Tommy T's - August 31, 2009

I feel really good about tonight's performance. I got into the "Top 5" of 20 performers and actually felt like I deserved to be there.

Drew Pult won, as might be expected, and there was a 1st-timer there with an entourage who came in 2nd. Of the 3 others, I had a small following, but didn't feel like it was "mercy applause", as I had gotten before, but that a few folks actually liked my act.

I went up #10 (I think) and riffed on 5 performers who had been up before me. Luckily, the audience both (1) remembered the earlier comics & their material and (2) had enough energy to laugh & applaud. 2 or 3 comics later, they would have forgotten & had no energy. I timed my spot on the list well.

Two of the bits played directly off what others had said & done (*actual* ad libs). I had used the other 3 before, with some success, but making apparently spontaneous call backs to what the other folks said made the bits work better than they ever had before. Very gratifying.

I had expected to do a 5 minute set, in the new 20-performer-only format. But they changed it to *4* minute sets. I had timed each element, so I knew what to cut to make it into 4 minutes. Then, as I heard material for the new things, I adjusted the 4 minute set to make room.

I had planned 10 bits, for 4:50 total. Along the way, I ended up cutting 2:05, to make it 2:45, then added 1:15 of the new stuff for a total of 4:00.

There was nothing that fell flat. I also managed to *wait* for laughs better than I had ever done before. When I waited, the laughs came.

Afterwards, I congratulated a few of the performers I thought had done a good job and a few (of them and others) congratulated me. A good night.

In my infinite lack of technical expertise, of course, I managed to make neither a video nor an audio. [sigh]

No guarantees, but I *may* copy the old material and add the new stuff to make a sort of transcript to post later.