MC Marcus, represent!

I forgot to blog yesterday, so I'll combine it with today's…
I went to the Funny Bone, I didn't get on, I wrote a bit with Matt Wolff and hung out afterwards for a bit.
Now on to Last Night;
While being a smart-allic to Jim Stout (who runs the open mic at the Forum) I asked if I could have a ridiculous amount of time; and he replied "You can MC if you want". I did want…

So I opened up the show and I have no idea how much time I did because my camera ran out of tape so I have no record. I opened up with a joke I wrote moments before I got on stage, needless to say it involved the Bridges of Madison County. Golden! Anyway, I did decent, though the crow was HUGE, they weren't to ready to laugh. I had planned on closing with my phone sex joke, because it usually gets a bigger response than any of my other "work-style" jokes. It didn't so I threw in my "blackest thing about me" joke which got the LARGEST groan I've ever heard. I was proud.

Throughout the rest of the night I tried out a couple of jokes on the crowd, mainly some "new" jokes that I haven't done on stage before. I also tried to bring up the comedians and say something different about each one.

Also, and this was super cool, my gradeschool buddy, Michael Sutter, came to my show and brought his cousin, Angela. They got to see me open, and then had to run to the airport to pick up Mike's brother John. They came back to watch the last comedian and the we headed over to Dave and Buster's. Needless to say, I was late to work. Again.

Excited!

Sunday night and last night I was goofing around with the website, and I ended up making some greeting cards. Last month or so I was at an anniversay party and I realized that the cardi had bought didn't fit my personality. So I modified it a bit. It gave me the idea, cards that were either funny or innappropriate. Or both. So, with a lack of artistic ability that could make Rembrandt gag, I opened up macromedia flash and cranked out two cards that I think are funny. You can see them here.

Also, and this is super cool, if you ask me, I am finalizing plans for a show in Montgomery City, MO on January 20th at a bar called Hard Times. The show'll start around 8pm and star Dano Sullivan, featuring John Garrison and Paul Harris. I will be the Host and MC. Last night I used my camera and my computer to grab a hasty headshot. I might put up a copy tonight if I have time. In any case, I am super excited because the show's only a month away. Tickets are 10 bucks and include one free beverage. I hear Harry has already sold about 30 and he hasn't even started advertising yet.

Last night, Matt Wolff and I went over to the City Improve in Union Station, where we had heard there was a show. We arrived around 7, expecting it to be open; we were going to ask around and see what was up, and probably work on some jokes. It was closed, and remained closed until around 8pm, when a couple bartenders showed up. They offered no useful info whatsoever, so Matt and I continued to wait the the hallway outside the club. Eventually a guy who calls himself "Shuttin' It Down", a guy carrying DJ equipment and two guys (I later learned their names were Lorenzo and Jay) showed up. Matt and I went in a worked on some jokes, and I found a way to shorten one of mine, which kind of makes thetrip worth it, even though no audience showed up. Obviously there wasn't a show, but I did learn from Lorenzo that the Spot and another place might be good to check out. The other place sounded like a musical open mic, but those can be cool to do comedy at, I did do the Music Café once or twice in Columbia). Maybe I could even bust out the kazoo. That would be kind of crazy. Mental note; must get accoustic guitar case from room in Mexico... Today I am going to call Gene Lynn's and see what's up there tonight; even if I don't get on, it'd be nice to check the place out.

Bright side

Work was awesome yesterday, simply because the Funny Bone list was
published and I saw that I was going to be on stage. I had a couple new
jokes I wanted to try out, so I was really excited. Before the show,
John Garrison, Matt Wolff and I went to Starbucks (I didn't buy
anything) to do some writing. During the meeting, I saw the list, and I
was scheduled 7th, which I was good with. But due to the high number of
newbies the list got moved around a bunch and I got put at the very end.

Bright side: I was the "headliner", and maybe Matt Behrens wanted to see if I
could close the show.

Down side: Sometimes the crowd is too busy settling their tab to pay
attention.

Greg Warren was at the show and went up third to last, I only bring it
up because he stopped in the middle of his set to tell a couple to shut
up or leave. I've never seen anything like it, but it was hilarious, to
me at least. The guy who followed was new, and did a good job, and then
it was my turn. Tim Heeley, who was MCing, introduced me as a "brother
of the scalp". I opened with a new quip (n. clever, often sarcastic
remark; a gibe. ) about being single. I also did my skiing jokes and my
bachelor party bit. Sadly, I had to look at my cheat-sheet, but when I
did, I realized I was on my final joke for the set I had prepared, and I
hadn't seen the light yet. So I threw in my pharmacy-job joke. Still no
light. FDA drug testing. Nothing. Tetris. Nada. Phone Sex. Zilch. I knew
I was going over, but the crowd was laughing and I was having so much
fun, I figured that maybe they (the funny bone staff) were seeing what I
could do. Eventually I couldn't think of any other bits to do, so I
closed with my Black-Name joke. As soon as I got home, I tried to upload
the video to the media page, but I didn't get it completed, so I'll try
to do it tonight. Look for it here.

5 for 6 was 3 of 6

Yesterday afternoon I picked up my friend April and we met Paul Harris in
the Central West End. We didn't even get out of Missouri before my left
rear tire blew out. I slapped a donut on, and we turned around and
switched vehicles. We actually made it to the show on time, which was
amazing, because I figured we'd be running late.
We arrived at the Springfield Illinois Funny Bone and I got the low-down
from a lady named Tracey; 5 bucks for six minutes on stage, best one up
gets to open during the weekend show. Aaron Hurley, a comic from
Illinois, was there and went up first. Aaron's been at the Westport
Funny Bone and has invited me to a show at the Iron Post. I was number
four and Paul was Six. I had a decent set, though the crowd wasn't
completely paying attention. There was a 'corral' type stage, with a
fence/banister between the microphone (and comic) and the audience.
However, between the audience and the banister was about 20 feet of
dance floor with a single table (that had about 8 people at it, I
couldn't EVEN SEE everyone at the table, because of a stack of
speakers). But it's stage time, and so I'm not complaining. Paul went up
last and closed the show, and did really well. With small crowds, people
are usually too self-conscious to laugh, which is why it seems harder
for comics, but Paul had a group of people consistently laughing through
his set. Very impressive. When it was al said at done, they pulled us up
on stage and announced the winners; I got Third, Paul got Second, and
Aaron got first.
We hung out a bit and got a drink and some food (I got mozz. sticks,
despite my slight intolerance to lactose). It was pretty cool, I'll try
to go back to the next one in January. Hopefully the Forum won't be on
the same day...

Dear Santa...

I'm working on a cover letter to send to some clubs and colleges in hopes of getting some MC work. Last night at the Funny Bone I asked Matt Behrens and Jeremy Essig to take a look at my letter, and I got a lot of good ideas and feedback. I didn't get on stage last night, but I did come up with a couple of ideas for jokes, and that always makes for a good day. In anycase, I am hoping to get my tape in the mail by the end of the week; if I'm lucky I'll get a little work out of it.

Tonight Paul Harris and I are driving to the Funny Bone Springfield, IL for their amateur show. From what I hear, it's a competition and you can win MC work. Oh yeah, and cash.

12/2/04

Last night there were eight people in the audience at the Comedy Forum. There were actually more, but some people didn't remain in the show room; they hung out in the bar instead. Some of the comics didn't watch the show either, which I feel is pretty rude: there are times when I am at the bar and having a conversation with someone so I miss a couple minutes of the show, but I don't spend large portions of the show in the bar. I go inside, support and laugh at my fellow comics. I'm AT a comedy club, obviously I am there FOR comedy… it just makes sense to me. My set didn't go as well as it did at the Bone earlier this week, I did some of the same jokes, like my Skiing jokes, which I really think have potential, but I think they are just missing a PUNCH at the end. I'm in the process of hooking my VCR up to my computer so that I can make a promo video to send to come clubs; the Deja Vu in particular. (That's the Deja Vu comedy club in Columbia MO, not the strip club; they won't let me perform there...) I'd really like to do a weekend there, as it's in Columbia and I'm pretty sure I'd have a place to stay. All I need is to come up with a semi-decent logo or picture to slap on the label so that I can have something besides my name on the tape's label. Once I get it, I'll post it here.

There was a gas leak in my office building today, and the alarm didn't go off on my floor. That's kind of weird… Now I'm worried about a different /type/ of job security… I did get out of an hour's worth of "work" however. I'd risk personal injury for that most days.

woo

Yesterday morning, I was shocked and surprised to see my name on the list for the Funny Bone. It kind of made the rest of the day go by a little more quickly. Andi Smith, Greg Warren and Jeremy Essig were at the show, and Rahn Ramey hosted. The last time I was on and Rahn hosted, I did very poorly (I was quite drunk) and he let me know it. Last week there were a ton of people in the club, this week was a different story… At the beginning of the show, we had 16 non-comics, I think. Another interesting part of the show was when Rahn MC-d from the back, he actually didn't come back to the stage between John Garrison and myself, and between myself and the guy following me… Anyway, I went on third and opened with a couple new jokes about skiing (I love snow skiing). They did ok, especially for a small crowd. I also did my drinking/blackout jokes, and did my Fraggle Rock song, which I haven’t done in a very long time. The crowd Actually gave me an applause break after Fraggle Rock. I then continued to my Marcus-Robinson-urban-name joke. I got off stage and Matt Behrens actually says "Have you learned nothing?" And says you always get off stage after an applause break during an amateur show, ESPECIALLY when there is such a small crowd. Rahn also said I did well, which was really nice to hear. Tonight is the Comedy Forum again. Apparently there is no Red Sea show anymore, sadly.

pics and stuff

My friend Lisa Kowalewski was at the Showcase Showdown Wednesday and took some pictures. I like them a lot because I don't usually photograph well. These aren't bad. Anyway, here they are; Thanks Lisa!

