The Conversation
I saw this movie a while ago called The Conversation. It’s a lot different from my set tonight. I was at Luna’s Cafe. They wanted to laugh. I did the bathroom jokes. In the beginning of the second one, I ask the crowd if they’ve ever heard “if it’s brown flush it down, if it’s yellow let it mellow” before. This one guy said he heard it a long time ago. I asked him how long ago. He said 20 years. He kept talking to me so I kept talking to him, but then he got mad when he felt like it wasn’t going anywhere. It really hurt my feelings when he called me out for doing something that wasn’t going anywhere. But you know what. I didn’t write our conversation. I can’t control where it goes. And still he keeps talking to me. I try to explain that if he talks, I can’t continue with my material. Eventually I break it down that I have to decide what’s more important, being funny, or dealing with a heckler. Dealing with a heckler is always more important, so I chose to do that instead of being funny. That got a big laugh, so then he pointed out how he was happy because now I was being funny. But it was just a coincidence. I can’t guarantee that the funny will continue. About then a bunch of other people finally got him to shut up, and convinced me to go ahead and finish the joke. I liked this set a lot because it felt good to commit to dealing with the heckler instead of caving in to the pressure to ignore him and move on. It ends up being a more alive performance. The audience gets to watch me have my feelings hurt live on stage, and then recover from it and piece it all together at the end.
Uh, yeah, I didn’t bring my camera, so, shit…