4:28PM
I'm at Mikey Manker's apartment in Chicago. I took the "MEGABUS!!!" here this morning for $21.25. The bus was a double decker (and yes, I sat on the upper deck) and wasn't very crowded at all, which was nice. I got to Chicago and met Mikey around 2:30 and we grabbed lunch and took the Chicago Transit (the Blue AND the Red lines) to his place where we're currently hanging out and he's working on his résumé.
11:45PM
Mikey and I took the 'L' train to near Zanies. When we got there, we met Mark Knope and Nate Simmons the other two guys who were showcasing tonight. Before the show started, Bert (the booker) sat us down and talked to us for about 45 minutes about hosting shows, showcasing and being a comedian. A lot of the stuff he said about hosting really made sense, but contradicted what I've been doing and what I've seen personally. I've been told that the emcee is supposed to do announcements and get the audience ready for the feature and headliners, but I was never given specific examples. Bert gave some, which seemed so simple I almost thought they were rudimentary. Nevertheless, his tips seem like they will work, and so I'm going to practice them and hopefully have experience hosting the way he likes when I get booked.
My set was AWESOME; I was first among the show-casers, so Dobie Maxwell brought me up and I did jokes I was comfortable with and got a good response from the audience. Later, I saw the notes that Bert made and they said "Single mother of like, 8 (just 8)" meaning I shouldn't say "like, 8" and "nice set, right on time". Nate followed me on stage and asked if I would tape his set, and I did. Mikey and Mark later asked me to tape their sets too, so I will be mailing them all a DVD or two. Mark offered to pay me and I said it wasn't necessary (I like doing favors for fellow comics) but he said he'd use my return-mailing address to send me a couple bucks. I'm not one to argue or not-cash a check, so...
After the show, Mikey and I stopped at a place called Mullens where he got some wings and I got some Mozzarella sticks (they were about 20% bigger than the usual kind I get and were pretty good, plus I got 8 of them. booyah) On the way home, we saw a couple having sex in an alley against a car. Since it was easily 15 degress out (February in Chicago) I was a little surprised (also, I've never stumbled upon that kind of thing before) and so Mikey and I crossed the street until we got past them (the couple kind of fled into the alley, I'm not sure if they continued or not). As we got past them, Mikey and I both burst out laughing.