I forgot to throw this in before posting the last entry, but this probably deserves to be addressed on it's own because it's the topic du jour and I'm nothing if not topical. I like Michael Jackson. Even though I'm more of a rock/alternative/metal kinda guy, my musical interests are all over the map, as I think everyone's should be. (As an aside, has anyone ever browsed your iPod and said "Wow, there's a lot of weird/different/strange stuff on here"? I think that's a good thing. I'd be disturbed by someone who has 30 gigs worth of one genre of music.)
Anyways, my point is that Michael Jackson made great music. His talent cannot be denied and is by all accounts not only a musical genius but he can be argued as the greatest entertainer of all time. I get it. But can everyone just calm the fuck down? If I read one more person's Twitter or Facebook update about him then I'm gonna start burning his albums out of spite. It's been 48 hours and I'm still getting "This is hitting me harder than I thought it would!" and "I still can't believe he's gone!" and "RIP MJ! we'll miss u :-("
And as far as the media's reaction to it all? I'll let Jon Lajoie handle that... and no, it's not too soon.
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Adapting to a crowd
I'm moving in a few days, I've been packing pretty much all day and I've just gotta take a break for a bit. I figure watching Zack and Miri Make a Porno while cranking out a post oughta do the trick.
The other day I mentioned something about adapting to a crowd. I've been trying to read a lot of different opinions on stand up and one recurring theme is that the audience is having a conversation with you. You might be the only one talking, but there's a lot of give and take going on. If you pick up on their vibe, they'll tell you what they want to hear.
Now, it might be because I'm stubborn, but I've been of the opinion that if they don't laugh, then fuck'em. I know what's funny and if they don't like it, then they don't have a good enough sense of humour. But last week, I had a joke about religion that didn't land and then went through with another minute or two on religion. Well, that didn't really work either. Looking back on it, I could have easily bypassed it based on the reaction to the first joke. And I think that might be a good thing to do in the future. Except I don't really want to. I actually do think that if something doesn't work (unless I fuck it up, which is entirely possible and I'm pretty sure I'd notice, but didn't happen on Monday) then they're the problem, not me.
This is probably one of those things that I'll just figure out as I go along, but as of right now, I don't think I'm nearly comfortable enough to change my routine on the fly and I'd rather go out there and give what I think is my best stuff, regardless of reaction. Unless I bomb. I think if I ever bomb I might change my tune.
I'll take this moment to mention Matt Ruby. He's a New York comic who's been writing his blog for a few years and I've been reading his blog a lot since I started. If what I'm doing here ever ends up half as good as his page, that'd be fine by me. He also discusses the topic of tuning your set to the audience fairly often, including this post about a month ago: http://www.sandpapersuit.com/2009/05/adjusting-your-material-based-on-type.html
And now, back to packing. Or sleeping. Unfortunately not a combination of the two, because sleeppacking would be awesome. -Wake up- "Hey, everything's done! I must have packed it in my sleep!" -Self High Five-
The other day I mentioned something about adapting to a crowd. I've been trying to read a lot of different opinions on stand up and one recurring theme is that the audience is having a conversation with you. You might be the only one talking, but there's a lot of give and take going on. If you pick up on their vibe, they'll tell you what they want to hear.
Now, it might be because I'm stubborn, but I've been of the opinion that if they don't laugh, then fuck'em. I know what's funny and if they don't like it, then they don't have a good enough sense of humour. But last week, I had a joke about religion that didn't land and then went through with another minute or two on religion. Well, that didn't really work either. Looking back on it, I could have easily bypassed it based on the reaction to the first joke. And I think that might be a good thing to do in the future. Except I don't really want to. I actually do think that if something doesn't work (unless I fuck it up, which is entirely possible and I'm pretty sure I'd notice, but didn't happen on Monday) then they're the problem, not me.
This is probably one of those things that I'll just figure out as I go along, but as of right now, I don't think I'm nearly comfortable enough to change my routine on the fly and I'd rather go out there and give what I think is my best stuff, regardless of reaction. Unless I bomb. I think if I ever bomb I might change my tune.
I'll take this moment to mention Matt Ruby. He's a New York comic who's been writing his blog for a few years and I've been reading his blog a lot since I started. If what I'm doing here ever ends up half as good as his page, that'd be fine by me. He also discusses the topic of tuning your set to the audience fairly often, including this post about a month ago: http://www.sandpapersuit.com/2009/05/adjusting-your-material-based-on-type.html
And now, back to packing. Or sleeping. Unfortunately not a combination of the two, because sleeppacking would be awesome. -Wake up- "Hey, everything's done! I must have packed it in my sleep!" -Self High Five-
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Baby Steps
So I performed at the ComedyWorks open mic last night, as you may have been aware of. I'd say there were about 40 or 50 people there including a small handful of friends. Here are my thoughts on the evening... in exciting PRO and CON point form!!!