Magna Cum Nada

Wednedsay was the second Showcase Showdown at the Comedy Forum. I had
six people show up to see me, two of which I expected. My friendsa Lisa
and Mandy from the Columbia College Student Activities Commission showed
up with two other girls. The show was fun, I was second on stage and I
did well; meaning I had fun and I got some laughs. Sadly, I did not win,
and even worse, I didn't even place. Tim Heeley placed third, Bill Davis
second, and Ken JR. won the whole thing.
After the show, Lisa, Mandy, Jackie, Steve (that's not her name, I just
don't remember it) and I went to some bar in Westport and watched this
couple make out on a pool table for like an hour. Also, I almost got
beat up by some frat boy. All in all it was a very fun evening. Thanks
much to everyone who made it out to the show, the weather was horrible,
so it's really cool to have people risk snowy roads for my show.

But at least I'm not bitter...

Lots of people are in town visiting loved ones for the holidays; but
they apparently had to get out of the house last night because the Funny
Bone was packed for the show last night. Yeah, too bad I wasn't on the
list. Last night would have been an awesome time on stage. There were a
couple pros in the house, Danno Sullivan, Andi Smith and Greg Warren
specifically. Things got interesting before the show even started
though; I showed up early, as usual, to write and doodle. Paul Harris
and I are toying with the idea of doing a web comic; eventually comics
started showing up, but at least three of the first six people to show
up after me were new (to the St. Louis club). And somehow (I don't know
how) they all ended up asking ME for the info; when the show starts,
where's the meeting, and so and and so forth. I actually had a dream
last night that Behrens got mad at me for doing that; weird.
Anyway, I was just a little more than jealous that all of these new guys
got to have such a terrific crowd, especially since I wanted the
training for the contest tonight, but being the eternal freakin'
optimist that I am; I looked for a bright side. And here it is; Whenever
I have a 'bad show'; I appreciate the good ones all the more; whenever I
don't get on, I appreciate being on all the more. And so far, nothing is
worse that watching /other/ comics have a terrific audience while
knowing you AREN'T getting on... That's on the same level as just
bombing.

Oh yeah

Before I forget, the feature at the Forum this week was a really nice guy who goes by the artist formerly known as Eric Kirkland. He was very complimentary and very nice to work with.

One Week

Last night ended my three night week at the Forum, and last night I realized that I really like being loud on stage. I was louder than hell during the announcements and during my set on stage; it was a lot of fun. I hope that I can keep that type of energy on stage for the competition on Wednesday.

I got better

Last night’s show was far better that Thursday’s. I shortened my set onstage to Pharm1, Pharm2, Tetris and Phone Sex. The announcements were better, and I got some good advice from Ken Evans, the headliner, about pumping up the crowd before bringing someone on stage (I shouldn’t settle for a crowd’s weak applause, instead I should demand they “make some noise”). It may sound like common sense, but I guess it just didn’t occur to me.

No business like it!

Last night was my premiere as an MC at the Comedy Forum. As usual I
showed up early to focus and BS with Claire the waitress/bartender. I'm
not sure when it happened, but a friend walked in and greeted me. The
conversation went something like this:

Friend: Hey, Marcus, I thought that was your car out there.
Marcus: Hey, Friend. How's it going?
Friend: Good, what are you doing here?
Marcus: I'm MC-ing this weekend.
Friend: Really? Because they told me I was MC-ing this weekend.
Victoria Silvstedt: Hey guys!
Marcus and Friend together: Hey, Victoria.

(end scene)

I ended up MC-ing the show, which was fun but it was like talking to a brick wall; although brick walls don't whisper to their friends that "that guy sucks"... Ok that didn't happen, but it was a rough room. The feature was Eric Kirkland, who I introduced as Kirk Lachland because I went to school with Kirk and I was very flustered from my own poor set. Rule number one of MC-ing is "Don't mess up the announcements". That includes the comic's names. Whoops, strike one. Between comics, I forgot to plug the karaoke after the show. Strike two. Thankfully I got Ken Evans' name correct, however I did forget to plug the Happy Hour Drink Specials at the end of the show. They should have just beaten me with a stick right then and there.

Bizarro-world

I'm not exactly sure when it happened, but I'm pretty sure that I got
sucked into some sort of black-is-white, up-is-down alternate reality
Bizarro universe type thing. Let me explain: I've already explained how
a guy at Gene Lynn's called and wanted me to do a show Thursday the 18th
(today, infact). Well at 3-ish yesterday, I got a call from Jim Stout
who offered me a spot to MC 5 shows this weekend at the Comedy Forum
(including Thursday the 18th (still today) ). Since I am not a super
hero with the ability to actually exist in two places at once, I chose
the Comedy Forum gig, because it's what's called a block date (more than
one show in a block of time) and the Gene Lynn's show is an isolated
date. I feel like I might be flaking out or screwing over the guys at
Gene Lynns, but in my defense I asked that the guy call me back after he
looked at my website to make sure he still wanted me on his show. In
anycase, I hope I'm not burning any bridges here, but I've been hassling
the Forum to give me work for months.
Exhibit B; Attractive women-type folks hung out with me last night.
Seriously, this doesn't happen, if you want proof, dress up in camo and
follow me around on any given day. I karaoke'd last night until 2am (I
never stay up past 11, even on weekends, such actions are unusual for me
(unusual - synonym: bizzaro). Special thanks to Christina and Carrie for
hanging out and not complaining if I spelled their names wrong.
Exhibit C; The crowd at the Red Sea actually paid attention. I did
another 10 minute set, omitting my bachelor party jokes and some of my
roommate jokes. Also, (and I'd call this one of the signs of the
apocolypse) Cuttin' T at the Red Sea actually told jokes. Seriously he
was funny as hell. Loud as a harrier jet, but funny. He probably did 20
or more on stage, and he was pretty good.
In anycase, last night was a blast, and I'm probably going to be paying
for it today at work.

Bruce Bruce = Bruce²

Last night. The Funny Bone Staff (that sounds like a weapon you'd find in Diablo II) were quite busy with a professional show with Bruce Bruce AND an amateur night. Jeff Urin and Gabriel Kea pan-handled free passes to the general public, which increased our audience size dramatically. The amateur show was in the Back Street Jazz Club, I haven't done a show over there for years (in fact, the first show I ever did at the Funny Bone in the Jazz club in September 2002, I still have that tape). About the show; it was rough. We were warned by the waitstaff that talking needed to be done outside, because vocals carry very well in the club, so comedians who wanted to converse needed to do so elsewhere so as not to disrupt the acts and audience. (That's the same basic speech the audience usually gets). There was a table of non-comics who wouldn't shut up, they had conversations among themselves and even tried to "help" the guys on stage. Tried, and failed. I wasn't on the list originally, but I was added. I went up second to last, before Kevin Patterson and after Jeff Urin. I went up with a list in my pocket, but I don't think I used it. I honestly don't remember. It was fun though, I got a couple laughs, drank some coffee and was home in time for Futurama and Family Guy. The coolest thing of the night was getting a call from a guy at Gene Lynnes. The gentleman, Rob I think, is having a show Thursday and John Garrison gave him my name.  Rob wanted me to come down to audition (to make sure I have material and was fairly clean), but I was already at the Bone so I told him I would be unable to. I told him I worked clean, so that wouldn't be much of a problem and then I realized I have media on my website, so I informed him he could check out my material there. I was pretty happy because now the website has been used by someone wanting to get me on stage. As usual, it was a good night, tonight is the Red Sea, next week is the Comedy Forum competition and Thanksgiving. Comedy and napping, I can't wait.

Louie Louie

Oh man, am I tired this morning. Or I was tired. I just poured my cup of
hot coffee and it's already waking me up. Of course I spilled some on my
hand, and that woke me up quick. Last night I had dinner with my Dad and
my brother, Darin, at the LoneStar by the Dierbergs on Olive. I had a
medium rare bacon and mozz cheese burger. It was one of the single
greatest burgers I've ever had. Afterwards I went to the Holiday Inn in
St. Peters for the Louie's comedy night that John Garrison does. I
showed up and took a seat with Tom Shelton. One of the comics scheduled
third hadn't shown and John offered me some stage time. John MC'd the
show, and Tom Shelton followed, then Bill Davis, and then I went on. I
haven't done done more than 5 minutes really since my time in Fairview
Heights, so I was a little worried that I would need to rely too heavily
on my cheat-sheet. During some of Bill's set, I grabbed my notes from my
car and basically duplicated the order I used in Fairview Heights. I
added the new Monestary joke that I wrote recently, and it seemed to do
ok. I hit the record button on my camera right as Bill Davis walked off
stage, and John gave me the "clubs and colleges" intro, I think I may
have done around 8 to 10 minutes. I'll need to watch the tape of course.
John gave me the light while I was in my Tetris bit, and I finished with
my jokes about working at a pharmacy. A couple of times, I've done
Tetris and I get an applause break at the end, I'd like to know how to
sucker that out of a crowd without it being to noticeable. Some people
will throw in an extended pause, kind of like an "I'm not starting back
up until I get some recognition" and some people will blatently just say
"come on" or something like that. I don't think they mention that in any
of the books I've got...

Another google entry

I am bored at work and so I googled my name, just to see what number my website would be, and this entry came up BEFORE MY WEBSITE

Google "Marcus Robinson" #49 http://www.ccis.edu/directory/expand2.asp?UID=801&lname=Robinson
It's my old info when I was a Residential Assistant at Columbia College, it's atleast 11 months outdated, moreso if you count the phone number, which changed in May of 2003 to 573 875 3650...

