More than jokes

[Chronologically]
Dan Swartwout from The Bill and Dan Showdid a guest set Wednesday night at the Funny Bone. I'm a big fan of the show, have written in a couple emails (some of which have been read on the show) and it was cool to meet Dan. We talked some shop at BackStreet after the show, and the part I liked best was something like this:

< Dan > Young comics say they want to be like Comic X¹. But he didn't start off doing his current act. He started out doing impressions of his dad. Eventually his act evolved to where it is by trying different things on stage and keeping the ones he liked. You can't say 'I want to be like' so and so and disregard everything that's not that style. You have to throw everything against the wall and see what sticks. < /Dan >

I found my Digital Voice Recorder yesterday. It was in a pair of shoes that I wore to the Vu Thursday. I bought a MacBook (with a printer/scanner, some blank DVDs, a wireless network thing and some other neat stuff). I found out that I get up to a gig on an Apple Server, from which I can host a website. So I'll be changing hosting providers soon, which may cause MarcusIsFunny.com to go offline for a bit. I might also loose some email functionality.
Adam Lough invited me to make the list last night at Laughs on the Landing last night, and asked me to be more involved with the Cocktail Hour goings-on. Adam said he liked it when I posted the people's times on my blog, but I'm not sure if that's the best place for them, so when I move servers I'll likely redesign my website (and I might throw in a page for that). I could also just open a new blog under my current account. Then I could have an archive. Hrmmm.
I did a lot of hobo jokes last night. I just had a bunch of ideas (and one story that my brother told me) and wanted talk it out on stage. I'm not sure where the setup/punch are there, so it's an organizational thing right now more than a finding-details one. Anyway, my set was alright considering we had five non-comic audience members when I was on stage. Tonight I have a spotlight in Mason City, IL with Nikki Glaser. Hopefully I'll be able to split out of work a little early and get on the road before traffic gets insane. Tomorrow I am either working on my car, doing laundry or playing with the new Macbook. I'm likely going to have to go to Westport or somewhere where I can mooch some wifi. I just want to get the email and stuff setup (and check the myspace) and then I can go home and goof off with Garage Band and stuff. I can't wait...

¹I think he was talking about Bill Hicks, but I am not sure. More than one professional comedian would serve in this example.

pretty colors

Last night my friend Janine got to MC the Funny Bone open mic. She did a good job, too, especially when she brought me on stage. Not only was her intro good, and her technique flawless, but she brought me on stage, which really helped in her over-all score. I'm working on this bit about hobos getting harrassed by the police and it's a little weird. I tried it out last night, along with my Dominoes Brownies bit. I also threw in my Halloween, Christmas and Easter jokes. 'Tis the season...
I also did a Friday the 13th line, since it's coming up in about 2 weeks. It went like this; "I celebrate Friday the 13th, too. I like to dress up and kill teenagers". My set was alright, I would really like to get a new closer or find something else that's strong enough to end a five-minute set. For emceeing, the Tetris thing still works, but I'm not doing that at every open mic.
One important piece of Marcus news; I returned my Charter cable modem yesterday. So I don't have internet at home anymore. My intent is to save money and get a laptop that I can use on the road and at St. Louis Bread Co/Panera and mooch internet like that. I'm hoping it works out, 'cause if it does, I get a laptop!

Hey Peter man!

I think my attitude is getting worse, due largely to my dissatisfaction at work. Last night I was at Lloyd and Harry's and for some reason I got on a rank while talking to Stevie P about how much I "sacrafice"₁ for comedy and how I think I should be getting more than I am. And while I believe I should be getting more paid stage-time (at least a little more) I don't think I should be getting all-bitter and telling people about it.

Anyway, on to my set: I really want to be a more reflective comic, personable and stuff. I tried that approach last night, and it didn't exactly work the way I had hoped. Granted, Lloyd and Harry's isn't the best place for laid-back mic control, especially when you're going on stage after Brett Clawson, who did got a literal boat-load of laughs but is not the most subtle. I caught a little Live At Gotham this morning, and was amazed by the writing of the comics I saw. They weren't just about real situations that happened to them, but were about minor
real situations. Things that others might look past. It's kind of frustrating, or I'm kind of greedy, because I don't know ultimately what I want to talk about (or how I want to do it) but I know I always want to do what impresses me (so, pretty much everything) and I know I want to be good at it (funny and relatable).

Sometimes I start my blogs with a question or problem I'm having, and I think very rarely do I come to any conclusion. I kind of feel like Doogie Houser. Only without a Doctor's salary...
₁ In retrospect, I was probably being a whiney baby...

Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down

Thursday night I got to go to Columbia, MO and do a spot light with Dan Cummins and Louis Ramey. Louis is one of my comedic heroes, you can read why here. Dan is an impressive comedian too, he's one of the more creative writers I've met. Matt at the Vu let me do about five and I did well, despite distractions;
-I wasn't on stage Tuesday or Wednesday, so I didn't feel 'fresh'
-I had college friends in the audience.
My set went well, but I closed on my pharmacy-job joke, which isn't all that strong of a closer. I just didn't want to close on Tetris, I think Columbia's seen that one a few times. I looked, but couldn't find any audio from the last time I was there. Come to think of it, I can't find my audio recorder right now I should look for that...
Anyway, Thursday was awesome, I got to share the stage with Louis, I got on stage (in Columbia, which is always a big deal to me) and I had a good set.

Last night I was at the Funny Bone with Janine but the first show was super-packed and so we hung out at Starbucks a bit and then I stayed for the second show, which was also packed. I did get a seat by some people who wouldn't stop talking, but I was able to hear Stewart Huff's set. The midnight show was really good too; but I may be biased since I did a guest set. I watched Chad Huff (who was emceeing) and he seemed really laid back on stage, and I knew Stewart works with a very calm demeaner, so I tried my hand at it. And I really liked it. I thought of the show at the Landing that I emceed, where I just wanted to relate to the audience; I kind of like it. Ricky Gutierrez reminds me a lot of John Morgan; by that I mean the audience loves him. Both Morgan and Gutierrez can go from poop jokes and blue-humor to talking about family and never miss a beat. I would like that ability to relate to the audience. I really want to be able to do that. I mean anyone can talk about relationships, but it has to be hard to expose yourself (not like that!) and really get people to laugh (both with you and at you) and understand who you. Maybe that's why Ricky and John are so popular with crowds and successful. I was looking at the ClustrMap of my blog and I saw that I have new views from Africa and Asia. I'd kind of like someone in Greenland or Iceland to check out the blog, or maybe Irkutst. So if you know anyone, email them a link and say, "Hey, just click on it".

Stupid and lazy

something awesome and something equally crappy happened last night at the bone. matt behrens asked me to keep time for the competition to pick an emcee for the bud light real men of comedy tour stop in st louis. matt and greg warren then joked about how i was the "best" or most dependable light guy in the business and how 2 lights meant "you'll never work in this town again". it was really funny, and made me feel like they did appreciate me working the candles. there were only five contestants on the list for the competition, so i asked matt if i should have submitted a tape (the deadline was sept the 8th (by b-day) and i was busy with a ton of other crap at the time and really didn't think i would stand a chance getting into the competition). matt said i should have submitted a tape and i felt bad. lazy really. all i had to do was drop a lousy tape in the mail. i'm really not going to beat myself up over it, but it would have been good exposure *i mean i would have been on stage in front of the bud light people), it would have been more competition experience and it would have been more practice for thursday at the vu.

Candy, candy, costumes

Last night at Lloyd and Harry's I busted out my Halloween material. It's been a while since I've performed those jokes, but I ran through them in my head most of yesterday and am pretty happy with the results. Since I was in the Holiday spirit, I did my Christmas ([air hockey] and [pokémon]) and Easter jokes. Since I'm still tweaking it, I also talked about Dominoes brownies. The crowd was slightly apatehtic, so I was really just on stage for myself, but I think if I work on the Holiday stuff for the next month or so, I might be able to bring that material to the level I feel my newer stuff is at.
I was talking to Janine yesterday and it's as if my older material doesn't reflect my abilities now, but I need to keep it around for my over-all total. I don't want to have "filler" as an open mic-er and would prefer to have as little as possible when I start featuring, but the writing process is so hard, and it takes so long to generate quality bits that I almost feel like I have to keep some of my older material around. The most discouraging thing is when I hear professionals talk about how much they think I should write. One guy said three to five hours a day. And that would be possible if I didn't have to eat, clean my house, goto a day job 5 days a week, hit all the open mics and sleep. I do try to write an hour a day (ok, an hour each weekday), so hopefully when I do quit my day job, I can keep that habit and expand to more writing each day. I think what I need are writing exercises. One friend of mine said he has a check-list that he runs through on a daily basis; on exercise on the list is an hour of free-writing (wow). I usually can go for about a page, which is like 5 minutes-worth. An hour is probably a bit out of my league. For now.

late like Alice

Last night's show at the landing wasn't bad. We didnt have near the number of comics we had last week, but we didn't have near the audience we had two nights ago. I ended up going first, but since I wanted to keep within the alotted time frame, I didn't try to connect with the audience the way I did Wednesday. Janine and I requested some bits for each other and so I had a list of what I wanted which might have been a bad choice. It doesn't matter, but the audience wasn't really with me, and so the set didn't go as well as I had hoped. I was concentrating really hard on remembering and wording a new tag for my email joke, which did distract me from much of my performance, so hopefully next time around, I'll have the delivery for that joke down and I'll be back up to speed. I think the people I like to watch the most are the ones who are the most consistant (on their side). The comics, and this does include some open mic-ers, who keep it tight and controlled on their end (despite how the audience reacts) can be the best to watch and the ones to learn from.

