Suck it up
I sucked it up tonight. Got home too late to go to the Scramble. I knew if I wanted a good set I would have to drive back to Roseville again and do the Donkey. I thought I’d see if I could get anyone to carpool. Nope. So finally I caved and drove out. Alfonso went before me and was really loud or really quiet, because he is bipolar. He has a lot of energy and I wasn’t sure how I would follow it with the rowdy bar crowd. But, it went just fine. I asked them what they wanted to do. People starting shouting out all kinds of dumb things. This one guy said he wanted to do my mom twice. Another said he wanted to do something else (shit I forgot), and then someone said they wanted to have stranger sex, as in, sex with a stranger. I told them they had to decide on one thing, and it worked, but they decided on stranger sex. So I told everyone to find someone they didn’t know first. But no one did it, they just sat there. I kept trying, but they wouldn’t do it. This probably went on for at least 5 minutes. They were paying about as much attention as a Monday night bar crowd can, which was great, but they weren’t having any sex with a stranger like they said they wanted to do. Finally this one girl said she wanted to laugh. But I wasn’t sure if anyone else wanted to. So, Gavin Meyers (who was hosting) had them vote with raised hands to see if they wanted to laugh. Sure enough they did! So I told jokes, including a revisit of one I wrote a long time ago about Pyrex glass. Still wasn’t quite there, but I’ll figure it out.
I’m starting to feel like I really have learned a lot doing this WDYGWD thing in my act, and it’s great doing it again after taking a break from it for 8 months or so. People’s biggest concern is that it will collapse the show into a train wreck, which has happened before, although it’s been rare. I’m starting to think that if you can learn to guide a train wreck, you can let it happen and help insure that there’s little to no damage as a result. I also think that when the audience feels like they get to be part of what you’re doing you can create a really magical experience for them. I think I kind of did tonight, and a lot of people seemed interested in getting a flyer for the Apple Tree Comedy Competition I’m doing on Saturday.