I can't think of a title right now...

I think I'm a little bitter. And I'm not sure if I have the right. Last night, we BARELY had a crowd at the Forum, but we had a show anyway. I suppose I should be grateful for that. It is a common known fact(heck almost a universal truth) that the crowd size is directly proportionate to the degree of dificulty of achieving laughter (ie smaller crowds are harder to get laughing). There are exceptions to the rule; because if there weren't it might sound like I know what I am talking about. I did almost all "new" material and I can't say I brought my "A game"; meaning I probably didn't really try. It's easier to "try" with bigger audiences, because it's more exciting, and when I'm more excited on stage, usually I have a better show.

I guess the root of my bitterness is that I feel like I am trying hard; but I also feel like I don't have time to try hardER. With a roommate, a job, a new condo, and a severe addiction to video games and cartoons, sometimes I just don't feel like I have anymore time. There are shows other times during the week, so say other comics I talk with, maybe I should just make some sacrafices and take the advice Chad Huff gave me. He said it was the best advice he had ever heard, "Don't think of comedy as a job".

Back to the Forum, last night Monray Griffen showed up, and while on stage he depantsed and did 80% or more of his time with his pants around his ankles. With this act he showed the crowd that he was going to be presenting some "shocking" or different ideas. So the rest of his set, people weren't as surprised when he would say something graphic or bizarre. Because they weren't so shocked, I think they were more prone to laugh. Then again, they may have just been laughing at the fact that he was in his boxers on stage. Just a side note, the girls in the front row faced the floor and the back of the club for the rest of his set.

The Red Sea was normal this week; small crowd, I ended up doing my set to one dude in the front row. I got to work on the wording of some of my jokes, but I didn't get the honest reaction I wanted, because of the small crowd theory. I was up until midnight, but surprisingly I am not that tired today.

Video killed the radio star

Tuesday = Funny Bone Amateur night, most of the time at least. I've been over that a couple of times, I think; Last night we almost literally had an all star cast at the show. Andy Woodhull and Joe Lehnig came all the way from Chicago (Andy's at Fairview Heights this week, I would recommend seeing the show). Andi Smith, a very funny comedienne was in, as was Jimmy Rice and Bret Clawson. Regretably I was not on stage last night, but I was able to work on some jokes and I came up with a couple of tags I like for my Bachelor Party jokes. The weirdest thing came during the meeting before the show; though. Apparently people have complained about the taping of the shows, so effective immediately, Matt said we wouldn't be allowed to video-tape our shows. I'm super relieved I didn't buy a new camera as I have been wanting to do. This will be kind of a setback, I think, because I don't have an audio recorder and I just bought a whole bunch of demo supplies to send out once I get a decent tape together. If push comes to shove, I could always record a Red Sea show, (but the lighting is pretty bad there). In any case, I originally wanted to have a tape out by the end of November so that I could try to pick up some work in the Spring semester, but now I'd almost rather sit on that and wait until I get a really nice 5 to 7 minute tape together.

The Comedy Forum contest v.2

Wednesday, November 24th at 8:00pm CST the Comedy Forum will be hosting it's second competition. The winner will recieve a week's paid MC work at the Forum and will hopefully be added to the rotation of MC's there. Judging is based somewhat on audience responce, so it's important that each of the contestants bring people to cheer them on. As always, admission is free. I'd add more details, but I seriously doubt too many people show, as it's the day BEFORE Thanksgiving.

A nice surprise

I haven't really blogged in a week or so, so I guess I should make up
for it somehow... I know I'll do one NOW!

First off, work is dead as can be, so I am typing this from there; We
didn't have a show at the Funny Bone this week because they did a kind
of political debate with comedians, which I hear was really funny. I
wanted to attend, but I had dinner with my Aunt Millie and Uncle E.J.
and it ran a little long. Suffice it to say the Taco Salad at the Gas
House Grill on Olive was pretty tasty. I highly recommend the place, one
of the owners came out and was more than friendly, and the waitress, (I
think her name was Jen) was pretty attractive. Good teeth. That's two
weeks in a row that we haven't had a show at the Funny Bone.
That fact alone drove me to the Red Sea on Wednesday. I really really
hate to say this, because I risk sounding snobby or stuck up, but lately
I have not been enjoying the Red Sea. To be honest, I have actually been
kind of dreading going there, and have only been going because it's a
chance to work out kinks on new material (wording, timing and such). The
crowds are generally a little apathetic (towards me at least). By
'apathetic' I mean simply that the crowd may or may not be
paying attention, which is one of the major requirements for enjoying a
comedy show. Plus since it's a small crowd, people might be more prone
to hold in their laughter. Bigger crowds are easier because laughter is
contagious, one person laughing makes it easier for someone else to
laught, and like wildfire a room could be filled with chuckles, gafaws
and snorts. Provided the comedian is funny, of course. Or really really
NOT funny.
Anyway back to the Sea: before the show, Paul Harris and I were talking
to the upstairs bartender, Amy, and she came downstairs and saw Paul's
set and my set. I went up 6th or 7th, which is really late for me, and I
was planning on only doing a quick 3 or 4 (mainly new material) and
bailing, but I got up, and the crowd was paying attention, and I got a
laught at one-liner that people really have to pay attention to. Anyway,
I ended up doing more time that I anticipated, but I really enjoyed it.
I'd say it made my day. I drove home and got a decent night's sleep, and
really you can't beat that.
Today (Friday) I got an email from my cousin, Tim. Tim was in the href="http://www.marcusisfunny.com/contest/janken.htm">jankan
contest and wanted to know about the results. So I popper over to
the page to verify I actually did something with the submissions and I
found out I screwed up some of the stuff. The results for a couple
people were incorrect, not that it changed any of the winner's
catagories much. So I fixed the stuff and will re-upload the new page
tonight, after I make some shelves and play some City of Heroes (I'm
almost lvl 27 and have been out of debt for a couple of days now).
Anyway, this is probably the biggest blog I've written, and I honestly
don't have anything else I want to write... There's a contest at the
Forum coming up on the day BEFORE thanksgiving. I'm excited about it,
it'd sure be nice if people came to support me (hint hint).

Stupid sports

Last night I...
- wasn't on the list at the Bone last night.
- showed up anyway as usual.
- ended up getting Starbucks coffee for Brian and Jen who work at the
funny bone.
- found out how to make In My Pants seem less dirty (maybe)
- combined two bits so that it will be easier to present them (maybe)
- wouldn't have gotten on stage because th World Series was on and not
enough people showed up to be an audience for us.
- got another "Funny Bone" rocks glass, I have three now.

The black knight

Last night there was no list at the Funny Bone; I showed up around
5:30ish and worked and tinkered with some jokes (ok, premisis) that I
had come up with in Vegas. Eventually Matt Wolff and Jeff Urine showed
up. Jeff was kind of running the show last night, and Kevin Patterson
put me on the list (originially number 10, I went on 9th). While in
Vegas, Andy Woodhall and Tommy Johnagin wrote a joke each on my name
(Andy's in the form of a one liner, I forgot exactly how Tommy told his
joke, so I only remember the premise), and so I decided to open with
them. I had planned on using Andy's joke then Tommy's, but somewhere
along the course of the evening, I switched the order.
I guess I should stop being so cryptic, but I got such great laughs on
the jokes last night that I don't want to spoil it for anyone who might
eventually see me do them (the jokes) on stage. Needless to say, I am
super thankful for the material and the help, however I am a little
worried that the one liner may be a little too powerful, and I
won't be able to match it with any of my other jokes. Anyway, I have to
get back to work. Red Sea tonight, I should try some new material
there... (should)...

Vive St. Louis!

I got back from my vegas trip today and I am soooo tired; however I had an absolute blast! I ate more buffets in one week than I've ever thought possible. I met Paulie Shore's dad, Sammy Shore and the king of improv comedy, Shelley Burman. I hung out with Andy Woodhall, Tommy Johnagin (both reside in Chicago currently) and Gordon Baker Bone, seriously one of the funniest and nicest guys I've ever met. I really can't do the trip any justice with a blog, so I won't even try. Suffice it to say, I had the time of my life, and have never laughed so hard in my entire life.

Standing up and going number 1

The Funny Bone server was down this week, so no official list was published; just one that had the word "me" on it (I did not see said list myself, I just heard from other comics). About 13 to 15 comic showed up in time for the meeting, so Matt didn't have a hard time making a list. He did ask for a volunteer to go first, and so I said I'd do it. Even though the fact I just got done MC-ing for a week, going first in an open mic was rough, I tried a couple new jokes and I don't think I delivered them properly; for example; a couple one liners that I 'created' in conversation with co-workers and friends. I think they were kind of spur-of-the-moment / you-had-to-be-there lines. I forget who followed me on stage, but after they were done, so roughly 15 minutes into the show, 17 people showed up and almost doubled the crowd size. I must emphasize that I hate blaming crowd size, but the psychological aspect plays heavily in my mind. More people = more people potentially laughing at my jokes which sounds better on stage. Open mic is also difficult because with such a time constraint, I feel pressured to do well, which is hard (especially when you lead off with new(er) material).

