Mecha Shiva

Last night I went out to the Comedy Forum to do some sets and practice for the upcoming competition. I drug my video camera along and recorded both sets, but since I left my stop watch at home I had to use my audio recorder to tell me how much time I did each set. First set, I added in my PANTS joke and trimmed some tag-lines, but was forty seconds over. So the second set, I omitted my ADVICE joke and was thirty seconds under. I am going to watch the videos and see what's up with a seventy second difference. Also I want to watch the first set because Kevin Patterson who was emceeing told me that he had never seen me get so many groans before. I was telling him; I can't look like a jerk onstage with my material because people will groan. I have to make myself look like the victim; which means looking kind of vulnerable, while still portraying stage confidence and keeping people interested. It's kind of a weird juxtaposition.
After the Forum, I headed over to Corwin's for Mikey Manker's going away party. A little while after I got there, we did a show and Mikey asked me to open. The show was set up relay race style so each comic brought up the next one; at first, we had a crowd of about 20 people (mostly comics and improv people) and I figured everyone else (who stayed in the bar area (as opposed to the dining area where we were set up)) was just there to drink. Turns out, they did come to watch Mikey and say goodbye to him, but they only really got interested when he was "on the mic". My set at Corwin's wasn't bad, but it's still not the kind that you walk away from with positive things to say. In any case, I'm playing with voice inflection, body posture and facial expressions more as I'm trying to milk each joke for all it's worth.

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

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

Giving Away my Secret Plans

Tonight I got to do a spotlight at the Comedy Forum. Kevin Patterson was hosting and Wayne Moss was also doing a spot before the feature, Danny Browning. The headliner was Don Reese; and halfway through his set I recognized his voice and style of material (and one joke in particular) from MTV's Half Hour Comedy Hour. I've blogged before about that show and how it forms a type of foundation to my stand up career; so I won't repeat myself. Needless to say, it was really cool.
My set was really good, I clocked in at 4:57, which is obviously under the 5:00 I was shooting for. During the show, after I was done, I realized that I forgot to do my PANTS joke, and I'm not sure what I should take out to squeeze it in. My set went thusly:

-Justin (New Smoking Joke)
-Celibate by Popular Demand
-Nervous
-Chubby Chaser
-Advice
-Match.com
-Mia Wallace (Married Woman Story)
-Dumped Via Email
-The Scorpion Strategy
-The Motorcycle Joke

I'm thinking of pushing the Email joke to the end of my set to close on it; I've been trying to close on it, but it seems to hit or miss, especially for a closer. Granted, when it hits, it does great, but when it doesn't it's not a great end. The Email joke is kind of in a similar place, because it sometimes gets groaned. If I trimmed the both of them, I could probably punch them up quite a bit and then I could fit the PANTS joke, which would be nice. Looks like I have a strategy for tomorrow.

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

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From my heart and from my hand
Why dont people understand
My intentions

Put the cheat sheet on the stool; don't hold it.

The crowd tonight was a little tight; and not in that cool, trendy, that's-a-good-thing-kind-of-way... They were a little stingy with the laughter. So it might have been in my best interests to NOT do a new minute on my-getting-fired-from-work, but since when do I make good decisions? My smoking joke (which I claimed to be 10 for 10 tonight) got a laugh really only at the second punch line, which is not what I wanted, but it will have to work. During my new bit I blanked (which got a very UNhelpful round of applause from the comedians seated by the Bull Pen) and I had to go to my notes. I did my PANTS joke and my nervous-around-ugly-girls joke and finished with the Holy Trinity of Dump-Stories. I didn't leave on a "high" note, but I did my time, which I guess makes up for that. At least a little.
I've got two weeks until the competition at the Vu in Columbia, and I'm very much looking forward to it. If I can pull together whatever I was doing last month, I'm sure I'll have a great set; it would be nice to advance PAST the first round since I've never managed to do that there. Apparently my Aunt, Uncle and two cousins are coming to the show. Not sure if that will help or make me nervous. They're very supportive, but I want to make sure they see a great set and not just a good one.