CON - I didn't do as well as I wanted to. Not saying that I bombed or anything, but I thought I'd be better.
PRO - Most of my biggest laughs came towards the end and I finished pretty strong.
CON - It was my first time on the stage there and two things threw me off. Firstly, the mic stand sucked. Maybe it was just me and I haven't learned how to use them yet, but it took a while to adjust it to my height and it kept slipping down while I was doing my set. Eventually I just said "Screw this thing" and took the mic out. By then I was already flustered and it made me skip over a joke. Also, the lights were a lot brighter than other ones I'd been in front of. I could see the first row and a couple side tables, but that was it. Overall, I don't think I was ever really comfortable and it effected me the whole 5 minutes.
PRO - I tried out some new material that went over well.
CON - I tried out some new material that really did not go over well.
PRO - I think I've figured out how to adapt to a crowd. They seemed picky (my friends said it was a tough crowd, I kinda disagree) and didn't react to what I thought was a great joke. And that led into an extended bit on the same topic. If a crowd reacts poorly to that again, I could just skip over the bit and go with something else. In fact, I'll probably expand on this whole point about "bad crowds" and "playing to the crowd" in another post.
CON - I cracked noticeably at least once because I stumbled over a word during a new joke. I hate cracking. Ruins the deadpan.
Overall, it was probably okay for the first time at a new place, and for trying new material, and for being only the second time I've ever been on stage with a paying audience. I didn't quite live up to my expectations but that's part of the learning experience.
CON - I didn't do as well as I wanted to. Not saying that I bombed or anything, but I thought I'd be better.
PRO - Most of my biggest laughs came towards the end and I finished pretty strong.
CON - It was my first time on the stage there and two things threw me off. Firstly, the mic stand sucked. Maybe it was just me and I haven't learned how to use them yet, but it took a while to adjust it to my height and it kept slipping down while I was doing my set. Eventually I just said "Screw this thing" and took the mic out. By then I was already flustered and it made me skip over a joke. Also, the lights were a lot brighter than other ones I'd been in front of. I could see the first row and a couple side tables, but that was it. Overall, I don't think I was ever really comfortable and it effected me the whole 5 minutes.
PRO - I tried out some new material that went over well.
CON - I tried out some new material that really did not go over well.
PRO - I think I've figured out how to adapt to a crowd. They seemed picky (my friends said it was a tough crowd, I kinda disagree) and didn't react to what I thought was a great joke. And that led into an extended bit on the same topic. If a crowd reacts poorly to that again, I could just skip over the bit and go with something else. In fact, I'll probably expand on this whole point about "bad crowds" and "playing to the crowd" in another post.
CON - I cracked noticeably at least once because I stumbled over a word during a new joke. I hate cracking. Ruins the deadpan.
Overall, it was probably okay for the first time at a new place, and for trying new material, and for being only the second time I've ever been on stage with a paying audience. I didn't quite live up to my expectations but that's part of the learning experience.
Friday, June 19, 2009
TGIF
I'm just happy it's Friday... I've had a long week. Only 3 more hours to go at work... but I'll use some of this lunch hour to update.
The past two weeks have been largely uneventful. I haven't done any more shows since softball keeps getting in the way, but this Monday I'm gonna try to book myself for the open mic at ComedyWorks. I was able to make it this past week to support a couple classmates and the overall talent was better than I thought it'd be, and several pros came out to try new material.
There were about 8 amateurs doing 5 mintue sets and 4 or 5 pros so the night dragged on just a little. It was the first open mic I'd been to there, so I found out how they pick who returns for the Best Of at the end of the month. There's a ballot, and you rate each comic on a 1-to-5 scale, 5 being the best. It seems pretty easy to stack it in your favour if you bring a tonne of friends to the show. I'm tempted to not tell people when I'm performing there, as a real test.
The top two were announced as getting a spot for the show. One of which was my favourite of the night, some skinny kid who was all one-liners. The only criticism I had of him was this line "My friends think I have a gambling problem. I bet them $10 that I don't." Really? You're gonna use that? That joke doesn't even do the word "filler" justice. That's like saying "I threw a box of Corn Flakes out the window. I'm a cereal killer." However, the bulk of his stuff was very good. My two comrades had decent if unspectacular sets.
In this "downtime" I've been writing a fair bit. At least half of the stuff I'll be using on Monday will be new. Also, I know everyone is still waiting for the video. Trust me, I am too. And the guy who taped it is getting harassed by everyone else. It's coming and I'll post it the second I can.