Friday, Saturday and Sunday

Sadly I forgot to write in my blog this weekend, City of Heroes being the major reason for my laziness. I am kind of proud of myself, because I made some changes to my set order, wrote them down, and didn't have to refer to my cheat sheet to remember them. One show on Friday I completly omitted Pharm1, Pharm2, Black Jack and Slots (those names probably only make sense to me, sorry). Pharm1 is my "I work at a pharmacy" joke, and Pharm2 is the "I do medical testing" one; I haven't been doing pharm 2 this week because it needs some more open mic work, it wasn't getting as much responce as other jokes, say phonesex and tetris. Spanish has been going over very well, and when I do Black Jack properly it serves as a great call back. Saturday was fun, but I was very tired after the two shows. After Sunday's show Joey, the manager of the Fairview Heights Funny Bone, paid me and gave me some great advise about getting paid in clubs. She actually used the phrase "show business" which I know it is; it just never dawned on me. Show Business. Cool. I did manage to film every single set, though I never filmed my announcements; maybe I should have. My favorite announcement was the one I did about the Thanksgiving show; "because you get to see a show, get to drink, get to laugh, and best of all you don't have to talk to your family; no that's something to be thankful for"! All things considered, this week was awesome in every way. My bits are coming along well, as are my pieces (bits and pieces, nevermind); and my stage memory is growing, which is important. I can't wait fot Tuesday, because I want to try out some new bits; I've got two or three I'm working on, it'd be nice to get some new material, especially since most of it's based on stuff that has actually happened to me.

Numero two-oh

The show last night was a lot of fun; however, I don't feel I did as well as I did Wednesday night. I forgot to do my Black Jack and my World Series of Slot Machines stuff, and I fumbled with the announcements a little. I think my facial expressions and act outs weren't as good as Wednesday, those seem to depend on how much energy I have and how much fun I am having on stage. The crowd was much smaller, though we still had about 50 or more people. I wasn't as nervous as I was Wednesday, which could be either a good thing or a bad thing. I think there is a certain level of anxiety at which I excel, if I could control that, I would be happy, or nervous; whatever. I am not officially in my new condo, I dropped off my keys at the old Mars Apartment before work (oh yeah, I was late to work today, SCORE!). I slept through my alarm clocks or never set them, who knows... Where's Encyclopedia Brown when you need him?

Surprise, surprise

My 50th post!
I've only been to Fairview Heights a handful of times, and the majority of the times were not too great... The first time I went on a Monday, and they had cancelled the show due to lack of audience. The second time was for the Club Pick portion of the Las Vegas Comedy Compitition; that was a fun night. On the next day, I drove out to compete in the Las Vegas Comedy Compitition and I was the first performer on stage that morning (that's not exactly pleasant). The last time I was at the Fairview Heights Funny Bone, I did a spot light while Kevin Patterson was MC-ing. Frankly I was WAY TOO nervous and I wasn't too good; also my spotlight was on a wednedsay, notoriously the worst day of the week for comedy. Now, having set the stage for what to expect for my Wednesday show at Fairviwe last night, I was blown away when I walked in the door. There were AT LEAST 1 hundred people there an hour before the show. And MORE kept coming in. I started chugging the coffee and getting ready, and if I do say so myself, I did well. I didn't screw up the announcements (guys from Westport stressed this) and I was on stage for about 10 minutes up front (including an announcement or two) so I guess I have about 10 minutes of material. Anyway, last night was awesome. Karith Foster featured, and Ron Morey headlined, and both were super nice and I am sure I'll enjoy working with them for the rest of the week.

Real Quick, I want to mention some advice I got this week; Chad Huff said it was the best advice he'd ever gotten, and I'd have to aggree. Simply what he told me about comedy was "don't look at it like a job".

That picture is just a coincidence

Yesterday before the my ritual going-to-the-Funny-Bone, I had to do Laundy, eat, and get a form from my condo association saying it's OK for the cable guy (who was scheduled for Wednesday 8am-12pm) to do work on my condo. I accomplished all three, I now have clean socks, shirts and underwear, I ate a medium BIG MONTANA combo from Arby's, and I got the form (and today I got internet and cable at my condo). Afterwards I went to Westport, where Pam graciously made me a pot of coffee, which I drank pretty much by myself. I was number three in the line-up, Keith Cissel MC-ed, Janine Brito lead off, followed by John Garrison, then ME! It was probably the coffee because I was SUPER HYPER on stage. I talked really fast but was coherent, I even spit a little when I talked, which was embarrasing, but it got a laugh. I did [TETRIS] at mach speeds, and threw in some unexpected facial features and hand gestures during my blackout/shampoo bit. Anyway, I had an absolute BLAST last night, which goes to show that I guess it is cyclical; or at least I was motivated by last weeks utter failure. Keith Cissel said that I was improving, which is a huge compliment, I thanked him and tried to seem sincere, but I am afraid I just came off as super hyper. Then I drank ANOTHER POT of coffee (THANKS, PAM!). Kevin Patterson said that last night was a great way to lead into my week at Fairview Heights; since I'll be doing more shows this week than I have ever done before, I am going to try to write what happened after every show, or within 24 hours at least. That way I have an entire week in my blog that progressively shows what it's like to do comedy almost everyday. Also, in regards to the coffee, I barely slept at all last night, but that doesn't matter, because I've drank a TON again today. Man, when I come down, I'm going to sleep for days...

Zero for Two

I somehow forgot to look at the list for the Funny Bone this week, and so when I showed up I had no idea whether I would be going on stage or not. It turns out that I did make the list and went up FIRST! (after the MC, Dano Sullivan, of course) and my stage time was not what you would call 'good'. Originally I chalked up my lack of quality to simply being first (it's really hard to be the first guy up, which doens't bode well since I am MC-ing at Fairview Heights next week) and some new material I did.
Last night was Wednesday so I showed up at the Red Sea wearing my Adidas ball cap, (I hardly ever wear hats because it feels funny being bald and all) and a leather jacket that I got from a thrift store about 4 years ago. It was like being in disguise. But I couldn't hide from not being funny. Sadly I failed to bring the funny last night as well.
I know that everyone has "off" days, but I have to say I am slightly concerned because I have that job at Fairview next week, and Wednesday is apparenly a tough night over there. I need all the confidence I can get going into that. Then again, my very best sets have often come within a week after some of my not so great sets. I really need to work on a static order for my jokes, such as my lab rat jokes always follow my pharmacy jokes, and tetris and phonesex always go together...
I seriously can't wait for the Las Vegas Comedy Festival because I am pretty sure I'll learn something extremely important. Also, and I hate to admit this, I'm not getting on stage with the same excitement as I used to, I used to get butterflies, a rush, nervous, whatever; but now, it's like "hmm guess I'll get on stage now". Now during a good set, I usually get excited, because of the energy from the crowd. I hate to blame the crowd for my performance; I know they have a lot to do with how a comedian does on stage, but I like to take responcibility for my own whatever.

M.C.M.R.

Last night was the show at Louie's (in the Holiday Inn Select in St. Peters). John Garrison invited me to M.C. the show. The line up was: Me (Marcus Robinson), John Garrison, Jammer Bicks, and Johnny Kavanaugh. I've never really MCd a show before (I did once in Minneapolis last summer, but I was horrible). Last night I wasn't much better, but Johnny Kavanaugh did give me some great advice on how to bring people up and other things I wouldn't have thought of. Anyway, special thanks to April, Dori and Jeremy, Millie and EJ, Kathy L. and Terry S. for all coming out to the show and to John for letting me M.C.

I got better

I guess the theme song was just the beginning, because I recieved a phone call today from Joey at the Fairview Heights Funny Bone and she offered me a job MC-ing in Illinois from Wednesday Sept 29th to Sundayd October 3rd. I am super excited, because it's roughly 7 minutes a show, with 7 shows. And the shows are so close, I'll definately be able to recognized changes in audience reaction (typically, if I do 2 shows in 2 days, I feel better about the delivery at the second show). Oh yeah, and it pays!

My New Theme Song

OK, so I'm kind of in a bad mood, my weekend wasn't exactly great due to a number of reasons. Also I didn't get anywhere-near enough sleep last night. In anycase, today was shaping up to be pretty unpleasant; however, while listening to my iPod a song by Fatboy Slim came on, it's called "E.V.A." and it's off of the Norman Cook Collection. I highly recommend it. In fact, it's my new offical theme song. It was also featured in a Starburst commercial, I think… Anyways, it put me in a good mood, despite the past 72 hours and the crappiness within. I love music.

"The aim of the game is to feel real good"

Janken

Not that I've recieved any for about 10 days, but the submissions period for the Paper Rock Scissors tournament is officially over. I should have the results posted today, unless of course I get distracted by some City of Heroes. As it stands, I think I had between 5 and 10 people compete, which is pretty good. I think just for fun I am going to enter a "random" player and roll a die to determine the selections (ie 1,4 = rock 2,5 paper, 3,6 = scissors). We'll see how I (and the contestants) measure up to random chance and Murphy's Law.

By the way, I first learned of the word Janken playing Alex Kidd in Miricle World on the Sega Master System.

Go Virgo

Yesterday was my 25th birthday and my dad's 66th birthday. I celebrated by doing a spotlight at the Fairview Heights Funny Bone. I was pretty nervous, because I wanted to impress Joey, the manager. The crowd was kind of small, and not easily amused. At the end of the show, Joey got my contact information, which is a good sign, so I am excited. Being Wednesday, I went to the Red Sea, where the crowd was slightly more unforgiving. Anthony was taping for a class or something, so the place was well lit. During my set, Matt Wolff was at the bar talking to some girl, and I started narrating what he was doing because he wasn't paying attention to me. Eventually I did some of his set that he did earlier, which the crowd loved. The rest of my set went well, because the audience was paying attention to me.
Oh yeah, I got a digital camera for my birthday from my brother, Darin, so I'm hoping to throw up some pictures everyonce in a while. That'd be cool.
A special thanks to those who gave me stuff or wished me a happy birthday, and to those who haven't, you can still send me stuff. You can't get on the thanks page for nothing.

