Date: 16 March 2011
Venue: The Spot cafe
I'll be returning to this lovely cafe tomorrow, to ply my craft and see what works. It's penance for not going out tonight, which I admit I should have. Le sigh.
The thing is not that I don't want to perform, it's that I have other things on my mind. I'm trying to balance schoolwork with whatever semi-social life I have, and balancing that with comedy. Couple all that with my general apathetic nature towards actual work and the ill-founded belief that I am owed this, and things will have to change.
I think the attitude I'll have to adopt is that I am owed nothing. I have to earn and work for every laugh. I deserve the silence, I work for every laugh.
I listened to this performance. It wasn't terrible, but there is a lot of silence on my part. I think this means I have to practice more. I'm not going to try and present myself as something I'm not, but I have to present myself as something. Defining myself as a character might help.
One of the comics said I did a good set. Thanks, man. I didn't actually do a good set, but I'll take what I can get.
Friday, March 18, 2011
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Open mic 15
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.
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.
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Open mic 14
Venue: Silverlake Lounge
Date: 11 March, 2011
What took me so long? A combination of fear, laziness and rain. After being snubbed by a campus comedy group, I was afraid that maybe I'd lost my edge. I was also a little lazy in getting over there because driving in LA is just annoying enough that I don't want to do it unless I have to. I'm the same way about laundry, grocery shopping and flossing. And rain because rain makes every LA driver an idiot.
The room:
Well, it's dark. It appears that it's mostly comedians, who have their own sense of humor, by which I mean they perform their piece and then vamoose. The rest of them kind of chill in the back. A lot of it is comics playing to comics, so there's in-jokes that I don't really get.
I did pretty good. I started off a bit slow, but got good near the end. I think the stuff that's true is better than the stuff that's funny. Maybe the stuff that's 'me being me' is the funniest stuff.
The lessons learned here are kind of useful.
1) Learn how to work my voice recorder. It will serve me well.
2) go up in the top 10. People bounced after the first 10, so I'm playing to the largest audience possible.
3) That wasn't so bad. It's comics, so nobody's going to laugh anyways. Go out there and get yourself heard, Nick.
Date: 11 March, 2011
What took me so long? A combination of fear, laziness and rain. After being snubbed by a campus comedy group, I was afraid that maybe I'd lost my edge. I was also a little lazy in getting over there because driving in LA is just annoying enough that I don't want to do it unless I have to. I'm the same way about laundry, grocery shopping and flossing. And rain because rain makes every LA driver an idiot.
The room:
Well, it's dark. It appears that it's mostly comedians, who have their own sense of humor, by which I mean they perform their piece and then vamoose. The rest of them kind of chill in the back. A lot of it is comics playing to comics, so there's in-jokes that I don't really get.
I did pretty good. I started off a bit slow, but got good near the end. I think the stuff that's true is better than the stuff that's funny. Maybe the stuff that's 'me being me' is the funniest stuff.
The lessons learned here are kind of useful.
1) Learn how to work my voice recorder. It will serve me well.
2) go up in the top 10. People bounced after the first 10, so I'm playing to the largest audience possible.
3) That wasn't so bad. It's comics, so nobody's going to laugh anyways. Go out there and get yourself heard, Nick.
Sunday, December 19, 2010
open mic 13
Venue: Corner Bar
Date: 17 December, 2010
I saw the Dez.
Here's the backstory: In my senior year of high school (the prehistory of this blog and my standup "career"), I performed at a venue called Cosmics. One of the comics who also performed at Cosmics was a guy called The Dez.
Cut to 4 years later. We're performing in a better room. However, I'm using a lot of the same jokes, albeit with some reworking of the premises. The Dez is also doing a little of the same material, but it feels different. Has much really changed these last 4 years?
Maybe. I'm able to go out and see more things now. I have 4 more years of experience under my belt. I've seen most of college and a place in Australia.
I think there's something interesting about looking at my comedy moment to moment, seeing where it takes me and how I feel about it in that moment. But if after 4 years, I'm still doing a couple of the same jokes, then I'm probably not changing things up that much. I should look at it year by year.
Date: 17 December, 2010
I saw the Dez.
Here's the backstory: In my senior year of high school (the prehistory of this blog and my standup "career"), I performed at a venue called Cosmics. One of the comics who also performed at Cosmics was a guy called The Dez.
Cut to 4 years later. We're performing in a better room. However, I'm using a lot of the same jokes, albeit with some reworking of the premises. The Dez is also doing a little of the same material, but it feels different. Has much really changed these last 4 years?
