Winston's

I did another 5 minute set at Winston's this evening. I'm still doing all new jokes. I did a few topical jokes today, one about the one armed kid that got a D1 basketball scholarship and the other about San Diego flipping out about the seals. The seal one went decent. I then went into the crazy technilogical advances. I thought it was funny but it didn't go as good as hoped. I also did a joke about the violent games we played as kids, kill the man with the ball, trying to hold our breath under water, and sliding down the stairs in sleeping bags. I thought it was funny and relatable, but I guess I was wrong. I think the crowd was pretty tough and was mostly comics so that's always a tough sell. I gave it a C. Little step back from my last few shows, but gonna keep plugging away.



Observation of the day: Kids video games are unreal, I miss Oregon Trail

San Diego experiment = D+

Did some quality addition to jokes today, plus did a pretty solid one about taking pictures. No performing but hopefully gonna get in at least 2 shows this week.

I'm starting to realize that this San Diego experiment was a failure. It's crazy to think I've been here for 3 years and I'm no where near where I thought I'd be at this point in my life. I interviewed for a job the day after I moved here and I was immediately working with a production company. It was a a good foot in the door but I was working 14 hour days, which kinda sucked because I didn't really get to see the area. Plus we were making so much money playing blackjack, so I ended up quitting the job. Well soon after that my relationship ended and we couldn't ever win playing blackjack. The following April the only two roommates that wanted to go out lost their money and had to move back to Maine.

About a week after they left, I found a pretty solid job and leases my vehicle. Things were pretty busy again as I was working for a couple radio stations. But, I liked staying busy as the other people I lived with were pretty lame and never went out.

Fast forward to November 08. My roommate moved to New York for a girl, and one of my friends that actually occasionally went out met a girl. He now spends every waking moment with her and is not allowed to ever go out as he has to bring her and pick her up at work. It's really pretty pathetic. Then in December I learn my company is moving back to AZ, so good bye job.

I tried playing poker for a few months, but I basically just broke even or was up a little bit. And when I would actually try to shot at a higher buy in I'd always get screwed.

I've been looking pretty hard for a job but I guess I'm not qualified for anything. Doing stand up is the only thing keeping me here. What good is beautiful weather when you spend every day in your bed watching tv. I have 2 more months before my unemployment expires, and if I don't find a decent job by then I'm leaning towards going to L.A. for a couple months. I gotta stay in this area until October when my lease runs out. At this moment I have no idea what I want. It's sad because San Diego is the greatest city I've visited and I have no friends to enjoy it with.

That is all for now, I hope things are a little more cheerful in the future posts.

Observation of the day: It's funny how when you were a kid you could be having the greatest day of your life, but if your parents didn't buy you that t-shirt you'd never wear or that cotton candy the whole day would be ruined.

Winston's

I went up around 9th tonight. I didn't practice that much but I didn't feel nervous at all. It started off a lil shakey but ended quite strong. I got my first fan tonight. An older woman came up to me after my set. She was new to the area, liked my set, and wanted me to give her some advice. I felt pretty honored.

I spoke with another comic about going up at other open mics. He kinda blew me off a little bit, oh well. I'm starting to realize a lit of people may act nice until you try to communicate with them. Oh well.

Now I'm just watching some weeds. I'm kinda tired.

Quite angry blog

Wow, what an awful job fair. It was for former military people and the only jobs they had were open your own franchise, become a cop, do some sales, or go back to school. I'm starting to get to the point where I don't know if I'll ever find a decent job out here. A college degree means nothing anymore. And the fact I worked hard in college and got a high GPA is pretty useless too. Something really has to change in this country if they ever want things to turn around. Kids are gonna keep graduating college with 100k debts and being forced to move back in with their parents, who are having to work into their mid 70's, so those kids that got the good jobs before have to wait an extra 10 years. They think we're coming out of this recession but they're not even close to seeing the real picture. The reason everything is messed up is because of always rising college tuition costs, people are not spending money because they have 600$ a month student loan payments. I could ramble more about how the government is clueless because half the people running it came from well off families that never had to deal with the real financial problems most of us face. I'm not a political person but most people that are are clueless. They believe the bad part about us invading Iraq is that we should keep our noses out of other countries business. No, how bout were spending billions of dollars to fix another country, while 10% of our people are unemployed and places like New Orleans are still not rebuilt. When I was younger I remember seeing ads to help some random Nigerian child but I never saw an ad to help a starving child in Atlanta, Georgia. Alright I can smell my own feet so I know I'm getting worked up, I'm done with the serious talk.

