Five minutes at a time...

I have to say that taking off 2 weeks and cutting back is something I have been saying I should do for sometime. It took running myself down to a nub and getting sick to make me take the time not only to make my body feel better but give my mind and soul a much needed break. As most newer comics we are drummed into our heads that the way to become working comics is simple, stage time, stage time and more stage time.

I started in comedy in my early 40s and that was the only early thing about it. People tell me all the time....well Rosanne started late.... wrong, she started in her early 30s. They say the same about Phylis Diller and Joan Rivers I started after both of them. Factor into that I heard it takes 7 years to become a working comic at a minimum and that was only if you were funny and had some talent. Seven Years that's too long I told myself. I decided that if I worked really hard I could maybe shave off a year or two. Whats the point in working so hard if your too old for anyone to want to book you. So if stage time is road to becoming a comedian then I will have to speed to get there. If most people would do 3 open mics a week I would do 3 a night 3 or 4 nights a week.... from 50 miles outside of NYC no less. Eventually I couldn't stand the open mics anymore. I wanted real stage time! So that was the beginning of the barking and bringing and interning phase. I was lucky with all the work if I got 3 sets in a week. I so wanted to get into booked shows and get in front of real audiences. I used to complain.... How can you get good at something or learn anything 5 minutes at a time???

Well you can. I'm living Proff. In the end a good showcase set has been more helpful in getting me work than some of the great sets I can do that are 30 mins long. I am lucky that I have the balance of working in the city and doing 6 to 10 minute sets and on the weekends featuring at clubs. This became very obvious to me this week. A club I perform at had a showcase of top headliners. These comics play the road but the best road show. Foxwoods, Vegas, the Borgatta etc. Each and everyone of these comedians a amazingly talented and successful. There were 11 of them. Most of them didn't do well it was a packed house of mostly older middle aged people. Most of the comics were 40 or older men. It was the perfect audience married middle to upper middle class couples and married people. Yet comic after comic tanked. Some took it on the chin others made quips at the person who asked them to do the gig. One comic blamed a friend for being there who he said was a jinx because every time hes at a show he bombs.

The MC started the show by saying we got 11 comics to put on so lets start the show. So the first comic had to open to a non warmed up room. The only non headliner was my friend Chris this was to be his challenge. He went up and since he was starting a cold room he truly struggled in his first 5 minutes some jokes hit some didn't. People were ordering food and getting their drinks. He took the bullet.... then about half way through he did a joke that hit hard and got them back. He had a solid set from then on. He got off stage and he walked over to the table in the rear of the club were I was. I looked defeated. I told him that for the first comic of the night he should be very proud of himself. He had to do the job the MC is suppose to do and he had nothing to be ashamed of. In hindsight he might have wanted to do some crowd work first I don't know if he has those skills yet I think he most likely does, he hosts all the time.

The big shots went up and folded one after the other. There were a few exceptions JJ Ramerez had a solid set. He works the clubs in NYC and is used to doing 10 minutes and he did crowd work and he had a great set. Some of the comics bailed on their sets. If after 4 minutes they saw the audience wasn't loving them they had enough. I was there just to watch that night. I sat there thinking I hope a woman is going up there. I knew If I could get up I would have a great set. They were my target audience.... middle aged with kids. A woman comic name Kira S went up about number 6 she not only opened the room wide open she destroyed. She is an LA comic and although she headlines all over the US when in LA she performs showcase sets. Its 7 minutes in LA most nights she told me. She did 10 and it was non stop KILL. The next comic a magician jumped the stage after minutes. Al Lubel went up and had a fantastic set.... they loved him. Then the show closed out with two comics performing at the same time. One would do a rant and the other would follow with his jokes on the same topic. It was good but I have seen one of the two comics do a headliner set at a major club in the city and he was a fraction as funny as I know him to be.

Headliners have the luxury of the long set. They can establish a rapport and take there time grabbing an audience. They also have the advantage that the audience many times is there to see them and that is why they came. Seven or so of the 11 headliners tanked.... having to limit a set to 8 to 10 mins.

