Over six hundred and sixty posts...

Every great once in a while, a ton of people will show up for an open mic; it doesn't happen often, but when it does it's the kind of night where the energy permits everyone, n00bs and veterans to do well. Last night was most certainly nowhere near that kind of night.
Not to say last night was terrible, but it was nothing more than average. Some guys did great, some did well, others not so much. I did four bits last night; PANTS and Shoes, Justin's cigarettes, and the Gay Bar story. The Cigarettes joke close is a work in progress and so is the Shoes joke, so they went alright.
Apparently Rooftop and Yahoo are doing a new competition to use political and topical bits (that are clean and funny). I'd like to say I'm going to try but political and topical humor isn't my forte, but I won't NOT try a bit if it comes to me...

Too much on the plate

Last night I was emceeing for the Forum's open mic, and at the same time talking to Al about going to the racetrack, talking to various comics about demo videos, and keeping time for the guys on stage. More than once, a comic ended while I was not in the room; which is my fault. I really felt bad because it kind of disrupts the show (which makes the other comics have to work harder). So that was kind of discouraging.
My set went well, I am still working on that Shoes joke, and I'm tinkering with my joke about Justin's nasty cigarettes; and Andy Woodhull gave me a great idea for my Adult Video Store joke, so I'm planning on writing a bit of that out tonight and trying it at the Funny Bone.
In website news, I added a new format .MP4 to each of my two videos. Sadly none of the three are playable on my PC in IExplore, but each plays in Mozilla (both on my PC and Mac) and Safari (Mac only). I think if I have time tomorrow before work, I'll try to upload my montage, since Myspace AND Youtube won't allow it...

Stressful end to the week.

Last night was the end of the week for me, Andy, and the Fryman at the Comedy Forum. Both had asked me to tape their sets in hopes of getting something good on a DVD. So I showed up with all my video supplies and tried to find the best place to record the show. It took a while, and I tried a couple different ideas and positions for my tri-pod (the problems were: 1-I needed a power source, as my camera would not survive a two hour show on my battery and 2-I had to switch tapes after Andy.
Eventually Al set up a high-top table in the back near the audio equipment. We used a milk-crate, a trash bag and some Duct Tape and I was in business. Before the show, I write down three jokes I wanted to do during my set, the DQ joke, the Charity show the one about the Adult Video Store. I didn't remember to do the Charity show one, but Andy gave me a great idea for the Video Store joke.
Andy told me what joke he wanted to close on, and then he was going to pitch his T-shirt so that I could get a tape in for the Fryman. I got one in and everything went great until the end of the show. I started getting nervous then because the Fryman hit fifty minutes (on my camera; I had to start it RIGHT before I went on, so it had all my announcements and everything (about three minutes worth of stuff) and I was afraid he would still be on stage when the tape ended.
I couldn't stop looking at my iPhone at that point, because he and I had already talked about using this set on his new DVD (which I would get to "engineer") using a couple special features from his current one. Anyway, he ended up getting of in time and when I got off stage I stopped the camera at 1:00:00. Tomorrow I get to check out all the sets I did this past week and work on Fryman and Andy's movies; then it's back to the Forum for open mic.

Night of firsts

Last nights shows at the Comedy Forum don't really follow the "Second Show Friday" stereotype, because the second show last night was WAY better than the first. Don't get me wrong, the first one was good (I worked on my Shoes joke and my Nasty Cigarettes tag) and I got it on video, but barely... I'm working on filming all my sets this week (and Andy's as well), but I accidentally chose a wide-screen format for the first show, so the 40 minute video I shot took 80 minutes to process. So literally it was done after the 10:15 show was supposed to start (we started a little late, and I was able to get the late show). That second show will go down in history, because there was a weird energy in the room, the kind where when I did my Mozzarella sticks joke, someone offered me a mozzarella stick. Hell yeah, so I ATE it on stage. While doing my set. At one point a little piece flew out of my mouth and on my arm, so I grabbed it and just said "I got it" and ate it again. During the Fryman's set, people kept sending up shots (a bunch of them too) so he got a little drunk, which the crowd loved. THEN he found out a bunch of cops were in the audience; and he kept joking about it being a set-up. We didn't get out until late, because he went a little long (but the crowd was loving it, so no one seemed to mind). Tonight I'm taping the entire show, because Fryman wants a shorter tighter headliner set for his DVD. Go BabyTurtle.

