Post: #26

Quick Question: If you ever wanted to do this full time, like for real, would you have to move to LA or NY? I live in Florida and can think of only one guy from Florida who made it (Daniel Tosh) and he had to move to LA.

Post: #27

Yeah I've been thinking of putting together a set and finding an amateur night in Boston or something of that sort. I would just troll the audience with red pill humor and plant seeds of truth in their brains subliminally.

Post: #28

(06-22-2013 09:47 AM)Captain Ahab Wrote:  Quick Question: If you ever wanted to do this full time, like for real, would you have to move to LA or NY? I live in Florida and can think of only one guy from Florida who made it (Daniel Tosh) and he had to move to LA.

Pretty much. Some comics in different parts of the country are able to tour the comedy club circuit regularly and probably get by. More importantly, you have to do open mics and shitty gigs five days a week for ten years before worrying about this.

Post: #29

There are some decent documentaries which give some insight on how to become a commedian. Specifically:
I Am Comic
Comedians of Comedy
American: The Bill Hicks Story

Post: #30

(06-22-2013 09:47 AM)Captain Ahab Wrote:  Quick Question: If you ever wanted to do this full time, like for real, would you have to move to LA or NY? I live in Florida and can think of only one guy from Florida who made it (Daniel Tosh) and he had to move to LA.

Hannibal Burress is one example from Chicago, he was making 2-3k per show a few years ago as a regional comic on the college circuit.

Tommy Johnagin and Lavell Crawford are both becoming fairly well known nationally and they started out in St. Louis.

The only "requirement" is you be hilarious.

Post: #31

Bump.

Going to try my first open mic (ever) at a major comedy club in NJ. My set is mostly about sex, pooping, and jerking off. I've always wanted to give it a shot. Will report back with details for any who are interested.

Post: #32

(02-10-2016 02:41 PM)Eddie Winslow Wrote:  Bump.

Going to try my first open mic (ever) at a major comedy club in NJ. My set is mostly about sex, pooping, and jerking off. I've always wanted to give it a shot. Will report back with details for any who are interested.

Good luck man! Knock'em dead!

Post: #33

So I hit my first open mic tonight. As I was directed by the clubs website, I arrived an hour early to sign up, brought 5 friends to help promote the club, and ordered more than my two menu item minimum. I learned that no one can really enforce any of those rules very well, but I naturally tend to follow rules until I have a reason not to.

I was one of two 100% noobs. There were about 25 comics waiting to go on stage, and they pulled names out of a hat to determine the order. I got picked 2nd. Fuck. Was really hoping to see a couple more performances first.

The lights were very bright. There's a huge group of black people in the front that account for nearly a quarter of the entire audience, including 2 particularly sexy ass mocha bidges staring right at me. Fuck again. Was hoping to make my Big Black Cock joke without a bunch of mean looking black dudes sitting nine feet from me.

Despite only having 3 drinks in my system, I feel surprisingly comfortable on stage. It was awesome to see the result of my years of hard work approaching girls when I realllllly didn't want to. After watching myself on video and doing a fair analysis, I can honestly say I was by far the most confident of the 25 amateurs who went on stage, including the emcee. Going into a bar solo and trying to approach groups of girls is way more nerve racking. If you can roll solo with any type of success, you can totally do this.

I was scared I would run out of material, but I barely got through a 1/3rd of what I had prepared before the 3 minutes 'times up' light came on. Only got to talk about beating off. I remembered the bullet points of what I wanted to say, but completely forgot the things I was trying to fine tune, like specific words, timing, stuff like that. Most of my jokes came out pretty shitty, but I got the whole crowd to laugh heartily a couple times and managed to improv reasonably well when I forgot what I was saying, which I was proud of.

My first thought of the whole event was unbelievably awkward. It was painful and beautiful to see young people (the youngest was 19) to come out on stage and bomb. Some bombed more than others, but we all more or less bombed. After trying it and knowing how difficult it is, it makes me hate spineless drunken hecklers 20x more than I already did. Some people were so bad it made my skin crawl. But all the men and women who showed up had the balls to get on stage, which is something we could all feel good about.

I tried to post my three minute video here, but the file is to big. PM if you want to see my perfromance.

