And boom goes the dynamite...

Whoa there was a lot of people at Winston's on Friday. There was 98 paying customers, plus 35 or so comics that were there. So over 125 people is pretty crazy. What sucked is barely any of them were enjoying the show, or even listening. Everyone thinks the later spots are better but that is not always the case. The show is long, getting a spot in the middle is much easier. The people I put at the end need to be able to adjust on the fly and work the crowd a little more. That isn't for everyone.

Anyways my set was subpar, can't be mad at myself. They were simply a sigh crowd. Even some of my best jokes that work almost all the time, drew "oh's" and awkward silence. There was a douche selling nachos that the whole crowd loved. He yelled out was of my buds punchlines and when the comic went back at him, the crowd all took the nachos man side. Silly silly Winston's crowd. I've been getting a lot of people to the shows with adding a lot of promoters, but I feel many of the audience members never have been to a show at a comedy club and don't realize it's ok to laugh.

My small take on promoting. I had two headliners this week, one dude brought a good amount of people and the other brought basically none. I was kind of shocked about this, as I figured it meant a little bit to her to headline. She said there was a family emergency which I understand, but to bring no one when you're on the poster is depressing. The reason I switched the format to local, not really headline people, is I figured they'd be happy to headline. They'd want to see them do more time, and make more money. Promoting is a bitch I know. But Winston's is one of the only places in town that comics have a chance to make some money. I'm noticing that some comics are saying yes to doing every show, and not looking at their calendars. You can't promote too many shows at once people. I try to limit myself to one promoted show a month. There are some people that have crazy promoting skills, but for the most part most of us can't consistently bring large amounts of people.

Promoting is a lot like being a salesman. But unlike being a salesman you can't really show off your product. 9 out of 10 times when I tell people to come to my shows they either say, "You're a comic, I've never heard you say anything funny," or "You're a comic, tell me a joke." No, comedy just doesn't work that way. If a doctor introduced himself to me I wouldnt ask him to perform surgury on me. Just check out the show, what the hell else are you gonna do? It does get draining. There is talk there is another club that is going to reopen. Now it sounds like a good idea, but I imagine the collective comic community is tired of promoting, esp. for free. At some point these clubs are going to have to kick us a few bucks. I don't care if it's 20$. I realize there will always be a schmuck that will tell jokes for free and keep bringing people. But I think there is going to continue to be comics that are going to try to organize there own shows. Whether they last or not is unknown. While laughter may be the best medicine, money still pays the bills.