Stolen/Wet

Tonight, we went to see "Stolen" the movie about the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum heist. Both Kiki and I really liked it. It was interesting to see some of the theories that have been mulled about the thieves and the possible underworld ties. It really makes me want to go to the museum. I particularly liked the art investigator -Howard Smith. A very unusual man who wears a fake nose. I don't want to spoil anything, he doesn't wear it for comic affect.
Earlier today, I had a rehearsal that ran long and kept me from going to Andover with enough time to get anything done. However, I was done early enough to be able to go home before I had to get to the afternoon job. So, I took the car to the car wash. A reasonable enough task on a beautiful day like today. However, if you've ridden in my car, next to me, you know that the passenger side window doesn't go up all the way. It's always open a little crack. I've brought the car through car washes before and it's been fine. Not this time. I think their water pressure is far superior to the other 3 car wash facilities that I frequent. Streaming jets of warm soapy water came shooting into the car soaking me, my pocket book and the passenger side seat.I held up my hand to the crack in the window with a wad of napkins in a futile attempt to block the fluid.The dash board and the side pocket with the maps got soaked as well. My blouse and skirt got soaked, too. Good thing I had time to go home and change .
The car looked really good and when I got home I wiped everything up and it made the vinyl surfaces shiny and clean. That is all. I have used my whitening system and now I am ready for bed.

Boring Details

What follows are boring details. I have been working and then just coming home and collapsing into bed. I have been staying in every night.The effort required to watch a dvd is almost too much of a time investment. Forethwith: I was supposed to go do stand-up at a little bar in Allston, last night. Though we didn't firm it up , the original e-mail would have been enough to entitle me to get on stage. I came home from a slamming day at work and laid down for a nap and didn't wake up until the show would have been half way completed. I am going to need to apologize to the host . I am hoping my absence wasn't all that prominent. That is uncharecteristic for me. This fatigue also feels a-typical. Perhaps I am wrong.
Yesterday, I was feeling like we might possibly have a slow day. How wrong I was. We were busy from the git-go. All of us thought we had been there for a couple of hours when we had only been open for 45 minutes ! My primary problems were in the visage of Asian Tourists. I don't know if they were Korean, Japanese or Chinese, but man! they sought me out and wore me down. They all have fine English, but they are so inquisitive ! Answering the questions is exasperating. The highlight of the day was when my friend Rick and his Sister came in for a brief visit.
Someone had left the air conditioning on, the night before, so it was nice and cool. Of course, it was too cool for the female co-workers and we were nice and toasty in no time. There was a back up in the mens room and males were traipsing their wet shoes through the lobby. I don't know where the poop smell was coming from , but it was really noticeable near the computer. (No, I don't think it was the computer !). Also, one of the stalls in the Ladies Room was broken , so , there were frequent backed up lines into the ladies room. Our cleaning lady had her hands full yesterday. We had a full compelment of Rangers in and out of the center yesterday. There were two mounted rangers in the park.
More boring details- I have started using a tooth whitening system. Just the Target store brand. I felt like I was getting a little dumpy. It's annoying to see your reflection in a store window and thinkng "Who's that lumpy broad standing next to me ? " and then realizing it's me. My hair has been curly fabulous lately, but the body is not pleasing my mind. I have increased the water and vegetable intake. It's difficult to fit it all in. Left to my own devices, I'd eat fried clams for breakfast every day and Cheetoes would count as 2 of the major food groups. Of course I'd be dead from colon cancer in no time. That wouldn't bother me , except that that diet would leave me an ugly corpse. I want to at least make the effort just to prove to myself that I can do what is necessary to make myself feel better.
Though getting into my jammies early every night allows me to awake refreshed in the morning for a full day of work, I am resenting the lack of excitement. When I am obsessing about tooth whitening strips , it's time to reconsider the direction my life is headed .
How's that for boring ?