Today I attended funeral services for Msgr. Jacques Wenting. Msgr. Wenting taught me French and Latin while I was in High School. He was one of the hardest instructors I've ever studied under, which is probbaly why I liked him so much. I hated going to class, and feared what would happen when I inevitably fouled something up linguistically. Fr. Wenting (he was appointed a monsignor in 2000, after I graduated, so I am accustomed to calling him Fr. Wenting) gave me my first formal training in foreign languages, which lead to my eventual understanding of the English language. I graduated with an English Degree from Columbia College, so I would say Fr. (Msgr.) Wenting helped laid the foundation for that. I never really "enjoyed" French or Latin class with Fr. Wenting, this is not meant to sound disrespectful; however I did have a decent advantage over my classmates at Conception Seminary College when I took Latin with Br. Jerome. I thoroughly enjoyed Br. Jerome's class and that's eventually where I got the idea to start going by "Marcus" because it's the Latinate form of my legal name, Marc.
I think that Msgr. Wenting's influence, direct or indirect as it may be, is pretty substantial on me. I realized today that St. Thomas guys are now officially a dying bread (again, no disrespect intended). Since the school is closed, the number of of us who attended will only decrease over the years. Likewise, the number of faculty who tought us can only decrese. That's kind of what prompted me to write this today, because in the future, people might not know how much of an impact they had on me, and I'd like to make a note, not so much that they will know, but so I will remember.

Make it a double

Wednesday! Woo! Yeah. Man am I tired. I was up until midnight last night, which is far to late for an old man like me. Before I talk about last night, let's start at the begining of the week, or rather the end of last week.
Saturday:
John Garrison and I went over to the Fairview Heights Funny Bone Saturday night to check out the club picks for the Las Vegas Comedy Festival contest. Jimmy Rice competed against a bunch of non St. Louis comedians. He did extremely well, however, Jim Short ended up winning the coveted free trip to Vegas. The rest of the show was good, and I ate the first fast food I've had in almost a month. Mmmm Chilitos (that's a chili cheese burrito for you non Taco Bell freaks).
Sunday:
I woke up at 6:30am to go BACK to Fairview Heights for the 'amateur' portion of the Vegas competition. I was the first comic to get on stage, which sucks, but what can you do? I talked to Brett, who's the asst. manager at the Fairview Bone and he liked my set and said if I call up I can probably get a SpotLight on a slower night (Thursday or Sunday). That's awesome. I ate at McD's with Paul Harris and took a four hour nap at home.
Tuesday:
Was at the Funny Bone, Westport-style, and Kevin Patterson told me I look like Gollum from the Lord of the Rings movies. I said I need to acknowledge that on stage within my first 10 second on stage or so, he said it would be a good "throw away line". I worked for the rest of the show to find a way to use it, and came up with a decent idea that utalizes my resemblance to Moby and slides into my set about my nephew (Pokémon and Air Hockey).
Wednesday:
At the Forum, we had a sparce crowd (less than 30 or so) and only 11 comics. Jim Stout announced some new rules that will serve as incintives for comics to bring people. Since I don't know any non-comics, I'm probably going to have to pay to work at the Forum. Hey, if it's good enough for the California Guitar Trio, it's good enough for me.
At the Red Sea, Jeremy Essig, Matt Wolff and Chad Huff were waiting to go on, and Gabriel Kea had already gotten on stage when I showed up. I did pretty much the same set as the Forum, which included my new Gollum stuff, some jokes about my college spanish class with Señora Pringle at CC, some drinking jokes and I think I threw in Phone Sex somewhere in there. I took notes up this time, because I wanted to make sure I worked on the new stuff.

Tough cliché

As per usual, I showed up at the Funny Bone this week and was ammended to the list, thanks to Brian who throws me up when he's there. I followed Michael Robinson, and was able to finally work on some jokes about my name, Marcus, and how it doesn't sound white. It was a great show, and I enjoyed myself. This week I pulled my first St. Louis "Double" on Wednesday. The Comedy Forum was easily the harshest environment I've ever seen. The crowd was rough and they got bored. I went up 4th, so I didn't have too much trouble, but I stayed to watch a new acquantence, Maurice, do some time, and the crowd was absolutely unruly. I feel kind of bad for Phyllis, who MC'd the evening, as there was no way to expect that type of thing happening. I ventured over to the Red Sea, where I waited for the MC to finish at least 15 minutes on stage. I got on, and was so exhausted, I did maybe 4 minutes. I thanked Anthony and left. Last night was the show at Louie's run by John Garrison. Fate must have been against us, because too few people showed up, and we had to cancel. On the bright side, I get to MC the next show on the 16th of September. I am super excited about it, and will be trying to get at least one new bit polished for it.

Paper, Rock, Scissers

In the spirit of one of the greatest and oldest games on the planet, I am going to have ANOTHER CONTEST!!! Woo. I can tell you're excited. This one is simple, and requires almost no intellegence at all. We're going to play a game of paper, rock scissors. All I need you to do is email me marcus@marcusisfunny.com with a list of 11 rounds of Paper Rock Scissors. I will have already made a list of my 11 choices, so everyone will play against the same selections. It would be nice if teh list were formatted something like:
1. Rock
2. Paper
3. Rock

and so on. I'll see how many people reply and then I'll see what type of competitions there are, like longest winning streak, most wins, most losses and most ties. If you are unclear about what to do, email me and ask. This might be fun... Feel free to read up on the game at wikipedia.

at least I'm not bitter

Last night was the show at the Red Sea. I found out that I'm no longer the doorman, which is kind of good, kind of bad. Now I don't feel so bad cutting out after my set. Jeremy Essig wanted to know about the show Tuesday so I invited him down. As a courtesy I stuck around to watch his set, which was really good even though I saw some of the same material the night before. The bad part (about the show) was sitting through "Silver T" or something like that, who sucked up at least 20 minutes on stage; there might have been a joke in there somewhere, but I probably missed it. That sounds harsh, but that's ok, chances are "T" doesn't own nor know how to operate a computer, so I'm safe. Oh yeah, on my way home last night I got yet another ticket. This one for speeding. 78 in a 60. 2 miles an hour faster and I'd be in jail right now. Anyway, that kind of put a damper on the whole evening, which may explain why I'm 'cranky' right now.
As for my set last night, I'd go with mediocre at best, I was the first comedian up, and I did a bunch of my jokes, tetris finally got the laughs in the right places, so did phonesex. My pharmacy jokes are getting a little better and I did my scavanger hunt joke and threw in a shampoo reference (it's funny because I am bald).

One last thing before I get fired (I'm at work, surprise!) I often mention jokes on this thing (which has been recenly called a 'diary' (I'll get back to that) ), I am not about to write my jokes on here because reading a joke can leave too much room for interpretation and just foul it up. If you want to know what I am talking about, go to a show, they're either free or about 5 bucks. If you let me know in advance and can't afford it, well, I'd offer to pay, but I got this ticket thing...
Finally, it's a blog (short for web log), not a journal, not a diary. I am not some angsty 16 year old girl writing about her secret crushed on coworkers at the Foodland. At least not in THIS blog...

Tickle this

Matt Behrens, who runs the Funny Bone ameteur night (among other things) was unable to post a list of who would be going on stage this week. On weeks like this, usually fewer comics show up, I have no idea why. In any case, with fewer comics and a list being made in the meeting I have increased chances of getting on. I followed Jimmy Rice on stage, which isn't a bad thing, but I was planning on working on some of my 'drinking' material, and Jimmy since Jimmy did his drinking material, I decided to not follow with mine. It's completely a personal preference, some comedians would say to do it and screw what the audience thinks, but I want an honest audience reaction, I don't want them hearing me talk about alcohol and remembering/laughing at one of Jimmy's jokes instead of mine. The best thing about having wrenches thrown in my plans like this is I have to pull a "mid flight recalcultion"¹ moments before I appear on stage. (<--optimism) I did my new pharmacy and lab rat jokes, I wasn't able to workin the new gambling stuff or my recently-resurrected air-hockey joke (that fits nicely with the new Pokémon stuff, I think). I got some decent laughs on my phonesex bit, and threw in some pronounced pauses on my Tetris bit. I closed with [In My Pants]. I spoke to Gabriel Kea again on being a clean comic, he seems to have opinions to share rather than having facts to force upon me. The whole idea of being clean is fascinating to me because it's basically creating a major limitation and saying, "I can't do this or that". Now as for what clean material is... I have no idea. I basic guage is "Would I do this in front of my mom?". Not anyone's mom, or someone's mom; MY MOM. She's heard my testicle bit before and probably laughed at it, sure it's a little descriptive (Gabe says it crosses the line) but if placed properly in a set, I think people would move on and not linger on the fact that I made a blatent reference to the number of reproductive glands between my legs. I do jokes about drinking because that's a fairly common part of life for many people, especially people sitting in a comedy club with a two drink minimum. I tend to avoid jokes about drugs and the use of profanity. I am not against profanity, it's definately a useful tool to grab someone's attention and emphasize how one feels. I could write more on the subject, but I'm at work right now and don't feel like getting fired. I may append this later this afternoon.