Maybe. I'm able to go out and see more things now. I have 4 more years of experience under my belt. I've seen most of college and a place in Australia.
I think there's something interesting about looking at my comedy moment to moment, seeing where it takes me and how I feel about it in that moment. But if after 4 years, I'm still doing a couple of the same jokes, then I'm probably not changing things up that much. I should look at it year by year.
Saturday, December 11, 2010
open mic 12
Venue: Corner Bar Comedy Underground
Date: 10 December, 2010
There is a problem... I've hit a sort of plateau. Not some sort of awesome high plateau where I cannot come down from that. More like a 'decent' level where there's not too much to complain about, but also not too much to get excited about. But I'm gonna try and give lessons out of this. That's right, this blog is gonna be advice from a guy who's not qualified to give advice.
Three minutes per week isn't that much. I need to do more open mics and I need to get one of them voice recorders. That way, I'll be able to actually get more experience about which jokes I can cut.
I think I'm gonna have to cut the 'Martin Bryant' joke, if only because I apparently look a lot more like Jeremy Davies. And that's a good thing.
Date: 10 December, 2010
There is a problem... I've hit a sort of plateau. Not some sort of awesome high plateau where I cannot come down from that. More like a 'decent' level where there's not too much to complain about, but also not too much to get excited about. But I'm gonna try and give lessons out of this. That's right, this blog is gonna be advice from a guy who's not qualified to give advice.
Three minutes per week isn't that much. I need to do more open mics and I need to get one of them voice recorders. That way, I'll be able to actually get more experience about which jokes I can cut.
I think I'm gonna have to cut the 'Martin Bryant' joke, if only because I apparently look a lot more like Jeremy Davies. And that's a good thing.
Sunday, December 5, 2010
The 500 Open Mics christmas list
Hey nobody in particular!
It's that time of year, and I'm a greedy capitalist at heart. But this is the list of stuff I should get for my comedy career, to get me out there better.
- A professional headshot
- A voice recorder
- Business cards
- An update of my website that has all kinds of material about me on it.
I probably should get video of me doing stand-up on youtube at some point. That's a near-future goal.
It's that time of year, and I'm a greedy capitalist at heart. But this is the list of stuff I should get for my comedy career, to get me out there better.
- A professional headshot
- A voice recorder
- Business cards
- An update of my website that has all kinds of material about me on it.
I probably should get video of me doing stand-up on youtube at some point. That's a near-future goal.
open mic 11
Date: 3 December, 2010
Venue: The Corner bar, Minneapolis
My US re-debut! That, plus I hadn't done stand-up for a couple weeks. Plus, I hadn't done stand-up in this venue in like 6 months. Lotta pluses going on tonight.
The Corner Bar's Comedy Underground is held in a basement under the bar. It's a dedicated room: everyone who's there is there for a reason. The downside is that it's kind of hard to find the room in the first place... it's a little out-of-the-way, and there's not much in the way of signage to get you there. Here, the rules are different. You sign up the night of the event, and you get maybe as little as 3 minutes, maybe as much as seven. It seems to work.
But you really don't care about logistics. You care about the emotional pathos of it all. DID I SUCK?
Nope. I didn't exactly rock it out of the park, but people laughed. I was a bit out of sorts and I didn't have a set list going. All of this made me nervous. Next week, next week. I was really excited because I actually had an audience of supportive person (singular) there to cheer me on. Now that I know that people will laugh at my jokes, things are better. I need to visit more open mics, but I also need to get good tires on my car.
500... here I come.
Venue: The Corner bar, Minneapolis
My US re-debut! That, plus I hadn't done stand-up for a couple weeks. Plus, I hadn't done stand-up in this venue in like 6 months. Lotta pluses going on tonight.
The Corner Bar's Comedy Underground is held in a basement under the bar. It's a dedicated room: everyone who's there is there for a reason. The downside is that it's kind of hard to find the room in the first place... it's a little out-of-the-way, and there's not much in the way of signage to get you there. Here, the rules are different. You sign up the night of the event, and you get maybe as little as 3 minutes, maybe as much as seven. It seems to work.
But you really don't care about logistics. You care about the emotional pathos of it all. DID I SUCK?
Nope. I didn't exactly rock it out of the park, but people laughed. I was a bit out of sorts and I didn't have a set list going. All of this made me nervous. Next week, next week. I was really excited because I actually had an audience of supportive person (singular) there to cheer me on. Now that I know that people will laugh at my jokes, things are better. I need to visit more open mics, but I also need to get good tires on my car.
500... here I come.
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