My First Time ...Again #3

Thursday, Week 1:

The Brainwash Cafe

      

      "One must work out ones comedy muscle."  A world famous comedian shared that gem with me in a green room a while back. I am like a super retentive sponge when it comes to that type of elucidating comment. It seems logical and obvious once you hear it or read it, but until someone draws your attention to it, it might not pop into ones consciousness. I now have a new muscle to work out. My comedy muscle!

      In essence, the comment suggests that the more you practice the comedy craft and art of verbal ninjary, the better you become. This results in less extraneous cognitive load on your brain when you are performing. Thus, leaving your mind more free to improve your performance rather than waste energy on the basics. It has only been 2 days of slacking, but in this stand up comedy world, especially at this early stage, it's like hoping to be a competitive athlete and skipping daily training sessions. 

       Once again I found myself being brought to the famous 'Brainwash Cafe' by Chris and Tom. It was another wholesome experience. I truly cant get over how relaxed I feel on stage. It is a cafe/laundromat with some really cute waitresses. The crowd was as ethnically, economically and ideologically mixed as they come and most of the room were comics tonight. Of course the non-comics is where I aimed my set delivery. No point in flirting with a married woman, so to speak. Comics have analytical minds, and are usually thinking of their own set or analyzing the delivery of your material. So you can be as funny as hell and still not illicit the slightest grin. Knowing that...can keep you sane! 

        Tonight I found that how I held the mic in regard to its distance from my mouth etc. was completely automatic. When you first start getting on stage it is strange to hear your own voice and you can find yourself worrying about volume etc. With that small part of comedy on autopilot I stepped outside my bits/jokes again tonight as much as I could. 

        I have decided that every month I will try and do one perfect showcase set and then archive my material and start fresh. If I do that I may learn quicker by forcing myself to grow or die on stage.  It shouldn't be as difficult as it would've been last year when I would have lived and died by every set and clung to my material like glue. Fear stifles progression! 

        This new found 'fearlessness' (for want of a better word) is kind of awesome and empowering. I think it comes from living in that tent for a year and my other ridiculous adventures. I'm so comfortable with what I am and what I am not that other people's judgement of me is so irrelevant it is nutritive. My diverse and perverse myriad of life experiences to date have given me a personal sense of value that public humiliation cannot take away. 

         I do of course have to care to succeed, but only in respect to my joke delivery, humor and audience reading. NOT to what they think of me as an individual. This sounds obvious but I have seen comics struggle with esteem issues. Perhaps the fact that I can see a clear separation between my jokes and I is the real important thing here. Note to comics YOU ARE NOT YOUR MATERIAL OR A REFLECTION OF THE RESPONSE YOU GET!  But what do I know? I'm new here. I really hope this fearlessness feeling lasts! 

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