May 2001

Brainwash - 5/03/01

Got some good laughs from a few people. I was a little tense tonight. This was my last show before a paid gig I have on Saturday, so I was trying a bit too hard.
 

Boulders Cafe - 5/05/01

Fun fun fun. A had one great set, and one OK set, and one very short very good set. I know, that's too many sets. I didn't realize till after I finished my second set that this was the first time I've done two sets in the same club in one night. I've done multiple venues in one night before, but never the same club. I was real nervous before the show because this was the first show at a place that has never had comedy before. When I pulled into the parking lot the only building in site was a building that looked way too much like Bill Murray's place in the movie Caddyshack. Oh did I mention that this show takes place in a driving range clubhouse? Fortunately when I came around to the other side of the building I found a wonderfully done room. There was an actual stage with a nice sound system and lights and everything. This is a great room for comedy. The first show, the audience was great! They would have laughed if I read the phone book. (OK maybe not the phone book.) Then I made the mistake of assuming that the audience for the second show would be just like the first. WRONG! They did laugh, but it took more effort. The first show ran long, so I cut my second set down to ten minutes. The middle act cut his set down a few minutes as well, so I got to do a few minutes before the headliner. This time I was prepared. Got a huge laugh for my Harley/Honda joke. The I tried to milk it, and that didn't work. Ah well. So it looks like I'll be hosting and booking this show for a while. It's nice to feel I'm doing something that will actually advance my career. I've been in a holding pattern for a long time.
 

Mock Cafe - 5/19/01

Pretty good set. Wasn't too motivated tonight. The day job is taking alot out of me. I had a good talk with another comedian before the show, about careers and stuff. He was talking about how his career isn't where he expected it, but he's branched out and is having success in a loosely related field. This addresses one of my big problems. Many times I work at what I think I'm supposed to do, not what I want to do. This effects my writing more than my comedy. I have this vision of the kind of stuff I'm supposed to write, but as I let go of my inner censors, this isn't what comes out. Then I try to redirect what I'm writing back towards what I expected to be writing. This lets all the inner censors back in, and then I'm not able to write anything.
 

Mock Cafe - 5/26/01

Fun set tonight. All my little motivators were in place, and I had good energy on stage and had lots of fun.
 
OK, let me explain my little motivators. I don't mean drugs. I had a beer, but that's not really a motivator. The first motivator, I wanted to be there. Some times I do comedy just to get stage time to keep myself going. But last night I felt good about performing. I felt like I was going to go and make people laugh. Next motivator, I had something I really wanted to talk about. The police were going through the mission trying to get rid of the homeless people because there was a parade going through the next day. This pisses me off. So I did my routine about the weird little things that the SF police are concerned with, like tourists seeing homeless people, and at the same time seem to ignore that huge drug problem. Another motivator was I had someone in the audience to flirt with. Now you all know I'm married and I love my wife. Not that kind of flirting. Maybe I shouldn't call it flirting. See, I'm not always good at making eye contact with people in the audience. It gets alot easier if there is one person I can concentrate on. Tonight there was a young woman up front who responded well to my eye contact. That helps. Yes I am THAT insecure.
 
You may have noticed that I end sentences with prepositions quite a bit. I'm just trying to piss of a self-appointed grammarian who emails me whenever I make a grammatical errors.