Is it the shoes?

Last night was a different kind of night at the Comedy Forum; for starters, I couldn't find my "lucky" comedy t-shirt. Yeah, I have one; I also have lucky comedy shoes. But I wore those last night. Another oddity of the evening came when Al Canal told me we'd be using an "announcer". I'm familiar with the concept; a person who does little-to-no material and just does announcements (hence...). A lady named Evelyn was there who wanted to try it as she had experience in another city. So my set was weird because I didn't go up to a "cold" crowd. OK, I did, but I had someone bring me up. While looking for ideas for credits or whatever, Andy Woodhull (who was featuring) said I write one of the most renowned comedy blogs in the Midwest. So she said that. That was cool. My set went alright, even though we had exactly eleven audience members. I'm working on a couple new jokes (which I'll likely do the rest of the week) and I'm also trying to get all my jokes on tape, so I can start arranging them into a longer feature set. I won't be using the tape for demo, since it'll be from different angles and I'll be in different clothes in front of different audiences, but it will give me a more approximate estimation of how much material I have, and where I think each joke should go. I want to have the right segues so that my feature set is as fluid as possible (when i need it).
Today, my video camera started acting up, and I had to go to Best Buy to get a 25 dollar head-cleaner. Weak. Since I can't find my 6-4 pin Firewire cable (which lets me hook up to my lappy), I looked for one of those. Too bad they didn't have one. Of course if they did, it would have been 6 ft long and thirty bucks. That's overkill and over-priced. I bought a 3 ft one of ebay for a penny when I got home and it's retractable and shipping is only 2.99. Looks like that was the better buy. (I know the store is called BestBuy, but better IS the appropriate word to use there, since were only comparing 2 options. Better is the "comparative" form of the word "good" and "best" (the superlative form) should only be used when comparing 3 or more things.

I guess I have the most renowned comedy blog in the Midwest for a reason.

Did you bring me a monkey?

Yesterday I drove to Chicago to do a guest spot at Senese's Winery and Barrel of Laughs comedy club. I left around 1:30 and got to the club around 6:30, so I killed some time at a local Starbucks and then went into the club. When I met Bill Brady, the owner, he introduced me to James Wesley Jackson and Vince Viecelli (the headliner and feature respectively). He also asked if I needed a 2 minute light, to which I asked how much time I was doing. He said ten minutes and I said no (I didn't need the light). Then he said fifteen. I got confused for a second, as if he thought I was saying that ten minutes wasn't enough. I checked, and he said that's not how he saw it, so I was safe. Then I told him I wouldn't need a light regardless because of my timer (I ended up doing 14:53). Bill also said the only words they allow are s**t, damn and hell. I said I don't even use those, so we should be fine.
Bill usually hosts the shows, so I was auditioning as a feature act (I've heard that his club is a good one to start out in, and he admits that he likes giving people a chance). I went up after Bill did about 15 minutes of crowd work. Vince had already warned me about pacing myself after Bill because it's a weird transition. He said that usually his first five minutes are lost just trying to get the audience to shift gears.
My set, which I got on tape, wasn't bad. After the show, I told Bill I wasn't disappointed, but I know I could have done better. There were times where the audience was with me, and times where they just weren't. My skier, email and phone sex jokes all did pretty well, but that's only a couple of minutes out of my entire 15 minutes that really got half the laughs I wanted...The PA system was a little loud, but I got used to it after a bit on stage.
After the show, I hung out and talked to Bill a bit, gave him my promo kit and headed home. By this point it was about 10:20 or later, and my Garmin estimated my arrival at 3:19AM.
Somewhere around Springfield, IL I had to pull over and take a small nap, but that only lasted about 7 minutes when I woke up (because I left my car running for the heater) and for a split-second thought that I was still driving on the road. That pretty much woke me up for the rest of the ride home...