My "Day Off"

I didn't tell anyone I was taking the day off. Actually, I told one guy , he knows, he won't tell or I'll steal his Cheez-Its and blame it on the boy .. .. I took the day off because I reckoned that's how long it would take me to get my computer stuff reconciled. I was about right . It took about 6 hours, all told. I spoke with two different lovely ladies in El Salvador. A little interesting. Are the Indians outsourcing the tech support or are the South Americans undercutting the Indians ?It seems to be running quicker.
My day centered around getting this major task done. I did 2 loads of laundry and got through 6 episodes of the first season of Six Feet Under. I watched the season finale of House. I caught up on the ironing. All little tasks that make me feel like I 've got my shit together. I accomplished half of what was on my list. It took me a week of not going out after work to get anything done on my day off. I'm still in my pajamas from last night. I feel pretty good. I'll be ready to take on the day at work tomorrow. Bring it on . . . . .

Drip, Drip , Drip Ad Infinitum

Ah , the glowing orbe in the sky is displeased again. We had a few hours of sun this week and now it's raining again. At least , they had umberellas in stock at the Target in Woburn on my way home from the job tonight. My morning commute took almost an hour. It was more torrential downpours and my friend Chris at work said that there was an accident and both the Pike and 495 were shut down. That would explain all that extra traffic today.
On Wed. I had an appointment on Newbury Street and I decided to walk all the way back to Park Street, afterward, because I thought it would still be light out until I got through the Common. It was really beautiful. There was a haze in the air which combined the emerging heat and the residual moisture left from all the most recent rain. The air smelled like fresh cut grass and fresh leaves.The Swan boats were all tethered together in the middle of the lagoon. I wondered how they got to the middle of the lagoon and then I figured one of the current generations of Pagets probably just wades out to the middle in boots and anchors them there. The deepest portion of the lagoon is 3 feet deep. Emminently doable.
I went home to change because I had a show to do in Dorchester at a comfy little bar named "Ups N' Downs". It 's actually very bright inside upstairs. Downstairs (The "Downs" part ) still looks like the kind of Stiffy bar my Dad used to like to frequent. Upstairs is brightly lit and really clean looking. The host is a guy named DJ Cage. I only met DJ within the last year , or so, but he's the kind of guy I feel like I've known forever. I'm surprised I didn't cross paths with him 'Back in the Day'. Anyway, I hit it off with him when we met and he's been pretty easy to get in touch with since then. He's trying to get this little room started. He's trying to get a lot of things going for the room, but I'm really just interested in the comedy portion of the event.
The room has a lot of mirrors and wooden fixtures. The room was populated by a lot of retired cops. I don't know what this says about me , but they didn't look that much older than me ! The men were really gentlemanly . Even the bartender downstairs ("Downs") was really polite and slightly flirtatious. I had gone downstairs looking for my friends. When I came back upstairs ("Ups"), I told DJ that the bartender downstairs proposed to me. DJ thought I would probably garner a couple more proposals before the night was over. Gawd Bless 'im !
One of the girls I work with knows this room and lives only a couple of blocks away. She promised she would come to the show if I did it. God Bless her ! She brought her husband , who I've ,met before , and her friend. I was so surprised and greatful to see them. Just because I told DJ that I had friends that were coming and I would have been a little embarassed had they not arrived. There were 2 other comics , who I had not met before and Mike Whitman. I told DJ I didn't want to go after Mike. I think he's terrific and I do not want to follow his caliber of talent.
I freaked a little because I saw Joe List , he's really great . Later on, Tonya Dalhaus, Sandy Asai and Dave Grabiner came by and did time.
I thought my set went okay. The stage was not well lit and I was really aware that I was not in the light. There was nothing to be done for it . Tuck in and barrel through. I did all the stuff I had planned on except the rainbow flag/terror alert bit. I felt a little shaky at the start but then I hit my stride and they were paying attention. I know they laughed, but I was mostly hearing the silence. It was definitely the silence that you hear from an audience watching a movie. However, again, it's comedy , a little laughing should be involved. I had really developed some muscle from my Comic in Residency. DJ introduced me to the audience as "The Comedy in Residence". My friend thought I was really polished and her husband admitted "I didn't thinkn you were going to be that good ! " A true compliment.
All in all a pretty good night. I wished I had been more focused, but I always wish I was more focused. DJ seemed pretty happy. It was nice to hang out a little bit with Tanya. I was home by 12:30 am. I would have blogged at the time but I am having some slow moving problems with my computer.

