Winston's empty and full...

Well didn't have any weekday shows for the first time in awhile. Winston's was the most dead I've ever seen it. It was a polar opposite of last week. There was no one there, but they were all listening. It would have been nice if they all sat together in the front. That way I could at least hear or see laughs. I voiced out some new jokes, some eh, some are good ideas but no real joke in it. We hung out for a little bit after and went home, as I started work at 4 frickin AM that day.

Last night was a special Winston's show. I wasn't sure how the turn out would be. When I got there it was pretty dead. I was expecting it to stay that way. But by the time the show started there was over 100 people. I brought a date, first date, who claimed she rarely laughs. Great idea Jeff.... Even on the meal before she didn't laugh much. I don't laugh often so I can't really complain. But it's weird, I always make girls laugh. That's all I have.. She left after my set, so who knows what that means. But can I really date someone that doesn't laugh?

Anyways, the set was eh. Went up second. Started off good. Then seemed a bunch of people walked in and were talking. Not sure if it was cause the jokes were subpar or they were saying their hello's. After a slight lull I got into my "dirty" jokes and ended pretty strong. I had the roomie do the protegie thing. It was probably a bad idea to try as they were a bar crowd, and it went over most of their heads.

I felt decent about the set. It's tough to gauge at Winston's as it's not made for comedy. The laughs don't resinate to the stage. I knew I had to go dirty, but wanted to win them over with some smart stuff. I just need to realize that bar crowds want dick jokes. My job is to be funny in every environment, gotta swallow the pride and do it. I wasn't expecting much when I got offstage but I got at least 10 people to say I did well. One black guy said I was a natural, and had a look for comedy.. Even some gals, which is cool. I went to the standard let me add you on facebook. She was pretty, but a little stuck up. Not sure if it was the sauce, but she was fiesty. I'll add her, see if anything comes from it. No reason to not pursue all angles.

I chatted with one of the gals on the show. She is dang pretty. She's on the radio and has the ability to bring a good amount of people. She was pretty drunk which was amusing, but she had some nice words.

Weekend filled with jokes, and ends with :(

Had shows Thursday, Friday, and two last night. They were varying styles, audience members, and jokes. I'd say they all were somewhat successful. Thursday I did a bar show in OB. Before I swung by the Comedy Store to watch Rod Piper but we had to leave before he went on stage. The dude before him ran the light by at least ten minutes. At first I thought he was really funny, but after awhile it got a little redundant. He did a lot of jokes about being a kid. And while they were funny, and delivered with a lot of energy, I kind of got tired of hearing it. He definately was funny and the crowd loved him, just as a comic I was like "Wow this is the same joke." I guess when you have 45 minutes you need to stretch at times, but this was too much. Rod did buy like 15 pizzas for the crowd which was pretty cool, sadly my tubby body didn't get to have any.

Anyways we headed over to the OB show. There was about a crowd of maybe 10 scattered people. We were told a 930 start so we rushed, but when we arrived they were starting at 10. No biggie, just wish I would have known so I could have seen Mr. Piper. We did get a couple drink tickets so that was nice. I got up there and basically toyed around with the audience and the stage and whatnot. I'm not sure if I should be using these opportunities to voice out jokes and gauge other comics reactions. I used to do that at Brick by Brick, and that helped me develope material quickly. I just can it in so often that I never get to try out these countless new jokes I've been working on. I think I did well and got a good amount of laughs considering.

Friday was Winston's. I hosted. The headliner was originally from OB but lives in Boston now. He brought a majority of the crowd, which ended up being pretty large. Sadly they didn't really give anyone a chance other than him. That happens so much at Winston's lately. It's frustrating, but scattered laugh is better than none. I tried some jokes, but nothing seemed to work. Did have a couple audience members aknowledge the tough environment and thought I did well, considering. I had to ask the bouncer to throw someone out for the first time since I took over, and basically only the 2 or 3rd time I've seen someone thrown out of a show I did. I tried to ask the guy to stop and he just yelled, "Screw you, I'm just having fun. I'm part of the show" Ummm ok. He just kept yelling random crap. I guess he used to donate some tricked out scateboard to the show. I remember them. They did look cool, but no one ever bought tickets anyways. People are weird.

