Tonight I was on stage with Clayton Champagne, Bill Davis, the Arch Rivals Improv Troupe, Matt Wolff and Tyrone Robinson (no relation). We had a crowd of about 20 people at the Comedy Forum, and in those situations, the show can either be awesome or a nightmare. It depends on what you make it. I wanted to make it fun, especially since I don't feel so proud of my set last night. I didn't prepare a cheat sheet, and I barely ran over what jokes I wanted to do and I didn't jump around to get myself hyped up before the show (I sometimes jump like I'm skipping rope to get the blood flowing). Clayton pulled me up first and I just approached the mic and opened up. My first joke (the dumped by email one), I feel, made me seem kind of human. Plus it's got a recognizable format, setup, punch, tag, tag. I like it now as an opener because it simultaneously gets the audience ready for jokes, and kind of shows them who I am. Mainly, someone people don't want to date. Somewhere in my set, I kind of narrated/mentioned my lack of segues. Then I called that awkward and then narrated how awkward that was. It was kind of silly, but I liked it. I'll have to post the audio. I did about 12 minutes and had fun. I got laughs; not a ton, but that's to be expected infront of 20 people. I did get an applause break I think.
So what did I learn? I don't know. Maybe that relating to the crowd is essential, or maybe that sequas are important in longer sets. I think I really learned that thinking/believing I'm funny is more important that visually showing it on stage. Lately I've had a bit of an ego, and going up just wanting to be funny and entertain people was a much better idea than walking up and expecting to be amazing.
Mystical? Maybe
Spiritual
Hearable
What appears in you is a clearer view cause you're too crazy