Monday, October 30, 2006

Well..... There It Is.

My 1 year anniversary came and went with no fanfare whatsoever. The crowd was a dud, my set was fine, but the crowd wasn't really the type to appreciate my brand of humor. It wasn't a bomb, but it wasn't a success. All things considered, I'd be better off if it'd never happened.

Last night's show was at the Comedy Connection in Portland. Lately they've been having an issue of sorts getting any people into the seats for Showcase shows. It's crowds are a lot like an open mic with no advertising lately. It's kind of sad. Aside from two weeks ago, I haven't been looking forward to doing the Connection shows. When I was starting out, I couldn't wait to do that room, but it's become quiet and the crowds seem less interested.

I won't lie, it bothered me that the show went over so poorly. I thought maybe I'd be able to look at last night, and where I was a year ago, and I was let down. I know I've grown as a comic, but if there's nobody in the forest to hear the tree fall....

I have a few more shows lined up, but I might stop pushing for time at the Portland Comedy Connection for awhile. I think I just don't appreciate it, and somebody else might still want the time there. I have a number of shows booked up through January, nothing for December, but November and January. I think I might let the shows run through and see where I stand. I had a goal when I started to do this for a year, and this will be going over a little bit.

The only goals I have left is to play Boston, which will happen next week, and then 1 more run at the Portland's Funniest Contest. I don't care to win, but the crowd was so good last year, I'd love one more time in front of them.

Thursday, October 26, 2006

I Had Fun In Bangor

I never thought I’d say that, but what a blast. Bangor was a fun road trip with some fun dudes, and I think we represented Portland comedy really well last night. Myself, Timmy B!, Dustin Beckleman, and his pal Billy all piled into Timmy’s Tracker and hit the 95’s all the way to the town with the Paul Bunyan statue. On the ride up, we were listening to What The Hell Happened To Me by Adam Sandler, and when we went through the toll booth, I yelled out loudly with the CD “I got a snake mang!” which was really funny to us in the car, but I’m assuming the toll lady was less than impressed.

I’d never been to Bangor before, and quite honestly I figured it’d be a little like that scene from Deliverance where someone gets to make piggie noises. First impression of Bangor wasn’t far off. We were a little road weary from the drive and wanted to find a place to stop and eat or something. Almost the entire town seemed shut down like Children of the Corn (obligatory Stephen King reference there) at 6:00 at night. Very strange, but we did find a pub called Main Street Tavern. This place was a little sketchy; the barmaid was an older woman with prison tattoos up and down her arms, but a smile that could melt a convict’s heart, not really. We ordered from the menu, which she said “All items are either made in the toaster over or the microwave”. I ordered the Cheeseburger $3.50, and Dustin ordered the Jumbo Cheeseburger which she said was the same thing. I asked her if I could change my order to the jumbo then, seeing as it was the same price. She looked at me like I just stole her last prison cigarette. Good stuff. They had pickled eggs and Slim Jims on their menu, very classy.

We also befriended a fellow named Hawkeyes (his nickname, not ours) who had been coming to that tavern for over 17 years. No shit! He was quite braggadocios about the several women he had scattered around town for his carnal desires, to which my reply of “With a good supply of roofies, duct tape and a halfway decent hunting shack, who wouldn’t?” kind of fell on deaf ears. I guess it would of meant more if his friend Hawk-ears had been with him. Enough of the local culture, on to the Club.

Once we arrived we met the owners of Club Gemini, real nice guys. They directed us back to the VIP lounge. Now that was really nice. I was surprised how such a nice club existed in Bangor, and the VIP lounge was a treatment I hadn’t been afforded before as a comic. The host Randy showed up a little later on and we talked about the order of the night and went on from there.

We all had good sets, and I dare say I had a really good set. I did about 15-17 minutes at the start, and then later we did a comedy campfire where I added a few new jokes as well. All of the Portland guys did really well and represented Portland comedy in a positive light I believe. There seemed to be no empty seats around the stage, and the crowd was there to hear some comedy. The show went until just about 11:30 and I had my head rested in my bed at home just under 2:30 AM. A long night, but it was well worth it.

Great crowd, great club, great time, not such a good cheeseburger form the Maine Street Tavern, but don’t tell Hawkeyes, I think he likes their burgers.

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Was It Worth It?

Not really. Last night's show was kind of weak. It was Sierra in Gorham, and once again the crowd was very thin. At least last month the crowd wanted to listen, but last night was regulars that wanted to drink and seemed less inclined to laugh. Those shows are tough. I think I had a pretty decent set, but who knows.