Last night I had a show at UCSD. A comic kind of asked me to do it when I did a show with him last week or so. He kind of played it off like it wasn't a big thing. He said I could do 5 minutes or so early in the show. The place was called Porter's Pub. Going in I wasn't expecting much. Plus I drove around the campus for about 20 minutes and was getting a little frustrated. Finally I called the guy and located the spot. I walk in and it looked like the college bar show we did in NH. Kinda crazy they paid us money for that show. I talked to one of the comics and he said the show was in the other room. It ended up having a big stage and seats and whatnot. They even charged people to get in. I would have set up the room a little better but they was a pretty good turnout. The ceilings were pretty high so the laughs to resinate that much on the stage but I got some solid laughs. Did mostly pre Winston's headline, but I did 10 plus minutes with no set list. I could do at least 20 at this point with no set list so I guess that's growth.

The final show was at Blarney. There was a good amount of people there. They weren't really paying much attention to the comics and just talking and drinking. The gal I used to date was there. What I thought was luckily ended up being sad that she left before I went up. I ended up doing all crowd work, but think it went really well. Only 2 or 3 of the things I said didn't get big laughs. Kinda funny that there is starting to be some regular audience members. There's one dude thats been there 3 straight weeks and he's always complimenting me. Somewhat feels like a fan. I still haven't been noticed off stage but I imagine it'll happen. I did get somewhat pressured to give another headlining spot to a comic I don't care much for personally. I guess I have to be a professional and be a team player. I just didn't like his attitude after the last show. Also giving a guy like that a headlining spot does absolutely nothing for the show or me. May sound selfish, but why book a show if I'm not going to get anything from it.

Life stuff. Grandpa died today. Luckily I have no shows this week. I was at work and saw I had a missed call from my Dad. I think I spoke about it before, but one thing about getting older is that anytime I get a call from my Dad it's more than likely going to be bad news. I called him back and of course grandpa passed away. I didn't know how to react or what to say. I just said I'd call him back. I told my friend at work and let my boss know I was going to head home. I know I almost flip out on customers on a normal day, no sence being there dealing with the crap. I remember when my dad called me to tell me my aunt died. I don't know how to deal with serious things. Am I suppose to cry, yell. I joke around 99% of the time, I'm simply not good at being serious. I don't think I'm going home for the funeral. I haven't seen my grandpa in around 3 years, and even then was very brief. I don't really need my last memory to see him dead. I realize everyone dies, but I'd prefer not seeing it. I don't want my family to be upset I don't go. But that's not really a good reason to fly across the country. I wasn't really that close to him. He used to crack jokes and be the funny grandpa but after my grandma died he changed a lot. Somewhat negative and not a real treat to be around. I'll probably regret not going someday, but right now I have to do what's best for me.

Logical questioning

Had a couple shows at the Palace the last 2 nights. First was the open mic. It's kind of a cluster f word. Lotta a random lonely comics. It's kinda a free for all. They have a regular list, then an alternates list. I normally don't even bother signing up for the regular list as the host lets me and many others just pop in. This week I was on the regular list towards the bottom. I checked in with the host who was just filling in. He said, "you want to go up sooner." Sure. Can't complain with getting special treatment, but can't say I totally agree with it. I gave the guy that makes the list some suggestions on how to improve the show. Didn't seem like he was going to implement them. Can't really blame him, he does all this work for the Palace and gets little in return. My set went ok. I worked for 45 minutes on one 3 minute joke at the gym before heading over there. I tried it out and it went ok. I got booed for one horse joke I made. That's kinda funny, that she was offended by a joke.

Last night I was at the Palace again for a show that called itself Uncensored comedy. They brought in a comic from L.A. is quite blue and perverted. I watched a video he had from the Montreal Comedy Festival. Not my style of comedy. I guess I don't understand why a groin makes for a good joke. I can go up there and talk about banging midgets and putting my balls on babies heads. Is that really comedy. My set was somewhat dreadful. Had some friends there. They were sat right in the front row and weren't happy about it. I told them it would be fine if they move. The door guy made them go back to the front!? They were also charged 3.75 for a water. My first joke was questioned as some guys said they wouldnt turn their friends in for $1 million. SO rediculous for people to honestly say that. Even my solid jokes weren't recieved that well.

