Friday, October 24, 2008

Dream on!

Last weekend I headlined a show in NJ for a charity.  I was thrilled to do a long set 45 mins.
I was in a good space feeling sharp and reviewed all my material.  Just to have the bits all fresh in my mind.   It went very well.  The audience was all middle aged and lets face it if I cant do well in this room where can I?

In someways long sets are easier for me than short ones.  My character gets a chance to develop and the audience gets drawn into my world.  You get the full picture of my point of view and each joke builds upon that.   I can think on my feet and can shift around based on the feel the room is giving me.   I am good at this and seem just to know by instinct which bit should come next and keep it free flowing.   I make up stuff on the fly too and it all feels organic fresh and real to me.

In the city I do mostly 10 minute sets where I am able to connect well too.   I choose a few ideas and string them together as I go.   If the room is tourist I go one way ... if its young college kids I go another.  Nothing is cast  in stone.   It has worked for me.   I'm not saying that every set is fantastic....but I do feel that I seldom bomb,  I deliver solid sets and kill at least 20% of the time.  By kill I mean really kill..... where it is obvious something special just happened and not just in my head.  

The hardest set for me is a showcase set.   These are the sets that used to be my best.  When you start stand up you get 5 minutes.  So I wrote and wrote but when I got up to a mic I had in my mind just what I planed to do and did the same set over and over.  If something better was written I would drop a lesser joke for the new one.   In the past several years  actually I did very well with my set 5.  I made it to the finals of several contests, passed at many clubs and proved myself to my peers and bookers.

I have some very big goals in comedy.  I want to perform as an opener for a major act within the next two years.  I want to get a TV credit doing stand up.   I want to perform in a major room in a casino or theater.   I want it all.

I have been watching a great deal of late night talk shows to see what kind of sets you need to do to get on a show like Letterman, Ferguson etc.   It needs to be a tight 5 or less in most cases.   Some of the best sets I have seen on these programs have been .. Bill Burr , Al Lubel and Joe Divito.    My sets have lots of jokes.... but there not set up punch jokes.  Taken out of their context they seem kind of weak and lame to me.   Its the build up and context of my material that makes it work.    I learned this the hard way when I put together a set for Last Comic Standing.  I took my material and just cut out all the extras and did the joke part.  It wasn't strong enough or it just didn't connect without the context of who I am.

Then I thought about it.  I'm not a joke teller.  I'm as stand up comedian and my brand isn't just one liners.  Making my jokes into one liners does them a dis service.   So back to the drawing board.   I am better off telling 3 jokes in their truest form than trying to squeeze 15 in.
I tried to write shorter jokes and that has been a challenge.  I have tried to look at what jokes convert better than others in a streamlined edition.  It is daunting.

Even more daunting is dreaming BIG.   It is hard for me to put down in writing no less on a blog that I want the things I listed.   Truth be told that is my ultimate.   I want to get these things so that I can play better shows and make more people laugh.   The thing about dreaming big is this industry can be soul killing at times.   I will be all gun ho..... and get a major opportunity.  Then something goes wrong or I do well and don't get it...and I feel why do I set myself up to feel like I'm failing.  I'm doing well at this!  Look how far I have come.   Look at all I have done.  Look how I made this all happen from nothing.  So be happy I say with what you have.  If you never do anything more than this I tell myself you should be satisfied.  Then I feel okay for a while ....   I just go with the flow and do it for the love of it.  I have a killer set and I say to myself your wrong not to dream BIG.  Your selling yourself short Robin!!!  I get mad at myself and re claim my dream and sooner or later it all starts over again.  I feel like I'm in a big circle.  The thing is I may be going in circles but little by little I am moving toward my dreams.   

Other than my family nothing means more to me.   Its not just my ego.  Its my need to make some kind of impact and recognition for who I am and what I do.   Do I think Im funny and deserve my dreams?   I'm not satisfied with my comedy as is.  I so want to get stronger so much so that it is undeniable that I deserve what ever my goals are.  

I am sure I could get more work if I focused more on the business end of comedy.  If I marketed myself better and did somethings that I see other successful comics do.   It just is I am so focused on the performance.    Coming up with new material that's better and smarter is of ultimate importance to me.   My favorite part of doing this is having a show and killing and a person coming up to me after telling me they were out of breath from laughing so hard.  Nothing and I mean Nothing is more thrilling to me.  Give me a person who peed in their pants and I am the reason and you made my day, month , year!

Yesterday I did my first Television thing.  Its a TV credit but it wasn't stand up.  I will be on Cinema Therapy.  The shoot was in Central Park.   I had a 12:30 shoot.   I left my home at 10 am.   Traffic and parking is an unknown.  My daughter was home and I had to bring her back to the city so she and my puppy Sammy and I all went in together.  We got into the city in record time.  Parking was another story.  There is no where to park near 72nd and Central Park West. 
I couldn't find a space close enough.  My shoot was according to the map in the center of the park and If I parked in a space it would only be for an hour and I didnt know how long all this would take.  I parked in a no parking zone and left my daughter who is 21 and the puppy in the car with the keys if she had to move.  

The directions given me by the PA were wrong.  It said make a left when it was a right.  15 minutes walking in the wrong direction and another 15 back to where I started.   There are no signs in that park except the signs that tell you  where you are.  There were no signs that said this way to Strawberry Field.... until you were in Strawberry Field.   30 minutes later I found the shoot and was right on time.   

They did my makeup and it was chilly.  My cell rang and it was a major comic calling me.  Oh my.   He needed a favor.   Sure I thought I would love to go on tour with you..... when.   No.   He wanted to know if I had a joke similar to his.  Did I hear anyone else do this joke.  I assured him the joke sounded completely original to me.  He thanked me and I hung up.   Oh well.  That's what happens when you dream big.

The director shouted out some questions.  The host asked a question relating to the film.  It wasn't my turn  I found out we all would be asked the same questions.   I listened and thought of my answers to the questions.   Trying to think of something strong and funny to say.  One question could be answered with one of my stand up jokes.... this is good.  I came up with some other funny answers to the other 2 questions.   Finally my turn came.   Chuck Nice lived up to his name and was very gracious.   The question came and I inserted my stand up joke.  Chuck and the crew all laughed.   The next two questions went also very well.   The PA told me it will air on WE entertainment and she would email me the air date.   

So I broke the TV barrier.  Living the Big Dream!  I went back to my car and my daughter had been in the car for an hour and a half. I thanked he for helping me out and she was so supportive and happy to help me.  My puppy was thrilled to see me and licked my face and was so happy I had returned .  Sarah was so happy for me.  I am so grateful to feel the love that is in my life.    Truth be told I have a very nice life....   When I was young  I dreamed of having a happy family and a dog  I have that and 2 dogs...this was my Big Dream.  I hope I am allowed the gift of more than one dream....  I'm greedy I guess.  I'm grateful too. 

1 comment:

  1. Congrats, Robin! And guess what? You're allowed to have more than one wonderful thing happen to you. Open your arms wide!

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