Smiles and stuff

I just got back from the Lloyd and Harry's show. Words cannot describe how crazy it got. However, I think I can use emoticons to paint an appoximate picture.

:0
:D
:0
:)
:0
:|
:0
:x
:0
>:O
$4
:)
:x
:x
:x
:x
>:(

Yeah, that about sums it up.

I had fun on stage, and even tried a new bit for the first time. One of them I thought of today, it might be the cutest suicide joke ever because it involves the cub scouts, more precisely ME as a cub scout. Then again it might not be. I wanted to try another bit that I've been working on only slightly longer, but completely forgot. The crowd was a little talkative during my set, but I upped my volume and didn't get flustered. Sometimes I doubt some of my material, like it's too wordy in the setup to capture a rowdy crowd like Lloyd and Harry's, but tonight it really felt like those that were paying attention got through the setups and to the punchlines without being distracted by the ruckus elsewhere in the bar. I'm on the list for the Bone tomorrow, which will be fun. I'd like to try out my new cubscout/suicide joke thing. I'd also like to properly say this one line I'm working on for the Mia Wallace joke. It'd be nice to do that correctly for a change, even if it doesn't get the big laughs I'm hoping for. Just to know where I stand would be enought.

Check out my MySpace blog for jokes on which I'm working.

Visit RooftopComedy.com. Watch videos. Laugh. Feel warm and fuzzy.

When you wake up in the evening and the day is shot
Find yourself complaining about the things you ain't go

1110th = 14th

I'm not exactly happy with the set I had at Laughs tonight. One trick to comedy is never starting out with a new joke. Another tip to comedy is starting never out with no joke at all. For some reason, I did. I'm wanted to work on the Mia Wallace joke some more, so I started with some dating material. Since I was up 14th, maybe the crowd wasn't into the show anymore, but the woman who went up before me seemed to do well, but of course, she had a much bigger chest than I do, and an accent. I'm still working on not laughing at my own jokes, but it seems awkward, like there is a weird void after punchlines. Hopefully I'll figure it out, as it's not really enjoyable, that vacant time where I just stand there looking confused.

Check out my MySpace blog for jokes on which I'm working.

Visit RooftopComedy.com. Watch videos. Laugh. Feel warm and fuzzy.

Nervous and new

Tonight I went up at the tale end of an almost two hour open mic at the Bone. There were a lot of guest professionals and so the show was really good. I worked on my Valentine's joke and my Mia Wallace joke, but forgot the wording to part of the latter so it wasn't as good as I had hoped. Next time. During my set, I was concentrating really hard on not laughing after my punchlines, there seemed to be a slight emptiness there, and all-too-late I realized that's where I should have "punched" them up with some facial expressions or emotion. Next time. I was a bit nervous during my set, but the few comics I told that to said it wasn't noticable, which is good.

Check out my MySpace blog for jokes on which I'm working.

Visit RooftopComedy.com. Watch videos. Laugh. Feel warm and fuzzy.

Again and again

I need to stop going to the workshops on Monday. There seems to be a "need" to present something when I attend, and I don't always have something new. And working on the same thing for extended periods of time makes it seem like I'm not making progress. Also, since it's been starting later and later every week, it's starting to take up time I could be, you know, eating. Sometimes the workshop ends up helping me out, like with my Mia Wallace joke, I like where it's at now, and I wouldn't be there without it. But I've been working that joke since around January, and I just now got maybe 40 seconds out of it. I have to assume that it's due in part (at least) to working with the other comics, but I've written all my other stuff either alone or with one or two other comics at a time. Maybe that's more condusive to my style.
The show at Lloyd and Harry's went better than expected. I led off a relay-race style show, where Dan Walsh, Mike Strantz and Brian Dowell followed me. Clayton was not there, but we had a bit of an audience. I worked pretty blue (as I was not in the best of moods) and Brian insisted again and again that it was a better set than normal and I was more "myself". All I did was curse more and complain about women. Also I came up with a new line for my Valentine's Day joke. I wrote it down because I did not record the set.

Check out my MySpace blog for jokes on which I'm working.

Visit RooftopComedy.com. Watch videos. Laugh. Feel warm and fuzzy.

Good night, A

I had a date tonight before the Cocktail hour. It went pretty well, so I was in a great, and admittedly hyper, mood when I got to Laughs. As I have for the past couple of weeks, I lead off the night. I did pretty well, and even got a believable compliment from Janine. I say believable because sometimes I don't believe I had a good set when others tell me I did. Any reader of this blog will know I'm too hard on myself. It's starting to pay off, though. I did a joke about the girl I had my date with, about how she's too good for me, and how that sucks because now it's just a waiting game until she figures that out, or until I find out what's so wrong with her that she would go out with me. It's kind of a loose-loose situation. Anyway, I tried to pay attention to how many times I laughed after my own jokes tonight and caught myself pretty early in my set. Gabe was right. I don't have anything else to say, except Nikki Glaser has a google alert thing that tells her when I mention her in my blog. Ha ha, false alarm Nikki!