The crowd loved dumb jokes about boobs, being asian, black, and having std's. Shows like that make me question if I'll ever make it in comedy. I don't want to yell, jump around, and talk about the struggle of being white. These 2 guys at the palace do the same god damn hacky minority jokes every time they get on stage and crowds eat the shit up. It's so depressing. Oh you like boobs, who the fuck doesn't. Oh you shouldn't say the n word around your black friend, no shit. Audience wake up, you could write that joke. Awful.

Also this week the Rockstar comedy competition concluded. And while I believe once again the funniest person won I don't trust the results. In the finals last time, I think the funniest guy won, but he didn't have the greatest set that night and he didn't bring that many audience members. I wasn't at this last one but I know the guy that came in second brought a lot of people and had a good set. The guy that won had maybe 7 people in the audience. The results are suppose to be 75% crowd and 25% judges vote. I know in the last one neither judge voted for me. And I finished 5th. I didn't have my best set but I did have 25 plus people there. I really question this result. With first place votes being 6 points, and one guy bringing probably half the crowd I don't know how mathmatically he doesn't win. Maybe his friends didn't vote him first, but honestly, how does a guy with 7 people win. I realize the winner really gets nothing, other than the title, and $1000 but it is a cool title. These contests are cheap ploys to make the club money on what would normally be an off night, but this result just makes me wonder.

Am I jealous?

Had a few somewhat pressure filled shows the last couple days. Friday at Winston's I had a cute co worker there. The show was running long. The host let one of the comics do at least 12 minutes, 4 minutes more than he was suppose to. Also, the first 10 people or so did a minute more than I had alloted them. Even though I wasn't hosting nor should I really care, when the show isn't running on time it stresses me out. The guy that did 12 plus minutes is a real pain, and is suppose to leave S.D. next month and that will be more than awesome. I'm not sure what is exactly wrong with him, but he has no social graces. He made some comment on the OBC wall about me being a rising star with one of the oldest comics we have. He also commented on the hosts page about how great he did and how he should do it every week. Hmmmm I wonder if that's because he let you do more time than the headliners and other people that help promote the show. I understand he was doing ok, but at the same time he bombs often should we cut him short then? He'll still do 8 minutes whether people are walking out or laughing.

Anyways my set went ok. Nothing great. Did slight crowd work, but mostly jokes. Some hit, some not so much. It's tough to be funny when I'm thinking about the show running long and impressing people that had never seen me before. I've been trying to work on the new jokes I've been writing but never seem to get them out, oh well.

Last night I had a couple shows. One was downtown. I was going in thinking it was gonna be pretty awful, as I normally do. I got there and was somewhat surprised as there were people. Comedy followed music which is never an easy transition. I went up 3rd. I opened with some jokes I haven't done in awhile. Clean for the most part. I've been doing different jokes since Thursday. I planned to just do jokes, I was purposely looking over the audience to not make eye contact and want to interact. Then a gal said something, and it was go time. Last half was a mixture of jokes and chatting. One gal kept chiming in and actually ruined a few of my jokes. I couldn't finish them. It's tough playing off rambling and inaudiable barking. I tried to shut her up, but she kept talking. I did a few jokes, got the light, and got off. I headed out the back after my set, as I hate having to immediately walk through the crowd after I get off stage. It's just weird to walk through people somewhat hoping they'll say something but knowing normally they won't. I waited upstairs for about 10 minutes then walked through to one good joke from another comic. Oh well...

After that I headed over to the Blarney Stone. I wasn't sure how it was going to be as there was a meeting at Home Depot until 10. People know I am there, but I don't really advertise people to come. A few people came, mostly people I don't speak to. Most of them left before I went on stage, but 2 stayed. Both my immediate supervisors, and female. I would have preferred them to have left and even made up some story to try to get them to leave. I got up there and told some jokes and talked to some people. It was subpar, nothing great. Would have liked them to see me for the first time at an actual show or basically anywhere but there. Oh well. I did kind of flirt with a gal on stage, and wrote down my info on a piece of paper and called it my "card." I got a text quickly after, which ended up being her friend telling me off. I assumed she was kidding. Later I got a text from the gal. Ended up with her saying she just wants friends, blah blah. Least I tried.

