Take two

I wonder if I'll keep blogging when I run out of hackneyed titles. 

Tonight I went back to Surly Girl for its open mic night. Hard to believe I've been doing this an entire week now. Earlier in the day, I was browsing the poetry section of the white supremacist website Stormfront. I find some of the poems funny because of how insane the people who post there are. Imagine my surprise when I find a thread of "romantic" poems. I printed a couple of them and brought them to the open mic, thinking that I'd read them, make fun of them, and bask in the laughter. That didn't happen. I'm not sure if it's because nobody had heard of Stormfront and where taken aback when I explained what the site was about or whether reading something on stage doesn't really work. 

After I realized that wasn't going to work, I went into some Catholic material I have been working on and it went pretty well. There are things I'd like to add to it so I will definitely use it again. Comedy's a lot different than music when it comes the issue of new material. Music audiences want to hear the songs they've heard before; they know the words to their favorite songs and get excited when they hear them live. If a comedian tells the same joke too many times people will complain. It's also difficult to practice a standup routine in a garage; you can work on the outline on your own but the audience is vital to bringing the joke together. That's what I think after a week's worth of playing the game. 

I also didn't have anything to drink tonight, but I still got a bit nervous and felt rushed. I'm sure it'll take some time to get used to talking up there. I'll find my voice and cadence after a while.

Laughspin has an article listing things that should make comics feel better about what they do. It's probably too soon to call myself a comic but this video was pretty interesting anyway.