Well,last night I ate a big bowl of crap. It was the last round before the finals of the contest for stage time at the Stress Factory. Two weeks ago we had 160 people in the audience. Last night 10-15 people outside of 25 comics. My opponent is a great comic and I knew I had my work cut out for me. He is a seasoned performer and half my age. He went first, my choice. He did a brand new set. All the comics laughed... hell I laughed!! I started to panic. I had planned on a bigger crowd and was going to do my standard set. I decided to do a new joke I had been shopping around at open mic's and thought It would get me off to a great start. Well its a semi made up story...however these 25 comics know me and I think I shocked them more than I made them laugh.
Its a joke about having an affair with a college prof. When I was 18...which in reality never happened. It might have if not for the fact he was MARRIED. So the comics in the audience just looked back at me. I plowed on. I started doing a bit of this and that and they have all heard it before for the past 18 months. Also the real audience who were laughing were sitting in the margins of the room on each far side. So it was like playing ping pong trying to connect.
Every joke I did felt like I was doing it to a mirror. All a could hear was my own inner voice saying..."turn it around ...do this...nah...don't panic. You can fix this. Its not getting better. Its a lost cause." I had won all of the other rounds I had done. I got off stage not disappointed in the fact that I might very well have lost but that I am not omnipotent...I am going to do poorly sometime. I don't know what the answer is. I don't know if I would have been better off doing my standard set. I am glad I had the courage to try something new. I felt I had nothing to loose. I felt that my opponent did new material for an room full of comics who needed to hear something new to laugh at. I went up to my opponent and told him what a great set he had. He told me he thought I might have won. I said he was nuts ...he said that my last joke ended stronger than his. I had a bunch of friends there who are comics and they may have or may not have voted for me.... Who knows. I do!
To be frank... I'm flustered. I'm embarrassed...I blew it in front of my peers. I have 3 shows this weekend 2 of which I will be getting paid for. The other is a guest spot. I am worried. What if ....and then it get ugly. I guess this is part of the process of becoming a comic.
I got a wonderful email from a dear friend who was at the show last night. .. the kind words of another comic really helped. I just need to let it go and really focus on doing a great job this weekend. I'm hosting a show at the Callahoo Cafe here in NJ. Its a fantastic room and usually its a full house. I need to do well. I did it 6 months ago and had a great opening set...and so so in the middle of the 2 acts. I think I will do more crowd work this time. Talking about the holidays would be good. Why is it that all the good stuff has to show up when you feel off your game?
Comments are below
I have never seen you before
Posted on 12/02/2004 at 03:27 PM by Mark Anundson
but feel like I know you a bit from reading your blogs. I bet you have success this weekend with your shows. I bomb more often then I would like to admit but for some reason my next set after a bombing kills. It isn't something I plan on it just seems to go that way.
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