Crazy Wet Lady

For those of you who follow the Weather Channel, it has been raining here in Boston for about 12 days straight. According to the local weather reports, it's going to keep going for the rest of the week. It's a lot of rain. It's like a Nor'Easter, only it's rain and it's lasting a lot longer than any Nor'Easter I can remember. It's wet and dark . Areas near rivers are flooding. It's a lot of rain.
So, last week sometime, my umberella turned itself inside out. I turned it down right. I figured, that'll buy me a couple of uses more. It's counter intuitve, but I've used umberellas that had holes in them, they got most of the job done and I didn't have another umberella. So , on Saturday morning, I'm working at the job and decided to go get the papers, a coffee , croissant and a breakfast sandwich for my boss. It's a quick trip except that I need to wait for the sandwich to get cooked. There are no other customers when I get there, by the time I left the little spa was crowded. I didn't wait for a bag.
I'm juggling my wallet , 2 papers, 2 little bags of snacks , a coffee and my umberella. I'm figuring "Oh it's a short walk. I can make it without spilling or dropping." Except , the coffee cup is hot. It's burning the tips of my fingers. I have to keep switching hands. I've got the wallet and the papers tucked under my left arm and I'm switching the coffee cup,the bags and the umberella handle from the left to the right. I look like a kangaroo holding all these things in my foreshortened arms. About 10 feet from the front door, the umberella turns itself inside out again. I don't really have the leverage, but I react like I can handle it all. I'm not thinking. That is a theme in my life. SO, I'm stumbling and dropping and lurching into the store all at the same time. The wallet, papers, paper bags drop to the floor and the coffee cup goes flying and splatters all over the floor. I'm still holding onto the fucking umberella. Within seconds , I scream little swear words. I stamp my feet and kick the door jam. I punch the umberella with my now free hand. I strangle the umberella with both hands. I punch it again and then I strangle it and grunting swear words and squealling in a desparate register, I stuff it into the waste basket. That umberella is dead.
My boss and co-worker are frozen, they've never seen me like this before. I've never lost it like this before. Well, not in 20 years anyway and I'm pretty sure that meltdown occurred in a van down south-probably over french fries or cheese. Immediately, I am mortified. I apologize to them . My co-worker offers to go get me another coffee. I don't want another coffe. I want to go home and go to bed and cry under the blankets. I get over it . They get over it. I feel bad about kicking the door jam. I don't go out that night. It was a surprising melt down except that I shouldn't be surprised. I haven't been able to garner a full day off since the middle of April. This rain isn't helping. .. .

An Odd Coincidence

So ... I work about 3 jobs. Not every week, so far I have worked 4 of the 5 this week. Tomorrow will be job #5. The odd coincidence is that I have touched the bottoms of 3 of my bosses. It wasn't a dare and I didn't set out to do this. When I woke up on Monday morning I didn't say to myself 'This week my goal will be to touch the buttocks of my bosses", it just happened organically.
On Monday, I had to drive that boss to pick up some merchandise. While she was in the store, a bee stung her. . . on her ass. She was wearing a brightly colored skirt.. . . probably looked like an easy daisy or some other flower with loose morals. When she gets beck in the car she says "A bee stung me. Here ! Feel the bump ?" and then I started feeling around her butt for a bump. I had groped around a bit before I thought that this was inappropriate behavior. I told her I would take her word for it. I also checked to make sure she wasn't allergic to bee stings, just in case she went into anaphylactic shock on the way back to the factory.
On Wednesday, a few of us were sitting around talking when we noticed the boss had new pants. She 's lost about 40 pounds in the last year and her clothes don't fit her right anymore. I was sizing up her pants and I gathered the baggy part at the back because I felt she still bought a size too big. They didn't make her ass look right. I really got a lot of material bunched up in my fist. She kind of skittered away exclaiming "Dorothy !!!You just grabbed my ass !" Actually I had grabbed the seat of her pants, but I wasn't going for a cheap feel, I just think she's underestimating how much weight she's lost. The incident concluded with all agreeing she needed an even smaller size.
Then today, my boss from today's job came into the office and asked me if I thought he was looking good. He's also lost about 50 pounds in the last 6 months, he's been working out . He's looking good. Every time he reaches a new goal , he feels good about himself. So, he said "Go ahead! Feel my ass! Go ahead ! " So. . . . .I did. Nothing sleezy. . an ass was being presented for grabbing and I just squeezed it. "Huh ? Pretty firm ? Yah ? I been working out ! " And then he left the office like I had handed him the Wilson file. My office mate was a little surprised, she was laughing. .. but I think I was a little unprofessional. I don't think I should feel an ass that doesn't belong to me. .. even if it is being offered.