1. Midflight recalculation: (n) a. The act of altering one's plans spontaniously, as a pilot would alter a course while flying their plane/helicopter in the air.
b. To manuelly adjust one's "self" while walking

pokémon, air hockey; bad for kids

I just returned Wednesday from a family float trip vacation. It was incredible. I slept outside a couple of nights (on an air mattress, of course) and I felt very relaxed when I returned to work on Thursday. Wednesday night was a show at the Forum, I went up "blind" again and everything went pretty well. I'm working on a new Pokémon joke and I need a big kick at the end, but it'll come. Last night I went to the Bone to see Mark Lundholm and the show was amazing. I think I am going to start going to the Bone on Thursdays to see more comics. I really enjoy seeing both sides of comedy (ie, what normal people experience, the "That was funny" part, and what comics experience, the "That joke must have taken years, look at that slight movement with his hand and change in his voice, wow" part).

welcome to good burger, home of the good burger, can I take your order?

I guess once a week is about as often as I am going to update this thing. Today is Wednesday, which means I was at the Funny Bone last night. They put me on, for a record 5 times in a row. I decided to bring out almost everything I worked on in the writing workshop, mostly jokes about working at a pharmaceutical company and being a lab rat. My personal thanks go to John Garrison who helped me with a really good comparison between the two aspects of the drug indistry. As a side note I'd like to mention I used to not accept any writing help from others (both comedians and non-comedians), the class taught me that you almost have to accept help.
Last night was also kind of weird because a comedian Tommy Chamberlain was talking to before the show and told me about a joke he was working on about getting fired from an "adult phone line" (my words, not his) for various customer service reasons; anyway, while making a trasition from new material to my own phone sex bit I basically used what would have been Tommy's punch as my setup. As soon as I got off of stage, I apologized to Tommy, who may have been more angry than he let on. I also expressed my distress (alliteration?) to Matt Behrens. I didn't want him to think I was stealing someone else's material. That's a cardinal rule, that and not drinking too much before getting on stage, but I think I've already covered that one.
Just for a City of Heroes update, I gained a new power, FLY, and it rocks. I like to fly around and "buzz" other players and NPCs. I have 4 characters in my account now, Webblock, Major Danger, Big Pyro Guy (named after the initials of the neighbor kids who play that character, Brendon, Peter, and Giovani ("G") ) and Falcon Carson, named after a song by the Gluey Brothers.
Mental note: must buy Good Burger; it has Keenan, Kel AND Sinbad!!!

Mr. Clean

Originally I was not on the list for the Funny Bone last night; however, to quote Kid Rock "persistance pays and that holds true" and Brian put me on moments before the show. I had a conversation with Gabriel Kea about clean comedy. I would like to consider myself a clean comic, but Gabriel argued that references to my crotch (in my Class of 2 bit, my In My Pants bit, and my new Gambling bit) were hardy clean. So I am left with two choices; stay clean and drop/change my material or sell out (as Gabe put it) and go dirty. So I guess I have to eliminate a bunch of my not-so-child-friendly material (though children probably wouldn't enjoy my act, I would like for them to be able to watch and not pick up any bad language or ideas).
Ideally, I'd like to push the envelope and see how creative I can be, IDEST be as suggestively dirty as possible without being outright dirty. I have to admit, I had a little trouble sleeping at the idea of being a "blue" comic; though I have nothing against blue comics or dirty language in general, I myself would like to bill myself as clean. Spot free, if you will.

microphones and microwaves

Last night I tried some new material at the Funny Bone. Last night's material was very full of fat jokes, which kind of struck me by surprise, especially since I wrote the jokes. Kevin Patterson went on before me. Kevin and Keith Cissell usually run the light (ok, candle) that  lets comics know when their time is almost up. Since Keith Cissell was MC-ing, and I wasn't paying attention to time, when Kevin got off of stange I wasn't prepared to start my video camera. So unfortunately for me, I have no video of last night. I wanted to see what I looked like holding the microphone instead of leaving it in the stand like I usually do. I had a good time and went home to eat Chef Boyardi out of my NEW MICROWAVE. Should the title of this one be 2" microphones and a microwave"? That would definately be "where it's at"...

Email Blog Test 2

Yesterday, Monday 19th (I think) was, well, not a typical Monday. It had many of the frustrating qualities of a Monday, but it was in fact very unqiue. BET's Coming to the Stage was in town at the Westport Funnybone holding autitions to get on their show. Much like Last Comic Standing, you show up, tell some jokes and if they like you they bring you back that night to work infront of a live audience. Then if they like you, you might get to fly to Las Angeles (I think) and do a show. Funding for the trip is of course your own responcibility. There were three basic things they were looking for besides the obvious "funny" stuff.(I'll write check by the stuff I figure I did ok on).

1) Clean material, kind of, since Coming to the Stage shows during prime time, anyone should be able to tune in. (check)

2) The ability to do 7 minutes, they weren't very specific on this, and they said few of their participants from previous cities could do seven minutes. (check)

3) Matierial that would appeal to an urban audience between the ages of 18 and 49. (uh, say what?)

My number was 58, and I spent 4 hours waiting to perform infront of the toughest crowd I've ever seen. Everyone in the room was in my group (numbers 40 to 60) so of course they didn't want me to do too well… so I understand. I spent the evening travelling to Illinois, where I had heard there was a chance to do some comedy at the Fairview Heights Funny Bone, as I walked in the door, one of the employees told me they had cancelled the show per lack of audience. So I turned around, went home, and played City of Heroes. Tonight I'm on the list at the Westport Funny Bone.

One Fine Day

Yesterday was friday, and I had just settled down to play about 6 or more hours of City of Heroes when I recieved a telephone call from Joe Lehnig who offered me fifty bucks to do some time in a town called New Haven, MO, he also . So I said "Where's New Haven?", and he gave me directions and I was on my way. The show was at a place called the Boon Docker Inn. It was huge! New Have is a kind of country/western line dancing joint and we had a crowd of maybe 80. Though in such a spacious room, it seemed like a small crowd... Andy Woodhall, myself, Joe and Dano Sullivan did the show. I had a blast, though a couple of the patrons were a little (ok, very) drunk and unruly. But it was awesome, and I made fifty bucks, which will almost cover the ticket I got on my way home from work.
Today was the first day of the comedy workshop at the Funny Bone. I am pretty excited about it because we ar focusing on writing, which I need. That's about it. There's a show on Wednesday at the Forum, and I'll be there. Show starts around 8:00, free admission. Free is my favorite word.

poetry and lotion

Ahh the holiday weekend! And where do we find our here but at work in his cubicle... Thanks to a monitary incentive, I'm working both today the 3rd and Monday the 5th. Tomorrow is reserved almost exclusively for City of Heroes. I have shown amazing willpower thus far as I have not (yet) stayed up all night playing. Maybe next weekend...
I guess I should say something about stand up...Comedy on Wednesday was insane, 3 comedians showed up at the Red Sea, and I was the only one who regulary goes to either the Funny Bone or the COmedy Forum. In addition, I was the door guy. In case I am making it sound too, uh, low-class, I don't mean to. I was given as much time as I wanted, and I had a chance to see how some of my new jokes sounded out loud. That's extremely important for me, because I don't often run them by many people before trying them onstage. I may work out the premise with another comic, but I don't often "do" the joke for one. Work is alright, I'm only here to around 2pm, cause I got here a little after 6:00am. Yeah, 6:00am on a saturday... I remember not long ago I wasn't fully functional until 6:00 PM on some saturdays...I just realized that my favorite joke works as a haiku...
My class was so small
you could count the graduates
on my testicles...

Awesome.

If I could work one into a limerick, I'd be a happy boy.

Super Powers

Last night being Tuesday I found myself at the Funny Bone in Westport, I think I've been over that a couple of times. I did not make the list nor was I added to the show at the last minute, or any minute before that. Oh well. It was an awesome show however, as many of the comics last night were on 'it'. Whatever 'it' may be, I want some because they were funny. Today is the last day in June, the sixth month of the year. That's just a statement. I bought City of Heroes on eBay yesterday, and saved like 4 bucks. Hopefully it will be in for the holiday weekend. I haven't played it yet, but I already know it's going to cause me some trouble. If only I had a clone that I could send to work for me. Now THAT would be a super power.

Mob Rule

Last night at the Forum was definately a new experience. The crowd was, to say the least, unruly. When Jim Stout (the MC) was on stage they wouldn't shut up. Especially one particular "gentleman" from Old Monroe? who had some very very bad dental problems... Remember Austin Powers' teeth in the first movie? Worse. I actually make a reference to that guy after my foreshadowing tag saying graduates from High School would understand (in reality, no one really laughed at it, oh well). I have to be thankful for the crowd, however, because it was large (probably like 1 hundred or more people) and they behaved during my set. It honestly felt like one of the best sets I've done, ESPECIALLY because so much of the material is "new". Last night was great, and I will try to have video up today, but I have to mow my sister's lawn, do laundry and babysit my Godson, Jacob. Before I wrap this up, I want to thank The White Leroy for coming in from Columbia last night for the show (and some Yohoho Puzzle Pirates. Thanks also to Doug Vondera and Donna for showing up and not complaining if I spelled their names incorrectly.

Yo quierro... Los Arbys y Jack en el box

Last night I got on stage at the Funny Bone, I was number 12, but after a trade with Keith Cissel, I went on 4th. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I like going on early. People are less prone to notice that I don't swear in my act. After a string of comics who use vulgarity, one who doesn't (in my opinion) stands out. Keith Cissel is also a clean comic, but he somehow doesn't seem to stand out the way I think I do. That's a good thing. The Comedy Forum will host their amateur show tonight, and of course I will be there.

The Red Sea

Last night was awesome. Thanks to info from Andy Woodhull, I found my way to the Rea Sea on Delmar, part of St. Louis' illustrious "Loop". Red Sea is an Ethiopian restaurant with a Reggae Bar in the basement. It was awesome. Yesterday was one of the first times I've ever written a joke, done it, and gotten laughs all in one day. The Red Sea compares to Pipitos, a Tex/Mex restaurant in Minneapolis. I performed there a couple of times and they actually played mexican music during my set.

