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.