Tear up your Bumbershoot schedule now, comedy fans, because the names associated

Tear up your Bumbershoot schedule now, comedy fans, because the names associated with each time slot are meaningless. Rather, the entire weekend is shaping up to be a rotating, self-selecting Lazy Susan of comics on at least three stages. Regardless of who’s nominally listed at the top of the bill, at least three (and likely four) performers will be splitting up the hour. And the headliner may not show up at all. And the “mystery guest” may turn out to be more than one guest, some with a bigger stand-up stature than the marquee attraction.Confused? The lines outside each Bumbershoot comedy venue–and they are long lines–aren’t much more clear. In brief: Determine your favorite comedian’s start time, then add 60 minutes (and buy some food and drink for the wait). But more on that after the jump. First, Eugene Mirman, and why his remaining two shows are worth attending. (Remember, however, he’ll also likely appear at shows where his name isn’t listed.)Unlike the half-dozen other stand-up performers I observed on Bumbershoot Day 1, Mirman knows how to use the mic. He has a good voice, a radio voice, that compensates for his rather lumpy, undynamic stage presence. And he comes with a lot of material prepared. One catch, unfortunately, is that comedy fans are likely to hear that material repeated–and this goes for other performers, too–over several appearances.Something Mirman finds funny, and which the godless Seattle audience also found funny tonight: an angry and capricious God. Why are there so many silly, arbitrary rules in the Old Testament? It’s like God suffers from a mental condition, Mirman explains…Now Mirman may only be flattering the local audience and tailoring his material, but he claims that his joke about God being like a 12-year-old autistic boy originates on his last book tour here in Seattle, where just such a child interrupted him at University Book Store. If true, great. And if not true, fine. God being an OCD, rule-crazed, capricious deity is funny. Though, later in the set, anytime you’re making jokes about France and the essential Frenchness of that country, you’re standing a little too close to the red brick wall of 80s comedy cliches.And another thing: Though we recommend you catch Mirman’s remaining schedule (below), we strongly disapprove of his use of taped material. That’s what YouTube is for. If we want to see his funny little “welcome to New York” videos, we’d watch those for free, on our computer at home, on our own time. For $50, we expect live entertainment from live comedians. Especially those comedians, like Mirman, who are really worth that kind of money.About those lines: Like SIFF, there are two tiers of lines. “Standing room” means your regular Bumbershoot ticket that gets you onto the Seattle Center grounds. That’s the long line, where you need to be there an hour in advance. The terms “pass” and “ticket” are used interchangeably, but mean priority seating. That line goes into the theater first. Special passes can apparently be obtained gratis, as a kind of add-on to your general admission ticket, at the ticket booths early in the day. They’re like reserved seating–a promise that you’ll attend. The bad news, as with 1 Reel Film Festival screenings at McCaw Hall, is that you can’t just decide to see a comedy act at the last minute. Get there early.Mirman is next scheduled to perform at 3:45 p.m. Sat. at Intiman (Comedy Stage North) and at 2 p.m. Sun. (same venue). But chances are that he’ll appear onstage with every other comedy act on every comedy stage for the next two days. We just hope he doesn’t reprise the same material on every stage and every day.For all our festival coverage, visit Bumbershoot.SeattleWeekly.com.