No performing, but I did do some writing. I wrote 4 jokes today, about ten minutes of solid observational jokes I think are very relatable. The Winston's open mic is tomorrow, and I haven't really decided what I wanna do. I wanna do an improv only show, but it's tough to do at Winston's cuz I never know when I'll go up.

Welp that's all for now, I'll recap the Winston's show tomorrow.

Observation of the day: Why haven't they made a cologne that smells like a fireplace or fresh cut grass. For some reason my shirt smells like a fire place and I can't stop smelling it. It's very refreshing and you only think of good thoughts when you smell a fireplace.

Nothing new

Haven't done any performing the last two nights. I pussed out going to the open mics. They were places that have open mics but the majority of people do music. It is very difficult to perform on comedy open mics, as most people don't wanna listen to you, but on music nights it's even worse. It's tough to hold an audience's attention for 10 to 15 minutes when they usually go there to support a friend or just have a few drinks. I have working with my roommate who plays the guitar about some new ideas to tackle the open mics. I'm hoping to get him to go next week.

I did a lot of writing yesterday. I've been recalling a lot of things from my childhood so that's fun. I miss things like Oregon Trail and the embarassments of my Dad harassing my coaches because I never played. Guess he didn't realize I wasn't any good, but I know he took time out of his day to watch so I let it slide.

Today I sent my resume out to about 15 places and applied for a few more jobs. I have a job fair tomorrow for former military people so we'll see if I can actually get a job. I like the freedom, but I just get bored. It's not a good sign that I've seen every episode of Wife Swap. If you've never seen the show you gotta watch. I always thought my family was crazy, these people are rediculous.

I also watched the basketball game. I kicked myself because I almost bet on the Magic who were 9 point underdogs to win but I have no balls. I actually played a little poker last night, things started off well and yet again I couldn't get lucky to save my life and continually got coolered.

Before I left for the gym I watched I shouldn't have survived with my roommate. That's a happy show eh. The show people that almost died in crazy situation, and it would be uplifting if they all survived but in this one a few people actually died.

Anyways before I left for the gym I noticed my roommate had a flat tire. It was a pretty big gash, he tried fix a flat but it was too big. It almost looks like someone but a knife through it. We have a few suspects but it's pretty messed up nonetheless.

Now I'm watching some tv, and then hit the hay.

Observation of the day: Just saw a commercial for another pill to help enlarge the penis. Why have they made hundreds of pills to help those lost souls enlarge their penis' but not one company has tried to help those of us, like myself, with abnormally large penis'? It's bad enough I have to lug this thing around, but do I really have to scare women every time I get freaky.

This was my 2nd Brick by Brick show (6th overall). The camera started a little late. You can see the stumbles, but there were some good moments in there.

Sets 7-11

The next show was another open mic at Winston's. I took 3 of the best minutes from my Brick by Brick set. I think I had another good set there. A few of my friends went and they seemed to enjoy it.

Maybe I was getting cocky or maybe the crowds weren't that great but my next two shows were a little rough. I did a show at Winston's where I went up 2nd. My first joke didn't go as well as I had hoped, and I panicked and went off my planned set for the first time. I even stumbled on some of my older jokes, so it was kinda a set back.

The following Tuesday I had my 3rd Brick by Brick set. This was pretty rough, but I have the feeling it was a little more the crowd. I went up 11th, but everyone before me did at least 10 minutes, so I think the crowd was a little drained. I planned to do ten new minutes, but after my first joke tanked I went back to some of my older jokes that have gotten laughs in the past. I think I kept my composure and delivered the jokes well, but nothing seemed to work. Some of the comics that had already went on were talking pretty loudly and looking back at it I should I took control of it. Oh well, next time. I lasted the ten minutes and got off proud I at least made it. I gave it a C-.

The next few days I reviewed some notes and planned to do some new stuff at Winston's. I got to go up much later this time when I think helped a lot. But the jokes I did I think worked out well and I got back on the right track.

This past Sunday I did a 3 minute set at the Comedy Store. I incorporated some old jokes and reworked them into some new stuff. I really like how it came out, and I think it was one of my better shows.

Now here I am caught up. It's 4:30 am and I'm hoping creating the blog will give me extra motivation to perform. I plan on giving more detailed reactions to each time I perform from now on. I think this will be helpful in inlighting people into the world of comedic open mics.

