Arthur's Week of Open Mics.

This week, I went to three mics, and definitely honed some new jokes a bit. It started at the Treehouse where I met up with Roman and Corbett, two friends from college who got to experience the magic that is an open mic. It was a pretty good night there actually. A lot of energy, and a ton of hilarity. I went up third to last, and really took the energy of the room and used it to create a high octane set that worked. I'm rewriting and developing my Ninja Cheerleaders bit. It's something I may use for the Comic Strip Live audition.

Then, I did the Village Lantern on Wednesday, which also went well. Did a similar set from Tuesday night at the Treehouse. It went well, but I had the option of going first, which really helped me. Sometimes, this mic tends to get down, and the energy of the room dies quickly, so I don't know how I would've done had I went up later. It's a great test though, since one of the things I do well is get a momentum going, building up and filled with energy. Unfortunately, I need the energy of the other performers and the room for this to work. I have trouble getting upbeat when the room doesn't already have that energy. I need to learn and practice at getting a dead room going and supporting me.

That didn't happen tonight at the Tagine open mic. Tagine is a Moroccan restaurant with quite the Moroccan basement. Couches as opposed to chairs, bathrooms hidden behind Arabian curtains. And there were a whopping 8 comics and one audience member. They were all guys and things started decent, until jokes about choking girlfriends and racism really brought the mood down. I got up at the end, and since, other than one person, nobody had seen me, I started with the popular porn office bit, one that always does well. Here, it didn't. And then I lost the energy, and couldn't really get it back. I can't blame the room, I can only blame myself. I abandoned the joke quickly, moved in to a few bits from my set on Tuesday and Wednesday, but I couldn't do it. But I'll get there. Came home early since I've got a client coming in early tomorrow.

Next week, I get my headshots. Next, I need to get business cards finished. My goal is to have those put in to get built by next Friday. Also, have to work on my resume, which I will ask my good friend and fellow comic, Sue Funke, to build.

I need to get more mics next week, though with 4th of July weekend coming up, it may be a bit tough.