Check out my MySpace blog for jokes on which I'm working.

Visit RooftopComedy.com. Watch videos. Laugh. Feel warm and fuzzy.

Can you dig it like a spigot
My guess is yes you can like, can I kick it? wicked

Marcus 1: Audience 0

Tonight I got to emcee the second half of the open mic at the Forum. My set was alright; I got a good laugh on my Valentine's closer, where I say "that's the second time I got cockblocked by Jesus". Janine said I almost got an applause break. Gabe said I should stop laughing after my own jokes. I didn't realize I was doing that again, so I'm going to try to pay attention tomorrow at the Cocktail hour. Other than that, not much exciting news; I did an impression of Abraham Lincoln tonight. My favorite part is, no one can say what Lincoln did or did not sound like. I say this, "Hello, my name is Abraham Lincoln, you may remember me from the penny". Normally I don't like impressions, some guys can pull them off, (Caliendo, Macrae, et al) but they usually don't say the name of the person in the impression during the impression. That's which is why I say "My name is Abraham Lincoln" because it's supposed to be a bad impression.
Mission Accomplished.

Check out my MySpace blog for jokes on which I'm working.

Visit RooftopComedy.com. Watch videos. Laugh. Feel warm and fuzzy.

When it comes to poetry, he's got plenty

Monday the 16th

Tonight John Morgan showed up at the workshop. I was showing off my existing versions of my Valentine's and Mia Wallace jokes when I had to explain to him that a lot of my set consists of material based on my failures with the ladies. John Doelling said that the way I explained it to John Morgan was very realistic and personable. I'm going to have to go back over my recording to see exactly what he means.
Lloyd and Harry's was interesting as always. Brian Dowell completly upset some dude in the bar. The guy tried to heckle, but failed, so when I went up I tried to relate to him. I started off with my skiing jokes, because I figured no one can get offended at those. The guy did not get offended, but I didn't exactly tickle his funny bone either. Anyway, I jumped around subject-wise and eventually did my Valentine's and Mia Wallace jokes, which did alright. I also talked about a girl I had a date with (and have another date with). The basis of that joke is that she's too good for me, and it's only a matter of time before she realizes it. I ended on a weird line, which was something like "This isn't so much a joke as it is a cry for help", it got a laugh, but I think I could find a better close for that line. It's probably been said before anyway.

Check out my MySpace blog for jokes on which I'm working.

Visit RooftopComedy.com. Watch videos. Laugh. Feel warm and fuzzy.

'Cause I'm illegal, I got everything
That all you women might need to know

Setting 'em up; knocking 'em down

I got thrown to the wolves tonight at the Landing, going up first at the Cocktail Hour. Luckily, I was at least two or three cups of coffee into the night and excited because I think I've nailed down the Mia Wallace joke (it's at least stage ready) AND came up with a decent line for the Valentine's Day joke. Not a whole lot to say about the evening, I hung out in the bar and told Janine a story I want to call "The Fourth of July I Don't Remember", it's a real tribute to my drunken schinanigans. I wrote with Landon for a bit before the show, and I came up with a Master's golf reference for the Mia Wallace joke. I'm pretty excited about it.

Check out my MySpace blog for jokes on which I'm working.

Visit RooftopComedy.com. Watch videos. Laugh. Feel warm and fuzzy.

iPod <> infallible | iPope <> mp3 player

Tonight I was on at the Westport Bone, and I did about 5:30 on just relationships and me being bad with the ladies. I tried out the newest incarnation of my Mia Wallace joke and I liked how it went. I finally found a way to turn it around and make it my fault. Sadly, Rooftop comedy was not recording tonight, and since I was running my stopwatch and keeping time for the show, my iPod didn't record it either. I hope they know the sacrafices I made... Anyway, my set was really good, and I had fun. I checked my Myspace and Rob from Category 5 asked me to come back to Quincy and emcee the show there on the 27th. I'm excited about that, because it's paid work, and it's comedy. And a free meal. Booyah!

Check out my MySpace blog for jokes on which I'm working.

Visit RooftopComedy.com. Watch videos. Laugh. Feel warm and fuzzy.