The past two weeks have been largely uneventful. I haven't done any more shows since softball keeps getting in the way, but this Monday I'm gonna try to book myself for the open mic at ComedyWorks. I was able to make it this past week to support a couple classmates and the overall talent was better than I thought it'd be, and several pros came out to try new material.
There were about 8 amateurs doing 5 mintue sets and 4 or 5 pros so the night dragged on just a little. It was the first open mic I'd been to there, so I found out how they pick who returns for the Best Of at the end of the month. There's a ballot, and you rate each comic on a 1-to-5 scale, 5 being the best. It seems pretty easy to stack it in your favour if you bring a tonne of friends to the show. I'm tempted to not tell people when I'm performing there, as a real test.
The top two were announced as getting a spot for the show. One of which was my favourite of the night, some skinny kid who was all one-liners. The only criticism I had of him was this line "My friends think I have a gambling problem. I bet them $10 that I don't." Really? You're gonna use that? That joke doesn't even do the word "filler" justice. That's like saying "I threw a box of Corn Flakes out the window. I'm a cereal killer." However, the bulk of his stuff was very good. My two comrades had decent if unspectacular sets.
In this "downtime" I've been writing a fair bit. At least half of the stuff I'll be using on Monday will be new. Also, I know everyone is still waiting for the video. Trust me, I am too. And the guy who taped it is getting harassed by everyone else. It's coming and I'll post it the second I can.
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Joey Elias' Comedy Course: In Retrospect
I just read over every post I've made about Joey's workshop. Back in February I really had no idea what I was signing up for and now almost 4 months later it's probably one of the best things I've ever done in my life. Having reflected on my show the past few days and gotten feedback from people, I know that this is something I can do, and more importantly, something I want to do.
After the show, a friend asked me "What's the greatest insight you got?" I was half buzzed from the alcohol, half buzzed from the high of being on stage, and I said "Fear is half the battle" and "Trust your gut" because I'm still kind of an idiot and they sounded like good answers. After thinking about it, I realized the one piece of advice I always thought of while I was trying to write was "Comedy is about misdirection. It's like magic, with wordplay." That's gotta be the thing that stuck the most. Every joke I've written, I've done so with the intention of surprising or even confusing the crowd.
I have also reconsidered my criticisms of the writing methods Joey taught us. I understand why he forced us to lock into our topics, since it really forced me to develop the jokes. Looking back on my notes, at least 75% of the jokes I had in, say Week 5, didn't make the cut on Sunday. The lesson I took was to never stop re-writing or trying to improve a topic you think you've exhausted. I still don't like how he taught us to choose topics out of negativity, but I can see how it's useful. Obviously, you're more likely to rant out of frustration than admiration. Although I was just thinking today about how awesome Vicks-scented Kleenex is. I could probably get a minute or two out of that.
I think I've also started to find my style. I always wanted to be deadpan but wasn't sure that I'd be able to have the writing ability to pull it off, or the facial discipline. I have yet to watch the tape, and I'm sure I was pretty close to cracking a few times, but the reviews have been good so far so I'll probably be continuing with the deadpan. I'm pretty happy about that.
What I really benefited from the course wasn't so much the writing tips, but the experience of being with other people who want to perform stand up comedy. This whole process has completely taken the intimidation out of what I'm doing. The thought of doing stand up comedy has always seemed a little crazy to me, and now I've found a group of people who don't think it's crazy at all. That support group alone is invaluable.
Also, after reading through everything I've written, I realized I might have been a little harsh on my classmates, either individually or as a collective. And for that, assuming some of them will eventually discover this blog whether I tell them about it or not, I apologize. Everything I wrote, I believed in at the time, but I've also realized that everyone is taking their own path at their own pace and will eventually get to where they want to be. Everyone had improved significantly towards the end of the workshop and we all had solid sets and got some laughs at the show. I truly hope to run into my comedy comrades often and am looking forward to witnessing everyone's comedic evolution. Each time I see any of them, it will remind me of our little workshop. This is only our beginning and the best of each of us is yet to come. And I absolutely realize how cheesy this last paragraph was but I mean every word of it and it needed to be said.
Overall, as much as the workshop was one of the best things I've ever decided to do, the show itself was one of the greatest experiences of my life. My thanks go out to anyone was a part of it.
And yes, I've been bombarded by requests to post the video. Trust me, no one wants it more than I do. The guy who taped it is gonna send us everything as soon as he's finished processing and editing it. Patience is a virtue. Once again, in the meantime, I've got some pictures from the show.
