This weekend I was on stage at the Deja Vu in Columbia Missouri. I've been to the Vu a hundred times for comedy, but 99.9% of those times were when I was in college (before I started performing regularly) and I was usually just there to watch and get wasted. The few times I have been on at the Vu were either competitions (in which I never really did well) or the spotlights I got through Buzz. Anyway, it's been almost 2 years since I've been on at the Vu, and I've sent packages, made calls and generally harrassed the crap out of them for the last 12 months or so. This might sound weird, but I am glad it took so long. I say that because my spotlights went amazingly well. The first show, I got about 8 minutes. EIGHT! The crowd was pretty energetic, and they laughed at the right places to really make me feel welcome. I was more mobile on stage than usual because I didn't want to have a loud voice on stage with high energy and just stand around. I recorded audio, so I might pull a clip so and put it on my Myspace player (also available on my Media page). Matt, the manager, was doing the emceeing for the night and when I got off stage, he was very complimentary. Not to me face to face, but to the crowd. He said something like (and I hope I have it on audio) that I've come a long way in just a few years. I felt fuzzy inside.
Second show was a little rougher, the crowd wasn't as energetic (and they remained that way for the rest of the night) and I did some different material, so that I didn't seem like a one-set comic.
The feature for the weekend was Jeff Havers, who I met couple weeks ago at the Forum. Rob Little headlined. Both of the guys were super nice and each complimented at least one of my jokes. After the show, some friends of mine and I went downstairs to the Vu's dance club where I embarrassed myself on the dance floor and and still managed to gets some 'digits' from some 'ladies'.
Oh yeah, something really funny happened between the shows. During my tetris bit, I said that I "went back to" the Sams club in town (that's actually the one I used to work at). Between shows, some middle-aged women said that they saw me there, they thought that it was really funny. The thing is, I didn't go there. I was asleep on the couch...
I'm feeling really good about myself lately, I've had three "auditions" and have done well on all three. I have the one in Westport coming up, which is pretty nerve-wracking, but I'm not worried about my comedic set, just my emcee skills (or complete lack thereof).