I don't want to give the impression that the crowd didn't laugh at all, but to get them to that point was way more work than I really wanted to put in. It seemed that some stuff that worked for a few people, didn't work for others and vice versa. It was like the polar opposite crowd from last Thursday where comics could almost do no wrong. I don't care that the "joint wasn't rocking" last night. I was just out running material and that was that. It'd just be nice to know if your material was working so that if it was, you can use it on a more appreciative crowd in the future.

I was going to go to Acoustic Coffee tonight, but I just don't feel like going through the same type of show 2 days in a row, so I might blow it off. We'll see, I can never make up my mind to not do a show. If not, next week Wednesday is my next scheduled show, a paying gig in Bangor at Club Gemini. I've heard good things about that club, so we'll give it a shot.

Friday, October 13, 2006

The Inmates Were Running The Asylum

If you weren't there for it, it's hard to explain. Last night's lineup was insane for a Showcase night. Myself, Timmy B!, Joe Ricchio, Tuck Tucker, and Rich Pickford were all in the lineup for the showcase comics. Everyone did a minimum of 8 minutes, and not a single set was bad. I've never seen that many comics in one night and everyone was killing. But that's not even the full story. For your measly $6 last night, you got some of Portland's best up and coming comics, but we had 3 headliner comics as well. Bob Marley, Jimy Dunn, and Kenny "The Viper" Rogerson. Our host for the show was this weekend's feature Jon Lincoln.

Bobby started the show and I got to follow him. I've done it before, so I wasn't too concerned. He got the crowd up really quickly, I just had to make sure I didn't lose them. And I didn't. Last night I could feel my timing was really on and my jokes were ripping it up. My new stuff and my old stuff I reworked a bit didn't let me or the crowd down in the least. It was awesome. People were coming up to me in between sets saying how funny I was, and those were people I didn't know. I did call one girl out during my set that had huge titties and was obviously a stripper. It was obvious by her outfit, that she wanted everyone to notice them. I made sure they did. The crowd was all feeling the same thing and my set had to stop for a second so everyone could catch their breath. It felt so great.

I stayed through almost all of the show to watch all of the other showcase comics. It was hard not to. Everyone was running new material and the crowd was ours from the beginning to the end. It was our room last night, and the feature and headliners had to gain control back after us, which is normally the other way around. It felt good.

Before the show began, I was talking to Jon Lincoln about the lineup, because all of the comics were excited about it. I let him know that it might get a little randy with the comics scheduled, and he was thrown off a little because he said he's a clean comic. But by the end of the night, he was saying "vagina-face and fuck" just like the rest of us.

It was soo much fun, perhaps one of my best sets ever and the best show I've ever been a part of. I was proud to be a part of that show. If I were building my dream show for local comics, I would've had Luke and Dustin Beckelman on the lineup as well, but like I said before, I've never seen such a potent lineup for a showcase night. I want to thank the crowd and the other comics for such a great time.

More upcoming shows are next Tuesday the 17th at Sierra's in Gorham, and the 18th at Acoustic Coffee on Danforth St in Portland. After that, my next scheduled shows are Sunday October 29th (my official 1 year show for doing stand-up) and the week after in Bostons Fanieul Hall Comedy Connection on Monday November 6th (I'll be working alongside Timmy B once again).

Thursday, October 05, 2006

Electric Coffee??? No! Acoustic Coffee!!!!

I hadn't done this open mic for quite awhile. Last night was a blast. I had a raging set, more on that in a minute, and got to hang with some funny people.

I thought for sure as soon as my set began, I was going to have a terrible set, because I took the mic out of the stand and the chord came unplugged. I recovered and ripped through a lot of new material. Only one joke didn't work, but in retrospect, the timing of it and the build-up prior to kind of cut it off at the knees. My best moments were improv last night though. Most importantly with Nick's (one of the other comics) mother's vagina. The fact was that he had brought half of the audience, and I wanted to address them during the set and keep them into the show. One thing led to another and we went back and forth regarding her holiest of holies and the topics of racism and rip chord safety leashes in regards to her stuff. It was classic.

A lot of the comedy was dead on last night and the crowd reacted to most of it very well. The tempo of the show was working great, and Seth Bond Perry did an excellent job keeping things moving. It was definitely worth the commute from South Portland to Portland for the show, and I'll probably come back and do it again in a couple of weeks.

Next scheduled show is next week Thursday the 12th at the Portland Comedy Connection. Also I'm there on the 29th (my 1 year anniversary of doing stand-up, maybe someone will bring a cake). After that, the next show I have is on November 6th in Boston's Comedy Connection. Keep your eyes peeled at the open mics too, that's where I tell jokes that don't work sometimes and bail on them early because I will tell them before finishing them, because I'm silly like that.