I also signed up for Twitter, which I gotta admit is a little cooler than I thought it'd be. The link should be on the right hand side of this page. I'll mostly be posting one liners and news about my blog or any shows I'll be doing.
After the show, a friend asked me "What's the greatest insight you got?" I was half buzzed from the alcohol, half buzzed from the high of being on stage, and I said "Fear is half the battle" and "Trust your gut" because I'm still kind of an idiot and they sounded like good answers. After thinking about it, I realized the one piece of advice I always thought of while I was trying to write was "Comedy is about misdirection. It's like magic, with wordplay." That's gotta be the thing that stuck the most. Every joke I've written, I've done so with the intention of surprising or even confusing the crowd.
I have also reconsidered my criticisms of the writing methods Joey taught us. I understand why he forced us to lock into our topics, since it really forced me to develop the jokes. Looking back on my notes, at least 75% of the jokes I had in, say Week 5, didn't make the cut on Sunday. The lesson I took was to never stop re-writing or trying to improve a topic you think you've exhausted. I still don't like how he taught us to choose topics out of negativity, but I can see how it's useful. Obviously, you're more likely to rant out of frustration than admiration. Although I was just thinking today about how awesome Vicks-scented Kleenex is. I could probably get a minute or two out of that.
I think I've also started to find my style. I always wanted to be deadpan but wasn't sure that I'd be able to have the writing ability to pull it off, or the facial discipline. I have yet to watch the tape, and I'm sure I was pretty close to cracking a few times, but the reviews have been good so far so I'll probably be continuing with the deadpan. I'm pretty happy about that.
What I really benefited from the course wasn't so much the writing tips, but the experience of being with other people who want to perform stand up comedy. This whole process has completely taken the intimidation out of what I'm doing. The thought of doing stand up comedy has always seemed a little crazy to me, and now I've found a group of people who don't think it's crazy at all. That support group alone is invaluable.
Also, after reading through everything I've written, I realized I might have been a little harsh on my classmates, either individually or as a collective. And for that, assuming some of them will eventually discover this blog whether I tell them about it or not, I apologize. Everything I wrote, I believed in at the time, but I've also realized that everyone is taking their own path at their own pace and will eventually get to where they want to be. Everyone had improved significantly towards the end of the workshop and we all had solid sets and got some laughs at the show. I truly hope to run into my comedy comrades often and am looking forward to witnessing everyone's comedic evolution. Each time I see any of them, it will remind me of our little workshop. This is only our beginning and the best of each of us is yet to come. And I absolutely realize how cheesy this last paragraph was but I mean every word of it and it needed to be said.
Overall, as much as the workshop was one of the best things I've ever decided to do, the show itself was one of the greatest experiences of my life. My thanks go out to anyone was a part of it.
And yes, I've been bombarded by requests to post the video. Trust me, no one wants it more than I do. The guy who taped it is gonna send us everything as soon as he's finished processing and editing it. Patience is a virtue. Once again, in the meantime, I've got some pictures from the show.
I also signed up for Twitter, which I gotta admit is a little cooler than I thought it'd be. The link should be on the right hand side of this page. I'll mostly be posting one liners and news about my blog or any shows I'll be doing.
Monday, June 1, 2009
Great Success!
Hey everyone... it's about 2 AM and I have to be up at 6:45 to go to work. I just finished my first show and then went out drinking to celebrate with everyone, so I'm just a little tipsy. And I can tell you that the evening was fantastic. I think the final tally was 18 performers doing 5 minutes. The MC was local comic Dan Bingham and Joey closed the show with a quick set. Everyone gave their best and the crowd reaction was more than positive. Personally, I'm very happy with my work and got some great comments from people throughout the night.
I must say, any doubts I had about giving an honest effort to be successful have been obliterated. There were cameras around and hopefully I'll be posting my set soon. Maybe it's the beer talking, but I am actually a little eager to show it off.
That closes the book on the Comedy Course by Joey Elias. From here on out, it's all me. I'll be posting a retrospect on the whole thing within the next couple days. All I know is, this ends the first chapter and the rest of the book is Choose-Your-Own-Adventure style. So really, who the hell knows. First of all, I gotta get some sleep.
I must say, any doubts I had about giving an honest effort to be successful have been obliterated. There were cameras around and hopefully I'll be posting my set soon. Maybe it's the beer talking, but I am actually a little eager to show it off.
That closes the book on the Comedy Course by Joey Elias. From here on out, it's all me. I'll be posting a retrospect on the whole thing within the next couple days. All I know is, this ends the first chapter and the rest of the book is Choose-Your-Own-Adventure style. So really, who the hell knows. First of all, I gotta get some sleep.
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