Lewiston, Maine. November 12th Confetti’s. What a weird place. It’s some kind of dance club, and didn’t seem like a place where comedy should be happening. It’s tucked into a strip mall, and the entrance was so small it fit under an awning for another place that sold inflatable toys. It was a weird night for sure. There were about 7 of us to perform, and you should’ve seen this place. It looks kind of like the club that Tony Montana got shot at in Scarface (the one where Richard Belzer performed), but with neon lights, black lights, and an enormous video screen showing videos from such contemporary hit makers as Rick Springfield and Vanilla Ice. They had us set up with a microphone set up in front of the dance floor, with the huge video screen showing fractals that were dancing like techno vaginas behind us. It pretty much felt like a strip club without the nudity and Motley Crue records.

I can make up excuses until the cows come home about this show, because it didn’t go well, but I don’t like excuses and in the end I’m to blame if somebody didn’t laugh at my jokes. I did okay, I didn’t bomb and got a few laughs, but it was definitely a harsh reality compared to the last show in Portland. I think most of the comics had a hard time that night. One guy, also a newbie but I didn’t know him, was supposed to do five minutes but bolted from the stage in under 3. This is after he showed up late. I’m not going to name names, he’s still working in the area I believe and I certainly wouldn’t have minded skipping out on that one either, but I plowed through. It was a different crowd for sure. They seemed to really like the poopie and pee pee humor the comics were doing earlier, but my precious set that I had crafted previously wasn’t fitting so well for it. Live and learn.

Here are some lessons learned from this show: I have to make sure I have some of that type of humor ready for when I come across another crowd like that. More material is going to be really helpful. I need to relax on stage. I’m going to have nights that don’t go so well, I’ll just work through them and try and learn some lessons. Don’t wear a new black dress shirt to a club after you washed it where they might have black lights. No fooling, the thing looked like I was humping a loosely stitched teddy bear with all the dryer lint on it. It was ridiculous.

Next show is coming up soon. December 8th back at the Portland Comedy Connection. I’m looking forward to it.

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.

Birth of a grey hair.

This morning it appeared to me. A little grey hair nestled comfortably in my beard. I pulled that bastard as quick as Grady Little should've pulled Pedro. Not because I was ashamed, but because it meant something and I wanted to look at it. It seemed like I should do something today, that's what it said to me. Not literally, because then I'd be off the the funny farm. I thought I should make a document my adventures in stand-up comedy.

I'm a newbie at it, but have been watching stand-up since I can remember. I've always wanted to try it, but I've been scared to fail at it. But a life event happened recently that made me rethink my fear. (Grab a tissue, this is where it gets heavy). My mom passed away recently from complications from cancer. I've often done charity things with a comedy acoustic band I'm in called Pork & Beans for cancer research. It was something that hit home. My brother-in-law had a bout with cancer and survived, which prompted me to look into making more of a positive difference. We play shows and raffled items off to fans to make money and donate to charity. My mother unfortunately didn't survive, and I took a long hard look at myself as she was fighting her illness. She had always taught me to be proud, a gentleman, a hard worker, and right then she taught me not to be afraid of something so trivial as failure. If she could go through what she was going through, and I could cower because people wouldn't laugh at some of my jokes, it felt pretty odd that I should still carry that fear. So I went out and signed up for a workshop, and that's where we are today.

I worked through the Comedy Connection in Portland, Maine under the tutillage of Tim Farrell who has a pretty impressive resume, but that's for another time maybe. I met some great people, and if they knew it or not, they were my once a week therapy for what was going on in my personal life. The class was seven weeks long, and at the end we had a graduation show. I was put on last (a little pressure, but nothing the kid can't handle) and had a great set. The room was packed, and I had all kinds of people coming up after the show telling me how funny I was. I'll go into the detail in another post. Cut. Tarintino forward one week to Lewiston, Maine as the end of my set at a club called Confetti's comes to an end, not nearly the same reaction as a week before. More detail later on, but I'll tell you I sure learned a couple more lessons there.

Basically, I'm going to do a write up of the shows I've done as they progress, and maybe if you'd like you might have been to one of the shows and you can give me your 2 cents. Feel free, that's what this is for. That's pretty much the intro, no horn section or marching band, but it'll get the ball of wax rolling. And who doesn't like rolling wax balls?