Open Mic 39

Date 15 September 2011 Venue: The Joke Gym (Viva Zapata restaurant, Arcadia) I only signed up because they were offering guaranteed slots to the first 11 people to comment. That and it had been the tail end of a rough week and I needed to get out and laugh. Good thing that I went out there. Apparently my first time was with a smaller than usual crowd in attendance. The good news was that that gave me 6 minutes instead of 5. And really, that was right about the tipping point for a good open mic. The crowd was really supportive of everybody, but having more people show up would have been even better. I would not have traded a smaller attendance for 7 minutes. You get the feeling that when this place is full, that it's a sweet sweet place to be. I did a lot of the front half of my set, and near the end I talked about my reasons for leaving my job. The first half felt a little performance-y, but at the end it was more like me being me talking to a room full of comics about why I wanted to pursue my passions. Maybe I am making the right choice.

Bringer 2

Date: 7 September 2011 Venue: The Comedy Store Belly Room Vargus Mason puts on this show and there's a lot to like. It's high energy, there's loads of talent and you get your money's worth because people keep getting added to the list. That's the only gripe I have with the show, and that's only because I have to bring friends who still have homework to do in the evenings. I feel guilty about making friends stay out later than I'd told them they would be staying. The performance went well, but I did something I wish I hadn't. I practiced for 7 minutes worth of stage time, only to learn that we had 8. A whole extra minute. A whole extra minute that I didn't actually have solid material for. did you just wing it? umm... maybe? I have a sort of reserve of material that people have liked. It's less structured and less well-integrated. Some of it is things I haven't even officially told to an audience. Untested, unprepared and thrown together? Wasn't this the exact thing I wanted to avoid? This has all the hallmarks of going bad quickly. The fact that the jokes went over well by no means suggests that I was right to perform untested material. It wasn't the right call. I'm going to have to make sure I don't do it again, because it's going to land me right back at the place I wanted to avoid. The place where overconfidence runs right into deep disappointment. The whole set felt solid with the exception of an allusion between Pasadena and the East German secret police. It helped that I had 6 people in the front row who were there to see me. It also helped that the room was very full. This is the kind of room I want to play to a lot more.