No complaints

Last night the show at the Funny bone was alright. I spent the hours leading up to the show creating a website for Andy Faasen. The show itself was good, my set was just about exactly what I was looking for. My charity show joke got a laugh during the setup, although the punchline laugh seems smaller that the one for the setup now that I think of it. I screwed up my shampoo joke again, I keep omitting the same line, and it's kind of necessary as a setup to the second half of the joke. Had I gotten that right, the joke probably would have done better, but I would have gone over my time (I got off stage at 3:58).

Welcome back, comic

I was really hoping for a fun show, now that I'm back in Missouri; but the audience members of the Comedy Forum tonight weren't up for the challenge. I basically tried the stuff I did all week in Louisville and my Charity show joke.
About an hour in, I started lighting people early. I don't want to be the guy who tells people they aren't going on stage; but I also don't want to sit through a 150 minute show. Nothing to note, really...

One more night, two more shows

Saturday night's shows were a lot of fun. The second one especially felt really good, I switched up my material a bit and really felt like I rocked the audience. Even the third show was good. Beforehand, Mike told me to stay away from the fat jokes; there were some rather large individuals in the audience (Mike called it Biscuit N' Gravy night). I made sure to do my email joke, because I know Mike likes calling back to that at the beginning of his set, and he told me it's one of the funnier jokes he's heard. I also closed on my Gay bar joke and have been working on my timing all week.

Tweeners

The first show tonight was really good; I had a really good set and closed strong after my five minutes. I did a joke between a guest spot and the feature, Big John, to bring the audience back, and did the announcements between John and Mike. Second show, Mike asked me if I did my Email joke, which I hadn't so he asked me to do that instead of announcements between him and John. I did, but since I really haven't dusted off that joke in a while, it didn't hit the way I (and Mike, I assume) had hoped. The shows were both good, and I spent a lot of time talking to the waitstaff; I told them this, and it's true; they're some of the nicest club staff I've met on the road. Everyone knows my name and says 'hi' to me. It's awesome even though I feel terrible since I don't know all their names.

7 shows 5 days

Tonight at the Comedy Caravan I hosted the professional show and did their Unprotected Sets Open Mic. The pro show went very well, I did five minutes and Jacob Williams (who has the same name as my God-son) did a guest-set. My set was awesome, I started out welcoming a couple big parties we had and made a quick joke about one of them, and then I did my set. My Advice joke went over very well; and I cut my smoking joke down a bit and I think I ended on my Abraham Lincoln Impression, but I may be confusing that set with the open mic one.
The open mic scene in Louisville is really different from St Louis. It's a much more "alternative" scene and my somewhat straight laced comedy seemed out of place tonight; or course it could have been that I started my set with about three or four new jokes. That part was fun because I wanted to see if I could dig myself out of the hole I was in. I couldn't. The crowd was pretty cold for the rest of my set and the rest of the night (they had been cold before my set, too. It's not like I ruined the show). I still had a really good time on stage.

Camals, sand, and comedy

Yesterday I left St Louis around 11am and drove to Louisville, KY. I'm emceeing this week with Mike Armstrong and Big John Richardson at the Comedy Caravan. I'm really excited because I've been to Louisville three or four times in the past two years; for open mics and a spotlight with Mike once on a Saturday. So it took two years to get in the club and finally being here feels awesome. Of course, it's also really nerve-racking because I want to be invited back, so I have to make sure I bring my A-game.
Last night there was a professional show and an open mic (called Unprotected Sets) at the club. The professional show went well, my set got laughs (and groans from some of my grosser material), but overall, I had a good set. Since it's a new club, it took me a bit to get accustomed to the PA system, I was later told that there was a sound guy making adjustments to the levels. I didn't know that so I was moving the microphone on instinct. No one told me about what announcements to do between John and Mike, so I just checked out a couple posters on the wall and went with the standard, website, box office, big-name coming up routine. No one said anything and when I asked if that was alright, the sound guy, Rob, said it was.
After the show was the open mic, I stuck around because I wanted to meet and hang out with the local comics (and perform). I tried to do a completely different set than I did in the professional show, because I didn't want to look like I only had a ten minute set or whatever; so I tried a couple new things and a couple really old things and was complimented after my set by a couple comics and audience members. Since I'm never really happy with my sets, I can never really tell if someone is saying "nice set" to be nice or because they really liked my set. After the show, some audience member to me a bunch of my material had "potential". He also told me that he didn't mean for that to be a back-handed compliment, and that he did think my stage pressence was good. After the show, I headed back to the condo with Big John and watched some sport center with Dustin (an out of town open miker and friend of John's) and his girlfriend. Then I went to bed.

22 comics...

The open mic last night at the Funny Bone was really fun. We had a decent sized crowd, and a large lineup of comics. Including Jeremy, Tommy and Dano, twenty-two total. I went up third and had a decent set. In the middle of my Shampoo joke, I added a joke about the Drunk show, and then launched back into the rest of the shampoo bit. I forgot a line or so of the joke, which only added to the confusion, but I kind of liked the feeling. I doubt I try anything like that in Louisville this week, because I HAVE to make a good impression.

late entry

Long show 24+ comics, had to start cutting comics' times.
Forgot to blog this for a week, can't remember many details.

hottest show around

Last night at Fairview Heights, the air conditioning was out, so it was easily eighty degrees in the club; and even more on stage. I was asked to emcee, which I agreed to do because of my Louisville trip coming up this week. I'm very pleased with the job I did, even though the crowd was a little stiff; most of them were drinking non alcoholic water and fanning themselves with the table tents; so they were kind of a tough sell. In any case, I had one or two decent comments between comics and nailed the announcements. Tommy Johnagin headlined the week, so he did about 27 minutes at the end of the show; which had to be unbearable with the heat and humidity the way it was but he did well and I pitched the Kilo-Diabetes foundation tickets (I didn't check, but I doubt we gave away many tickets, because an un-air-conditioned comedy show in the summer isn't all that tempting, even for a dollar).

slump busting ahead

Monday's show fell into the slump category, but only because the crowd wasn't really primed. Tuesday's show was much better, I'm getting the confidence back in my material. I realized while talking to Dano, I think, that my material has worked before, so I know it's funny. So it must be something mental or physical (my head's not in it, and/r my body is revealing nervousness/something). Though the crowd wasn't great, I had a couple friends in the audience, and they thought the show rocked.