Stand Up

I have always enjoyed stand-up comedy, but now I have a new-found respect for it and the people who do it. Some friends of mine convinced me to go to an open-mic night at this place in Somerville. I have never done any sort of stand-up comedy so it was all new to me. I prepared as best I could and wrote down some bits. There were about 25 other people doing open-mic night aside from myself. Each person gets about 4-7 minutes to do their routine. Some were better than others, which isn't hard to imagine. I was one of the last people to go on so I began to get nervous and question whether or not my material was funny as I was comparing it to other peoples'. The emcee knew it was my first time so he was trying to give me a few pointers while other comics were doing their thing. I finally got up there and it actually went pretty good. Not to say that I knocked it out of the park, but I got some genuine laughs from people who weren't my friends. I was actually able to talk for about 6 minutes, which surprised me because I thought I only had about 2. I missed a couple of points I wanted to mention, and I didn't go into as much description on some things as I had intended but overall I was proud of myself. My approach wasn't to have punchline jokes. I wanted the laughs to come from the descriptions of the picture I was trying to paint. I think it worked well but admit that a few more punchlines would have been effective. Afterwards the emcee bought me and my mates a round of beers which I thought was pretty cool. After the last person went up everyone just sort of sits around and talks to one another. About 5 guys came up to me and said good job and to stick with it. They all told me about some other good open-mic places in the area and that I should definitely come. I was impressed with the support and comradery that people showed me. They realize that it is a hard thing to do and recognize that it is a brotherhood in which ya gotta help each other. I thought it was very nice of these dudes to go out of their way to be nice, very cool stuff. Like I said I really have a new found respect for the art of stand-up comedy. It is SO much harder than it looks. People like Carlin, Seinfeld, or David Cross really have a gift. I realize they didn't start out hitting grand slams, they probably started out the same way. It is very hard to deliver lines in a funny and appealing way. Something you and your friends think is funny doesn't necessarily translate into mass appeal. Last night was a very valuble lesson into the intricate world of comedy. Overall I was happy I did it as it was a very encouraging experience and hope to do more.