Stand-Up -Yay !

Last night I did stand-up in my friend Janet Cormier's show at the All Asia in Central Square. We had a really good size audience . There was an improv group and a new stand-up , so, there were a lot of people there. Also , Bob Gautreau was there , I love seeing him. I've known Bob for a long time and I will always love him for making me spaghetti all those years ago. . . . But I digress. .. ..
Janet asked me to do that show a couple of weeks ago. I was really looking forward to it. I was hoping that I was going to have something new from the subway stuff I am secretly working on. And by "secretly" I mean nothing is really funny yet and so I will keep it to myself until there is something funny or , at the very least , performance worthy. I also figured there would be several opportunities prior to the gig for me to at least practice a kick -ass set. I scheduled some down time last week to work on it. However, little did I guess that I would be practically blind with itchy eyes for most of last week. The only relief was when I closed my eyes. If this keeps up much longer, I will surely go mad. By Saturday, I had finished my course of treatment and was starting to feel preety good. However, by sunset of last night , my left eye was already twitching and itchy. Both eyes were really red by the time I went to bed and I woke up with really puffy eyelids. Again, I digress . ...
SO, I get to the show and I can tell this is going to be a good audience. I am relieved of the pressure to do really new and shiny stuff. I am going to do what I consider my "primo" stuff and throw innovation out the window . Most of these people hadn't seen my stuff. Really, there were only 5 people who had seen me before, including the bar tender. This is an opportunity. Though I hadn't actually rehearsed my set , before I left the house, I brought a fist full of set lists and jokes. Little scraps of paper that I stuff in my pockets. Like Edgar Cacy , who used to learn things by sleeping with a book under his pillow, I stuff the little slips of paper into my back pockets. By osmosis, I am going to remember my best stuff. It worked ! I had a great set ! Janet said I could do 10 minutes and I think I did 11. Not bad. Though my eye was very itchy, I made it through my set and stayed for the rest of the show. It was a really good reason to leave the house, doing that show. I feel really good about my set . In honor of International Womens' Month, which the show was supposed to be dedicated to, I started off with an impression. .. of me. . . .driving. .. ."What the fuck Lady ! The light is green ! Go !!!!!" Thank you . I thought that lent a certain amount of energy and I thought about it on the way to the show, because the traffic was stupid slow. Then I just launched into my usual stuff. I rearranged some stuff and brought out a couple of old jokes. I didn't stammer or stumble . It flowed the way I would hope it would always flow. I had energy and enthusiasm. I was having fun and I think it looked like I was having fun and , really that's what it should always be about.
In conclusion, I feel good. The end.