Well the headline. There is a comic that is sweeping the S.D. scene. Every comic is raving about him and putting him on all the shows. He'll more than likely when the competition tonight. He's a nice guy, and I was drawn to him from the start. Mostly because he told off another comic via email, and I can always respect honesty. Well I feel like all of his jokes are just everyday thoughts yelled via a joke. One of his jokes I thought would make a sketch many months ago. He is basically just yelling white stereotypes. Maybe that is what comedy is all about. Audiences love asian and black comics because of their high energy. Maybe I need to ignore the words and work more on physical movements. Who knows? I hope I'm questioning his success because of the quality of his jokes, not because he has moved past me.

It's 6:45 why am I awake?

So like I've talked about I've cut down on drinking, mostly just elimatinated my nightly intake of vodka. One of the main reasons I drink is I can't sleep otherwise. I wake up every 30 minutes and wake up very early. My mind is very active and always thinking. I also have a lot of dreams. Many times I dream about my ex. Yes I realize it's been 4 years and she's married to another dude, they may even have a kid I hear. So messed up that I can't move on. Even gals I've dated in S.D. only one or two I hung out with I didn't get drunk every meeting we had. I don't know why it's so hard to find someone I like. I don't persue women, or dress nice, but you'd figure I'd get lucky and meet someone by now. It's tough to meet women as all I do is comedy, most of my friends are comedians, and most of them are single, whatever.

Comedy was busy this week. Did a show Monday at the Lestat's open mic. It's a weird show as it's mostly music and the crowd isn't really pro comedy. First off all the musicians get 10 minutes, and comics only get 5. It's also a clean show. And although I wouldn't consider myself a clean comic, I do drop some swear words and discuss adult relations on occasion. I struggled through the set, got heckled by a 13 year old, and worked out some new jokes. It wasn't good by any means, but it makes me stronger.

Next up was a hosting gig Wednesday at the Palace. Kind of a weird spot as I asked to get on the show. I was half kidding, half saying "Why wasn't I asked to be on this show." The promoter asked if I wanted to host and figured why not. Kinda funny as I was later asked if I wanted to be on the back end of the show. Random as it was the first time I'd been asked in like 3 months. Dang my luck. Anyways the crowd was pretty wild. They didn't want to think and wanted to be apart of the show. I imagine most of them had never been to a comeedy show and just wanted to laugh at fart and dick jokes. Some of the comics did well, others struggled. As a host I got few laughs but I did manage to get some. I wanted to try some jokes but it wasn't a good night for that. We paid a few bucks in tips and that's cool.

Now onto last night. Rowdy crowd. I got on at the Comedy Store on part of a show where the comics bring a party bus. Good on the service but many of the people never have been to a comedy show. I was outside talking with a couple guys and they said they were just hanging out at the bar the bus was leaving from and thought, "Sure well go." They had never been to a comedy show nor really had a clue where it was going. So when I went up there was a lot of talking. Well first the guy before me tried to bring back the host who was too busy hugging babies and shooting a rap video and never returned. Plus the mic stand was broken. So then comics start yelling, "Just bring Jeff up." Sweet easy transition. So I get up there and all I can hear is people talking. I feel like I'm yelling. I was a little stressed before the show because I wanted to do a somewhat clean set because I was recording it. I am in talks with my college to try to do a show next semester. I would feel much better giving them a tape that didn't just talk about sex and whatnot. This crowd would not be receptive to that so I had to essentially be a monkey, let the crowd pull my string, and tell the jokes, clapping my hands and dying inside. I would say I brought the crowd around and by the end heard little to no chatter, but can't say I was happy about it. Basically all the jokes I did I wrote last year, most of them I performed in the half hour I headlined last year. That's pretty deflating. I mess around so much on stage now that I don't work on my jokes like I used to. I'm not comfortable telling a lot of my jokes as some of them I've only told a few times. And with my stumbling problem, I need to stick to jokes I know I can deliver freely. Oh well. I got laughs in a tough environment, whether or not it's a good thing who knows.

