Category: Comedy

This is my set right before the showcase. I decided since I had time to just get on stage anywhere so I wouldn’t be as nervous before hand. I always feel more at ease if I’ve already done stand up that night. (I almost always want to do a stand up a second and third time in the same night for real audiences, but rarely get to do so.)

0m12s The host did some bit about hating Russians because he lives near Brighton Beach (a heavily Russian part of Brooklyn) so I decided to riff off of that a little. No matter if I have a set to practice or not, I’m trying to be in the moment of the room. I should’ve waited two seconds after saying “I was actually born in Russia” to let the tension build a little. And I was born in the USSR, I didn’t invent that fact just to try to get a cheap laugh. 

0m23s If I decide to go with a more “screw you” persona on stage, this could be a good line to start with a real audience. “Hi, I have an important show coming up later, Please don’t laugh at my jokes, so I could get my bad show out of the way.” 

0m32s I’m not sure if I should do one slow head turn from one side to the other, or dart back and forth like I just did. 

1m37s More emphasis on the word “own” 

3m15s I keep having an occasional word stumble happen… I need to figure out a way to play this off better and not ruin the flow. Or stop stumbling on words. 

4m07s Pause between “that takes” and “tubes”. 

4m12s This “shitty wall” is due to the fact that this open mic is in the basement of a Mexican Restaurant. Yes that’s how desperate comics are for stage time in New York City. 

6m01s Stretch out the words so that my head can turn the 180 degrees while I’m still talking. This time it only got 90 degrees before I was done with the sentence. 

6m14s Never say something is “new shit that’s gonna bomb at some point” even if that’s what you believe. One of the pro comics I know says to pretend that your new joke is your best joke and deliver it with that confidence, otherwise you’ll never know if the joke is any good and it can become a self fulfilling prophecy of sucky joke writing and telling. 

6m37s Say “Big Ben Comedy dot com” in a more Mr. Moviefone type of voice. 

6m50s I’m still experimenting with the last punch line. I’m not sure if “Big fraud dot come was already taken by…” should end as a) A jewish securities lawyer or b) Bernie Madoff. 

6m58s My favorite part about this terrible venue is how something always falls apart. I’ve been here three times. The mic stand broke twice and the mic wasn’t on another time. For some reason having an equipment malfunction is hysterical to me.

Overall: I only had one little minor word stumble and felt pretty comfortable on stage. Although there weren’t many laughs at this open mic, a few of the comics were smiling often.

I did two mics in one night as I wanted to get as much stage time as possible before doing the real show. This is another open mic.

2m15s More emphasis on the word “own”.

2m43s Wait until the laughing is done, even if there’s no reason they should still be laughing. A second round of contagious laughter could start.

4m14s It might work better to say “If you get up on stage right now and start making out with me, you got Huge Tubes”.

Overall: My pacing was good and I managed to look up most of the time. I’m not sure if I have less comments because this is the 4th video I’ve typed about in a row or if I was steadily improving throughout the week.

This is my first of two open mics on Jan 21. I’m trying to practice the same material as much as I can this week in preparation for my showcase. However, the showcase set is 7 minutes and most of the open mics are 5 minutes, so I’ve been changing up some of the jokes to make sure I practice all of them at least a few times.

0m44s “I just got over my New Year’s hangover” is also an awkward sounding transition to “my favorite part about New Year’s”.

2m00s I pointed a different guy, but the 82 year old comic thought I was talking to him and said “I should turn it down”. I wish his material was as good as some of the comebacks I’ve heard him use when other comics make fun of him about his age.

2m34s No need to say the words “repeat themselves”. I can just say “you notice certain dating personalities repeat themselves over and over”.

3m35s I need to make an expression that expresses “shock” better when I say “everyone in New York?”

3m53s I just wrote this last part of the joke and wanted to try it out. I shouldn’t stutter over words.

4m50s I’ve been toying with the idea of using the audience’s Christmas gift as my example when I talk to the dog, but I screwed up repeating the gift back to them this time.

6m08s Much better look after “that takes tits”

Overall: My pauses were much longer and more confident, and I didn’t look down after punchlines. I can see progress from Monday, but my delivery is still “too rehearsed” is the feedback I’m getting.

This is my set at an open mic on January 20th. I was practicing the same material all week for a showcase on Thursday the 22nd.

0m25s Slightly longer pause before “for blind people”. And I’m talking faster than I should be.

