Monday, June 11, 2012

How to be a funny man 1

     
   
My First Comedy Open Mic


        Just back from doing my first open mike stand up comedy thingy ever. I did it in the brainwash comedy club on Folsom, San Francisco. It went well. Me and my cousin Tom signed up for 5 minutes but did far less. The goal was to get up, say a few things get some laughs and sit down. We succeeded at that. Although, it was hard to tell what was charity laughs and what we induced. Either way a milestone.

I've religiously texted emailed and kept little notes of funny thoughts i've had for a few months now. It doesn't amount to much and a lot of it is nonsense and far from funny, but I pulled a few bits of that out and used those bits to make up 2mins 30 seconds of short concise jokes. Im too new to go into long stories, I guess I would forget and mess up in the panic

While signing up on the registry sheet there was some excessive fumbling over the pen, all adrenaline induced i guess and funny to see how amped we were. The place was noisy and exactly the wrong atmosphere for any a good performer, which in a funny way made it the perfect place to begin. Every one in the room was a comic and those who weren't sat down the back talking. The standard for the most part was pretty low, so that took the pressure off us. there was even a few people who just got up and talked crazy. I think they might have been off their medication

We got the customary "A LOT OF LOVE " welcome from the crowd which the host Tony Stark rallied (gentleman) and then got straight into it. It was over before we knew it and then  we walked outside and talked about how we were glad it was over, and how surprisingly it was worth the 4 hour wait for about 3 minutes of material.  My first joke was "Two Irish guys walk into a bar but it wasn't a bar that sold alcohol it was a metal bar, and it went straight through the first guys chest and out through the other guys head"


I liked it, and I guess some people did too cause it got a reasonable response.

There is a chance to get up every night of the week in San Francisco and do 5 mins, so i guess it is a good place to go for wannabe comedians like me. I decided to stay in town instead of traveling across the country as previously planned to see what can be accomplished in the comedy world in a month, getting up about 4 times a week.

So in closing I would say that everyone should go and look at a few shows first then write down some buts and get up there and let people know it is your first time. They will be supportive.

We recorded it on video but I think I will keep it to myself for a while, incase it is the last one I ever do.


My cousin Dex came along for the laugh and to see how it all worked and thinks he might give it a go next time. He spent the itme in the car writing lyrics for some music he is making.

Right, now to see if we will get up again.

Glowpunk

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