Late as heck; I blame the cats

So while I was in Appleton, my girlfriend (Sarah) who was in Colorado visiting family informed me she got two cats. Their names are Conrad and Doug; named after characters in the Showtime dramatic series Weeds. Since then, I've been very occupied playing with the cats and have NOT been blogging as much (or as quickly after a show) as I would like. Tuesday's show at the Funny Bone was alright. There were a lot of "new" guys, and the audience kind of petered out at the end. Since Matt wasn't there, Jeff had me run the meeting, and I asked Jeff if I could do about 6 minutes to practice for my set (tonight) at Barrel of Laughs in Chicago. I did my six (maybe a little more) and had to drop two jokes because I didn't have time, which means if I do six tonight (I'm not sure how much time I'll be doing) I'm going to have to change my joke lineup. I'm really excited about Barrel of Laughs, but people at work have been asking when I'll know if I get anything out of it. My answer is just "could be months", which as I think about it, is a really disheartening answer. I know in comedy a lot of auditions don't go anywhere (and it takes a while to find that out (I had an audition in South Bend, IN back when the Funny Bone there was open, did well, did them a favor, and never got so much as an emcee week). That stuff happens; and as much as it flat-out sucks; it's comedy and I'm alright with it. I hope we have a decent crowd tonight, and I hope I get to do about 7 to 10, I think I could rock a 7-10 minute set tonight

uh huh

Tonight's open mic started off badly; during the meeting, I told the other comics that they'd be getting 1 light with a minute to go and no second light. Instead of another light, I was just going to stand by or walk onto the stage. I asked Steve Poggi to do the off-stage announcements to start the show, and the microphone was squelching really badly, so we let the Green Onions play a little longer and I just walked on stage and did everything "by hand". I cursed quite a bit on stage, and didn't try any real new material. I did try writing out loud for a bit, but it really just sounded like a too-long, rambling segue.

Saturday's shows

I really enjoyed Saturday's shows at the Skyline Comedy Cafe, I worked on my new shoes joke that follows my PANTS joke, and I did my mozzarella sticks joke, which I haven't done in a while. I remembered only too late that I wanted to try my kindergarten joke (even though it's only a thirty second (or so) bit) so that would be the only thing I would change if I could go back in time. Well, that and I would have reminded myself to bring my video camera charger so I could tape all week.

Monday's open mic

I did my set a capella style at the Forum tonight. The comic who emceed (I forget his name) hooked up an "echo machine" or something to the mic, and so it wasn't completely functional during my set. I went a little over (ok, I went over by three minutes) but the crowd enjoyed my set, and I was able to work on my hand gestures and I REALLY played with how my voice sounded on some of my jokes. I worked on my shoes joke a little bit and tried heading in a different direction (based on a suggestion from Steve Poggi) which fits my character more and makes me seem less like a jerk. It wasn't funny, but I have confidence it will be by next week. Unfortunatly I did swear a little bit, but I learned more during my set than I lost by cursing, so I'd call my set tonight a win. Around the end of the show, the emcee said (on stage) that he had to leave, so I took over hosting duties and closed the show.

Thursday and Friday

It's Saturday now, and Tommy, Mike and I just got back from watching the Green Bay Packers practice. Thursday's show (after the football incident) went well. I did my skiing joke and considerably less jokes in the rest of my set and was spot-on for a 12 minute set.
Friday's first show was alright, but I didn't feel I had a great set, nor did I feel I did a good enough job with the announcements (there are 11, which is a bunch, but I can't complain. It's what the clubs wants...). One of the waitresses actually told me she thought I was a thorough emcee, which was nice.
The second show Friday was great. I tried a new joke that Mike and Tommy helped me with, and I opened with my Ferrari joke, which I haven't done in a while. After the show, we grabbed some food and met some of the club staff at this dive-bar called Union Jack for a drink and I played some Buck Hunter. Mike, Tommy and I stayed up til around five AM, and got up at around 1:30 today, which is ridiculous, but it was a good time.