Karma pays off

Saturday night I did a guest set at the Funnybone's midnight show. Ryan Stout was headlining and he got me the time. I had dinner with him, Tommy Johnagin and Andy Woodhull at Ozzie's last time Ryan was in. Matt Contey hosted and Jake Baker middled. My set went very well, I opened with my skiing jokes and followed with Hooters, Black Marcus, Black Name and closed on my drinking stuff. I was kind of nervous because it's been 14 months since I did a guest set at the Westport Bone (2/17/08 to be exact, with Eddie Gossling and Dan Chopin). Matt said he wants to see a different 5 from me at next week's open mic (since I am going to Columbia tomorrow evening).

Sunday I did a charity show for Bloom's Syndrome. It was an all day event, with Improv, Sketch Comedy, Story reading and Stand Up. My friend Katie Shanahan asked me to perform and I almost always say yes to Katie, and I almost always say yes to Charity shows. I was scheduled to go on at 6:50pm and do about a half an hour. When I arrived, Katie told me that there wasn't a big crowd, but they were a good crowd (she said they knew they were small, but they were giving the performers their attention and responding positively). I went up and did my set, I didn't do much crowd work or try to kill time and I only checked my cheat-sheet ONCE (about 18 minutes in or so). I ended up doing close to a half-hour and I had a fun time. I even got a compliment or two, which is always nice (especially from a small audience). I'll have to remember to add that to my resume (when I decide to update it).

Don't call it a comeback

Thursday I got in from my trip out East. I had a corporate show that my brother put together. New York Life was honoring one of their "big guys" and Darin wanted some comedy. Myself and Chris Smith did some time for them and my brother was really impressed. My set went really well. I opened with my skiing joke and it worked well. In the middle of my set, I made a joke about how I was glad I was doing well because the guest of honor was an accomplished marksman and was given a unique shotgun. That got a good laugh. It's not like every joke killed. Sometimes no one laughed because a joke wasn't their style, but I still got a bunch of big laughs and a ton of compliments.
Saturday I had a show in Keokuk, IA at an Elks Lodge. Dano, Joe and I did an Elks Lodge once and I was looking forward to this one. When I got to my hotel, I decided to take a little nap. About ten minutes in the phone rang and it was a guy saying the show started at 7:00 and not 8:00pm. No problem, I just cut my nap-time down and headed over to the Lodge. My GPS made me drive down this terrible gravel road, it was pretty annoying. Anyway, I get to the Lodge and meet the guys in charge, then I grabbed a seat and went over my set list. And then a guy came in; he kind of limped. And he and the door guy had a conversation (apparently) about how the guy's new leg didn't match his biological leg's natural color. Awesome. I was really hoping to open with my skiing joke again, and I didn't want to start the night off upsetting an audience member (or the entire audience). So I asked the door guy if he thought that guy would get offended. I didn't think he would, since he was openly talking about it. He probably had a sense of humor about it. I as right, the door guy and I asked him and he said he didn't have a problem if I did my joke about the one legged skiier.
My set went so well. I opened with my skiing joke and did really well. I used a louder voice into the microphone and kept my face visible and concentrated on the pace of my jokes (because I had to fill my 30 minute set). My pace wasn't slow by any means, but it was measured and I was able use my face to dial it up a bit. I had a blast too, I know I started smiling a lot and my ears got red because I was excited. And the audience was having fun too, I heard a guy or two banging on the tables when they were laughing. I call that a good set. When I got off, Paul Frisbee (the headliner for the night) complimented my set. He did very well too, I thought he was very funny. After the show, I watched a little UFC fighting at the lodge's bar and headed back to my hotel. Since I had to work on Sunday, I decided to not stay at the hotel and I drove straight home. I talked to Paul, and he suggested I get merchandise to sell. I've been thinking about it a lot lately, but I haven't come up with any ideas.

Tin roof. Rusted.

Last night I did a show at the Wild Wing Cafe in Winston-Salem, NC with Kevin Downey JR. We had an audience of around 50, and they were sporadically sat throughout the bar (some people as far as 60 feet away). My set went well, although I forgot to do a couple of new jokes, which bugs me because I also forgot some other jokes. I did 20 minutes spot-on, but I didn't have that, "I still have material left" feeling". I did a little crowd work, because one table was particularly chatty for a bit; but they behaved and didn't disrupt the show.

Nothing much

Last night's set at L&H was way better than I thought it would be. We had minimal audience, and I wanted to do a bunch of new jokes, so I did. I drifted in and out of new material and had a decent time. I even had one of the seven (and I may be being generous with that number) audience members laughing out loud a bunch.
Tonight's set at the Funny Bone was way worse than I thought it would be. I went up third, and the audience didn't give me anything to work with. I Granted, I did almost all new material (I brought back 2 jokes from a couple years ago, so it's like they're new because I am telling them differently now). Anyway, I did like 2 minutes and then told the audience to go eff themselves. Not the most gracious defeat, I know, but should I have thanked them? I don't think so.

Six shows at once

Saturday was my last night at the Loony Bin in Little Rock. The first show was a little rough because the stage lights didn't come on until about 40 seconds into my set. So I think the audience was a little thrown by that. During the second show I kinda got heckled by a blind guy (I put a video of it online) and the third show was kind of rough. The drive home was good and I got a little sleep before work at noon.

Monday's Forum show had a decent sized audience and twenty six comics. I went last and had a good set. Later at Lloyd and Harry's I had a more humbling set.

Tuesday's set at the Bone clocked in under 2 minutes because I wanted to do my Hooters, Ferrari, Black Marcus and maybe my Overboard dating sites joke (I don't remember). It wasn't a set I'd put online so I'm not completely satisfied with it.

Speaking of tapes, I did a set last night at the Comedy Forum for the HD Comedy Tour. I did about ten minutes in front of a decent sized audience. I went up first, so the audience may have been a little cold; I didn't see the rest of the show because I was caught up analyzing my set. It went well, but I kept wondering if I should have opened up with new material (I was kind of taking a page out of Chad Guff's book by treating that set just like any other).