Last night I headed over to Ricky's on Main because it's less than 10 miles from my place. Of course it is in St. Charles which requires crossing a bridge and risking heavy traffic and even death, but hey it's comedy right? I showed up early because I wanted to work on some bits that I haven't completely gotten on paper. I did 2 pages of free writing, and by the time I was finished (it took a while) a large group of maybe 10 to 15 people (mostly attractive girls) had come in. I was sitting pretty much in the middle of the "VIP" seating, and so I got up to give them more room. Also I wanted to concentrate a little more on writing. I wasn't very successful in the long run, but I think I came up with one new phrase I wanted to use on stage, I don't remember what it is, but I wrote it down.
(Notepad:1 Memory:0)
Originally I was going to try out a couple new bits and just use my "Spring Training" philosophy, but then that group came in, and soon 7-top of girls showed up, so I decided on just doing the set I've been working on recently. There were only 4 or 5 of us to start, so we had "unlimited time", but I was only planning on doing 5 minutes, because in Random Rooms1 (like the Red Sea, any Kousamano show, and Ricky's) shorter is always better. Clayton Champagne lead off and MC'd, then Ken Jr., Bill Davis and myself. Clayton, Bill and Ken averaged about 8 to 12 on stage, because we started around 9:30 and I was on by 10:00. My set went well, the crowd was paying attention, which is rare for Random Rooms, and I finally threw in my Comment Cards joke, which I've been wanting to do for weeks. If I'm lucky I'll remember to do it tonight, though I think I need to rework the examples. Hopefully I'll get feedback at the workshop Saturday. After my set, Araj Rojani (I am most definately spelling that incorrectly) went on, I wanted to stick around for Stevie P's set, but I'm so used to getting out of a place by 10 and getting to bed that I didn't even make it to the end of Araj's set (I saw him do about 10 minutes, probably).
The bottom line; I suppose, is; I think I'm almost done working with my dating material for now, if I can record one solid set of every joke I lump in that catagory, I'll try to move on to a different chunk, like work or college or something. My goal is to turn my catagories (like work, dating, college, skiing, drinking) into 4 and 5 minute chunks. This will get me a chance to work on stage pressence and let me re-familiarize myself with my jokes. It sounds a little OCD-ish, I'm sure, but I like working with a plan of action.
1 Random Room: Any open mic venue that is not specifically designed for stand up comedy; where members of the crowd may not have known there was comedy planned before they showed up.