Way way behind

OK, so it's Wednesday night, and I STILL didn't put down anything about Friday's shows (where I hosted at the Westport Funnybone for my birthday). First of all, my dad, brother Darin, sister Cheryl, her husband Doug, my Aunt Millie and her husband (my Uncle) E.J. all came out. Also, my buddies Leroy and Christina came to watch the show; and they picked a good one. I didn't necessarily drive home the parts where I brought Joe Marlotti, Jeremy Essig or Dan Grueter to the stage, but my jokes felt good and were well recieved by the audience. My family seemed to have fun, but most of them haven't seen me in a long long time, so the progress I've made is probably more noticable to them. My sister had actually never seen me perform before, so that was cool. My family didn't stick for the second show, which is understandable, but that one went well too, I feel.
Monday night I was late to the show at Lloyd and Harry's because I was in a car accident on the bridge going into St. Charles. Some guy rear-ended my Corolla while I was sitting behind an SUV in the right most lane of the highway. My car's been totalled out, which sucks, and we didn't have a show that night because there wasn't an audience. As soon as the accident happened (I'm alright, by the way), I called Clayton to tell him I might not make it. 911? No. Family? No. Who'd I call? The guy running the show that night. There's a lesson there, but I'm too dizzy to figure it out.
Tuesday's show at the Bone was less stellar than Friday's. We had little to no audience, which happens, so Matt had all the comics sit "closer". None of them were really that close, but the Bull Pen was empty. My set was alright, though a couple of the guys really stepped up and did well for such a small audience. I tried a couple new jokes and tried something about the car-totalling experience. Needless to say, it probably won't make the cut.
Tonight I did a special show at the Landing. Myself, Janine Brito, Josh Arnold, Adam Lough and Mikey Manker did about 8 to 10 each for an in-town group of business peoples. I got to host, which was cool, and I tried my best to "connect" with the audience. I talked more personably than usual, and tried to make my jokes seem relatable. I wanted the audience to trust me, and trust that I was going to bring them a good show with good comedians. So everytime they saw me come back on stage, I wanted them to go, "Oh, it's Marcus, I like him, what's he have for me now..." or something like that. I did a little over 10 minutes but did about 7 minutes worth of jokes, the rest of it all was me catering to the crowd. There weren't a lot of people in the audience, but I think I made them feel like that was ok. In any case, everyone had a good set, and the people stuck around for the improv troupe that was scheduled behind us. I have a rental car now, so I picked up Janine and Lauren and we rode to and from the Landing together. Anyway, I have to myspace a bit and watch some tv before turn into a pumpkin (it's late).
Hopefully I can start blogging at work again; I've been so busy there, I haven't had time to goof off more...

Thanks for reading..

Scarlet Letter Style

Last night (Wednesday) I called Adam Lough to see if I could host the Cocktail Hour at Laughs on the Landing tonight (Thursday). He didn't have a problem with it, and so when I showed up, I got a list of names and checked people off as they came in. Janine and I were trying to work on some jokes, so it was a little difficult to concentrate, but we got through and had the meeting just before the show.
The owners at Laughs set it up so all the comics who want on get on; it keeps people in the showroom and bar buying drinks, so it's cool. However no one wants to be last, so it's not always an easy task making an order. And tonight I had to do it. To keep it "fair", people who were not in the meeting got put on a second list, and were added as they showed up. It sucked because I had to put comics I like, respect and hang-out with in tougher/less-pleasant spots. A couple people asked to be moved and I wouldn't move them. I did move Clayton, because Mike Strantz was taping his set, and was leaving before Clayton's originally-slotted time, but Clayton stayed for 95% of the show, so I don't feel guilty about that. Anyway, my set was alright, I did about 5 minutes (which is more than the 4 minute limit we were working with tonight, but usually the emcee does a bit more time). Besides, I didn't want to start the night ending my set with a joke that didn't "hit". Anyway, the times and comics went like this.
Marcus Robinson 4:51
1. Kevin W 4:10
2. Mike S 3:10
3. Joe M 5:40
4. Thersa 4:10
5. Andy F 3:15
6. Howard Van B 3:47
7. Brian D 4:45
8. Craig M 4:06
9. Clayton C as Skippy DooLittle 3:41
10. Mike S 4:40
11. Mikey M 4:49
12. Mike H 3:35
13. Chris T 3:44
14. Adam L 4:17
15. Buddy 3:41
16. Nick D 4:01
17. Joe T 2:19
18. Joe H 4:19
19. Josh A 5:42
20. Andy 3:20
21. Janine B 3:23
22. Dre 4:22
23. A.C. missing
24. Leeman 4:07
25. Monrey 3:00
26. Ken C 4:28
27. Nikki G 4:17
28. John D 3:41
29. J.R.
30. Anthony J
31. LC M 8:16
32. D Dan missing
33. Chad H
34. Longhorn 5:06
35. Gabe K

