Having Fun on Stage

It just hasn't been happening. Maybe I'm not a polsihed pro, but it's just no good if Iam not having fun up there. I have had a few tough gigs of late where pretty much no one could have broken the room.

I decided a couple of weeks ago that I am not going anywhere that I don;t think is going to be fun. I am taking less serious gigs and doing more off-the-cuff nonsense like Dan Hirshon's room on Monday Night at Sally O'Brien's. He calls the show "Will Joke for Food".

After my recent beating at the elderly-laced Melha Shrine show and previous outings at another club where the crowds have been quiet, I have had to re-assess what the hell I am doing. I went to the show Monday Night knowing it would be a loud bar with the Red Sox/Yankees game blaring in the back and precious few people paying attention. I also knew that some of my best comedy buddies in town would be there, and that we would be having quite a few laughs- mostly at ourselves.

It was the perfect gig for me, one where it is abslutely impossible to take yourself too seriously. How can you take "Will Joke for Food" with anything but a grain of salt?

The place was loud,and several patrons were more than obnoxious, but it was a good time. Any time I get to hang with Hirshon, Shane Mauss, Sweeney, Jj and comany is always a good time, for me anyway.

Last night I was on at the Comedu Studio in Harvard Sq.

Wednesday nights are unpredictable there. Sometimes you can hear crickets, other times it is full. There are always several comedy chums around though.

Last night I planned to use the stage time to "practice being myself" on stage.

This is a euphemism I use when I want to justify going in without a planned set or any preperation. Strangely, it usually works. I like to do this when I am feeling a tad burned out.

I wound up sitting on a stool, displaying my "relaxed" look. Torn jeans with the good ol' Doc Martens. I just chatted about the recent gigs, including the one where I was heckled by the elderly folks, and it scored big. It was one of the best short sets I've done recently... it just cracks me up what a little relaxation can do. I try to go with the mindset of just being myself instead of being funny, and letting the funny come naturally.

I was told after the set by friend Dot, however, that she did not like the torn jeans, because my knee stuck and made me look too skinny. I knew this was an issue. It was my plan to have the "meaty" part of my knee sticking out through the hole, but as it happened, I got careless on stage and forgot to make sure this was the look I was presenting.

There were some cute women in the audience, too, that I am certain would have found me irresistable had I only adhered to the meaty-knee-flesh-through-the-hole plan.

Damn.

The only real minor bummer was that in telling the old people/bad show story, I used a punchline of yelling "I like pudding" which has apparently been used before. Dot told me Mary Beth Cowan has a joke with an old lady saying "I like pudding" non-sequitur, and Harrison Stebbins came up to me after my set and mentioned that he has it in a joke as well, though the usage is not similar.

I need to check with a veteran to see if "I like pudding" is just a stock old-peron senile line that is public domain, or whether or not I need to change it. It would be a shame because it really is the perfect line in this particular joke.