FINALLY, the fourth open mic since I started blogging again. Open Mic 003 was on December 4, so it’s been too long. I am actually on my way home now after 005, but first thing’s first, here is Open Mic 004. I can already tell this is going to be a long one. I hope my thumbs can keep up.
There is a place I’ve been to a few times called The Duplex and its show is called Suddenly Stand-Up. The open mic show is on Wednesdays at 7, and I only go here because it’s close to the Village Lantern and I can hit two mics in one night. They actually have a decent amount of real audience members, and that means something because audience at most open mics is just other comics. But you gotta be quick on your toes here because the MC has his own mic and is quick to butt in with his jokes during your set. Some comics may not appreciate the interruption, but other comics work with him. I’m not very good at just talking off the cuff, but I think it may be good practice for me.
Oh yeah, and this is a gay bar. The customers are mostly gay, and a decent amount of comics were also gay. There was even one woman who used to be a man. And the comics here really know how to talk, both gay and straight. Talking back and forth with the MC, whom I believe is gay as well. It’s actually all this talking that makes me a bit uncomfortable to perform here. But I went anyway because stage time is stage time and I need all of it that I can get.
Yesterday, I wrote that I was #20. But when the show started, the MC announced that the comics would be called up at random. All right, as long as I get called up within the first hour and a half, I should have enough time to go on and make it to my next mic on time.
Hour and a half later, it was 8:45pm, and I still have not gotten to the stage. I waited for another comic to be called up before I removed my name from the lottery and got out of there. I didn’t want to miss my spot at Village Lantern for this show. Oh well, my comeback would have to wait a little bit more, I thought, as I briskly walked to the Lantern. 7 minutes of the speed walking got me there, but luckily the show had not started yet. I took my seat, waiting for the waitress to approach me with a drink order. With a 2 drink minimum in addition to the $5 fee, this is one of the most expensive mics in the city. But I still come here because I like it, and West Village is easy to get to from my work. And on this day, the waitress didn’t approach me, even as she took drink orders from people to the left and right of me. In a good way, I got away with not paying for 2 drinks. In a bad way, why didn’t she approach me???
Night was going as usual, some good comics, some bad… until this girl came up to the stage. “Wolf” was her last name, and as soon as she was introduced, the crowd yelled out “Wolf!” And even making wolf sounds. And when I say people, I mean actual audience members. There were around 5 – 7 guys watching the show up front, and they were pretty loud. From that point on, it seemed like every comic did fairly well. I mean, not all the jokes worked, but no one bombed.
Then it was finally my turn, second to last. With my last name also sounding funny, I took the stage with those guys screaming my last name. They continued to do so as I stood up there, ready to perform. I didn’t know what to do. I’m so used to performing to silence that all this noise was quite foreign to me. But I was the one holding the mic and I took control. I told a few jokes, some new some old, and they all did okay – some better then others. In fact, most of the jokes went really, really well. I was doing so well that with the MC gave me the 1-minute warning, I got off the stage because I wanted to leave on top.
It’s funny – when I tell a joke and no one (in a crowd of 5) laughs, I wonder if it’s because the joke is bad or the comics in the audience don’t care and are just waiting for their turn. So I keep the joke, and wait to test it out when there is a real good audience. But when I get that chance and everything’s going well, I don’t want to stop the laughs with a bad joke. But I must remind myself, no matter how fun it may be to get laughs, it’s still an open mic and I must practice the bad jokes too – that’s how they can become good ones.
So I couldn’t have asked for a better performance for my comeback, but the night got even better at the end. The MC redistributes all the $5 fees he collected back to the comics – half to the comic that brought the most people, and half whose name is randomly drawn by an audience member. As the audience member drew a name, he called “Wolf!” And lo and behold, he picked thr Wolf girl! But sadly, Wolf girl already left, so he had to pick another name. This time, he called out my last name, and wouldn’t you believe, it was me! I even won some money – $35. The night ended a little too late (I would have left the show early like Wolf if I wasn’t second to last) but it was worth getting home at 12:40 am.
All in all, a great night, and glad to see my new jokes did well. I did the same jokes again tonight, so I’ll update the blog with that next time.
Stand Up: The Blog 