Bringer 1

Date: 29 August 2011 Venue: Comedy Store Belly Room. I thought that this would be what "making it" feels like. In one way it is, but in another it so so very very lacking. It's a step, maybe a step up, but definitely a step that isn't backwards. There's such an element of anxiety that accompanied this show that I couldn't really fully enjoy myself. Most of this is because I'm a tense person. You can tell me to relax, and I can slip into a less outwardly tense state. But full on chillin like a villain? Impossible sans copious amounts of alcohol. The first level of tense comes before the show even begins. The part of bringer that matters most is the 'bring', the root word meaning that other live bodies with wallets and vocal chords will accompany you. I did my damndest to bring people. I only needed 2. And yet, people flaked. There was a problem with calling people who could come, who then bailed. So it goes. But thanks to a friend I had not spoken to in years coming in at the last moment, all was not lost. Then began the new problem: my set. I suffer from another form of anxiety, that of the variety which sneaks into your brain and causes you to forget or fumble even the most basic of things. Two, one person to go before me, and try as best I could, I could not remember the words to my set. I truly believed that I would step on stage and nothing would come out of my mouth. How is this even possible? These are my jokes? Things that I myself have made and I can't even string them together to form a complex thought. Did it happen? No. I think my only saving grace is that I intentionally start the set with a blank stare and uncomfortable silence. That's the first joke. People laugh at that and the words come flooding back. Not all at once in the uncontrollable mental flood that I've experienced before thanks to a unique combination of antidepressants and beer. This was very deliberate, limited. Just enough of a preview. Like a highway sign: Twitter: 1 mile. Sketchy friends: 3 miles. It went over alright. I'll be invited back. But part of me thinks the tone of my set might need a bit of tweaking. I don't want to seem pathetic. I want to tell people "I had this bad experience in high school. It's totally cool to laugh about it." I actually might just say that. Comedy, tragedy + distance, etc.

open mic 38

Date: 26 August 2011
Venue: Hollywood Hotel
What happened to open mic 37? We don't talk about open mic 37.

This night was a weird one. Not comedy related, but I got a flat tire en route. And you know what? I handed it like an adult. Didn't even call my parents or anything. Little victories.

This open mic was also a little victory. I used it to try out a slightly re-worked opening. Why did I re-work the opening? Because I went through the tape from my showcase and listed how well various jokes did. I even color coded the individual punchlines. For reference, The only other thing sorted by color in my entire life is my t-shirts.

The re-worked opening also needs a little re-working. I'm probably just going to do the standard version when I perform on Monday, but getting that opening solid is on the front burner.

I'm also throwing in one new joke for Monday. Because it's a damn good joke, and it was proven both through twitter and through this open mic. Which is par for the course, actually. It's weird that if you carbon-date the jokes in my set that get the most laughs, 2 out of the top 5 are like 5 years old. Guess I need to start writing more.

Where have you been?

So much for keeping up appearances. I've been bad about going to open mics for myriad reasons (work crises keeping me at the office later, general disinclination and instruction not to) and I've been bad about keeping y'all up to date with the process.

So what's changed?
I completed a 4-week comedy class at ACME. I really needed it, even though I was loathe to admit it. It comes down to something that falls between the basics and finesse. I get the most general understanding of how a joke works, and I'm nowhere near the stage where I have to get pointers about how to appeal to producers, execs etc. What the class really provided was a way to say, "ok I'm serious about this."

Another thing that's helping is Twitter. I'm generally a 1-liner kind of guy, so Twitter is a neat little outlet for the ideas that are kicking around in my head. Being on Twitter with lots of other comics also forces me to come up with new material constantly. I can get material out into the world without doing it at open mics, which was the earlier compulsion driving me to attend.

I've moved into a different arena now: bringers. I get stage time (5-7 minutes) for bringing paying friends into seats. It's an almost perverse motivation: I have to bring my friends for their money. Also, because I have a fairly standardized set which I have to perform, the people who will see me most will hear the same jokes over and over. In a sense, I have to get them to attend not for me, but to see the other comics.

The first bringer is the end of the month. I'll be doing a couple open mics beforehand to hammer out some minor tweaks before the first big day. I'll keep y'all abreast, if only through the open mics' instrumental value. The goal is documenting the journey, so document I will. I'll try and keep things interesting though.

Open mics 34 35 and 36

Venue: Hollywood Hotel, The Spot cafe twice. Various dates.

