Show # 8

Well. .. .today my ass was dragging. All the young kids at the booth kept asking me if I was feeling all right. I looked like shit and I felt like it , too. My eyeballs feel like old , dried out sponges that you find under the sink when you move out of your apartment that have been there since the tenants before you. Dried up and useless. Not absorbant, more effective to scratch stuff with.
I caught 40 winks during my lunch hour and I got home early enough to take a little nap before I needed to get myself ready to go out the door. 20 minutes, just enough to make me feel a little bit more human. On my way in to the club tonight, I was really questioning my view of myself. Maybe I'm not really funny . Maybe I'm funny to hang around with , but not funny on stage "funny". Maybe I'm "nice". Maybe I'm just a nice kid. A "nice" person like an ex-nun or a retired cafeteria lady. Good enough to play Bingo next to. .. but. . .. Maybe I don't have it and maybe I can't bring it. I know I had it before, but maybe I can't do it on my own. .. . Long story short- not really the kind of interior dialogue a fatigued comic in residence should be having with herself on the way to a show.
To up the ante, Eugene Mirman and Todd Barry were swinging by to do sets. They weren't there to judge me, but I could decide that's all they were there to do and really screw with my head. Fortunately , JJ Leslie was there, last month's comic in residence and then my good friend Janet Cormier and I had a chance to chat and then Alvin David, a future comic in residence, made sexually inapproriate comments and had me giggling like a school girl ! I was feeling more human. I had a nice chat with Mr. Jenkins employing golf as a metaphor for last night's show and my head got a little more balanced.
Erin Judge did a great job hosting and I was able to try out the new opening again-slower, I felt like I was enjoying it more. I heard someone anticipate my punchline out loud (Todd Barry?) but I kept going. . . I remembered all the material. I changed up the order, unintentionally, but it worked. I didn't have them doubled over with laughter, but I think I did a good enough job opening the show. I felt very good about what I actually did, but I want them laughing sooner and harder (Reminds me of my prom date !) I don't really know how I will achieve that . . but a kid has to have a goal.
The comics on the bill tonight were really fun. Dan Boulger is a favorite of mine. Alvin David has a rapid-fire delivery and it feels like he is never going to get to the punchline, but the getting there is all that much more fun. AND Tony V showed up and did a set ! And Frank Santorelli came by just to watch Tony !!!!! I couldn't believe I was there to see this show !It was really fun ! Being the Comic in Residence puts me in the club to see the comics night after night. Yeah, I'm beat because I have to work the day jobs. Different line up each night, a different set of possibilities to be amazed and entertained.