When child stars get desperate
Thanks to a late dinner and a rainout at Turner Field, we actually went through on our threat to see Screech (or Screach according to the program) do stand-up. He knows he's fallen way off the face of the map compared to most of his other Saved by the Bell mates that he's doing this, Celebrity Boxing and StarDates. But anything to get paid, even playing a lower-scale entertainment complex up in the suburbs known to me for being the only place in the Atlanta area to show the highlight of John Rocker's acting career.

Actually, Rocker could've given a better performance than Screech if you looked at his famous outbursts as an act. Screech was mildly funny when he ripped into Saved by the Bell, his brushes with fame and the fact that he's working backward on the road to success (TV star first, then becoming a crappy comic). Besides that, it was a poor excuse to swear, steal different comics' bits (for instance, the multiple uses of "dude") and just show off how bitter he really was. In fact, some of the amusement and entertainment from the act was from realizing, "He just said [insert raunchy word here]!" Still, it was something we just had to see, and at least it provides a baseline for watching "real" stand-up comics. I'm still trying to figure out if $13.50 plus a two-drink minimum in the suburbs was a ripoff, when you consider Jerry Seinfeld was playing in town this weekend at a nice theater with tickets in the $45-75 range.

One of these days, someone should put together the double bill of Screech and Skippy for the ultimate in ironic stand-up entertainment.