Edit: https://youtu.be/r3WGTdmBhlg

Post: #34

I enjoyed last week so much, I plan on hitting my local open mic every week. Any Jersey dudes who want to get motivated to get on stage, or just want to have a regular meet up, shoot me a PM.

Post: #35

Eddie, I watched your footage and it was good. I can easily see you transferring that skillset to gaming lizards. I think Patrice O'Neal told one lizard that he's fat so he has to use humour to game those lizards. Keep it up, bro, your jokes, presence and control was funny. I was cackling at those wank jokes.

Post: #36

Good shit, Eddie.

Post: #37

Hell yeah Eddie great job man. No note of anxiety or anything in your voice. No doubt you were the most prepared of the 25. Keep us updated man.

Post: #38

For a first time, that was excellent. Only observation would be that the voice you used for your mom was a little screechy and intense, which distracts from the humor a little. But that is a minor point. Good job.

Post: #39

Thank you all for the kind words. Although I thought I did OK even by my way-too-critical standards, I was concerned that my friends in the audience were just being nice when they told me I did well. It's very encouraging to hear RVF give me positive feedback on my performance since I know you'd tell me if it was horrible Definitely gives me confidence that I can do this.

Round 2 tomorrow: Taking Molly with Latin Girls, Talking Dirty in Spanglish, and Constipation.

Post: #40

(02-15-2016 09:32 AM)Eddie Winslow Wrote:  I enjoyed last week so much, I plan on hitting my local open mic every week. Any Jersey dudes who want to get motivated to get on stage, or just want to have a regular meet up, shoot me a PM.

Nice job on that. I actually laughed. Why haven't any of the standup comedian noobs I've seen be as good as you?

Post: #41

Round 2

I completely bombed.

I went 18th tonight out of roughly 25, so I had a lot more time to overthink what I was going to say and have an extra vodka soda. After much debate, I decided to add an opening line at the last moment that was somewhat, almost funny. It fucked up my entire rhythm and I drew a blank about 15 seconds into the set. I completely forgot how to do my horny spanish girl impression, which was supposed to be my crowd pleaser. I performed a hackjob of the 2nd half of my act, threw in some self deprecating humor, and ran the fuck off the stage.

Pros:
-I kept my cool even while completely fucking up. My friend who taped me said my relaxed demeanor makes the audience feel at ease.
-I remember to move the mic stand out of the way.

Cons:
-I was too confident after my first show. I thought everything I was going to say was gold.
-I memorized my whole performance nearly word for word. It sounded canned, which it was. I did not allow my personality to shine through at all, which helped me in my first attempt.
-Had too much to drink. Just like when I'm talking to girls, 2 drinks is the sweet spot for my humor, 4 drinks and my brain starts to crap out a bit.
-Going 18th sucked for a multitude of reasons. It's best to go early if possible.
-Trying to be funny instead of being funny. Hard to explain in detail, but it was easy to see in many other comedians tonight, including myself.

Although I had a terrible outing, I still want to keep going. I'll post toinght's fail once my friend uploads it.

Post: #42

no worries, eddie, keep on trucking. You are doing what you want to do.

Post: #43

(02-17-2016 11:37 PM)Eddie Winslow Wrote:  Round 2

I completely bombed.

I went 18th tonight out of roughly 25, so I had a lot more time to overthink what I was going to say and have an extra vodka soda. After much debate, I decided to add an opening line at the last moment that was somewhat, almost funny. It fucked up my entire rhythm and I drew a blank about 15 seconds into the set. I completely forgot how to do my horny spanish girl impression, which was supposed to be my crowd pleaser. I performed a hackjob of the 2nd half of my act, threw in some self deprecating humor, and ran the fuck off the stage.

Pros:
-I kept my cool even while completely fucking up. My friend who taped me said my relaxed demeanor makes the audience feel at ease.
-I remember to move the mic stand out of the way.

Cons:
-I was too confident after my first show. I thought everything I was going to say was gold.
-I memorized my whole performance nearly word for word. It sounded canned, which it was. I did not allow my personality to shine through at all, which helped me in my first attempt.
-Had too much to drink. Just like when I'm talking to girls, 2 drinks is the sweet spot for my humor, 4 drinks and my brain starts to crap out a bit.
-Going 18th sucked for a multitude of reasons. It's best to go early if possible.
-Trying to be funny instead of being funny. Hard to explain in detail, but it was easy to see in many other comedians tonight, including myself.