What I drink when I'm not drinkin'

With as much coffee and soda as I drink I decided to do some research, here it is. See kids? I make science suck even more!
Caffeine Chemical compound: C₈H₁₀N₄0₂.
"There are about 100 mg of caffeine per cup of coffee", (4oz cup?).
"Instant coffee generally contains less caffeine than coffee prepared from ground beans". "Caffeine is a white crystalline and shiny powder with a melting point of 236° C and is a weak base".
"Very few deaths have been reported by its use and probably when used in excess of 10 grams. The blood lethal level are probably in excess of 15 mg percent"."Caffeine withdrawal may cause headache, nausea, depression". Duh.
I stole this information from a couple of websites.
this one
and this one

Neat huh? Sorry about the 'learning' I'll try to post something funny next time. Then again why start now? Yarrrr.

Battle Royale

I got bored while mowing my sister's yard today... that can get dangerous. Maxim magazine used to pit one person or thing against another, and for some reason, Pee Wee Herman and Ernest P Worley popped into my head. I don't know why... but let the battle begin.

Pee Wee Vs. Ernest
Catagory	Pee Wee	Ernest	Winner
Movies	Two	Too many	Ernest?
Good Movies	One	One	Pee Wee?
Real Name	Paul Reubans	Jim Varney	tie
sidekick	Cowboy Curtis (Lawrence Fishburne)	Vern?	Pee Wee
Fav. Food	Mr. T Cereal	Eggs Erroneus	Ernest
Wardrobe	suit+red bow tie	jeans and a hat	comfort: Ernest style:Pee Wee
Mortal Coil	Intact	Shuffled off	Pee Wee
Sat. Morning TV Show	Yes	Yes	tie
Transportation	red bike	golf cart	Pee Wee
Posse	bikers	campers	Pee Wee

I didn't take into account that blade, stone, shaft thing that Ernest does, but with Morpeus and a gang of bikers in his corner, Pee Wee clearly has the upper hand

Beck, Mellowgold, Track One

Mood: Sad :(
Last night was the first Amateur Comedian Showcase Showdown at the The Comedy Forum. Ok, it breaks down like this: Every comic pays 10 bucks to enter the contest and each gets 5 minutes on stage. We drew numbers to determine the order, I was number 9 out of 20. The audience got one third of the vote and there were (I think) 5 judges who had the other 2/3's of the vote. There were five catagories, stage pressence, originality, crowd reaction, cleanliness, and something else (<--that's not the catagory name, I just don't remember it). I've never seen so many comics at the top of their game as I did last night. I didn't win but I was pleased with my set, and since I recorded it' I'll have it on the website, possibly tonight, depends how motivated I am. The best thing was that I managed to go up blind; in case you want to know my set list looked like [new apt] [roommate] [classof2] [tetris] [phonesex] [imp] (imp is 'in my pants'). I don't have much else.
I have to thank Leroy, Doug, Christina, Amanda, Amy and Carrie for showing up last night and for not complaining if I spelled their names incorrectly.
Thanks for reading; Have a great day, I am!

second time around

I'm getting some decent 'flight time'² in St. Louis. I am sure I am learning more than I did in Minneapolis last summer. I think I might be havnig difficulty following some of the dirtier comedians. I have no evidence to back this up, and mean no offence to any of them, but I think that once a crowd gets a 'taste' of vulgarity, they notice when it's absent. That's kind of why I like going on earlier, because in my opinion sober people don't 'need' vulgarity and crassness as much as the intoxified and inebriated. It's about 6 hours until show time and I'm getting pretty nervous. I don't think I would do comedy if it weren't for the queasiness beforehand and the rush afterwards.

2. flight time (noun phrase): obviously a term used by pilots referring to the time they have spent 'at the controls' in the air. In comedy terms, time on stage.
3. My dad's a pilot, and I like aeronautical terms.

mistakes were made

Last night I got on at the Funny Bone, number four in the lineup. I did my set under the hood¹. I did it in preperation for tonight's competition. It could have gone better, I forgot a tag at the end of a new bit, which isn't huge, but I broke character in [tetris] and faltered to get out my favorite stanza. I'm not sure if I rushed through my set or not because at the end of [phonesex] I had time to do [classof2]. I probably shouldn't end on that one because it doesn't have much of a kick at the end.

1. under the hood (prep. phrase): a term used by pilots who fly using special glasses that allow them to only see the instrument panel. In my comedy terms; performing on stage without notes or a cheat sheet. I also call it flying blind.

Coffee and Java

Holy cow, work was so slow today. We got in literally about 1/7th of the work we usually get in on a Monday. Good think I know how to goof off, otherwise I might have become bored, or even worse, actually done work. I've had to drink a lot of coffee today to keep awake enough to not get fired. I did some bitmap editting and changed a bunch of stuff on the main page on marcusisfunny.com. Java mostly, so now people will need to enable java to check out my site. I'm also using this slump at work to memorize my set for Wednesday. I've decided to do this show blind (meaning without my notes) and I'm starting out with new jokes (only a couple) which is dangerous on many levels:

1) A competition without notes; I could choke (that would be bad)
2) Starting out with new material is risky because you don't know how a crowd will react or even if you will deliver the jokes properly.

I have to change up my set because I don't want to do the exact same jokes I did last time at the Forum. That's all I have for now, I think I'll head over to Fark.com for a minute or two. Have a good day.
--Marcus

MarcusTV.com

I was looking through the tape on my video camera and I realized I don't have hardly anything I would willingly add to the website. And since there is A CONTEST COMING UP NEXT WEDNESDAY I've going to tape my set and add it to the site as soon as I can. If I get on at the Funny Bone, I'll try to tape that too. If you haven't already checked out the 'media' section of the site, go ahead, I only have one video and it's only a couple minutes long. It's a compilation of my [Class of 2] set. I want to add some kazoo songs to it, but I don't have the sound software yet. I may hunt some down and upload a song or two. If I add something, I'll note it here and you'll get an email.
Muhuwahahaa. (<--evil laugh).

That's sooo original, really...

Though he knew it was too late for the official contest, a friend of mine submitted the nearby picture saying this was me in the morning. I hate my friends. Seriously, between being compared to a monkey, being drawn as a stick figure (I am not THAT skinny) and being drawn with HUGE gaps between my teeth, I really have to wonder what my friends think of me when I'm not around. Probably something similar to what I think of them. Wa ha haa. I just realized that the primate to the right is pulling what StrongBad would call "Double Deuce Action" and that makes the picture even cooler. Thanks for the picture, Matt. Everyone have a great day, I have to get back to "work".

And the winner is...

The Month of May is over and so is my very first contest. Thanks to the six contestants who participated. I am sure you can tell by the avatar to the left that I have chosen Columbia Missouri's Anthony "Twan" Claypool as the official winner. His prize; nothing, remember? But that's ok, Twan can go to sleep (alone) knowing that he is the ultimate victor, and coincidentally the biggest loser. On a serious note, the reason I picked his picture is because of the giant ear, the left arm and how it almost flys out of my shoulder, I actually have a microphone in my hand, the phraze "Snz hot" on my shirt and the speech balloon telling me people love me. While every other picture was incredible in its own way, none of them almost made me pee myself like Mr. Claypool's. To view all of the submissions, click here. Gongrats, Twan and thanks, everyone.

I got googled!

I was goofing off on google.com today and learned that if you search for "Marcus Robinson comedian" I am the number 4 link that comes up. How cool is that? The three that beat me out are pretty weak… One actually goes to a site regarding that crappy "Weakest Link" game show. That show just seems to keep coming out from no where to make me angry. I created this post in an email rather than doing it on the blogger website.

My first email blog

Last night at The Comedy Forum was awesome. I repeated the same set as Tuesday and had time to add [In My Pants]. I got ANOTHER applause break after [Tetris], which brings me to 3 total. 2 this week and 2 at the Comedy Forum (one was a while ago).
The big news now is the upcoming amateur contest; so far there are 12 of us, scheduled for June 9th (I think) at 8:00pm. The audience is the judge, so the more people one brings the better chance to win the prize (the entire entry 'purse' and a week's MC work at the Forum). It's free admission for all. FREE

*you should go, even if I don't know you or you don't live near St. Louis*

That's all for now, if you're getting this by email, feel free to click on the this thingie here and check it out. The 'Draw Marcus' contest is winding down, I'll be selecting a winner soon. You have until the end of May to submit, rules are posted on the contest page.

Better late than never

Last night I went to the Funny Bone, as is my custom on Tuesday nights. I haven't been there in 3 weeks (2 weeks ago Dave Attel was in town so there was no amateur night, and last week I went to a bar with some buddies). Well I wasn't on the almighty list but during the meeting, I was put on the list; lucky number 2 (my second favorite number, or my favorite second number, either way...). I did the [class of 2], added a couple hand gestures to the prom part and added the phrase 'celebate by popular demand', the tetris stuff and the [phonesex] (<-- that's how I write it on my 'cheat sheet). After tetris I started into the phonesex and I literally had to stop talking because the audience busted into applause. They were awesome last night. So were the comedians; on stage and off. I've never had so many of the guys come up and compliment me. Last night was awesome, especially because my new material seemed to be a hit.

palabra a su madre
--Marcus

Lucky number 13

This is post number 13. One of my favorite numbers, because when compounded to a single digit, (1+3) you get four which is the square of 2 (2^2 = 4). I do math like that in my head a lot. Especially when I drive, I call it "Marc-matics". Get it? My other favorite game to play when driving is called 'In My Pants'. It's awesome, you read billboards and add the phrase 'in my pants'. It gets pretty suggestive, which is the entire point.
The best car-game ever though is "Cows". My friend, Matt told me about it a couple years ago. It involves driving and having people scan the sides of the road and adjacent pastures/fields for cows. When cows are spotted on, for example, the right hand side of the car, the player on the right yells 'I got cows' and then the number. Passing on a cemetary on the right of the car will kill of of the right-side player's cows. While getting thoroughly trounced by yours truly, The White Leroy saw a Sinclair station and used the dinosaur on the sign to eat half my cows. Since then, pretty much anything goes as long at 1) it's funny/silly 2) it makes sense and 3) I still win.

