Friday, July 16, 2010

What Worked, What Didn't

My first open mic went really well.  I did not bomb!  Granted it was a small venue, and the people there are really nice, so I didn't have to deal with any heckling or loud assholes in general.  So this was an open mic training-wheels session. 

Pros:
-Got laughs where expected
-Managed to improv pretty seamlessly into my act
-More or less maintained eye-contact with the audience
-Found appropriate voice for skit

Cons:
-Very small venue
-Would occasionally look down
-Got laughs but never gut-busting laughter
-Need to refine voice
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What worked well:

-Everything pertaining to being dumped.
-Dirty talk jokes.
-First mom-sexy comment.
-Womp-rat bit.
-Dinner-table ex-girlfriend story.
-Facebook suggestions.
-Facebook "similar hobbies" quip.
-Facebook in the news.
-Skittle-soup
-Beginning of fat-kid sketch.

What needs to be cut:

-Facebook binge-drinking analogy.  Explanation: it had their attention, but it went on too long.  If I wind up making a joke about facebook comparing it to blacking out, do it as an introduction, and only for a one-liner.
-Second part of mom-sexy comments.  One is enough.  Or at least I need to come up with a better second example, since the first one got a lot more laughs than the second.
-As much as I want to talk about how much I hate people's updates, I need to work it into the act a different way, if at all.  It takes too long to explain in order to be funny.  And it's like I'm telling people what to think, which is an awful idea.  So I'm cutting that.

Overall:

-Work on timing.
-Work on voice.
-Work on flow.

Otherwise it went really well.  I think that I'd get to the "uproar laughter" part if I just kept the routine flowing better.  From personal experience my biggest laughs don't come from a single terrific joke, they come from having multiple jokes that just keep me laughing one after the other.  And eventually I'm just overwhelmed-by-funny if that makes any sense to people here?

Where I start laughing so hard I forget what I am laughing about, or when I think back to what got me started laughing like that, I can't figure out why it did.  At least that is how I feel. 

What do you all think about the changes?

1 comment:

  1. I agree -- definitely work on timing and delivery, those are just as important as the jokes themselves. You're pretty quick with making shit up on the spot, so I think you're good there.

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