First few shows

My second ever show, and first one in 4 years was held at Brick by Brick in San Diego. I had ten minutes. I planned what I wanted to do, and recall not being too nervous. A few of my friends came to support and one of them taped it. I need to find a way to upload it.
I gave my overall grade a C+. I stumbled a few times and didn't work on transitions very well but I enjoyed it and wanted to find a way to get on stage again.

I had recently moved to Ocean Beach and heard about a bar called Winston's doing a comedy open mic on Friday's. So I headed down to check it out. I saw another comic that had performed in my first show and he gave me a few pointers. The crowd was pretty small, mostly just other comics.

For those of you that have never performed at an open mic night, consider yourself lucky. I can compare it to appyling for a job in front of the other applicants. No one really wants to hear what you have to say and they are constantly finding ways why they are more qualified for the job. If you can make comics laugh, you're ahead of the game.

I went up 6th, and felt I had a decent set. I took the jokes that worked best from my ten minute earlier set and compacted them into a 3 minute set. A few people said I did well, which was good to hear. Also, I got to talking to one of the comics and he gave me a few other places to perform.

One of the places he told me about was called Mueller college. This was not a show I should have done. I get there and it's all musicians in a classroom. I was going to just leave but I knew I needed to practice. I told him to put me up as early as possible even though there was maybe 8 people there. I tried a few older jokes and then tried a few jokes I had never done before. Nothing seemed to work. That was pretty tramatic.

I took a few weeks off after that event. I tried to go up at Winston's but I was out of town one week and the list was already full the next. I finally went on 11 days later at the Comedy Store in La Jolla. This was another 3 minute set and I did mostly what I did at Winston's. I felt it went pretty well and one of the door people said I did good, which was cool.

Two days later I had my second ten minute Brick by Brick set. I was performing the same night as my former co worker, and a few people from her writing class. I knew the audience was going to be mostly female, so I tried to do jokes they'd like. I had decided to do another ten new minutes, which one of the other comics said was "suicidal." I figured I might as well try it.

It started off a little rocky, but I think it went well overall. Someone's cell phone went off at the punch line of one my jokes, but I played it off and chatted with him a bit. I gave that set a solid B.

First Post

I'll give a little information about my comedy past. I was a huge Seinfeld fan and like millions was sad when the show ended. I got excited when I saw Seinfeld was releasing a stand up special. I really had no idea what stand up was at that time, and was pretty bummed he wasn't doing any of those jokes again.

I watched his special a few times a week and starting carrying around a notebook and jotting down various observations I saw. For awhile I tried putting the observations into longer jokes, but they never worked out as well as I had hoped. I'm trying to think back to my first joke, I think it had to do with how pointless fishing is. Not a bad joke for a 14 year old.

I continued writing but never had an outlet to get on stage. Maine isn't exactly a great place for comedy as we only have one club and they didn't offer open mics. There was an open mic at a club in Boston (about an hour and a half away) but I never had the courage to go on.

Fast forward to March 2005, I tried stand up for the first time at the Comedy Connection in Maine. I entered the Portland's Funniest Professional comedy competition. Not the brightest idea I ever had. The other people that I went on with that night had been doing comedy for at least a year, and were all in the same comedy writing class. Also, I panicked a little before I went on stage and changed everything I planned to do, strike two. My set wasn't very funny, although I did have one solid bit. I obviously did not move on and was a little soured from comedy. I believe my first set consisited of "why are we swimming with the dolphins", "I turn into the kool aid man when I drink", "what is a wuss", and "why are the people in the herpes commercials so happy".

Since my first experience; I graduated college, went on a cross country road trip, lived in Vegas for a month, had a 6 year relationship come to an end, and now I'm settled in San Diego. I always thought about stand up but really curtailed my writing since my first attempt. I still have about 6 notebooks filled with ideas, some funny, some awful.

It took me awhile to find a good job in San Diego, but I finally did after almost a year of living here. And after having that job for a year and a half I got laid off last December. After that happened I made a few trips to Vegas to dabble in poker both online and in casinos. Well I consider myself the unluckiest human alive, teamed up with having the worst temper, poker isn't the game for me.

Alright now back to the comedy. This past April one of my former co workers said she was trying stand for the first time at Brick by Brick in San Diego. She said it was a new club and they were giving new comics a chance to get on. I figured being unemployed and spending all day watching King of the Hill wasn't exactly helping me reach my future goals. So I emailed the comic organizer and got booked for my first show.