Lloyd and Harry's recap

The crowd was pretty big at Lloyd and Harry's tonight. Dan Walsh hosted, and did a pretty good job of keeping the crowd's attention, and I followed Brian Dowell, so the focus was still on the "stage" when it got to be my turn. I did some drinking and porn jokes, my skiing stuff and closed on my pharmacy joke, I think. My set went well, I had to yell most of it out, and I noticed my stomach hurt a little (it was pretty tight) from the effort. I just checked the Bone's list for tomorrow and I made the cut. Tomorrow before the show, I'm going to have to really work on my Mia Wallace joke and try to crank out at least one joke. I'm having problems writing it in story format, and want to find a way to write it in "my style", although I'm not entirely sure what that is... I know it has to be self-depricating, at least a little. I mean, me doing WELL with a lady? The crowd would never believe that...

Check out my MySpace blog for jokes on which I'm working.

Visit RooftopComedy.com. Watch videos. Laugh. Feel warm and fuzzy.

Muddy Waters - Quincy, IL

I got to bed this morning at about 5:00am, because Landon, Aaron, the manager of the hotel, some ladies and myself stayed up super late drinking and shooting the bull after the show that we did at Muddy Waters in Quincy, IL. I got to emcee the show, and did about twenty five minutes and had a blast. I was really trying to keep the energy but didn't wan to rush or skimp on my time. I think I did a good job. Janine followed and had a great set, and got a lot of compliments after the show. Aaron Hurley followed and also had a killer set. Landon closed the show and did awesome even though he apparently had three ex-girlfriends in the audience. That has to be weird, having that many ex-girlfriends... The drive home was pretty decent despite my four hours of sleep. It was a great show, and hopefully Category 5 (the booking company) will be able to keep it running and I'll get back up there.

Check out my MySpace blog for jokes on which I'm working.

Visit RooftopComedy.com. Watch videos. Laugh. Feel warm and fuzzy.

Lotsa energy, lotsa laughs

Tonight we had a meeting about the open mic at Laughs. They talked about bringing more people and rewards and limiting the list for the Thursday. The idea of making it a bringer show doesn't appeal to me much since I don't have anyone to bring. As a "full time" open mic comic, I don't have enough friends who haven't seen every single joke I have a hundred times. So getting them to come out to a show is usually a little more than difficult. My set tonight, however was good. I stole the energy I had last night and tried the same approach. I think I did about 4:09 or so, out of 5:00, so I may have been rushing it. I don't want to make that a habit, but I got good response from the crowd. Tomorrow is the show in Quincy, and I;m pretty excited about it, I think I'm doing around twenty minutes. I'm not sure when I'm going up in the order, I'd kind of like to emcee, but I won't be disappointed if I don't.

Check out my MySpace blog for jokes on which I'm working.

Visit RooftopComedy.com. Watch videos. Laugh. Feel warm and fuzzy.

That's a lot of coffee

Jim Stout asked if I wanted to emcee tonight at the Forum. I said I would love to. I was planning on working out my Mia Wallace story, but instead, I decided to go up and rock the stage with a bunch of energy. I'm pretty sure I succeeded to. I didn't necesarrily rush my jokes, (or spell necessarrily correctly) but I had a great energy and was pretty loud. I tried to make some sort of comment after each comic or introduce them in a funny way to keep myself on my toes and see what I could come up with with little to no notice. The show was really good, and the audience was great and stuck around for the entire thing. We ended around 10, which was perfect since I had time to get home, goof off on the internet and (hopefully) get to bed before eleven. It's about eight til right now, so I'm racing the clock. The show was awesome and I had a blast and; Mike Howlington said he loved my energy and that it was one of the best sets he'd seen me have. Laughs is tomorrow and I'll definately be working on the Mia Wallace thing, so I probably won't be as wound-up/hyper as I was tonight, but it should be fun nonetheless.

Check out my MySpace blog for jokes on which I'm working.

Visit RooftopComedy.com. Watch videos. Laugh. Feel warm and fuzzy.

Doomed to repeat it...

You'd think I'd learn not to try new stuff infront of the tougher audiences. Of course by audience I mean one bar patron, one bar owner and four comics. Most of my new stuff comes off as very conversational and lacks the punchiness needed to, you know, make stuff funny. That's how my set was at Lloyd and Harry's. Clayton made me emcee. Nick D, Kevin W, Brian D and Clayton C all went up, as did Dan W, who showed up late. More people showed up throughout the course of the show, so I tried some older-ish material (including my suicide stuff) and it didn't do too bad. I'm not on the list of yet tomorrow, but hopefully will get up Wedneday and Thursday before the show in Quincy with Landon Meyer, Janine Brito and Aaron Hurley. I'm looking forward to that one.

Check out my MySpace blog for jokes on which I'm working.

Visit RooftopComedy.com. Watch videos. Laugh. Feel warm and fuzzy.