I rode my motorcycle over to Main Street tonight. We had about 30 people in the bar at one time for the shoe, but once the show got going at Lloyd and Harry's, they seemed a little unruly. I went up about 6th or so, most everyone did ten minutes apiece, so I was hoping to make it through that long before the crowd "got to me". But they didn't. I made a set list of the three new jokes I wanted to debut, but once I got on stage, I completely forgot. I started off with some drinking jokes, and moved around from there. My set basically followed my train of thought, I didn't do all of my relationship jokes together, I spaced out a couple of my drinking jokes, and I completely split the pharmacy joke from the Phone Sex and Sam's Club bits. Though some of the audience was talkative during parts of my set, I had them all-but-captivated for a few parts (or at least enough to warrent mentioning). I had a complete blast on stage, was animated enough (though, after watching Andy Woodhull all this week, I realized I should shift my feet when I turn left or right, instead of planting them solid and rotating my torso) and despite the microphone requiring alot of attention (Greg, the guy who brought it said that you had to talk right into it) I did well and got a lot of laughs. I made it a point to watch the other comedians and listen to how they sounded over the PA, which was a luxury since I was going up near the end. I met Tom, one of the owners of Lloyd and Harry's and I thanked him for letting us do the show. He said to keep coming out and tell my friends. I tried to crack a joke and say "I don't have any friends" (which is more true than I'd like to admit) but I don't think he got it. Anyway, week two went really well and Clayton closed the show really well.
I know a bunch of comics don't want to come out to the bar shows, because they consider them "crappy" or something. And I remember a piece of advice someone gave me once, "Do crappy rooms, become a crappy comic". While that has merit to it, I don't think it is a rock solid principle. If you're writing your jokes to rooms like that, they might not carry over to the comedy-based establishments, but stage time is stage time and making 20 people pay attention and laugh is a great challange especially for me, since I'm trying to nail down my emceeing abilities.