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.