Last night I was extremely nervous about performing at the Deja Vu's stand up comedy competition. I had family coming to the show and was planning on doing my Mia Wallace (affair with a married woman) joke. Since that joke's based on a story I'm not entirely proud of (and one that I'm sure my family would not be proud of) I was a little rattled. That joke is one of my favorites, though, and even though I forgot to add the second half of it, it went over really well. The second reason I was anxious was because it was a competition at the Vu. There's nothing like going back to where you began and trying to show you've gotten better. The guys on Last Comic Standing sometimes said stuff like "If I make it this far, I can justify my decision to drop out of college and do comedy" or something like that. I don't think I had anything to prove to myself, but maybe to my family. I've always gotten the feeling that they don't think I'll make it, or maybe that it'll be too hard, or that I won't make enough money. They don't get it; I LOVE this game.
Mikey Manker and I destroyed last night; they didn't lower the house lights, so while I was on stage, I played the WHOLE audience, I panned left and right and made eye contact and used facial expressions and voice inflection more than I usually do. I got big laughs on my Advice joke and my smoking joke and walked off stage feeling like a million bucks. So I was a little disappointed that I didn't win. It was my third time in the Vu's competition and I've never made it past the first round... That's all I wanted this time. Just to come back. I might get that chance though, because the booker, Matt, mentioned doing something with the "local" talent when the competition is over; he also said he really liked my closing jokes. Sweet.
Nikki Glaser was featuring and Chris Porter was headlining (which is why I picked that week to compete, to hang with Nikki). The show was completely sold out (410 people) which is awesome, and afterwards, Mikey, Nikki and I hung out at the bar and talked for an hour or two. I didn't get home until 3:30am; so I barely had anytime this morning to goof off, watch TV, work on the tube radio, go to the Funny Bone and eat before packing and heading to Mason City.
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