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-

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.

The camera puts on 10 pounds...

...and makes everything less funny.

As I mentioned before, last class there was someone who taped everyone's set. And a couple days ago I finally got to watch myself on stage. It was moderately painful. I have very little experience performing in front of a camera. (That's what she said.) Amateur, would be the word that comes to mind. To make matters worse, there were only 20 people in the club and they'd all heard different variations of my set for the past month and a half. Since we've all heard each others material several times now, our workshops have taken on the context of Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. "Hi. My name is Jesse and I haven't told a joke in 3 weeks." And at the end everyone claps and says "Good job. That was nice."

I suppose the reactions were basically what I'd heard on the audio I'd recorded myself, but it just looks worse when you can tell how terrible the atmosphere was. It looks like someone performing at a real club with no one there and fewer laughs, even for the good stuff. Someone commented on their video "This is my impression of doing stand-up for the hearing impaired."

The one thing I really wasn't happy with was my stage presence. I need to work on that. I can't put my finger on it yet, but I just looked too cautious, like I was trying not to break something. I thought I was comfortable on stage but it doesn't show. I'll figure it out.

And I'm sorry for not actually posting the video, but I'm not nearly ready to show it. I want the first video of myself posted here to be my first show in front of a real audience. Hopefully it'll also stand alone as something I'd be want to post regardless. Once I've got a few videos under my belt, I'll put it up and you can all bask in my humble beginnings.

Countdown to the show... T-Minus 19 Days...

One-Liners

I've always had a soft spot for comedians who go up and just fire off one-liners. Demetri Martin is growing more popular by the minute. Anthony Jeselnik still seems to be relatively unknown, but that can't last much longer. Rodney Dangerfield would have gotten no respect at all if it weren't for one-liners.

I believe it was Shakespeare that once said "Brevity is the soul of wit." Having read his work, I don't think he practiced what he preached, but he was on to something. A one-liner may be the ultimate form of stand-up comedy, if not the purest. To get a laugh out of a single, stand alone sentence can't be topped, in my opinion. They might not have quite the same payoff as a longer story with a huge punchline, but one-liners are often the jokes that you remember afterward. They'll get repeated amongst friends and quoted.

While trying to figure out my own personal style of comedy, I keep coming back to the thought of going this route. The only problem is that it seems like the hardest to do properly. When you're telling a story or riffing on a topic, if something doesn't go over, you can kinda keep chugging along. But with the abrupt and usually rapid fire nature of telling one-liners, if a joke misses, there's no covering it up. It's like "Okay... Uh, let's try the next one." In my mind, there is no other style that is so dependent on writing. A great delivery helps, but what it comes down to is how well crafted the joke is.

Since I've started writing the past couple months, I've been trying to come up with a few of my own and it's effing hard. All together I've written about 12-15 that are ready to go, with a few that probably need some major tweaking. And today, I wrote one that I think is my best so far. Because of my obsession with this, I'm finding it hard to concentrate on the work I've already developed for our show. All I'm thinking about is adding new ones to the list. Once I've got 5 minutes worth, I'll give them a shot and see if they get the reactions I feel they should. Might as well try everything to see what feels right.

I'll leave you with a true master... the late, great Mitch Hedberg.