Why are you doing comedy?

So I've been off work the last 4 days, and I'm not playing poker so that leaves me a lot of time to do nothing. I have no real hobbies, so my days off include searching the internet, mostly facebook and my email. Most of my time is spent on facebook looking at people's pages thinking, "Why the f am I looking at this person's page?" Why am I even "friend's" with this person? I often leave sarcastic comments on people's pages. But I look around at some of these crazies posts. Either just insane, sad, or why are you putting this for the public to see? This may sound cocky, but I just have no clue why some people do comedy. Really why are you wasting everyone's time? So annoying. I want to sleep in a hole when I have a bad set. I can't imagine doing it night in and night out. The worst is seeing comics do the same jokes over and over again that never work. I've done so many jokes just once. Some I'm not even sure if they are good or not, cause I tried them at a shaddy open mic. I've recently retried some jokes, and some went over well. I have so many jokes, but always seem to stay with the same 20 or so minutes. Enough about me, let's stick to the point. Comedy is filled with crazy people.

I did a couple open mics last night. First was comedy store. I spent the afternoon watching football and drinking beer. I took a nap and headed over to the store. There was a good amount of people in the crowd but they weren't a big laughing crowd persay. I worked on some new jokes, and did so so. Nothing great. I did notice I saw the light go on which seemed pretty early, then go off, and then got lit again. My roomie claimed other comics thought I got more time. I doubt I got much more than 3 minutes but who knows.

After that I headed to the Blarney Stone. There was also a good amount of people there. Never an easy crowd. The first few people struggled but I think I did ok for Blarney anways. I recognized the people from last week that said I did good while I was up there. He said something like "I enjoy watching you up there." That was cool. I did a combo of jokes and crowd stuff again. I was actually somewhat enjoying myself and made it to the light.

Hey guys I'm trying to be funny

So did a show near L.A. on Friday. Was fun other than the part where I had to tell jokes. Went up with some friends and hung out before the show. There was a lot of adult beverages at the place. I didn't want to drink much before as it was a late start, 10 PM. Plus I was going up second to last meaning I won't be going up until 11 or so. I didn't want to be drunk or tired so I had a beer or two.

The show was kind of weird because for the most part the audeince were people coming from the party. Most of them were rich kids, too cool to laugh. Mostly a stuck up crowd, not the usual comedy crowd. A lot of them were friends with one of the comics and didn't really even laugh that much for him. They were just plain disrespectful to be honest. There was a bar, but the spot where the comedy was going off was a closed off room. But the people still stayed in the comedy area and talked. I realize not everyone understands how a comedy show works but honestly just go in the other room.

I had to go up after an unplanned intermission. Right before I was about to be brought up the dj goes "hey I gotta change the tape, give me 5 minutes." Ahhh ok. So I tell the crowd to use the restroom and return. Intermissions are never easy, and with this crowd I knew it would be terrible. The guy that brought me up tried to shhh the crowd with no luck. Then another guy came up and attempted to silence them. It worked somewhat but throughout my set I just heard talking and little laughter. I didn't feel miserable, but definately not a great set. Fart and sex jokes would do great on a crowd like that. For a crowd made up of a lot of teachers they didn't care much for intellectual jokes.

The headliner did pretty well. Hes high energy and does a lot of body movements. I've seen him a few times and didn't think he was anything amazing. But I think he did pretty well that night. He is a little older and think he may just be getting back into comedy. He might have been a little rusty. I spoke to him after about comedy and whatnot. He was pretty nice and supportive of me. He said like I've been hearing lately "What are you doing here?" L.A. and New York is where to be. I'm thinking a lot now that New York is an option for next summer. Definately need to quit drinking soon or at least curb it and start really putting my efforts into making comedy into something more than a hobby.

I'm always tired....

So I did a couple shows this week. One was a pop in at the Comedy Palace open mic. There was a decent amount of people in the crowd for a random Tuesday. They were listening and laughing with the good jokes. I have been writing a lot of new jokes lately. I'd imagine it has to do with the elimination of vodka in my diet. But with little drinking means very little sleep. I have been having a few beers or whatever but I still wake up around 7 or 8 AM and can't fall back asleep. It's no fun.

