Back to Back Laugh AttackI never got around to posting my recap of last week’s performances as promised. Even if I wanted to, I doubt I could have. This whole redesign has taken me completely by surprise and I wasn’t even given the keys to the text editor until last night.
One hostile act deserves another, so I am going to willfully blind myself to the fact that nobody cares about these recaps and give you my take on my sets from last week.
Thursday night at New York Comedy Club
The New York Comedy Club is, to be generous, a pit. The ceilings are low, the hallway is narrow and everything just seems unclean. This appears to be a point of pride at the club, however, so I don’t think I’ll get in too much trouble for pointing it out. I also note that they have some great comics performing there regularly, so the whole book/cover thing applies as well here as it does anywhere else.
The club has two rooms, sort of. The small room is a glorified hallway with a small elevated “stage” set up in the middle of the length of the hallway. There is barely enough room for one row of chairs against the mirrored wall that is directly in front of the stage. The wings have more seats, but the total seating is no more than 25 (and I doubt the Fire Marshall would like that number). I played the small room a few weeks ago and it was a horrible experience. The big room, low ceilings aside, is a much better space. Over 100 seats at full capacity, I think. There is a wing to the left of the stage where the comics waiting to perform can chill without being a distraction and the crowd doesn’t feel either too close or too distant.
The show I was performing in was an Industry Showcase run by Steve Arons. “Industry Showcase” is a euphemism for “new talent show,” which is itself a euphemism for “bringer” show. “Bringer” is, of course, a euphemism for “exploitation of the dreams of novices of unknown potential and more experienced comics with none.” Not surprisingly, this meant that the people who came to see me were treated to a lot of dreck. With that noted, on to my show…
I was one of the last comics to perform, which was kind of a bummer. I knew of 11 people (big ups to the SZEFS crew, Brother of Ugarte and Elisabeth) that had come to see me and I was hoping that I could get on early and talk to them for a while after my set. It was not to be. My performance, when I finally got up there, was pretty good. I like the material that I’m doing, though my delivery still needs some work. I hedge too much and I don’t really sell my punchlines. Still, when I delivered a joke right, I got the laughs that the material deserves. More importantly, my audience rapport was great. (If I do say so myself. And I do.) When a joke didn’t go well, the audience responded to self-deprecation. When the audience wasn’t helping out with the set-up to a joke, they laughed at my reaction to their unwillingness to participate. I had to cut my last joke short because NYCC doesn’t really have a red light to signal “one minute remaining” to the comics. The emcee flashed his cell phone light at me and I couldn’t tell if that was a “one minute” signal or I had missed that flash and he was trying to say “get the fuck off stage.”
Downer of the night: Although the NYCC website and voicemail advertise that they have “low cost recording” of the shows (BYOTape +$2), the only available video was a professional DVD for $35. This has apparently been the case for some time now. Booooooooo.
I got good feedback from the people I brought (natch) and some of the other novices. I was also invited back for shows on July 22d and July 29th.
Friday evening at Gotham
I got a little panicked before the Gotham show because I didn’t think that I was going to make the modest bringer number of 4. I had three people back out on me at the last minute. Fortunately I had a last minute addition (thanks Juan and Beth) and a quick call to the emergency squad got me over the hump (thanks BofU (again), Frank and Beth).
The Friday night comics were more polished than most of the folks I performed with last Saturday. There was still a mixed bag of performances, but the crowd was much more into the performances. They were not, however, much more into my performance. This wasn’t their fault, though. My performance was spotty. I lost my place after my opening jokes (a cheap scatological laugh followed by a good bit about going to the doctor). I chose not to go all the way with a pseudo-macho joke about predate preparation. That part of the joke sank the better material that followed. And then I completely blew part of my lottery segment. I didn’t even want to do the lottery stuff, but I decided to do a self-mocking segue after the dating material bombed. Despite what sounds like a horrible experience, it wasn’t so bad.
Once again my jokes about the performance itself went well and I maintained a good relationship with the crowd. When I told good material well they were willing to laugh. This was a good crowd and I did get my share of laughs out of them. I feel like my stage presence is improving and I am constantly tweaking my material to tighten it up. I got good feedback from some of the other comics and the owner of the club (I think) went up to my brother and complimented his set. (In the club owner’s defense, we are told that we look very similar and we happened to both be wearing very similar shirts.)
So far, so good with this crazy experiment.
Upcoming gigs
Tonight, 9PM (arrive at 8:45) at Underground Lounge. 955 West End Ave. at 107th St. I think this may be a free show if you aren’t performing. I also don’t need to bring anyone. (That is a code for “I thank you for your support if you do show up, but your duties as a friend still require you to keep coming to bringer shows.")
Tomorrow, 9PM (arrive at 8:45) at Stand-Up NY. $10 + 2 drinks. I have to bring 7 but I have the number unless people bail on me. (Same code! But I may owe you big time if you show and someone else flakes out on me.)
Read Less...