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

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

Three times!

Thursday night, Al Canal had some of the open micers come in to do extended sets because Dustin "Screech" Diamond wasn't able to make the show. Dan Walsh, Mikey Manker, myself, Jim Stout and Jim "The Dad" Keith all did time before the feature for the week Dennis Shehe. My set was alright, but my closer got a big groan, and so I literally told the audience I probably should have closed on something with a big laugh, "Live and Learn". All in all the show was alright, though I would have preferred to leave the stage with more of an applause and less of a silence kind of thing going on. Live and Learn, live and learn...

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

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

Don't forget handouts...

Al Canal let me run the meeting again tonight at the Forum, which was very cool; I asked that people keep their sets around four minutes (many people did three and some did even less) so the show was done by 10:00. I tried some new stuff again after listening to it on my voice recorder and it went about as well as expected. I also did some other (you could say "more established" material, I guess) with hopes of working the kinks out before the competition on the 11th. I've got one week of emceeing and two or three weeks of open mics to select and nail down a five minute set, which I don't think should be that hard. I really REALLY want to do well this time, and hopefully make it to the second round or whatever they're doing.

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

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

Battle Axes and Crucifixes

Though I haven't reviewed the tapes yet, I would guesstimate that 2 minutes of the three and a half I did on stage tonight were new. I've been wanting to do more jokes about the seminary, and after talking to Stewart Huff, I really believe the key to my originality on stage (being different from other comedians, I mean) lies in my being honest. And so I did a bit (not a "bit" as in a joke, but a bit as in a small unit or measurement) on the seminary and how it has affected my life relating to women. While talking to the aforementioned Mr. Huff, I told him about my apathetic stance on the world of sports in general. He thought that that was interesting and honest and so he suggested that I talk about that, especially since I had some kind-of-funny line about battle axes. All in all my set went alright, especially since I was first (after Dan Chopin who emceed). I got some laughs in parts of the newness that I didn't expect, and if Rooftop recorded the show, that will be great to review. I wasn't as nervous tonight as I have been lately (I talked to Gabe a bit about how my pulse races before i get on stage). My pulse seemed to be much closer to the "normal" 80 or so bpm I usually clock in at. I need to do some cardio.

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

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Honestly funny

I got to do a spotlight at the midnight show at the Funny Bone thanks to Eddie Gossling. He, myself and Tommy Johnagin hung out at Six Flags today and I had an absolute blast, and Eddie asked if I wanted to do a spot, and I said that I would. My set went well, the crowd was a little talkative, but it wasn't distracting to the point of being more than just annoying. I caught the show Thursday and one of them Friday (after playing basketball with Keith Cissel and the aforementioned Eddie and Tommy) and might head up to see the show again tomorrow. Stewart Huff (who is featuring) told me after his set that he liked my set and that it sounded very honest. That's a great compliment in my opinion since I talk about things that actually happened to me. It's harder to write material similar to someone else's if you're talking about your life (unless they too shave their head, are bad with women, and lived in a seminary, then it's kind of awkward). Anyway, if you happen to read this before 6pm on Sunday you should go check out the show at the Westport Funny Bone; Clayton Champagne will be hosting and it'll be a lot of fun.

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

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

A longer blog about shorter sets

Yesterday's show at the Funnybone was pretty good. There were 19 or 20 comedians on the list (including three pros) and so Matt told me to light everyone at 2 minutes and get them off stage by 3:00 (except for the pros who pretty much have free reign). I tried out two new jokes, one about being in the Boy scouts and one about being in the Seminary. The first of the two did fairly well and I think it'll be a keeper, the seminary one needs a little work, but since not many comedians went to seminary I really want to talk about it. I got a nice compliment about my stage presence last night, which rocked and really helped make my night.
Al Canal called me yesterday and asked me to help run the open mic at the Forum tonight. I got to emcee (I thought I was just going to run the meeting and run the light but I did all three). There wasn't much of a crowd, but I tried all the material I did last night and even tried talking out a couple of things kind of on the spot. I had a couple of good comments between the comics, which got laughs from the audience (but I also had some that weren't good and they did not get laughs). One of the comics said it was good that I tried to keep the audience attentive between during the show. Since we had twenty five comics and and Al asked me to end the show by 10:30, I told the other comics I'd be lighting at 3 so they'd be done by 4:00 in hoped that everyone would get on stage. No one seemed to mind, and Matt the owner seemed impressed that the show ended by 10 o'clock.
Niice.

