Last night at the funny Bone, I was on stage for the first time in, I honestly don't know, a couple weeks at least. And I bombed. I'm not entirely sure why, but as always, I am willing to guess; first off, I broke two of my cardinal rules;
Rule Number One: No cheat sheets, it's ok to have one in a pocket (like a security blanket) but if I have to use it, I'm not doing my "homework".
Rule Number Two: No new-material heavy sets, last night I started out with the ol' Make-A-Wish line (which got groaned) and then I followed with about 1 to 2 minutes of new stuff (which I've already alluded to being ill-prepared). It's really hard to present new material to an audience you (meaning I) have not connected to; presenting it too early in a set is dangerous, and presenting it following a joke (Make-A-Wish) that seperates you (me) from the audience is just dumb especially if you (still me; technically, "I") don't present the joke well (meaning with conviction, emotion, or condidence).
So that's why I-as-a-comedian failed, however, I don't think I was the only one not pleased with their set last night. Some guys did well, others did alright, few did as poorly as I did. The audience was composed mostly of friends/acquiantances of a first-timer. Generally audiences like this don't know how to behave; that is drink a lot and pay attention to the comics; they usually just drink a little and wait for their friend to get on stage.
In retrospect, I can see myself doing the same with old material as I did with new material. I started off with that crowd on a bad foot (cancer joke). I would have done that anyway (new material or not). Even in the end, when I tried to salvage my set by doing some work jokes, I couldn't get it back. Maybe if I try a couple of the newbies in other places (cleverly hidden among older jokes) I'll have a better indication of whether they work... In anycase, the Springfield competition is tonight, and there's no way I'm doing new stuff there...