November 13, 2011

Sunday, Again

Tonight I realized that I’ve only performed on Sunday and Monday for the past few weeks, skipping the rest of the days. That’s not good. I really felt it tonight. It felt bad. Did the Scramble at the Comedy Spot. Tonight Johnny Taylor hosted it. I asked what they wanted to do. Got a laugh, but no answer. I explained. Still no answer. Just blank stares like wtf is this. I just explained what it is. How stupid are these people? I explained some more. Finally this dude in the back says ‘say something deep to me.’ I said ‘you want to say something deep to yourself?’ Finally he said he wanted to hear me say something deep, but then my friend Eve told me to tell a joke. I said I don’t do commands or demands. She started to argue. She said they were all there to laugh and hear jokes, so I asked again, ‘so what do you want to do then?’ Then she said she wanted to hear some jokes. Great. The problem was, the argument was too serious and darkened the mood. I shouldn’t have told jokes yet until I was sure the mood was lighter, otherwise it creates distance between the audience and the performer. We have to come together. Oh well, I just told the jokes because I hadn’t thought of that at the time. That’s what not performing enough does to you. I told my new ones about the grades and the fingernails. Those went good. Started my Che joke, but got a second light so I said I’d finish it another time. It was okay but it felt awkward through the whole set.

Then I went to On The Y. Tried my valley girl idea where I talk like a valley girl. OMG Stephanie, Lisa… It was fun, but it was hard to stay in it, because in standup I find that I want to be myself more than pretend to be someone else like if I was acting or something. First they said they wanted to hear jokes, but after I did the stripper ones they wanted to hear, then they wanted to see me take it off. I took it all off except my undies and you can see the proof on FaceBook. Made like $8 from it, so I gave two to the bartender even though I just got free water. Then they wanted to watch me put stuff back on. Hey, it was a lot more fun than the crowd at the Scramble.