0m35s “Happy New Year” is an awkward transition to “My favorite part about New Years”. I really like this joke and in order to be able to tell it from February to November, I need to either find a way for there to be a reason I’m talking about this in June, or change “new years” to a regular party.

1m12s Emphasize the word “own”

1m50s If the first person I ask about the dog gift didn’t get anything, talk to a second person and hope they did. It makes for a better transition to “people love their dogs”.

Overall: I stuttered in a few places, talked a little fast but I kept my eyes up after the punchlines much more often. I’m also getting less bothered by not getting laughs at an open mic.

This is my set from an open mic on Jan 19th.

This is a different open mic than most in that you get multiple 3 minute segments, and you get a choice of “riff, rant, material or heckle”. Just in case you don’t know, a “riff” is when you talk about a subject off the cuff. At this mic, someone from the crowd throws out a word or phrase (i.e. beer, Obama, celery sticks) and the comic tries to say something funny about it. When you make a comment about the comic that went before you, that’s also called riffing. A “rant” is just going off about what bothers you. It’s usually not that funny, but isn’t your written material either. “Material” is any stand up you’ve written before hand and intend to say again. Riffs and rants can both be turned into material if they’re funny enough. This is the way some comics get all of their material (usually without the audience participation). “Heckle” is when an audience member says something to you while you’re doing your material so that everyone else in the crowd hears you. It can be a joke, an attempt at a joke, or sharing an opinion like “you suck”.

I started out wanting to practice my material for a showcase on Thursday Jan 22nd, but wound up doing some riffing and heckle practice as well. All of my sets for this week were very similar because I’m practicing the material I want to present when a club owner comes to watch me at the showcase. This means that I think these are my best jokes right now. Make of that what you will.

I’m posting 3 clips in one post because they were part of the same open mic. Also, there were about 5 puerto rican comics in the room, so we were all playing off of each other’s material… so don’t think I’m a terrible person for a couple of my references to puerto ricans… but do know that I’m just a terrible person in general 😛

0m10s Don’t start material until after the mic stand is cleanly out of the way

0m15s If the volume feels that loud, get the mic further away from my mouth… this remains true for the whole set

0m20s Wait longer after giving the look of “what, you don’t think I should be a model?” Possibly mouth something to that affect.

0m55s Pause for one second longer after “creature in the corner”

2m29s At most open mics and all real shows, the MC will give you “the light” when you have one minute left. I knew I had to be close to having one minute left and didn’t see a light, so I asked. This isn’t a professional thing to do as the audience starts thinking about something other than what you’re saying. This is less bad at an open mic that consists of just other comics, but is better to avoid.

2m49s What other comics find funny and what an audience finds funny tends to overlap by about only 30%. This pulling out joke is part of the 70% that an audience wouldn’t find funny. If any reader wants to try to rewrite my little improvised joke into something the audience might find funny, I’ll try it out at a real show.

Part 2

0m39s Take longer pauses between punch lines to force the audience to laugh. Believe each punchline is funny. “You don’t send your kids to a spa” (wait 3 seconds) “And when you go on the second honeymoon, the kids don’t get a hotel, they get grandma” (wait 3 more seconds).

0m55s I stumbled over my words. This is why I try to practice out loud at home every day.

1m13s I looked down after the punchline. I’ve been consciously working on looking up after I deliver the punchline. I think looking down is a terrible body language cue that you don’t think your joke was funny.

1m33s I looked down again. I wish I could buy an electric collar that would produce mild shocks in me every time I looked down after a punchline.

1m50s Shock collar!

2m03s Give the audience 2 extra seconds to process “that takes tits” and look around at them, like “why the hell doesn’t anyone say that?”

2m53s Notice how I kept staring at the guy giving me heckling practice after I finished my comeback. Maybe I should just pretend I’m responding to heckles from the audience the whole time.

Part 3

0m24s Look at my hand when I say “the blabber” and maybe let the hand keep talking while I look at it for two seconds

1m45s I actually like being heckled. I’m not saying to come to my show to heckle me, but I have fun with it because I’ve always loved running my mouth and talking trash. What I hate is when people talk really loudly over your act instead of interacting with it. I’ll have a separate heckling post shortly.

2m19s I may have taken the whole improv concept of “Yes, and…” too far

Overall: I liked practicing responding to hecklers. I still sway too much on stage and can’t figure out a way to stop it, and while keeping my head and eyes up is getting better, it still needs work.

Please help me out by leaving a comment about whether the amount of swaying I do distracts you from hearing and processing the material.