James Wood graduate, Nick Lamanna has always loved comedy.  Growing up in a home filled with a good sense of humor, Lamanna said, “I’ve always had a different way of looking at things.” Starting in elementary school, Lamanna entertained his classmates with his imitation of the ‘90s rapper, MC Hammer.  He also performed Saturday Night Live character skits during high school for events like the Kong Show.

Lamanna got his first taste of live stand–up comedy before leaving for college in the summer of 2002. “Right before I left for Old Dominion University, I got a guest spot at Coalie Harry’s,” he said. “It was terrible.” Lamanna said his seven minute stand-up debut seemed to last an hour and a half. “I wasn’t prepared enough and I had no confidence,” he said. But instead of running as fast as he could away from the stand-up challenge, Lamanna said he couldn’t wait to get behind a microphone again. “I couldn’t live with that feeling, he said. “I knew I had to find another stage and another mic.” Last week, Lamanna, 20, brought his stand-up comedy home when he hosted a live comedy show at Sweet Caroline’s. With two years of experience under his belt, a polished Lamanna had no trouble getting the hometown crowd laughing. “It was like being in my living room,” Lamanna said. “I knew 95 percent of the people there.” Serving as the master of ceremonies for the evening, Lamanna lined up Virginia Beach comedians, Kevin Whalen and James “Bodacious” Dobson, to headline the show. “This is the first show that I have put together. I kind of liked the behind-the-scenes work, but I like the performing part better.” Lamanna performed a 10 to 15 minute stand-up routine before introducing the guest comedians. He localized his comedy act, poking fun of his Oakdale Crossing neighborhood and Beth El Congregation synagogue. “That was my dad’s idea, to localize the comedy,” Lamanna said. “My friends got a little mad with me because I didn’t say anything about James Wood.” Using fliers and his parents as his marketing committee, Sweet Caroline’s was crowded for the Wednesday night performance with more than 200 people in attendance. “Kevin and James were very surprised there were that many people there. They said there was obviously nothing else to do in Winchester,” Lamanna said, always trying to illicit a laugh. Terry Hudson, owner of Sweet Caroline’s, was also pleased with the crowd. “This is the first comedy show we’ve held at Sweet Caroline’s,” Hudson said. “We’ve always had an interest in it, but a lot of times you have to sign a contract to commit to multiple shows.” In addition to just committing to one show, Hudson appreciated the ease of the event. “Nick handled everything. He lined up the comedians, handled the marketing, he collected the money at the door. It was his show.” The show which was scheduled on a Wednesday evening, a slow night at Sweet Caroline’s, filled the tables at the restaurant usually known for its musical entertainment. “It was a really nice crowd of all ages,” Hudson said. “Everybody ate and had a good time.” Lamanna has learned a lot about comedy between his first disastrous performance at Coalie Harry’s to his successful hosting of a comedy show at Sweet Caroline’s. But like most comics, he has learned his lessons the hard way. After the Coalie Harry’s experience, Lamanna did not get back in front of a mic until the following summer. He found out about an open-mic night at a club in Virginia Beach, Thoroughgoods. “This time, it went a little better, but it still wasn’t good,” Lamanna said. “I remember the MC not even calling me by the right name, he said ‘Nick Lamane, remember your punch lines next time.’” Instead of being discouraged, Lamanna left the Thoroughgoods stage with a renewed sense of purpose. “I felt like now I have found a place I can perform on a regular basis.” Lamanna started performing regularly at the Thoroughgoods open-mic night. “By the second week, I got my first laugh,” he said. Now a junior at Old Dominion University, Lamanna is majoring in communications with a minor in history. He spends his days going to classes and working toward his degree. He earns a little spending money by working in the University weight room. He also hosts his own weekly evening radio show called, “Nick Lamanna.” On the weekends, and whenever he gets away during the week, Lamanna is busy performing stand-up comedy at Virginia Beach area clubs. This summer he spent his days writing new comedy and his nights performing three shows a night at the Ha! Comedy Club in Virginia Beach. In addition to performing, comics are responsible for getting people into their shows. Before they go on stage, and after they finish a set, they are out on the streets handing out fliers or “barking” as they say in the comedy world. Comics earn mic time, depending on the number of patrons they bring to the show. While Lamanna still isn’t earning a paycheck for all his hard work in comedy, he said that the mic time alone is what is important right now. “Jerry Seinfeld said comedy is the only job where they call you a comedian, and you don’t have any experience,” he said. Lamanna said the only to gain the experience is to keep getting in front of the mic. “Doing three shows a night is definitely helpful,” he said. “I ‘m getting more comfortable up there.” As Lamanna gets more experience, he is learning to appreciate both the laughs he receives and the silence that sometimes overcomes the audience. “I don’t always mind the silence,” he said. “The laughing is good too, but sometimes when I get an audience to laugh, especially early in a set, part of me is thinking, ‘I should get off the stage now because I don’t know if I have anything else that will get them that good again.’” Lamanna’s parents, John and Ann are not surprised that their son is performing comedy. “We kind of knew that he wanted to be a comedian,” said Ann Lamanna. “He always tried to joke his way out of getting a punishment when he got in trouble. He was always trying to lighten the mood around the house and he was always good at imitating people.” Still she said she and John were surprised to see so many people at Sweet Caroline’s supporting her son’s comedy in Winchester. “It was a pleasant surprise that people would come out on a Wednesday night. The people we told about the show were all looking forward to it. A lot of them have known Nick since he was little. And I guess a comedy show is certainly something different.”

