Roosters - July 29, 2009

First time at a new club for me tonight, Rooster T. Feathers in Sunnyvale, CA. In my limited open mic club experience, this was the most professional operation I've seen.

I'd seen at least 4 of the 15 comics before at Tommy's or Bunjo's: David Studebaker hosted (& was VERY funny) -- I remember him being at T's once. Dr. Brian, who manages/hosts the Wharf Room (in Castagnola's restaurant in the City). Veronica Porras and Sean Sinha. Some acts went over time -- which they signal with the red light VIGOROUSLY, but only one finally got the "get off the stage" music. In my limited open mic club experience, this was the most professional operation I've seen.

I feel good about some aspects of it and not-so-good about others.

I went up 9th of 15 comics and was distracted by what some of the other folks had said before me (surprise!). The good news is I can play more effectively to the crowd by talking about something they heard from another comic. The bad news is the distraction of thinking about the other folks wrecks my concentration on what I was going to say -- I end up hurting the set I had prepared before I got on stage.

Of the dozen bits I had prepared, I ended up leaving out 5 of them. This gets to be another one of those dual-set postings later -- the set I delivered and the set I had PLANNED to deliver.

The "learning" from this is that I would have done better to bring notes with me, as several of the other comics had done, saying (truthfully) I was working on new material, and stuck to what I had written. I've done this before and felt "weak", but I should place more trust in my writing (at least for now) and worry less about appearance.

A second thing I learned is something I *thought* I had learned before, to have less material and deliver it more slowly and with better timing. When I sit at the computer and read it aloud, even putting in pauses where I anticipate laughter, it goes *much* faster than on stage. If I'm clever enough to write 4 new gags and add them to another 8 I've used before to make a dozen in total, *maybe* I should just do the 8 old ones WELL. Or maybe I should re-work the set to only have a *mix* of 8 or 10, but not all 12.

The good news is that overall I think I had good rapport with the audience and adjusted well to them. The jokes I wanted to work *did*. I improved the way I told some of them in the middle of telling them -- which is the *upside* of having A.D.D.

I'm a harsh critic, but I can tell (almost always) I'm improving each time I get on stage. I would dearly love to get into a situation similar to what the SFCC people have -- longer sets and more of them every week.