Today was the final day of the Kyle Cease Standup Bootcamp. I was fortunate enough to work with Bob Bledsoe (who gave me some excellent quotes for my book) during the one-on-ones (which is kind of a misnomer, but in the good way. The headliners would concentrate on one comic at a time, but the other comics in the group/pod were able to listen and offer input (which was great because having more brains working is better than having less brains working. That makes sense, right?). After Bob, I joined Ant's group because I wanted to work on my word problem joke.
I hit an amazing streak of luck because I was able to work with literally one-on-one for twenty three minutes and he helped me reword my facebook bully joke and now instead of being 20 seconds long, it's around a minute and includes an act-out and a bunch of personal details from my years in gradeschool. After that, we worked on my 2nd person shooter joke, which I admit I don't quite have the hang of in its new incarnation. Kyle bought pizza for the entire class today, which was excellent, although I never paid attention to what kind (restaurant/brand) it was. Kyle lead us through a relaxation exercise to help with the nerves of an Industry Showcase, and awarded 5 people the chance to pick their spot on the lineup. I didn't get to pick my spot, but I wasn't really nervous because my confidence level was pretty high through most of the day. After the actual seminar ended, we had a bunch of time to unwind between the end of the actual bootcamp and the showcase (which was scheduled for 10:30 but started closer to 11:00). Jon Lovitz headlined a show at 8:30 so I caught his set, and he's really funny. He also plays the piano now and had a weird 15 minute chunk on Bob Sagot being gay. It was hilarious, and a rumor (Jon's joke was that he was responsible for spreading the rumors).
The showcase was really amazing. I am/was very proud to be able to watch the progress of so many talented young and veteran comics. Some of the sets tonight were simply legendary, including Carl's, Dartanyon's, and Donna's (to name just a couple). I went up last (except for Dave, who wasn't in the class, but was part of the sound and video crew (he is also a comic, and was involved with the last bootcamp). I started my set by thanking the camera men, the sound guy (who cued up It's A Long Way To The Top If You Wanna Rock N Roll off my iPhone, and the guys in the director's booth. Then I opened with the brand new joke Ant helped me write about my bully from grade school. After that it was my revised 2nd shooter bit, then the Math Problems joke (now with no Leroy (sorry, Leroy)), Sudoku, my new Word Problems joke and I closed on the bit about being sober and people booing me.
I went on stage around 2:26AM and had been up since 7:00AM so I was very tired (also, my hands hurt from all the clapping and my voice is feeling kind of sore from all the talking, cheering and screaming from the past 5 days (the screaming was during the shows. You gotta show some support). I caught a break because about 2 comics from the end, Kyle had everyone come down to the front rows (the club is three stories high, I don't know if I mentioned that). It made a difference Ithink especially since the show was long and a bunch of the audience left before I got on. Their loss.
After the show, all the comics said their goodbyes and took some final pictures and I got lucky and caught a ride to the airport with Dave, Diego A. and Halli B. Right now it's 5:17am, and I have almost been up for 24 hours. My flight boards in 70 minutes and I don't have wifi, so I can't post this online until I get home probably. Either way I think I'm going to take a quick nap. I plan on taking another nap on the plane, AND THEN taking yet another nap when I get home (please note: the third nap will probably end up being closer to hibernation). I haven't checked my credit card balance online yet, and I'm a little afraid to, but no matter what I spent this week, the experience was absolutely worth it, and next time I'll probably try to get some of the St Louis comics to come out. I'm already planning on going.
But for now, I plan on taking a nap. OK. BurgerKing, then a nap.