Week 5

Better late than never!

Last week I was pretty busy, then I went out to Nova Scotia to visit family over the Easter weekend. There was no workshop this Sunday and also none for this upcoming Sunday, but I will try to give a quick recap of what went down on the 5th of April.

The assignment we had was to add a tag line to our jokes. It wasn't that hard to tack on a few lines. But it was a little tricky to come up with something I thought was funny. I can remember one that got a few extra laughs, so I considered it mission accomplished.

After I performed, Joey gave me this assessment...

Joey: "Well, I always like the soccer stuff..."
Jesse: "I tried to trim a little off like you said, but I felt I basically did the same as last week."
Joey: "Nah, you definitely got to your punchlines quicker. But you have some clever lines that are getting lost in there. Overall, good job."
Jesse: "How do I make sure they don't get lost?"
Joey: "Wait a beat. Count it out in your head if you have to. One... two... You're just not giving them time to sink in."
Jesse: "So I just need to work on my timing."
Joey: "Exactly. Wait a beat for people to get it."

From that, there are two things that came to mind. First, I'm fairly certain he hasn't used the word 'clever' to describe anyone else's material. I took that as a pretty big compliment. I like being clever. And secondly, I think I have pretty good timing in general, but there weren't many laughs coming from a crowd that heard everything a week before. If you wait a beat and get nothing, that's pretty bad. Just an extended awkward silence. I was also more nervous that week than any other week, because I felt like I didn't make much progress. Like I said, I thought I just repeated the same jokes from the week before, with a few extra lines in the place of some others. Basically, I don't think I got any worse, but almost everyone else improved markedly and that psyched me out a little.

All in all, he thinks I've got some clever lines and it's easy to work on timing. I'm taking that to the bank for now.

When we rejoin on the 26th, we're supposed to be able to perform without any notes. I'm pretty sure I'll be able to pull that off. Until then I'm constantly trying to tweak everything I've got so far. Also, because we're locked in to our topics, I may try out an Open Mic soon to test out other random stuff I've written. It'll also keep me in a groove during this mini hiatus.