In order: decent, slightly less decent and bleh

But I heard something interesting in the class I'm taking. Apparently, I should be trying to avoid open mics, because it's not like performing for an audience. Does that mean that I'm abandoning the project? Nope. What I like about open mics is the people. Slowly, slowly I'm getting to know people and that makes it easier for me to connect with them. It's in-jokes versus jokes.

If not open mics, where AM I performing? It looks like I'm going to be upgrading to 'Bringers' soon. That means I bring 3-5 people and get 7-ish minutes. Which is a step in the right direction. So now open mics are more for speaking practice. More for saying those things I want to say in my set, but shouldn't do in front of paying audiences without knowing that they're bulletproof.

I'm going to try and get some business cards made up for me. Gotta bring my A-game and network the hell out of this. Which for someone reserved and quiet like me is not an easy thing.

open mic 33

Date: 19 June 2011
Venue 705 lounge, Hermosa Beach
topics covered: the joys of secondhand smoke, becoming my father, some unnecessary self-deprecation.

What things make an audience want to attend an open mic? Not comics mind you, but actual human beings who come to be entertained by comedy coming out of the mouth of another live human. In other words, an audience that will pay attention. I think two factors apply: the venue and the way the open mic is run and managed.

A good venue isn't necessarily a comedy club, but the idea of a dedicated space just for people who want to see the open mic helps a lot. Where the room is just 'the restaurant, with a stage in one corner', people who are just there to eat get roped in mostly against their will. Those people are bodies, but they aren't your audience.

The other factor is the organization behind the open mic. I've seen lottery-style open mics, I've seen sign up (sometimes weeks) in advance, I've seen open mics where the set list is mostly a merit-based system where people who are either regulars, or are bringing in lots of people get preference, but newer people have a decent chance of some of the shorter sets. One approach isn't necessarily better than the others, but merit-based lists produce the higher-quality shows for the audience. Some system which keeps comics from doing their five minutes and skiving off afterwards is always good.

What I've noticed is that the attention span of an audience is about 2 hours. Going longer can work if there's a hierarchy or some other idea that the comics going on later are better. The longer an open mic goes on, the more likely that people are going to check out because they just can't be bothered to pay attention.

So this is all a precursor to the ultimate point I'm trying to make about my performance on this night: I did badly, but it wasn't entirely my fault. I'd allocate it at about 1/3 me 2/3 the room. I'm not saying that this is a bad room, I'm saying that after almost three hours, a room that was good spoiled like milk.

open mic 32

Date: 19 June 2011
Venue: Tribal cafe

Once upon a Sunday recent While I performed, barely decent.
Using many a quaint and curious notion before many folks
While I sat in my chair after bummed out by the lack of laughter
suddenly there came a tapper, tapping me with several pokes
Tis a good mate Timo I uttered, tapping me with several pokes.
Quoth the Timo: no new jokes.

open mic 31

Date 17 June 2011
Venue: Hollywood Hotel
Topics covered: Google vs My Father, Unpaid internships and Twitter fights.

The big question: did I bomb?

No.
I didn't exactly rock the mic like a vandal as the esteemed Mr. Ice would say, but I got out some good jokes. Not necessarily the ones I'd planned on telling, mind you.

There is a little cocky voice inside you that says that you can totally just wing it and talk about whatever comes in to your mind without any preparation at all. Ironically, it takes a LOT of preparation to get to that point.

What happened was I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted to say. I started on it, the got sidetracked and took a journey into unfamiliar territory. Some of it was older jokes I'd performed before, some of it was jokes I'd written ages before but never performed and some of it was complete gibberish or garbage. Listening to the performance, there were times when I didn't even finish clauses before moving on to the next idea. I knew where I was going, but I can't say for certain the audience did.

Not to deny the sudden spark of insight that comes when your brain is forced to throw words out your mouth quickly. What happens is your brain suddenly kicks into "okay, I can work with this" and the chunks of words become whole sentences. Over time it slowly strings together as the jokes get longer and the lines start to congregate together. One joke becomes a series of jokes. The upshot is I now have an ending to the unpaid internships bit that works.

I think I'm getting into a good place. I'm going to stick to some older material, now that it's a little more flushed out. Talking it out helps more than anything because my innate nonfluency and mild-to-moderate ADD can produce some pretty cool stuff. I'll see what my brain comes up with next.