The official Marcus Fan Club

Last night's show at the Comedy Forum was great as usual. I broke out my 'poem' which is composed of items one might find at a Sam's Club spoken to the rythem of the Tetris 'A' theme. I was pretty nervous doing it, as I had to 'sing' it, and I never did get the entire list memorized, but I had fun. Jemal and Ben of What's Up magazine showed up and Ben brought his little brother, John. All three of them went to St. Thomas, Jemal and Ben were one grade above me, John attended a little after I graduated. They drove all the way from downtown St. Louis. What a bunch of troopers! Jemal and Ben have also both submitted pictures for the Draw Marcus Contest. I think that I am going to make them honorary members of the Marcus Fan Club, whether they like it or not.

Wha happened?

Oh man, That medical experiment on Saturday was crazy. I took some blood pressure medicine at 7:01 am and by 8:00 I was so knocked out I didn't even notice when a girl in the same room started projectile vomiting. That's something you don't forget, I would assume. The rest of the day was spent sleeping and watching TV (and getting paid for it).
The rest of the study went well, and I finally finished up the 'poem' I was working on. It's not committed to memory yet, but that's what work is for...

The weekend is upon us (or) TGI the weekend

It's finally friday; Payday in fact. Too bad almost all of my paycheck is replacing what I spent on rent for the coming month... sigh, speaking of money, tonight I will check into a medical study that is testing some sort of blood pressure medicine. I plan on working on some comedy (there's never much to do at the studies). Basically sleep, sit around and watch TV. For Money. I signed up at Fark.com so that I could post links there to my website, but my initial submission got rejected. I suppose I may need a little more 'content' to persuade them to publish my links. They didn't get to be so big without being a little exclusive, I guess. My personal computer is in decent shape, I got an external harddrive enclosure and found out last night that I accidentally formatted a hard drive that mainly contained old Ghosted images of my OS-drive and all of my saved games and music were in fact not lost forever when my computer recently started acting up. Woo Hoo.
The Poetry class I took last spring is apparently going to pay off as I am rewriting one of my (not so-) classic comedy bits into a poetic form. I can't say much more than that, but it's my primary focus for this weekend. If I can commit it to memory I'll bust it out on Wednesday and hopefully be able to have video as early as next Friday. It all depends on when I get internet at home (or if I just bring in a burned CD to work and upload it from here) and how quickly I can install all the essentials onto my computer. I really need to put some Mp3s up, but that requires MORE software... Maybe I should make a list. Have a good weekend (again, I'll pretend like people read this).

This may be the single funniest thing I have ever seen in my life. The caption from Fark.com was
"Photoshop this was giant, walking potato sack from Germany. Quickly, before it makes you buy a bicycle"

Flattered and flattened

I've had the "Draw Marcus" contest running for less than a day and already I've recieved 3 entries. That's extremely flattering. Click on the contests link and check out submissions by Tyler, Anthony and Jemal. You should submit a picture. It'll be fun, and a good waste of a couple minutes. Only 25 more days to prepare that perfect masterpiece, which means you have time to draw at least a hundred pictures of me. Think of the posibilities. Good luck to all and thanks to the current participants.

My first contest!

Mood: Excited :D
I am opening up my very first contest called "Draw Marcus". All you have to do is draw a picture of me, Marcus. Creativity counts, so if its a picture of me discovering cold fusion, that would be cool. Drawing in the style of an existing artist, like MC Escher or MC Hammer, would be cool too. All submissions will be judged by me and must be in BMP format. Also, pictures that would not be appropriate for, say, children will not be displayed on my site. Please keep it clean, especially if you can draw well. Good luck to anyone who is bored enough to compete.

SBC is the devil

I left work early yesterday to call SBC technical support and see if they could help with my internet problem. I talked on the phone for at least 30 minutes and they ran some "tests" and said someone would call me back. Turns out that they sold me SBC service in a neighborhood that isn't covered which means NO INTERNET FOR MARCUS. So now I have to look into getting service from the cable company, which stinks because I don't have cable hookups in my 'office'.
I recently editted a Mario bitmap from the original NES game and removed his hat (and made him bald) and changed the nose (mine isn't THAT big) to make him look more like me. Maybe I should make the ears bigger... Next, I'm going to make myself into a tetris block...

Today, I have three things to talk about:
(1) the stylish new 'avatar' that accompanies this post,
(2) the show last night at the Comedy Forum, and
(3) my personal computer.

I've noticed that different web logs have avatars representing the people typing, and I wanted one. The combination of being bored at work and ethically bankrupt led to the creation of the picture you now see. (It's basically a traced version of the picture on the Media page minus the dubble-thumbs-up and goatie. I may change it periodically if I am feeling artistic (let it be known that I have NO artistic ability).

As for the show last night, it was fun. I busted out some material that I haven't tried since the Summer of 2003 in Minneapolis. I keep hoping that the people who say they're going to show up, show up but I'm almost at the point now where I consider it a lost cause.

As for my computer, I get to spend a bunch of money on a new motherboard, which means reformatting my harddrive and reinstalling everything from scratch. Looks like I am in for a fun weekend, if I get it by then that is. It turns out that another amateur comic from the Funny Bone, Tim Heeley, works at OrangeCom which is cool. Hopefully by the end of the weekend, I'll be able to post stuff from MY apartment. Not that anyone reads this crap... (sigh)

I was mistaken yesterday, the list at the Funny Bone was not current. Matt Behrens didn't make a list last week. Which is fine with me, because he put me on second. I was very unprepared, because I was not expecting to go on, so I had about 15 minutes to look through my "Little Book O' Funny" and find the jokes I wanted to do. I'm not at the point yet where I have all of my material memorized. I have a couple 'bit's memorized, like the "class of two" set I do. You can look at that here.
A friend of mine said that "all stage time is good stage time". And that you're always better when you get off stage that when you get on. I comlpetely agree. Even when I have horrible nights I usually pick up some little tidbit of information that helps out in the long run. For example: don't get drunk until after you get on stage. Yeah, who'd have thought?
If you're reading this and in the St. Louis area, you should check out the Funny Bone some Tuesday night, at the end of the show they give away tickets to a professional show for the following Monday. That's 2 shows for the cost of 5 bucks and some drinks.

Well, I swallowed my pride and took my personal computer to the the shop. Obviously I don't have internet at home, so I am forced to update the site from work. A quick look at the Funny Bone Open Mic Page shows that I am not on tonight. Unless someone doesn't show and they throw me a 'bone'. Get it? I am considering starting a really poor comic strip. I did one in college but can't find any of the digital copies. I can't draw, but I think it would be funny to have a comic strip where the picture is the EXACT same every single time.
By the way, if you click on that link above and it's not Tuesday, April 27th, it's going to show something different depending on what day it is. Theoretically one could click on that link every Sunday, Monday or Tuesday to see who's on the list for Open Mic at the Funny Bone. You should do that. That and buy me stuff (My favorite color is orange).
Oh yeah, tomorrow is Open Mic at The Comedy Forum, easily my favorite place to perform. Jim Stout is the man. Hopefully people will come out and see me, because we comics are supposed to bring people or we don't get on stage. Then again, since no one is reading this post, this might not be the greatest advertising ploy.

I've spent almost all day working on my website today, with very little to actually show for it. I added the "no frames / frames" index page, which cracks me up; my hope is that at least one person tried to click on the No Frames link. I only added the "no frames / frames" because If I typed in the website address in the IE5 add-bar Then the side menu (Main, Bio, Media etc) wouldn't load in a frame, But would take over the entire window. When I clicked on a shortcut or favorites icon, however, the pages and frames loaded up nicely. So I figured that If I had a page lead to my frames page, Then the problem would be solved. I was wrong. So my only option was to have the Frames link open a new browser window. It's a cheap fix, I know, but it's all I can do now. By the way, if you're reading this and you've noticed any weird frames behaviors, feel free to email us about it. And by us I mean me. Someone suggested I add those navigation links to the bottom of my page, but I really don't like those. One day if I am bored, I'll change the text on the side-frame to pictures, but I'd have to be really bored.

Hey everyone! (Right, like anyone is going to be reading this yet). For those of you who missed it, the Comedy Forum show last night was a blast! The next show will be on April 28th, that's less that 2 weeks away, so clear your schedule for a night. One thing to remember, bring a Designated driver, because the more you drink, the funnier we are.

In the beginning

Hi, I kind of hope people read this; not just this blog but this actual entry. I hope it gives a little insight as to what this blog is about. The name of the website is Marcusisfunny, and I hope I am. However, it is not my intent to try to be funny in this blog. As much as I am funny, I am also human. The following entries will contain lessons I've learned, both on stage and off, and will hopefully help people know about me. At the moment, this thing is more for me, to keep a record so i can look back everyonce in a while and appreciate where I am and where I've been. Since other people may (or may not) read this, I'll try to talk about shows and performances, both before they happen and after. That's all for this note, Happy April Fool's Day!
08/23/2004 10:34am ESI