Wednesday, June 20, 2012

How to be a funny man 5

   My Fifth open Mic

       Tonight was a great night. I wrote a piece yesterday that I thought was well written and had confidence in. Today I performed it at an open mike called "Amnesia" on Valencia and delivered it with conviction, and no missed beats. Today I got a look into the future of my stand up comedy.

       I found that I could operate at a level I didn't think was possible for me yet. I got a few handshakes after getting down and one guy even got off his seat to say he enjoyed it. (that is my measure of success) It was a solid two minute story that required a lot of energy and memory. Now don't get me wrong, every comic worth his salt could do what I did, but for me it was a huge jump.



Before getting up, I had half a beer and a mouth full of coke. Then when the guy before me was going up I walked outside and walked round the corner and just raised my heart rate with a little swinging of the arms and some jogging on the spot. A minute of that and I walked around to the entrance again only to be met with Chris Duncan, who was hosting the open mike. His few words of advice were, enjoy the fact you know no one.

Before I knew it, Chris was onstage inviting me up to take the mike. I slagged him a little bit about the pitter patter of his shoes and explained to the audience that if they laughed I was a comedian and if they didn't I was just a guy telling a story.

           I got to abstract quickly, which felt good and comfortable. The room was polite and attentive and laughed when expected. My final punch line could have been a little better but the little laughs throughout the story and the 100% attention of the audience made me feel like a winner.

      Now the key is to be able to replicate this again, in many different ways and have strong 'bits' from start to finish. By no means do I think  I am a good comedian, but by god today went well for me. I feel more comfortable committing to my material and longer stories instead of one liners, and all that came from today. A milestone for my development.

Hopefully this is just the tip of the iceberg. Had to battle with my mind a little just to get on stage today, i think partly cause I felt last time I had very little to say and the rewards are so minimal in a room full of comics, but as expected you always get something out of getting up there... Gotta fight through the fear. I feel like I can actually think straight now on stage or at least the fog is lifting and clarity and control is seeping in, which is something that only four 5 minute sets ago I did not feel. A great rate of progression but lots more to achieve.

After 'Amnesia" me and Chris roamed the streets and Chris did a 10 minute set at the 'Rockit Room.'
Tomorrow  going to a comedy central gig on some free tickets... i'll let you know how it goes.



Peace

Glowpunk



No comments: