Comedy is needed in our world right now, maybe more now than any time I can remember. Being a standup comedian is not easy. It takes working out your jokes, putting in the work to perfect your jokes and then traveling around and performing your jokes in different rooms. It's tough, and you instantly know if it was a good joke or not.
Tonight I hosted the weekly Thursday Comedy Show at a local bar and had about 50 people come out. Tonight we had 5 beginner comics and one who went up for the first time during the 30 minute open mic. We closed out a show where comedians from the Virginia coast battled out local comedian team.
To start the show I worked on some crowd work and told a few jokes to get things rolling. It wasn't the best I'd ever done, but it was good to get the show started with a few laughs. It's tough being the host in a bar setting for comedy. You have to grab the people's attention and tell jokes to get the audience warmed up for the night ahead.
I'm also trying a lot of new stuff to keep adding to my longer sets and club sets. So it's always a hit or miss if the new jokes are going to work. Luckily, I've been doing this long enough now that if something doesn't work or the crowd isn't into it yet, I can generally use stage presence and crowd work to get people laughing.
If you want to do comedy, hosting open mics is where you learn the most. You get to try new material, you get to work on interacting with the audience and you learn how to squeeze laughs out of a tight crowd. If you are serious about doing comedy, go to a bar and work out a deal where you host a monthly open mic.
For me personally, I love seeing the new people try it. Tonight we had a guy about 45 that hit me up on Facebook and asked to do comedy. I told him to come on in and that he would have 5 minutes tonight. He went up there, all nervous and did very well. He started with a few good jokes and told a couple great stories that were really funny.
After the show, I walked up to him and told him he did great and to get ready for next Thursday. He needs to keep coming out. Then I said... "You had some great stories tonight, now find a way to make them jokes. Find a solid way to end on a punchline. Take out the words you don't need and get there a little faster."
The guy has a full-time job and is around my age, but I think tonight he just picked up a new hobby. I love seeing that. There was another guy tonight that came out and did great. He just started a few months ago and he bombed terribly the last time he was out. I mean it was rough. He didn't want to go up tonight, so I pushed him and he went up there and did a great job. Best I've seen him do.
It is those moments that I really love as someone who is trying to build up a local comedy scene. I know the future is bright.
Next up... I have two shows at the new comedy club downtown. I'll be hosting both shows and there are always interesting stories after those shows. Check back tomorrow for the next Chronicles Of A Comic!
Thank you for reading.
Have you ever wanted to try comedy? Let me know in the comments below.
You are awesome for giving me you time.