Under 4:10 is green, between 4:11 and 5:00 is yellow, anything above that is red. I messed up a couple of times, and didn't write them down (missing), and a couple of people either weren't there when I called their names or told me to take them off the list. I didn't spell out everyone's last names, because incase anyone ego-surfs (Googles themself) I don't want them to find out that way... Then again, maybe I should have; we could make big red "O"'s for people to where because they went over the light. Hester Prynn would approve.
Anyway, I gained a ton of respect for Adam who runs the Cocktail hour usually, because it was frustrating and very difficult to go up and down and up and down and keep it rolling and still maintain composure. Booze probably would have helped...
Anyway, it's late, and I am hungry. PB Sandwiches, then bed.

Are you happy now, Stevie P?

I never finished out my Milwaukee trip blog. Saturday's shows were good, though we had some talkers in the second show. Blatent talkers. In the first row. Brian and Robert kind of let them have it. I also got a speeding ticket on the way home. 73 in a 55. It was in Milwaukee, on one of their major roads and I was just keeping up with traffic (maybe passing some of the other cars). The lady cop asked why I thought she pulled me over, and I was like "speeding, I guess" and I wasn't being a jerk, I had NO IDEA it was a 55 mph zone... So there's a couple hundred bucks I guess I really didn't need.

I just got back from the Bone, where I went up 9th and did all new jokes. (New meaning written in the last month). I have this Dominoes Brownies joke that I really like, and one about work (you can read them on my MySpace blog) and I like them both, but a couple of other jokes I've been working on probably need to be cut. My time was getting near the end and I finished on a wedding joke, which might have potential but essentiall fell flat, so it kind of left a sour taste in my mouth. Who knows. The crowd tonight was small, but some comics really connected and got them into the show, so it wasn't so bad. I think my Brownies joke was well recieved, though I forgot the word "Mutant", which apparently Janine was waiting for... It won't happen again.

Anyway, it's late and I have about 10 hours of Dark Angel to wade through, so I better get to my TV and then to bed. No show tomorrow, and I am debating going to the Reverand Horton Heat concert, but I'll likely end up at the Bone just to hang out.

Spartan Comedy Tour

I really need a laptop. If I had one, I could:
a) blog when I am on the road
b) work on projects when I am on the road
My Wednesday 'audition' went very well in Southbend. Cassie, the assistant manager, was working and a bit before showtime asked if I could do about 15 minutes up front. The feature act, Jason Benci, was running a bit late. I ended up doing 19 or 20 minutes and then brought him up. He was appreciative, as was Cassie. Hopefully that made a good impression on her and I'll get to come back and perform there again. The headliner Steve Brewer was very funny (so was Jason) and since I ended up staying at the Condo that night, I got a chance to talk shop with them. I talked to Steve about my organizational tool and he gave me some great ideas on how to improve it and get even more organized. Since I am a nerd, I'm pretty excited about it.
Thurday's show in Milwaukee (for me) was rough at best. The music and announcements are standard and it doesn't say, "now your host and emcee", it just kind of starts the show, so I was about 5 to 7 seconds late getting to the stage. Also, the announcements on the sheet they gave me were a little weird, so it threw me. Duke asked me to do about 5 up front and then a bit or two between the comics. I pretty much screwed that up. The jokes I did, though, went over well, though, and all the other performers, Brian Aldrich, James Berry (who was doing a guest spot, and I have met before) Mario Digiorgio and Robert Mac were did well. Afterwareds, JD took us out to dinner, which was really good, and I ended up having leftovers for lunch. They were good.
Friday's shows (last night) were fun. I did much better and did 10 up front. I nailed the announcements, though I went 30 seconds over because I forgot to start my stopwatch. Second show was good, and I switched up my material a bit. I'm hoping to do at least one or two "different" bits each show tonight.