For now a good showcase set is very important to me. I have been asked to do some major auditions in the past two years and a showcase set isn't just a best of..... its a set that lets an audience get a true sense of your comedic style and point of view. I think that it should have killer opening joke that establishes who you are some kind of arc and a strong and memorable closer. Anytime I have been passed at a club it wasn't because I just did a killer 30. No they gave me a guest spot and I had to kill in under 6 minutes. Contests are the same way except you need several of these short and strong sets. Al Lubel had a great set .... when he appears on TV they give him 6 to 8 minutes.... he has perfected his short set and that's why I think he did so well.

When I was fortunate finally got passed at a club in the city ( I did a tight 5) I was now able to do more sets in a night and in a week than I ever before. I was like a person who had been starving and then was now at an all you can eat buffet. I gorged myself with stage time. I was doing as many weeks 20 or more sets. I often worked 6 nights a week. I was working from early in the evening to the wee hours of the morning. This is my fast track . This is my gym. I figured I'd work and write and work and work. I have to say it really has made me a stronger comic. It also was insane. I forget I'm only flesh and blood and too much of anything is never good. It took me becoming so run down to see this. I knew it in my head long before I got sick. I often blogged about it. I knew it and yet I didn't slow down..... I was addicted to it. Cutting down seemed in someways like giving up the race. Like most things if you do too much you get diminishing returns. I should have learned this long ago from being a full time mommy and never getting much down time. Live and learn ....sometimes the hard way. I'm stupid that way.


So tonight I had a feature spot in South NJ. It was at a club and was 75 miles away. I was booked to do 30 minutes. I planned on getting there and using the 45 minutes before the show to center myself and prepare. My brother called from California and I took his call. I know my material I will be fine I told myself. It was an upsetting call but I was able to lock it up and go up and have a really great show. I would say it was a kill I wish I taped it. It was a fundraiser for breast cancer and I had a party up there. I absolutely felt more comfortable on stage than I have in ages. After the show people came up to me and were very nice. I even got a few new myspace friends out of the night. A few people said that I came off so relaxed so at ease someone else used the words confidently funny. Wow that was a great feeling.

I am so glad I took a break. Its a day later now and I just got back from the same club. I was asked to do 25 instead of the 35 the night before. I decided to cut my Costo bit. Unfortunately the entire lead in to the joke is a call back to my closer. I had a horrible headache and it was subsiding as I took the stage. The club was half filled and the audience was sitting away from the stage. I found it hard to connect at first. I cant say I did as well as the night before but it was a solid set. I never got in the zone and for some reason I was having trouble following the set list in my mind. I zigged away from the set I was doing to do something spontaneous an then found myself further ahead in my set. I mentioned my sons name on one joke that I do later in the set and his name is the punchline in a later joke. I had to invent a 3rd child. I wasn't focused. Its strange because the night before the pressure of a big room and a long drive getting there and my brother calling me didn't effect me at all. I'm grateful that my material is tried an true and was able to make up for any control I might have lost and pull off a solid set. I did get thrown early on by a killer joke landing soft. WTF.
The night before an applause break tonight just average laughs. I am addicted to killing and often anything less feels like a let down. I like that feeling of leaving the stage and feeling .... and that's hows its done! Tonight I left the stage feeling I'm glad this is done. So the journey continues.

This week I will be performing at Comix on Tuesday night. The show starts at 8pm. It will be the premiere of the pilot I did for Howard Stern TV called Falling in Love with Mike Bochetti. It is going to be an amazing night. Jay Nog wrote and directed the show . After the viewing of the show we will performing stand up... The Comedians performing will be Mike Boshetti , Jay Nog , Emily Epstien ,Laura Nickforchuk and myself. It was so much fun filming this pilot and cant wait to see the final cut. I will be doing my showcase set at one of my favorite clubs in the city. Sunday and Monday nights I will be working honing the set to get it just right and hope to do as many shows as I can to get this one just right.

check out my website at www.robinfoxcomedy.com