The Big Bumper Thread of Stand-up Comedy

[Sundae]

You so totally rock you actually define the word.

[Griff]

Awesome!

[Clodfobble]

Cool thing... during the first preliminary round, 4 of the 17 entrants were female, which tends to be about the typical ratio. But all three of the winners who moved on to the semi-finals that night were chicks, which is a first in the history of the competition. Of course last night only guys moved on, so this is not the year of the woman or anything. But it's been 15 years since a woman won the whole thing, so it would be nice for someone to break that streak.

[BigV]

let it be you!

[DanaC]

I've only just read this. How awesome. I mean, natch, I hope ya winz, but whatever the outcome, this looks the most awesome fun.

You sound ready for the next step up.

[Clodfobble]

It's still 2.5 weeks away, which is sooo looong. [/whine] Going last sucks. The distance between my prelim and the finals is less than that. Probably better that way if I'm being honest, rip the bandaid off when it does finally start, but goddammit. Left brain's taken over despite my best intentions, at least temporarily, and I'm tweaking.

[DanaC]

John Oliver, around 2008:



I love this man.

[Clodfobble]

Alas, no semifinals for me. There were some mitigating factors outside of my control--there was a nasty storm, so the crowd was about 2/3rds normal, and the whole show was just kind of mediocre and people actually started getting up and leaving with about 5 comics left to go.

And then I had to go dead last. Shit, even I was tired of being there by then, and I had to be in the upper echelon of excitement that night, so I can't blame the audience for being tired. Plus, because the show was stacked even more heavily than normal with the "I'm poor and can't get a girlfriend" casual-loser style of comedian, that meant the audience was mostly full of those peoples' friends, which meant they preferred that kind of comedy.

Long story short, they were not prepared to be screamed at and simply had no idea what to do with me. My set got a far better reaction at the little 15-person open mic I last performed it at than the big crowd last night. There were definitely some laughs, and I had a few folks come up to me afterward and compliment the fact that my stuff was different and deserved better than what it got, but mostly they were just bewildered.

Oh well. Not every joke is for every audience. Maybe next time I'll have two thematically different sets prepared and choose one on the fly based on the feel of the room. All in all, it was still fun, but it's a shame I don't get to do it again in front of the big wigs.

[glatt]

robbery!

[xoxoxoBruce]

Oh well, when you reach the big time you can say you paid your dues.

[DanaC]

My latest stand up discovery:






This one made me lol:

[DanaC]

And then by the magical youtube path I ended up here:

[Clodfobble]

Russell Howard is coming to Austin and I got tickets! Way too excited.

[DanaC]

I missed that post at the time Clod! Was he good?

I came in here to post some Carlin. Because Carlin. From 1996. Dated in some places, but frighteningly still current in others.

[Clodfobble]

Originally Posted by DanaC

I missed that post at the time Clod! Was he good?

Oh yes! Only a very small bit of material I had seen before as well. He actually seemed to be about to lead into another large bit I was familiar with, but an audience member shouted the name of it (in encouragement) and he skipped it. He was more casually comfortable than I would have guessed--even professionals, they get famous young and they rely more on the solidly prepared material, they don't have the confidence to banter as freely, but then again I guess panel shows provide that practice to your guys whereas we have no equivalent...

Also, he was wearing his glasses, which is always a plus in my book.