Lamanna’s show was so successful, that Hudson has already booked two more shows from the young comedian. Both scheduled for Wednesday evenings, the first will be at 8 p.m. Oct. 20, and the second will be at 9 p.m. Dec. 22.  In the meantime, Lamanna will keep up his busy schedule at school, work, and on the Virginia Beach comedy beat. “I’d like to see where I can take this. If I could do stand–up as a job, I think that would be nice,” he said. “I don’t know what will happen after college. I’m open to whatever. Maybe I’ll go to New York, or maybe I’ll go to Chicago, I don’t know. I’m just hoping it will be fun.”

This year the fund-raising blues festival will occupy two stages on Cork Street, between Cameron and Braddock streets. “This is the first time we’re having it downtown, and I think it will help bring more people,” organizer Terry Hudson said. He expects as many as 5,000 people to show up to watch more than seven hours of blues. The lineup mixes familiar faces and sounds with some newer acts.

Jimmy Vaughan, older brother of Stevie Ray Vaughn, will headline the festival. Additional performances will be provided by Big Bill Morganfield, Deanna Bogart, Winchester’s own Jeffrey Walker, and the Roy Dixon All Stars. Special guest appearances will be made by saxophonist Jaared Arosemena and Jeffrey “Skunk” Baxter of Steely Dan and Doobie Brothers fame. Music will be played on two stages from 11:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Later, the musicians will be invited to Sweet Caroline’s for a jam session beginning around 9 p.m., Hudson said.

Food will be provided by Cork Street Tavern and shaved ice vendors. Proceeds from this year’s festival will benefit the Fremont Street Nursery, Hudson said. “I think we all agreed it was a good cause,” he said. Susan Creasy, chairwoman of the nursery’s board of directors, said she didn’t know much about Blues House but was glad for the help. “The nursery is in the midst of a fund-raiser. We are planning an addition to the nursery, and we hope to break ground by August,” she said. Right now the charitable nursery is licensed to care for up to 42 children in its available space. The addition will allow them to double that capacity, Creasy said. They will build three new classrooms, with one devoted to infants, another for one to two year-olds, and a regular classroom. The nursery has raised $210,000 of a ballpark $290,000 price tag for the expansion, Creasy said. This year’s Blues House is the first to be run by Hudson, who owns Sweet Caroline’s.

He and other board members created the nonprofit company after Preservation of Historic Winchester built the show into a summertime fixture in Winchester’s festival scene. “Last year was our first year independent of PHW,” Hudson said. “Last year it took a lot of money to get it off the ground.” The festival netted about $10,000, from which $1,800 was donated to Caretakers Inc. and another $1,000 to the December Santa Stomp fund-raiser. At least $2,500 was earmarked for donation to Celebrating Patsy Cline Inc. though those funds will come out of this year’s festival, said Shawn Reiser, secretary of the board of Blues House. “Since Blues House really doesn’t have any foundation or organization supporting it, we don’t have a deep source of funding to help us ride through the rainy years,” Reiser said.

Tickets cost $20 in advance or $25 at the gate with children under 12 free. Tickets are available at Sweet Caroline’s and Cork Street Tavern, both in the 100 block of West Cork Street. For information, call 667-2300.

Star Staff Report

Tab Benoit

“It’s blues with almost a kind of a gospel feel to it,” said owner Terry Hudson. Scott learned gospel first, she said, performing in the choir at St. John Missionary Baptist Church in her hometown. “I’ve always sung. Ever since I was three years old I was singing, and I never wanted to do anything but sing,” she said. She grew up idolizing such gospel legends as Inez Andrews, Shirley Caesar, and Albertina Walker, who’s strong, rich vocals, she said, “mesmerized” her. Scott was forbidden to listen to such “worldly music” as the blues, however. Then an older sister intervened. “My sister was a blues lover when we were kids, and she had a radio. One day she called me in and said, ‘You got to hear this’,” Scott said. “For some reason, I thought I would go blind if I listened to the blues.” After listening to a song by Bobbie “Blue” Bland, Scott said she was hooked. Though she shied away from singing the blues for many years, Scott loved listening to the likes of Gladys Knight, Dinah Washington, Aretha Franklin, and Clarence Carter during this period of her life. At age 16, she and some friends stopped into a bar called Lancers on their way home from church on a dare. Scott ended up singing “Moon River” with pianist Slim Slaughter, and learned she could make money from her voice. She toured the San Francisco Bay area with him, playing night clubs and adopting Slaughter as a sort of blues “godfather.” Scott recorded her first single “Just Dance” in 1991, backed with “Let’s Make it Real.” She cut her first album in 1995 and has released three since, the last on her own label, Black Bud Records. Scott now sings her own music almost exclusively. “Why do someone else’s, especially when you’ve got a message you want to convey,” she said. Songs on her last album, “The Other Side of Me,” range from the soulful, “Did I Forget to Say I Love You,” to the playful, “This Ain’t Yo Daddy’s Kind of Blues.”

Sweet Caroline’s is at 29 W. Cork Street. Admission is $5. For information, call 723-8805.