Fat on TV et al

So , where do I begin ?
First off, I've been having trouble with my computer. I will kill Win Fixer for infecting my computer. If anyone knows how I can kill this computer vermin, I will climb that grassy knoll and start shooting.
Tonight there was an episode of a local show titled "Chronicle" featuring local favorites the Walsh Brothers , Dane Cook and a snippet of me. When I had imagined doing a television show with the Walsh Brothers all those years ago. .. this was not what I had in mind. It was a nice, if brief, feature on the Walshes. I was featured in that they showed me doing a joke in it's entirety . I looked enormous. That is not how I see myself. Yes, I am greatful that I got featured on Chronicle, I just hope it brings a lot of butts into the seats at the Comedy Studio. Oh Lordy, I have to lose weight !
Last night, I performed in Janet Cormier's Comedy Madness show at the All Asia. I always have a great time doing her show , but there were even fewer audience members last night than last time. On the bill were Brian Freer, Nicolette-a poet, Jason Fickel -a really good musician and me. I incorporated a lot of the new material , including the joke incoroporating Janet in to the setup . Again, I had a good time but I don't know how well that show can be used as a gauge as to how well the material is. Ah well, live and learn.
Earlier in the evening, I went to a retirement party for my friend who has been teaching at the Museum school for the last 34 years. He's a wonderful person and a world renown artist. I was happy for the turnout, he will be missed by students and faculty alike.
Monday night, Kiki and I went to se eMission Impossible III. I would say that the most impossible part of the movie for me was that I had to go to the bathroom-3 times ! I didn't think it was all that good. We had reallly been looking forward to it's release. We had even considered buying our tickets well in advance , believing that everyone would be going to see it. No, not so much. It had a potentially amazing cast-Ving Rhames, Michelle Monaghan, Jonathan Rhyes Meyers, Tom Cruise and the great Phillip Seymour Hoffman. I have to agree with my friend Dee-"More Philip Seymour Hoffman-less everything else". He plays a great villain.
There you have it . I'm all caught up . And thus, I lick my fat wounds and figure out what the hell I'm doing with this life !

Boring Glory

Ah, the joy of simple routines ! The glory of the mundane ! I am content in the practices ! I have clean laundry ! St Hunnah, I revere you !
SO, I am back on Sunday schedules. Though it pays time and a half and I should be greatful for the chance to earn more money for what I do on a regular basis, I am not entirely that. I arrive on Sunday mornings with an aire of menace and malice. Not particularly beneficial qualities to posess when dealing with English challenged visitors, still, I'm good at it on a Sunday morning. I can only guess how awesome I would be if I was hung over. .. no, I am merely a spoiled brat who wants to be in her jammies nursing a cheap coffee until mid afternoon. The Sunday crew is pretty congenial and seem to be genuinely happy to be making that kind of coin. I get pleasanter as the day goes on. I am downright cheery at 4:30. I sprint to the subway at 5:03.
My solitude awaits my twilight arrival. On the way home, I bought a bag of salad and ripe avacado. A simple satisfying dinner . I slip into the sweat pants and throw in the load of laundry I had prepared last night for this very opportunity. I carve the avacado and toss the contents of the instant salad. The avacodo is perfect. I let the salad sit . I strip the linens off the bed and change the sheets. I stuff it all in one of the pillow cases and bring it down to the washing machine. I sit down to enjoy the perfect salad and an evening of network tv. It's all stuff I haven't seen before. I channel surf amongst 60 Minutes, King of the Hill and the TAPS marathon on the Sci-Fi channel. When the hour changes over, I surf TAPS, Jericho and L&O:CI. When the next hour changes over, I stick to Gray's Anatomy. The little baby portion of the episode makes me cry.
Here I sit, 4 hours of network tv and 2 loads of laundry behind me . I puttered some. I wish I could have puttered more tonight. However, a freshly made bed awaits my attentions. Please forgive if this sounds boring to you , but this is almost heaven to me.

