Last Wednesday The Stress Factory was packed solid. It was open mic night and the Survival of the funniest contest round 4 or 5?? The show was like no other, From a guy showing his junk to it ending all in a bar room brawl it was quite a night. I began with a guitar playing comic with not too many jokes or songs. Brian Baumley went up and had a fantastic set full of new material that just killed. Things moved on and the first round of the contest began. Gordon Baker Bone VS. Joe Conte. Each had fantastic sets...It was hard to tell who had the better one...we will have to wait and see.
The audience was at that point very responsive. The room was filled to the brim and I start filling myself with doubt. I had been planning on doing all new material, since I was not competing in the contest this week. I hadn't expected an almost full house. What to do ...What to do. Everthing in me wanted to just stick to my tried and true stuff. Walking the dog as I call it. My standard set almost always can do a solid job...In a full room in top performance mode its as close to a sure thing as I can get. But what about the new stuff????? Here is the chance in front of a full house to see if any of the new stuff has legs. Will my donkey joke work?? What about the joke about my best friends secret confession to me?? Yes, I had done the latter joke at one open mic in the city but it was to a room of only comics..... who knows if it will work?? I would die to bomb in a full house. To bomb is one thing but to do it in front of all my peers. My name is introduced... I go up and do a smattering of my old stuff. I was scared and pissed...I had the jokes but was still working on the delivery and the wording. I thought how angry I would be at myself if I didn't try out the new material. I thought about how I would have to write in my blog and confess what a wuss I am if I just stuck to the old crap.(see my Blog "Walking the Dog") So I took a breath looked down in my note book and started. The first one did so so.. I tagged it with a remark an salvaged it. I then moved on to all the other new stuff .They liked it!! It worked. Who knew??? I'm still funny.. Thank God I found the guts to do it. I had been feeling dried up and done for weeks. I havent even felt creative enough to blog. It was such a rush to see that I still could create new material to say and perform. I dont know why but when my creativity goes on vacation I feel like it will never come back. I got off the stage happy. Did I kill ?? No but it was a solid set.
A few more comics went up and the rooms vibe started to change. Comics who's material usually kills stood waiting for laughs that didn't come. I sat watching two of my favorite comics stand on stage bewildered as to what was going on. I sat there feeling the same emotion. The room took a downward spiral. The room went nuts....(Literally and figuratively....) see Tommy Brennans blog. The crowd at one point became negative and wasn't connecting to the comics even before the mayhem occurred. I left right after Greg and Jarret performed. They both did sets that were very strong but the crowd had turned by then. I had no Idea how crazy the night would become after I left.
I have a few things to say about the guy who took out his DICK during his set. It wasn't funny. You also put the club in Jeopardy by such actions.....there were people in their 50's sitting right in front of the stage. Do you think your parents needed to see that.
To the raciest idiot. You bring down all of us. I thank Tommy for shutting the jerk down. I have sat in NYC and heard homophobia and anti-Semitism and pedophilia ranting's all hidden in the guise "that its comedy" . First rule of Comedy....Its not funny if no one laughs....and your ass hole buddies laughing don't count. Your no better than a school room bully who harasses a kid and then defends himself by saying "where's your sense of humor I was just kidding"? Please don't talk to me about censorship. Your not funny and that can get you censored all the time. What do you want to do in comedy anyway......when did Leno have a comic on who took his dick out???? Do you think your so ground breaking you'll be the first. Spending $5 dollars to get on stage at an open mic doesn't give you the right to take a shit on it. You stink up the whole place and it reflects badly on us all. Hopefully this will blow over and we can move on.
On a happy note. I will be producing a once a month Saturday night show in the Somerville area beginning this February. I will be putting up 8 comics each month doing 5 to 15 minutes sets depending on the comics experience. Feel free to email me through the Soapbox if your interested. I look forward to having a venue right here in NJ for comics seasoned and new to grow and develop.
Comments are below
Cool
Posted on 11/19/2004 at 10:15 PM by Scott Beaton
Good to hear you are starting a room, keep me in mind, and yes a picture is in the works. I too am thinking about starting a room at school ,telling the admin it is for students then opening it to everyone, but I have to see what is going on with construction. I also am working on a room down here or at least producing a semiregular show here at the shore. I am sure it will be a good room with no flashing.
No comments:
Post a Comment