Although I had a terrible outing, I still want to keep going. I'll post toinght's fail once my friend uploads it.

I did standup for about 2 years. You are fine. I have seen absolute professional middle acts bomb at a different venue, hell, I have seen headliners do the same.

Nature of the beast. Hero one night, loser the next.

The ones who are successful are the ones who endure.

I have seen guys who literally sucked for five years, and then, one day, find their stride, and become working comics.

One night I was the M.C. for a bar show at a Holiday Inn. Did ok. For some reason, no one liked the middle act, but here was the thing. The middle act held a strong frame for a full 45 minutes, with no laughs.

Most people, if they tell a joke at a party, and it doesn't get a laugh, feel like throwing up until the next day. So as a comedian, you have to overcome this emotional gag reflex of feeling like a loser if no one laughs at your joke.

Make that the goal.

Could I keep going, confident and strong, with no laughs, for 45 minutes?

It would take time, but it is a skill, a technical skill, a bit of stagecraft separate from being funny.

There is a fine line to draw here, because at some point you have to address it when no one is laughing, but you don't want to overdo it. If you ignore it when you bomb, you seem clueless, though if you talk about it too much you seem oversensitive.

If you can keep going though, one way or the other, when the audience isn't with you, well, there is a kind of power to that. And I'll tell you what, I have seen comics win back their audience just by doing it. When you thought they they were sunk. By sheer personality.

So why not learn it? Stubbornness, and near delusional confidence?

Post: #44

I'm planning to go on stage again this week. I want to use some topics and stories that have already worked for me and focus on making a smooth, natural, uncanned delivery.

I'm also hoping it will get me some of my swag back in terms of game. I went through a period of one-itis fueled depression at the same time that I moved to a new, suburban area with very few friends. It's been months since I've been properly rejected by a woman on a cold approach - I've been relying on social circle, online, and most of all, lowering my standards to score lay-ups.

Its an interesting phenomenon as I know getting on stage and trying to make people laugh takes way more balls than talking to a pretty girl.

Post: #45

Keep us posted.

Post: #46

That's gotta be in Bellingham, no?

(03-31-2013 02:26 PM)Teddykgb Wrote:  We actually have a Mayor here in Wa state of a small town that his side gig is being a comedian. He has received some blow back from property owners saying that by him being a comedian it is hurting their property values.

He goes by the name Mayor Wanna

He holds a medical marijuana card as well as being mayor.

Post: #47

I'm thinking more and more about stand up after taking improv class.

I found improv very helpful since it helped me be very creative after and come up with a lots of routines. I hated exercises where I did not have to talk but enjoyed the ones where I could speak. I'm currently looking for books on writing jokes and stuff, do you guys have any recommendation?

Post: #48

I got back on stage last night for the first time in three years. I've been getting killed at work all week but I promised myself I would get on stage and at least do a couple of jokes to break the drought.

I had to go second to last out of 20+ people, which was a brutal wait. I guess that's just the way it is for newbs at some open mics.

I was nervous, but felt that I at least grabbed the attention of the very restless crowd. Although it was a basically a dud, I was proud that I didn't pussy out of my slavery/AIDS joke in an extreme liberal neighborhood.

PM for the vid link.

Post: #49

Last night I went to a bar for a mulit-language exchange meetup event for German. Only, there were no Germans (there were Spaniards, Russians, etc), I bumped into two friends I hadn't seen in one to two years, and then found out it was open mic night. While the first guy was going, I foolishly put my hat in the ring. Now they want me to come back every week and claim they'll pay for my food and drinks and even maybe send me home with some cash if I give them 4-5 minutes each time I show up.

Talked about moving overseas when I was young and being stationed in Louisiana and just hopped from topic to topic.

"I've been single for the last three years, but I never felt lonely in Lousiana because the mosquitos always paid me plenty of attention."

Can't make it next week, but plan to go the week after and in the meantime right down jokes for 15 min each morning and 15 min each night until then.

G