After listening to Darren LaCroix tell story after story about bombing onstage at an open mic night at a comedy club, it dawned on me that I'd never been to an open mic night.
Wonder of wonders, there just happened to be one 3 blocks away from where I am staying tonight! *evil grin*
I showed up for the "7:30 show" which actually didn't get started until 8:30 pm. 10 comics and an enormous lesbian emcee. I'd say there were 5 college students from Canisius college, 1 school teacher, 2 other lesbian comics, and a guy with a guitar. Everyone did about 4-6 minutes.
It was fascinating watching this group have a collective meltdown on stage, one after the other. They were trying so hard, but the comedy wasn't there. The school teacher was onstage for her very first time and she had more "presence" and connect with the audience than anyone. She was riffing on teaching sex education to ignorant high schoolers. On a "funny scale" of 1 to 10 she was about a 4, which was the high for the night.
None of them understood pacing, and the "dead spots" were painful. I kept thinking to myself "I could do this..."
Dangerous. These are dangerous thoughts that I think.
No comments:
Post a Comment