.
When the ambulance arrived to pick up Miyamoto, he wouldn’t get in even though he was in awful shape. Spade said. “I go, ‘Tell him he has to.’ ‘He won’t get in.’ ‘Tell him he has to.’ ‘He won’t get in.’ ‘Tell him I’ll pay for it’. ‘He’s in the ambulance.’”
Spade is one of the best storytellers in comedy, covering everything in his set from quarantine restrictions, to mosquitos in his mansion, to colonoscopies. He also joked about how hard it is for him to be in a committed relationship while making brief mention of a girlfriend before asking Schneider to return on stage with him.
For the later half of the show both comedians engaged in answering audience questions via the Zoom app. Shortly after the questions the show concluded with both Schneider and Spade sharing past stories of working with the late comedian, Chris Farley, during Tommy Boy and Saturday Night Live.
