Breaking the rules

One of my cardinal rules is to never start a set with new material. But rules are sometimes meant to be broken, right? No. The answer is no. The crowd at the Westport Funny Bone tonight was extremely tight and I did not connect with the crowd while I was on stage. I tried to get them with some of the stuff I've been working on lately; but really didn't have much luck. Eventually I just basked in the awkward silence. Of course, that just made it more awkward. I would have felt bad, but the crowd was tight all night and I'm trying to get some thicker skin and not take bad sets as hard as I did before.