Venue: 705 lounge, Hermosa Beach
Date: 14 March, 2011
Whoaaaaaa, we're ... 3% there. Seriously? 3 percent? At what point do I start performing to rooms that are more than a dozen people?
Rarely, mayhaps never
Oh. Well, three percent's not bad at all.
It felt solid. The room has people who aren't comics, which is good. You've got actual audience members and some musicians playing songs. That's a good thing. The downside is you're still playing to 12 people, which makes it hard to tell if a joke is working. Based on my experience at the Newmarket, a group of 30-40 is enough to sustain enough laughter for the things that are kind of funny, and they'll really laugh at the funny stuff. Twelve people? Well, you'll hear laughter for the funny stuff, but not for the kind of funny stuff.
That said, I'm cutting secondhand smoker for now. I think it's time to try a new bit. Rooster worked, and I've got high hopes for the bit on condoms.
I've only played to audiences 15 times, so I'm no expert yet. But operation 'do a bunch of open mics over spring break' is going well.
I find the parsing of the numbers interesting, and it seems you're saying comics don't laugh much at these venues because they're too analytical.
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