Naked Men & Hard Work

Since I'm not "Comic in Residence" anymore, I don't really have anything to blog on a daily basis.On Wednesday, My friend asked me to come down the Studio to see him do a set, Rick was very surprised to see me. It was a fine show. It was Alisha Yaffe's first show as comic in Residence. He did a fine job. I had really wanted to see Mary Beth Cowan, but I ended up out near the bar with Maggie MacDonald. Tonya Dalhaus was in a car accident on her way to the Studio and Maggie needed to know how to get to the hospital that Tanya was taken to. Maggie has only been living in Boston for about a month, so, she didn't know where the Cambridge hospitals might be. I finally had a chance to speak with Tanya today. She is banged up but she is okay. Thank goodness !
After folding the chairs, I headed over to ImprovBoston to see Andy's Naked Show. I had seen the version of the show he did in Scotland. It's a little disconcerting to see people you know and respect performing comedy naked. I even have a hard time seeing someone I'm in a relationship naked. Fortunately, that doesn't happen very often. I think my favorite parts of the Naked Comedy Showcase were the sketches. I was especially impressed with the naked magician. That's got to be tough, doing magic naked. Where do you put the scarves and cards ? I don't know ! I still don't know !
The hard work was , Friday,I was scheduled to do a convention at the BCEC on Summer Street until 5:30 PM. In the middle of the shift, I got a call to go do a convention at the Hynes. I was told that the booth would be all set up . It wasn't. I got lost in the Hynes trying to find my contact. I had no supplies and I couldn't get into the storage closet because one of the other employees had taken the only key home with her and no one could get in touch with her. I ended up making reservations using the computer and a notebook I had with me. Fortunately , I always carry a pen with me. The conventioneers didn't realize that I wasn't scheduled to be there . They just couldn't figure out why I wasn't there earlier. They were lined up before I could develope a plan of action . I thought I was going to break down crying, I felt so abandoned . Friday was a tough long day.
Today was tough because the store was slow and I think I have allergies. I was tired all day. My car was covered in that yellow/green pollen at the end of the day.
Thus , here I sit on a Saturday evening in my sweat pants. I've done a load of laundry and I will probably go to sleep soon. I miss the action at the Studio , but I'm glad to have a quiet evening to myself.

Kinky Boots

Went to see "Kinky Boots" tonight-9:40 showing. We were the only people in the theater. WE joked about watching it naked ( I would never do that , you don't know what's been on those seats !). Right before the movie started , about 6 people came. They were German. How do I know they were German ? Because with all the empty seats and all the room in that cavernous theater, they sat behind us. Right in the row behind us. The guy behind me kept kicking the back of my seat. I knew they were German because they kept talking German to each other for the fist third of the movie. Eventually , they stopped talking. I held on to my purse in the seat next to me the whole time. Fucking Germans. . . .
It's a feel good movie . Due to the death of the father , the son inherits the factory and must find a viable customer stream for their product. Adapt or change. Enter one beautiful black drag queen and you have the makings of an endearing heartfelt film. I enjoyed it , but I would have preferred more drag queens. . . .less Germans.