Tuesday I tried all new jokes. Still struggling through making them funny and comfortable. It's weird when I first started I'd write and write a new joke. One joke to turn into 3 or 4. I haven't done much of that style lately. Mostly I just think of an idea and work it out on stage. I have a lot of shows coming up in the near future and want to try to polish these. For the most part I'm only going to be doing 10 minutes at the most but I'd like to be comfortable to do 30 without the aid of a set list.

And then there's Wednesday's show. I am always happy when anyone asks me to do a show. In this case I should have said thanks but no thanks. The good I did get 3 free drinks and $5. It's not much, but it's nice to get a little something for my time. Anyways I get there and see it's a tiny stage, ok, but there's a pool table right out front of the stage. There are no chairs, just a few stools to the right and left. Most of the people were sitting in the back where the bar was and had no interest in standing to watch comics they've never heard of. I came into the show somewhat bitter and took full advantage of the free drinks and got a couple of the biggest beers they offered. I was suppose to go 3rd but got bumped all the way down to second to last. Ok, but with the combination of having an angry buzz and a crowd of 0.0 people that weren't comics I wasn't pleased to struggle through a set. I mumbled a bit, tried a set up, got no response, complained a bit, did one joke, and got off. I felt kind of like a douchey comic but honestly I'm tired of all these comics trying to do their own rooms and thinking it's easy. You can't just show up and have a comedy show. Everyone wants more stage time but really what is happening is the scene is getting flooded with crappy rooms, that there are few good spots.

I want to create a comics convention where we meet and try to get some kind of control. We are the ones that are providing a service to these bars and getting nothing out of it. It's so competitive in the scene that it makes it impossible to make it. I find myself struggling to continue to make Winston's a success as there just are so many random shows out there. I ask one person to be on, and they have a show somehwere else. None of these places can sustained business without a crowd. I'd imagine the bar Wednesday lost money as the booker gave 2 drink tickets to every one of the 8 or so comics, plus paid us $5 each. No one was at the bar to see the show. They basically gave away money. More power to the comics, but honestly what's the point. They should say watch a comedy show, free drink for every comic you watch.

Death one card at a time....

So it's official I need to quit poker or I will certainly die young. I can honestly say either those sites are rigged or I am the unluckiest human on earth. Yesterday I played very well and made a decent amount of money. Today I played moderately well, and lost over and over and over again with the second best full house. It's pretty scary to be honest. So depressing. Just stare at the screen thinking, "Why me?" I could understand if I played bad or was drunk, but at this point that's not the case. I simply am an unlucky person. As I've spoke about I'm not a spiritual person, maybe this is what I get. But at the same time this has to be it. I need to come to the realization that no matter how much poker knowledge I have, no matter how many times I can get it in with the best hand, I will lose. It's demoralizing to think I am doomed to be miserable if I continue to play poker. I must stop, it will be my downfall if I continue. I wish I never learned how to play poker. Maybe like blackjack I've hit the wall. Maybe I can not win again. Someone is trying to tell me to stop. Hello L.A., as much as I hate you looks like I'll be seeing you soon.

Did the block party show on Saturday. It was raining in the morning and I was worried it would continue. Fortunately the rain went away. We headed over there and it looked pretty interesting. I checked in to see when I'll be performing. Seemed no one really knew. I was told I may go up sooner. I was open as I knew it was going to be brutal either way. I drank some beer and chatted it up with my friends, listened to the rappers. My friend was also suppose to go up but he backed out. He has funny jokes, but doesn't really interact with the crowd much and often gets nervous. I understand, I just like doing random gigs and testing myself. I ended up going after some rappers. I'd say I did ok. Just basically chatted with people, and then some old guy came walking by and he was interesting.

Last night I went to Blarney. There was a good amount of people there but most of them were not interested in hearing comics speak. I chatted with the crowd. Still not sure if that's ok to do at the show, but even when I tried to do jokes I got nothing out of it. Someone who I did talk to throughout the show said I was funny, so that's a plus. I brought a guy on stage and he spoke a bit, that's always entertaining.