The First Show

The Graduation Show, October 29th 2005 Comedy Connection Portlnd, was a blast. Basically there were ten fresh baby comics all waiting for our family and friends to show up so we could tell some jokes and then head out to have some dinner and share in the life experience. I already had been approached to continue on after the graduation show through Tim. I said I’d stick around and see what would come of it, but that’s a tangent, reel it in, back to the show.

Everyone was waiting upstairs over the Comedy Connection. It was a cool vibe, there were posters of the Blues Brothers and Tieniman Square (sp?) and 2 TV’s set up for recording the performances. The week’s headliner was there, Steve Caouette, who was very cool and gave us all a quick pep talk. He was just kind of hanging out; he had a set on the later show. We were all nervous upstairs, and I tried not to show it, but boy was I excited.
I got to watch everyone go through his or her sets. Some of them doing great, and a couple I’m sure weren’t enjoying their time onstage, but probably glad to have it all come to a head. And then my turn came. I waited in the back of the club as Tom Ryan introduced me. There was a lot of applause, more than I expected, and it was a rush. I had run through my set at least a hundred times, but it didn’t matter I was sucked in by the energy of the crowd. I think I probably could’ve made jokes up on the spot and had them go over. I can’t say it enough, Great crowd! I went through my set, and got some great laughs. I had setup joke with a call-back, and the set-up was a little dark, but it ended up going well, so I knew the rest of the set would go well too. I played a little with the crowd, and when it was over I wanted back on. I had the itch.