Lucky # Sleven

My friend Cathy and I went to see "Lucky Number Sleven " tonight. We loved it. It stars Josh Hartnett ( Oh so dreamy "broken" nose and all)Lucy Lui-A Doorbell ! Morgan Freeman, Sir Ben Kingsley -just great as the Rabbi. Danny Aiello, Stanley Tucci and Bruce Willis. I really don't want to like Bruce Willis, but he was so good in this movie. Very understated , yet still amazingly powerful.
The set was very 70's . It was so 70's that we couldn't immediately determine in which era the movie actually takes place. All the costumes and furnishings are very retro but they have flat screens and cell phones, so it's not back then. The story itsef is very complicated and 3/4 of the way through I was getting pissed because I felt like we might not have the purpose of the ride revealed. However, my questions were answered.
There was one scene where Lucy Lui and Josh Hartnett are on a date and she's eating spaghetti. I remember someone once saying that spaghetti is not a good first date food. I think Dan Sally once said the true test of a first date is eating barbecued chicken wings in front of each other. His theory was that that is more of a long time relationship food.
Yeah , okay , maybe that's a little random . . . but that's what I'm thinking. I liked the movie.

Finis !

Aahhh. . . My month had come to end with last night's show. Due to a family situation , Erin did not host her show. Rick had me host , again !Fortuntately, I was a little better mentally prepared for the event. Also, last night's show was Liz Simon's last show here in Boston.
So, right before the show started , Kort Yeo came over and said he had a joke for me to try . It had to do with "taking the bullet" over the month. He couldn't really use the joke himself, so I did it. I screwed up a word , but it got a good reaction. Thanks Korte! Since I had to spread out my material over the space of 9 comics, I was much more aware of pacing than I was on Friday. It also helped that before the show , Rick said for me to take my time. We had enough comics, and he would close the show so any time that was left , he could fill. I try not to use notes, but I have a habit of putting my joke list in a pocket while I'm on stage. I will touch the pocket with the notes in hopes of accessing the stuff by osmosis. Clearly, it doesn't work that way every time. It's just reassuring to me. I carry 3x5 cards in a pencil case in my bag to write ideas on. I like the stiffness of the cards, I feel like the stuff written on them is more substantial. Also, when I 'm looking to put together a set, I'll shuffle them like flash cards. As it so happens, a 3x5 is good to write the show order on, it'll hold up to going in and out of the pocket better over the course of a show.
I welcomed the audience and did about 7 minutes up front. Good enough. Then I brought Eric Chueng up. His parents were in the audience. He did a good job. I still like the "Home Schooled" joke. Then I did some more time-maybe 4 minutes and then I brought Bob Hegaerty up . I hadn't seen him perform since Peter Dutton's going-away show. It was all new material. I was in pain from laughing. He was so relaxed , and I think he was also in a fair amount of pain, he ran a 10K yesterday before he came to the show. Then he finished with metal shop, which still makes me laugh ! I did no time and brought Shaun Donovan up . I knew I had seen him perform before , but I couldn't remember any of his material. After his set, it jogged my memory for some material from the memory vault and I did a little more time.Then it was Arielle Goldman. Her Grandmother was in the audience, so I was careful about what I said about her because she has that litttle blow-job joke which I was pretty sure she wasn't going to be performing. The joke , not the blow -job. Then her material reminded me of some material I had that I haven't used this month. Just a couple of minutes. Next was Josh Gondelman. He has good material but , more importantly, I've had some nice conversations with him , so I felt like I was introducing a friend. I apologized for introducing "This next Young Man" and "He's a man. I don't want to minimize his masculinity. He can vote and drive and stuff" and the I admitted that just about anyone under 30 , is the same age for me. It's particularly difficult when I get a crush on a UPS man. They're all about 6 years old to me. Fortunately, the audience of parents could identify with my sentiment.
