Just Venting

Tonight I was at Westport. I went up first as usual. Once again I had to go up in front of a cold crowd. I should be used to it by now, but it'd be nice to have a few comics go up before me. Hey it's stagetime and I'm grateful for it. My set was hit and miss. The audience for the most part didn't buy what I was doing. I don't want to be one of those comics who if they have a bad set, blames the audience. I figure you either do your job or you don't. Tonight I didn't get it done plain and simple.

Anytime I have a bad set, I start to whine and soul search, ask myself, should I be doing this, etc? I'll talk about quitting to Elsa and she just slaps me in the back of the head. I've quit in the past, after my father died. But two years ago with Elsa's encouragment, I got back into it. I promised her I would never quit again. She believes in me, God only knows why, but that may be just the strength I need to get through the rough times.

Olympics

Elsa's still in Italy which means as I'm writing this, I'm sitting at home by myself, with no food in the house and my laundry situation has officially hit DEFCON one. I'm starting to loathe my own laziness.

My comedy career is kicking a__. Ok I'm being sarcastic. Actually I've gotten out and hit some of the open mics around town, experiencing both success and failure, all the while trying to get ready for my Improv dates. Last week I was at the Comedy Forum and how did my set go? Lets' just say I ate s**t, and since I just started Weight Watchers, I got to figure out how many points that is. In my defense, the crowd was real lethargic and not one comic had a real good set. I've never done well at the Forum on open mic so I wasn't the least suprised. The night before at the Funny Bone, I had a solid set, trying out some new stuff. I was at Laughs on the Landing this past Wed and my set was solid. Once again I tried new stuff out. On Thursday I went to the Double D Lounge where Nick Cusamano was hosting a show. Due to not enough people, the show was cancelled. Hopefully there will be more people next week, we'll see. This week I will be at Westport, Laughs and there's a new comedy show starting at BlueBerry Hill I'm going to check out. Should be fun.

I'm also redoing my website and hope to unveil it soon. I know I've said that before but this time I'm actually working on it. I heard there's this new thing called "color". I might try and work that in the site. I'm so hip.

Valentine's Day

Well tonight Elsa and I were going to celebrate our first Valentine's day together as newlyweds, but she bailed on me cause she had more important things to do, like go to Italy and photograph some event called the "Olympics". Well Lah-dee-fricken-dah!!!

So I celebrated tonight, by myself. I drank beer, ate Hot Pockets and played Madden o6. It's nice to know that even when I'm married, I'm still a loser on Valentine's day. Some things never change.

I'll be over at Laughs on the Landing tomorrow. Come on out.

Note: I was just kidding with the sarcastic Olympics comment. I'm incredibly excited Elsa's shooting the Winter Olympics. I know how much this means to her and I couldn't be happier for her. Also I'm well aware that sometimes she reads my blog and I don't want to dig a hole for myself. I'm not an idiot.

Irvine

Got an email from the booker of the Irvine Improv. I'll be opening up for Daniel Tosh May 24th-28th. I'm really excited about it. Daniel Tosh is one of my favorite comics. It should be a lot of fun.

I Sure Do Like Pumpkins, Cotton

This marks my second post in three days. Wow I'm on a roll. I'd like to say the reason for my frequent blogging is so I can entertain the one person who actually reads this crap, but the truth is I can't sleep right now and there's nothing good on HBO. I've already seen "Anacondas, Hunt for the Blood Orchid" 54 times. Enough's enough. But I digress.

Tuesday I was at the Funny Bone. My set was alright, tried some new stuff out. A couple of new bits have potential, but they still need work. Tonight I went downtown to Laughs on the Landing. I hadn't been to Laughs in several months. I heard there had been some changes so I was eager to check it out. It was a good show. They had a good crowd there and all the comics did well. Stevie P did great. He came up drunk, angry, non apologetic and spoke his mind and it was funny as hell. I also enjoyed Clayton Champagne's set. Clayton's got a real funny style and everytime I see him, he's always trying something new. One thing I like about Laughs is, it's a good place to try new stuff out and to just rant and see what works and what doesn't.

Tonight I had a weird experience. After my set, a fellow comic I know came up and expressed concern that a bit he does is similar to one of my bits. He wanted to get my permission to do his joke. He told me his bit and the only smiliar thing to the joke I do, is the wording in the setup. Now let me say this, I like this person, he's a hell of a nice guy, and I really appreciate him coming up to me and expressing his concern. A lot of comics wouldn't have done that.

But here's the deal and I know this wasn't his intention, but by asking for my permission to tell his joke, the situation became awkward for me. Unless a comic is doing my exact joke, word for word, I feel funny telling someone what they can or cannot say on stage. There's an unwritten rule in comedy that you don't steal other people's material, and that if you do, hopefully it comes back to bite you in the ass. Also there's a feeling among comics that if you come up with a joke that is already similar to another comic's joke, you stop telling your joke. Case in point, I had a joke I used to do about owning a jeep and how silly the "jeep wave" was. After I started doing it, I realized there was already a comic here in St. Louis who does a similar bit. Once I heard his joke, I stopped telling mine. Besides his joke is much funnier.

With all that said, I know this comic tonight wasn't trying to steal anything. He was being really nice in asking for my permission and I appreciate it. I asked if he could change the wording in his setup and he seemed fine with that. So hopefully all is well.

Now I got to go, "DodgeBall" just came on HBO. I love that flick.