I left the Springfield Funny Bone tonight pretty much as soon as I got off stage because I really wanted to get back home. I knew 1) that my own bed was waiting for me, and 2) so was Season 1 Disc 4 of Dexter and I wanted to see the season finale. It was amazing.
The shows tonight went quite like the shows last night. The first one was a little tougher to get laughs than the second one. I'm not sure what it was; but there are a number of things that the Springfield club does that other clubs (in my experience) do not. The owner (or his son) host the show and spend the first ten minutes doing some announcements and corny book-type jokes and stuff and then they bring up the opener (me). It usually goes something like "The third Wednesday of the month is our open mic, so if you think you're funny, come try it. That's where comics get their start, like this young man..." or "Before the headliner, we have an opener, an opener is a male of female who's just trying to get more stage time so they can get better..." Second show, Don brought me up as "Marcus". The other really weird thing is they use music to bring up their comics. I've never liked having music play while I get on stage as I think it's completely unnecessary. Because then I have one more thing to do on stage (cue them to turn off the music) before I can set my attention on the crowd.
I watched a recent video of mine on Rooftop, and noticed that while I try to look the audience in the eyes, I was scanning back and forth (right to left to right to left) rapidly. Really rapidly. It looked almost freakish, and so tonight I made a mental note to slow my pan and to keep centered and focused on the middle of the room more. I'm not sure if that will make the audience see me as funnier or not, but I certainly think it will make me look a little bit more natural should I be taping a set.
Visit RooftopComedy.com. Watch videos. Laugh. Feel warm and fuzzy.