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.

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.