Friday, November 04, 2005
Wednesday, November 02, 2005
Monday, October 31, 2005
An account of my first experience performing in a comedy club
Last night, I performed at open mic night at Dick Doherty's. It was the first time I'd ever done stand up off the BU campus at anything other than a BU event. I was given the second-to-last spot on the roster, which was a bit discouraging. Most people leave before the end, especially the ones who other comedians bring (every comedian has to bring two people to the show or else they aren't allowed to perform). I wanted to get my best five minutes on tape and I was hoping people would stick around so someone watching the tape could actually hear people laughing at my jokes.
A few comedians in, Gary Gulman arrived. For those who don't know, Gary Gulman is a hilarious comedian who has been on national TV and is very successful (hopefully, I'll be seeing him here at BU on Wednesday). Established comedians often come to these things unannounced to try out new material that they plan on using in front of larger audiences. So Gulman did a rough set that was pretty funny (he's real nice too, by the way) and a good percentage of the audience left when he finished. The poor sap who went on after him bombed about as hard as is possible to bomb. I don't mean to complain because it's pretty awesome that I was in the same show as Gary Gulman, but he did kind of kill the crowd.
And then, Rob O'Reilly performed. Rob tried out a couple new jokes of his own, then told his version of the Aristocrats. This is an old joke where the setup ("A family walks into a talent office...") and the punch line ("it's called the Aristocrats!") are the same and the comedian fills the middle with every vulgar and offensive thing he can make the family do. That is what Rob did. Most of the audience sat in stunned silence while Ben almost cried from laughing so hard and was heard to say "Oh God!" more than once.
Rob's joke caused another mass exodus of spectators. The woman running the club was furious. She came backstage and yelled at him for doing an old joke, offending people, and killing the crowd. She loudly apologized to the other comedians who now had to perform in front of a dead crowd. Meanwhile, another comedian told Rob he was great, Gulman said that what he did was ballsy if nothing else and though he said it wasn't the best move as one "only gets so much open mic time" he said it was a great rendition, and the woman who ran the club told him to just leave because she was so furious she couldn't stand to see him. So he left.
And then a little while later, I went on. To no more than twelve people in the audience and a couple comedians in the back. Six of the people in the audience are people I had brought. Five of those people had heard every joke I told that night.
So all things considered, it went pretty well.
A few comedians in, Gary Gulman arrived. For those who don't know, Gary Gulman is a hilarious comedian who has been on national TV and is very successful (hopefully, I'll be seeing him here at BU on Wednesday). Established comedians often come to these things unannounced to try out new material that they plan on using in front of larger audiences. So Gulman did a rough set that was pretty funny (he's real nice too, by the way) and a good percentage of the audience left when he finished. The poor sap who went on after him bombed about as hard as is possible to bomb. I don't mean to complain because it's pretty awesome that I was in the same show as Gary Gulman, but he did kind of kill the crowd.
And then, Rob O'Reilly performed. Rob tried out a couple new jokes of his own, then told his version of the Aristocrats. This is an old joke where the setup ("A family walks into a talent office...") and the punch line ("it's called the Aristocrats!") are the same and the comedian fills the middle with every vulgar and offensive thing he can make the family do. That is what Rob did. Most of the audience sat in stunned silence while Ben almost cried from laughing so hard and was heard to say "Oh God!" more than once.
Rob's joke caused another mass exodus of spectators. The woman running the club was furious. She came backstage and yelled at him for doing an old joke, offending people, and killing the crowd. She loudly apologized to the other comedians who now had to perform in front of a dead crowd. Meanwhile, another comedian told Rob he was great, Gulman said that what he did was ballsy if nothing else and though he said it wasn't the best move as one "only gets so much open mic time" he said it was a great rendition, and the woman who ran the club told him to just leave because she was so furious she couldn't stand to see him. So he left.
And then a little while later, I went on. To no more than twelve people in the audience and a couple comedians in the back. Six of the people in the audience are people I had brought. Five of those people had heard every joke I told that night.
So all things considered, it went pretty well.
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