Category: Performance Critiques

The Saturday Night Show

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FG_rxglr8Q

0m34s I love how someone is actually “hissing” after half a joke

1m51s Surprising they laughed at that after not laughing at the previous 5 punch lines, but I’m not complaining

2m18s No need to go into crowd work here or call out people on being slow

4m43s I need to do a stronger act out of a model

5m17s Change the emphasis in “for a pamphlet” to put more emphasis on “for a”

5m45s I should’ve stayed with the mom material as this crowd is uptight and not a fan of sexual stuff, bad read on my part

6m46s The whole Yelp joke ate it, but at least I forced a little bit of a laugh before getting off stage

Overall: I did the same material as last night and got a much weaker response. My opening joke is a little risky, so if the crowd doesn’t go for the sexual stuff I stand a chance of losing them right away and that’s what happened tonight. Of course, I didn’t realize this at the time and went back to a super sexual joke at the end. Whoops!

A Saturday afternoon mic

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hqrOXAC27w

0m24s No need to acknowledge “it took you a second”

1m28s Cut the third part “and crying into the pillow she used to sleep on”

2m15s Don’t pause after “Yuri”

3m40s Do a clearer knock

3m55s Stumbling over words, this is what happens when you change too much stuff at once

5m05s It seems awkward to change voices in mid sentence

Overall: It was average open mic amount of laughs. I’m practicing the new version of my “good” jokes at the open mics so I don’t stumble on words during a show. Some of the lines still need to be adjusted and cut, but that’s normal for whenever new stuff is added.

The Friday night show at which I’m auditioning for the club owner

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cf8VTtqO8o0

1m00s Change “Ilya couldn’t be happier” to something funny

1m45s Get rid of the “crying into a pillow”

2m52s I might need to be less specific and just change it to “hire a hitman”

3m10s Pause longer between each part of my mom’s talking

3m48s Applause breaks during auditions are always nice

4m23s Do a quick knocking sound into the mic first

4m33s Change “power of exfoliating” to something funny

Overall: This went great and is the first set where how I remember it going when getting off stage is the same as how it looks on tape. I got laughs everywhere but in the “Ilya couldn’t be happier” and “power of exfoliation” lines which I will be removing.

This is a mostly musician’s open mic. I literally waited over four hours before getting on and even took two naps while waiting. I got on around 1:30am with about 10 people still in the audience.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2m6aw2myQ-g

0m05s When someone is new to this mic, they do a “aaaaaaah” as the initiation, important to note for a later joke

1m01s Good job taking my time and not rushing into the jokes until the equipment was ready

1m28s Try to reword to “I’m just not that good”

2m38s Tighten this to “what it really means is”

2m58s Get rid of tequila and pillow

4m18s Try to shorten from “Yuri, the Helsinki Hitman” and make it “hire” instead of “call”

5m09s Get rid of “for twelve weeks”

5m19s I need “being on” between “remember” and “the plane”

5m51s First time this joke has gotten an applause break, I’m guessing it being 1:30 am has something to do with it

6m50s I actually like it when people groan on the first part of this, so I can hit “crabs are fresh” part harder

8m02s I tried doing this part as someone else telling me

8m26s I need to make it clearer when I’m talking to the other guy

8m49s Good reference to the sound at the beginning

Part 2

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3MXIRUG05g

0m06s I need to add “if comedy doesn’t work out I could” at the start of this joke

0m37s This needs to be “glory of great abs”

0m49s I forgot part of the joke

1m40s For this character, I need to not move my head at all, just my eyes

2m48s I need a big arm motion on “tap dancing”

2m55s Get rid of the word “for”

4m52s That’s a great response by the audience member, I should’ve gone with “Li chaim”

6m06s It’s confusing to change the character midway through the sentence, I should try changing the character sentence by sentence

Overall: It was actually worth sitting around for over four hours to do this spot. A lot of the jokes need to get tinkered a little bit, but pretty much everything hit, and I was getting a lot of clapping throughout.

Another 3 minute open mic set

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFeMzk3daoE

0m27s The one I forgot was “outdoor furniture in an indoor place”

1m48s Out of these 6 or 7 tags, I need to find 2 that work after “Igor likes this”

2m18s Get rid of “drinking tequila” and “crying into the pillow”

Overall: I’m working out new tags to old jokes, and even at open mics I can see which ones have the most promise