Tag: Critiques

I volunteered to MC the open mic so I did my set upfront. The good parts about MCing are that you can do more time upfront and you get to go up between every comic and crack a joke or two if you want. The audience was one married couple (and 5 comics), the couple was sitting 40 feet away from the stage.

0m56s I didn’t “step into” the punch line as hard as I should’ve. 

2m45s No need for the whole intimacy issues portion. 

3m39s This was the first time I did this joke as the situation described just happened this past Saturday. I’m safe unless someone links her to the youtube clip. 

4m11s This was my worst delivery of the beginning part of the dogs joke ever. 

4m34s I wanted to try out a bunch of new material, so I used a note card. 

5m08s Change voices between “I’ve never seen this person in my life” and “You were at a party doing shots with them yesterday.” 

7m09s I’ve gotten much better at staring off into the crowd for a few seconds when nobody laughs right away instead of looking down at the floor. 

7m38s I need a better premise for the “bring your own VIP Rope” idea. 

8m04s See my introduction to Performance Critique 21 for the reference. Most of the same comics were back. 

9m41s When I interrupt myself to make an observation, I should repeat or remind the audience what I was previously saying. In this instance instead of saying “That is the definition of…” I should’ve said “Cuddling all night is the definition of…” 

9m59s There’s about 15 more seconds of this clip but youtube has 10 minute upload limits. The “overestimating my fan base” got a good laugh and then I brought up a comic. I don’t think there’s any value in uploading it.

Overall: I’m going to try to keep MCing because it’s a skill I need to work on. And some of my new jokes aren’t hopeless.

This was me back in DC (I’ll be there for my day job quite often), there were 3 or 4 real audience members and 7 comics. The show started with a hysterical q&a session with a comic who had served prison time, had an awkward 7 minute set by a 24 year old female virgin, and ended with a 25 minute set about a comic being sexually abused as a kid. Since comedy is the build up and release of tension, this was the most enjoyable show I’ve seen (let alone been a part of) in months. 

0m37s I’ve started taking longer and longer pauses when I know something is funny. 

0m50s Don’t say how many steps it is. Just explain the get rich quick scheme. This will cut unnecessary words. Something like “I wanna get laid off so I have time for my get rich quick scheme. I’m gonna gain 200 pounds and then convince the government I’m too big to fail.” 

1m05s I keep playing with changing this joke between lots of hours and lots of days, maybe I should just stop telling it. 

1m23s It seems awkward that I went into the dogs thing without a question or any sort of transition. That caused nobody to laugh at “We don’t love our dogs enough to let them keep their reproductive organs.” 

2m55s Comics love the “I just assume they’re deaf” joke. 

3m16s Add “dot com” after the child molester. 

6m13s Maybe I should try “If you start blowing me while I’m still on stage, you got HUGE TUBES.” 

6m29s The long pause strikes again. 

6m34s Some guy said “I didn’t want to laugh at that but I did.” 

7m05s One of the other comics did a 7 minute set about how she’s a 24 year old virgin (and she wasn’t fat or ugly). She’s the one who asked, “Really?” 

7m36s I should’ve said “DC” instead of “New York” to stay local and relevant. 

Overall: I was trying to be “more animated” with my delivery. Watching it, I’m not sure I was any more animated than usual. I got one big laugh and chuckles at the rest of it. I’m neither thrilled nor disappointed at my performance.

When I originally started doing critiques, I was able to keep up in almost real time. In the past 10 days, I’ve fallen pretty behind, so here’s my new plan:

• I’m going to batch post all my performances once or twice a week. I write most of the critiques Thursday night, so I’ll post on Fridays. 
• This will allow me to post real articles about stand up as well, as trying to post one article a day about my performances has been messing up my real writing, which I think is more interesting than watching me tell similar jokes post after post.

Hopefully this doesn’t offend or overly disappoint anyone. Also, if you have other suggestions about topics you’d lke me to cover, please let me know. I have a list of about 7-8 that people have already request. (I read and take note of each comment on the site.)

Have a laughter filled weekend,

Ben

This was the later show in the same room as above. There was a loud gathering at the bar area of the club which is right outside the door, so every time the door would open, everyone would get distracted, including me.

1m13s Kill “She’s looking mighty delicious.” 

1m37s You can hear the people being loud. 

2m00s I’m trying to shout over the loud people at the bar at this point. It’s making me go faster than usual because you can hear them if it’s quiet. 

2m54s There was no reason to say “Let that roll around” for that punch line. 

5m08s I love how the door only opens when I’m hitting a punch line. Watching this again reminded me how annoyed I was after the set. 

5m41s Get rid of “the girl who talks about herself non stop” part of the joke. 

5m52s Look up at my hand when doing that arc motion. 

6m42s The lone highlight of this set was pausing long enough to draw out a laugh. 

Overall: The advice I got afterwards was that in these situations (where lots of noise occurs), try to time my punch lines to when the door opens. I don’t think this is a good set to use to evaluate which jokes are funny and which aren’t.

This is me back at the place in NYC where I freeze my balls off in Times Square for 3 hours in exchange for time. I was extra cold tonight and still warming up when I got onstage.

0m04s The emcee  is supposed to pretend to be everyone’s best friend, or at least that they’re funny. He’s not supposed to put doubt about the comic’s ability into the audience’s mind. 

0m14s It’s supposed to be “He’s adorable… and then he opens his mouth.” Not “until he…” 

0m52s It’s time to bury the management consultant joke. 

1m06s It’s time to bury the executive assistant joke. 

1m14s I should try writing more about food servers turned waiters, or using it somewhere else. 

3m31s Good save when nobody laughed at the “assume they’re death.” 

3m46s I think I can rework the premise of this joke to be shorter, “People say getting on stage takes balls. Nobody ever says, that takes tits.” 

4m15s I need to come up with a better example of “Huge Tubes”, or figure out what kind of audiences I can do this joke with. This joke gets the most inconsistent laughs. 

5m22s I’m slowly learning that longer pauses cause a second round of laughter. 

5m33s After keep it going for your host, I should’ve said “I don’t know if he’s funny. I hope he’s not sucking.”

Overall: I got big laughs in 3 or 4 places but had too many dead spots. I ended strong though.