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-