Next up was Billy Bob Neck. I gave him a serious introduction about how we like to present all views and in the interest of free speech we were giving Billy Bob Neck stage time to present an opposing view point. I think I did it too good, because they were really respectful of him. Meaning, I don't think he got the laughs he would have , otherwise. Sorry Mr Neck. Then it was Marley Halpern-Grazer whom I had seen at the Emerson Stand-up show when CBS Morning show had come to tape. I was doing the door while he was on stage that night, because audience members just kept arriving. I got to watch him and he was very good. Also, he's a Wiccan which just gave me something else to say to the audience. Where are you going to see a born-agian Christian and a Wiccan in the same show ? Then it was Liz Simons. My intro for her wasn't funny. Just that I'm going to miss her. Her parents were in the audience as well. After her set , I yelled "Nice Ass!" from the stage and told her parents they had done a good job with her.
Then Mr. Jenkins closed the show. I thought I was being funny when I introduced him by stating I hadn't seen this next young guy perform before. Again, they were very respectful, which I think made Rick's job tougher. Because , clearly, he's done this job before ! It's confusing to the audience. I outro'd him by letting them know he was the founder and had been running this club for the last 10 years.
I was focusing on keeping my energy up for the whole show. I had come home early from work , so I was rested . Thus making the energy aspect of the event, a little easier for me. If I get to host again, I think I should concentrate on the individual introductions. I used to be really specific with my own introduction but I gave that up after the 100th host screwed up the intro. There may even be a sub-genre of literature that is all introductions. I don't know, but I will give it some thought.
So, my month was filled with mostly highs and a couple of lows. I would say the most disappointing aspect of the month was the fatigue I experienced. It's difficult to work all day and then be out at night and still be on my game in both arenas. I wished I had dropped a couple of pounds before my month because I look much larger on dvd than I do in the mirror at home. It is alarming to me that people see something different than I feel I am . I would say the worst show and the one that taught me the most was last Saturdays show. I don't ever recall wanting to cry like that after a set. It was the depth of despair (okay, yeah , there are worse things like your husband leaving or a diagnosis of cancer, but this is comedy, not real life). What it taught me is that it is up to me to have fun. Or at least appear to have fun. Even if I'm just faking myself. Since the successful practice of stand-up is dependent on the audience reaction , it's tough not to blame them if they don't laugh. I think if they're not laughing, I need to have fun for myself whether they will go for it or not.
The highs. .. .where do I begin ? Well, April was an unusual month because it was the 10th anniversary of the club. So, there was a lot of media attention.I was seen by a scout from Comedy Central and CBS morning show. Both writers from the Globe and the Herald saw me a couple of times. I wasn't kicked off any show. I was Comic in Residence. I made the commitment, so Rick kept his commitment to me. Just the shows I was in the audience to see were amazing ! I couldn't leave early for a single show. I just wanted to see what was going to happen. I saw a lot of people I hadn't seen in a while. Seeing all that live comedy was a real treat for me. In my heart , I'm still just a kid watching the Tonight Show dreaming about what I want to do when I grow up.
I would say the most growth came in the last week. At some point in the last week I felt a change had taken place that will lead to some rapid changes in the future for me. I would be hard pressed to articulate further, it's a feeling. Springing the hosting duty on me last Friday was challenge I was ready for. I was even better prepared for it last night. The most surprising show was the night I went to 11 minutes before I thought that maybe there was something wrong with the light, but I had the material and I pulled it out to use. My dormant improv skills were always there, waiting to serve me. After a little exercise, they were there in full strength. I wished I had been able to develope more material. Though my goal was 5 new minutes, which I thought would be distributed as one new minute a week. I would say the first 3 weeks garnered one new minute and the last week provided the remaining 4.
I am extremely greatful to Rick Jenkins for providing this opportunity to me. Usually , I feel too old to learn new things. Well,I am going to change that mind-set because I am continually meeting and overcoming challenges that are presented to me. The idea that Rick would let me do his club every night of the month, at my age, is a dream come true. That he has kept his club going, vibrant and dynamic, for 10 years is an accomplishment few of us could match. That it is here for me to learn from is priceless.
Thank you everyone.
Thank you Rick.
Oh Shit ! Iam going to be sooooo late for work !