How to be a funny man 7

       My 7th and 8th Open Mic. 'Comfort through Discomfort'














What a great day on the video and stand up comedy front. Well 'Epic,' by my standards.

                  I think it may have been in the preparation. I Slept well last night, was in bed before 10pm and got a great breakfast and lunch. Had breakfast in the hostel (USA HOSTELS)  and then headed down to China town for lunch.

                  I've been sharing a room with a good French lad, but we were on different timings so I wasn't sleeping that well. But, yesterday he left, so I had the room completely to myself. Awesome.

                 So all morning I edited a video for the 'Glowpunk' youtube channel that I shot on Sunday for the Pride Parade in San Francisco.  I'm straight but it was probably one of the coolest parties I have ever been to, and a learning and mind opening experience as well. Hopefully you will like the video. Here is the link.  

               


                So after editing all morning I walked the 45 minutes across town to the 'Amnesia' bar open mic, that my friend Chris Duncan was hosting for a friend in his absence. I was up 13th, and decided en route that I was going to try and freestyle  and create tension in the room as much as possible. The room was giving little or no feedback as the room was mainly full of comics and poets. So instead of writing this off as a waste of time, I realized that no matter what I did I was going to bomb (fail). So i decided to just mess about and even went behind the curtain and put on some silly voices and mentioned some subject matters that I would never want to make part of my act. I also called out some one who was not listening and pointed out that "it was funny that creating tension was funny" and that got a laugh.

         Also that "people cared as little about the comedy as the bar owner did about the decor" and that got a laugh. And, that it seemed "that the reaction of the audiance would be the same to the comedy that I made up on the spot as to the comedy I practiced en route" and that got a laugh. I also mentioned that to top it off there was "an alcoholic man dressed in a clown suit staring at me who was there  to highlight the sadness of the situation."(it was another performer dressed as a clown -Dr. Dream( he is great)) And that got a laugh. So a few easy laughs and proof to me that highly personalized comedy is the way forward.

                  Now don't get me wrong, I kinda bombed, but I bombed on my terms and that was satisfying, a great lesson learned and a confidence builder. I remember Dave Chapelle mentioned that it was only when he got comfortable bombing that he became a better comedian, so I kind of tried it based on that. Strange to attempting to fail and winning. Fun times.

               
          So after getting that set out of the way, I showed a stressed Chris Duncan his first appearance in a Glowpunk video I made and checked that he was cool about everything I showed in it. It was quite an honest take of him and he was 100% up for it. He is a clever fella, fearless and open to an admirable level, and as we have joked about on many occasions operating very close to a fatal mis interpretation. I expect great things for Chris Duncan as a result of his 'Highwire Act.' As I like to call it. Anyway, he approved his cameo and we edited the video a little in the car. Then we drove to the second Open Mic of the night. 'The Rock-it Room.'


                 We arrived at 'The Rock-it Room' and signed up . It was a super quiet night, so we went for a bite to eat across the road in the chinese take-away and then walked back over at our leisure. I smashed a can of red bull  (which I have not done in years) and  videoed a super high energy 5 min set that was terrible but again useful for my development. Also the wonderful asian guy running the room was a friend of mine and was nice and friendly and supportive. I guess someday I might let people see that video, but not 'til I feel I am better than that performance. To be honest, that shouldn't take too long.

                Myself and Chris then hit a few bars (drank coke and water) and I sent a few rounds of water to some girls who were sitting across the bar from us, which surprisingly worked better than sending alcoholic drinks. haha! The power of originality and comedy I guess.  That is the end of the blog for today... Feeling good and as you can see by the length of this entry, the red bull is still working.

Peace,
Glowpunk.



             

How to be a funny man 2

My Second Comedy Open Mic

           So, Second time up tonight, it was across town at 'Dirty Trix'  408 Clement Avenue. The room was kinda cool, about 20 people there so much quieter then the brainwash. It was a nice atmosphere to try stand up in, it had an attentive crowd, some of whom were just there to have a beer and listen. Again there were some people who were great and some who were terrible.

          I feel like i might have done just about enough not to be associated with the terrible.  Felt stronger on stage. I wasn't as nervous getting up and the pulse rate was not at the high level it was at the night in the Brainwash Cafe. The host was a nice fella and they had little music intros, the lighting was cool and it had a kinda cool red curtain behind the performers which gave that nice atmosphere.

Again we signed up at about 7 and went got up at about 9.30. I had walked 2 hours for some meetings that morning, so I was super tired, but had a Redbull to get the head in order. To get there I walked and got a lift on my friends push bike. Took about an hour. Again got up and did about 2 mins 30 secs and felt like it went great compared to the first night... Even handled a few heckles, all be them pretty chilled. I think i may have been to aware of the room and gone a little fast, but that was ok for me... Me and Tom met a nice guy called Chris Duncan who is a 5 year vet and is awesome on stage and he kind of gave us some light pointers. Basically get up again and enjoy it..

           So yep a lot less nerves and a better delivery all be it pretty bad. Still havn't told a dick joke or used too much bad language. It seems to be easier if you go blue, but I just don't want to go that route...

          Tom is heading off on holidays so hopefully I will still get up on stage when he is gone, I guess we'll see, Thursday night is the next one, back in the Brainwash. Hopefully it will go ok, but I have heard that you need to be prepared to play to complete silence and to bomb when you are starting out. Hasn't happened yet but I think it could happen soon...

Two down, number three coming up... gotta keep getting up and face the fear... that terribly seductive adrenaline. Right now I feel like my material is hacky and weak, looking forward to cracking and writing some good bits.

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