The Late Night Comedy Show

Finally I had my experience hosting a late night comedy show in a real comedy club. This audience comes in drunk, high, and wants to party. The women wear the short skirts with tops that leave little to imagination. The guys have the baggies, and their favorite team jerseys. The cellphones are out, and everyone is texting one another. The waitstaff is out fulfilling drink orders. Then as the host I am the first one on stage to get this audience to listen. If I have any intelligence I will give the audience, the silly, the dirty, and the shock.

The first night I tried intelligence and fell flat on my face. The club had "clean" rules and I played by them and it was horrible. The feeling of jokes dying on stage is like walking through a minefield. Pretty soon that's how your act is on stage, a painful death, limb by limb. The following night, the club lifted the "clean" rules and I brought out the dirt. By the time I got off, it became a promising evening of some good, dirty fun.

Now I realize why the comics have joke bags fulls of some good filthy jokes. When it's late night, that's what the audience wants.

Islamic Fundamentalist Bit

I was at a big club on Tuesday and decided to do my Islamic Fundamentalist routine. I don't always do it because it uses props and that is always dicey. However the going was good that night and I put the props on and launched the routine.

In my routine, I imitate an Islamic Fundamentalist who uses logic to defend ancient practices, by pointing out the illogic of pop culture. In the process it makes the Fundamentalist seem like a dirty but likeable old man. That night while it did not fetch as many laughs as my other stuff, it still got good laughs and a long applause. Afterwards one guy bought me drinks and several came by to talk.

One woman approached me and thanked me because she had been angry about the Middle East all week and my routine helped her laugh and get over her peeve.

I hope the Muslims find my routine complimentary as well. Then I will have achieved something with comedy.

Obligated to Perform

I did two shows that drew an appreciative audience and I came away feeling not too good about my performance. Then I did a show with three audience members, two homeless guys, people chatting at a table and I felt pretty good about my bit.

It's the corollary of performance anxiety i.e performance judgement. In the first two shows with an audience looking on, I felt obligated to perform and so I did my routine and then judged myself about everything that could have been, should have been, or simply how I screwed up.

Then in the last show with almost no one paying attention, I did whatever I felt like, got a few laughs, and walked away feeling, who gives a shit!

That in essence is the challenge of any performance art -- to be prepared and skilled and when the moment dawns don't give a shit about being up on stage, but to be in the moment. I know I should not say "shit" but it's so much more descriptive, so I don't give a shit about using it.