PlatKat.com: Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road? ....... Line!

Monday, March 05, 2007

Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road? ....... Line!

"How did your comedy show go?" everyone asks. "Thank God it's over," I reply.

My first show, although a lot of fun, did not go as smoothly as I had hoped. To sum it up, Gus absolutely killed and I forgot my jokes. But in general, our class did well and I enjoyed watching everyone perform for a large audience.

I was thinking about posting my jokes on here, but I'm probably going to use them again at an open-mic somewhere. It would be cool if Gus and I could hit one when we go back to Austin (he in a week, me in a few weeks) to perform for our friends that couldn't make it up here. I think I'll be able to put on a better show once my mind is clear and I can watch my tape to see what needs improvement.

I had been under some unnecessary stress (but in the end, isn't it all unnecessary?) about my car during the week prior to my show, which I think contributed to my uninspiring performance. Mind being elsewhere, I didn't memorize everything I was going to say, so I ended up tripping over some of my words. This made some of my punchlines muddled or harder to understand than they needed to be. I pretty much nailed down my routine in the bathroom before the show started, but I knew my confidence and stage presence weren't quite where they needed to be. That spills over into other areas, unfortunately, like speech.

Worst thing ever: I just plain forgot my last joke. That was probably the worst feeling I ever had in my life. Laughter died down, time's almost up, and I am absolutely speechless. Ugh! I also fucked up my opener. The two most important things in a comedy bit are a strong, defining opener and a crazy-good closer. Damn. I need to do this again, not because I think I'm anything great, but just to show myself that I can do this without fucking up!

I think most of my jokes were good (or at least had a good premise to work from), but I may need to rewrite them so I can deliver them with more punch. As Colin Quinn has shown us, the joke isn't funny if you can't spit it out with some panache.

But at least I got to be a total attention whore for five minutes and no one hated me for it afterward. I also met a big group of fabulous people, who I'm looking forward to supporting at future shows around town. This was a good experience, and I learned some stuff.

Velveeta Room, anyone?

posted by platkat @ 12:01 PM