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

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Late on many accounts...

I showed up at Muddy Waters at the America's Best-Value Inn in Quincy, IL mere minutes before the scheduled show time. When i got there, I found Landon and Kevin and not much of a crowd. Apparently the ENTIRE barstaff at the place was fired Thursday, so I guess there were rumors or something going around about there not being a show. We decided to hold off until about 8:30 rather than begin with an audience of literally 5. We got maybe 20 more people in the bar, and after a little begging, they moved to the front and we began the show. My set went extremely well, I did a little over 21 minutes and got two different applause breaks. My "chunk" of porn material didn't really register with the whole audience, but one table in particular liked it, which was cool. I'm considering dropping it since it doesn't seem to mesh well with the rest of my material. But of course, nothing's set in stone. All in all, the show was really good, I had fun and I got a much-needed boost to my confidence after the Lincoln, IL Bowling Alley set.

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

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Long show, short set

I forgot to call in and sign up for the open mic at the Comedy Forum this week; so I was put on the waiting list and was told by Al Canal that I might get to go up if there was time. I said that was fine, since I did not sign up; I should have to follow the rules (and I am/was fine with that). Near the end of the show, Al said that Landon (who was in the same "boat" I was) could do a shorter set, and I said I'd love to. Most of the audience (literally and figuratively since they were all over-weight) had already left, but I wanted to at least get some practice before the show Saturday (my birthday!) at Muddy Waters in Quincy, IL with Landon Meyer and Kevin White. I went up and did literally three jokes, not even three minutes, just three jokes. And I'm happy with that because on joke is new (came up with it this week or last), one joke is two weeks old, and the third is my PANTS joke, which someone actually requested before I went on stage. My set went as well as possible with an audience of 8 non-comics, so I'm not down about it or anything. I might be doing Radio with Landon in Quincy Friday morning if I can wake up early enough to drive out to Quincy; I've done Radio once before and had a blast with it, so it should be a good time. Look out Quincy, here I come.

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

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

Running the show...

Matt came up to me today before the show and asked me to run the meeting because he was busy. I said ok, and he said I might as well just emcee while I was at it. He said i was running the show, which kind of made me nervous. So I ran the meeting and tried not to forget the little rules and reminders... What I DID forget was to mark who wasn't there for the meeting, so while I was emceeing, I didn't always know if the person's name I called (there were a lot of new people, a LOT) was actually there. So we skipped on guy and the next time, I said playing the part of so-and-so is Rob Durham, since I had told Rob I was going to throw him up. My set went alright, though I forgot to do my Justin (quits smoking) joke. So i did it between two of the comics when I thought the crowd could use a boost. It apparently worked because it was short enough and got laughs at the right places. Emceeing an open mic is kind of a weird task, because there are so many stops and starts throughout the night; I always appreciate when the emcee has a quick and or clever remark about the guy who just got off stage, and I was happy that I had two tonight. It's not really something to brag about, but I kind of thought if I didn't have something on the fly, people would doubt my emceeing prowess. The show was around 2 hours long, which is a bit much, but we had four professionals show up, so it wasn't bad and the audience was alright.
I listed to a 20 minute set I have recorded from a while back to prepare for the show in Quincy on Saturday and realized that about four minutes of that set are all jokes I don't do anymore. I made a list of the jokes not on that set and hopefully I should have enough to break 20 and get close to 25, since that's what Landon is wanting me to do... If push comes to shove, I might just talk to the crowd, but I expect that that won't end well...

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

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