Time to recap

Well I've been ignoring the blog for reasons I can't really explain. Been focusing on girlfriend and poker. But, I've had more than enough time to write the blog. As far as what has happened. I was passed at the Comedy Store in the middle of November. It is a cool thing as I'm only the 3rd person that has been passed since I started. The other two had been doing comedy longer than me, but both were influential to my start.
I've been going last on the Sunday nights at the Comedy Store. For the most part the crowd is pretty small by the time I get up, but they listen. Not the easiest sell but I can't complain. I did a really good show there at the beginning of the month. I even had a seasoned comic talk to me after. She has a few big credits and travels doing comedy. Although she was slightly drunk, even admitting the fact. She asked me if I had an agent. That I had a "look for comedy" and that she doesn't say that to many people. I felt pretty flattered. I'm still contemplating my plans for present and future with comedy.
I was approached about working at the Comedy Store a few weeks ago. I wasn't overly excited, but if I was going to be there, might as well make a few extra bucks. Well I followed up last week, and they ended up hiring someone else. And although this comic is a nice guy, and solid comic, he's been doing comedy years less than me. I've been passed a few times already, but I haven't really been proactive about working there. People are telling me it's likely for the best I don't work there, but it would be nice to add that "credit." I'm just going to keep plugging away and make my way up being funny.
Craziest story of the last few months happened at the Comedy Palace. A place I never really enjoy performing at, and the place I failed to place in the finals. And got knocked out in the first round of the next contest. Anyways, the week before I got a text from a number I was unaware of. I had a feeling who it was but wasn't positive. My speculations were correct. He is a guy I had messaged a year ago about getting spots at the Palace. I was referred by a couple comic friends. Didn't hear back for a year, then bang, offered a weekend of shows. I declined Friday, but took Thursday and 2 shows Saturday. I get there to a decent sized crowd. The comic that opened the show was a local guy, that mainly only does crowd wor. I don't agree with this style, esp to open a show and with a crowd that is listening. It ruins the flow of the show, and the crowd expects everyone to do that. He was doing his normal schtick, but it was not going too well. Anyways I see the headliner light him, which I learn later was an early light. I hear them converse and the headliner basically says, "I do crowd work, so you can't." Local comic says I didn't know that, you should have told me. It was a nice enough encounter. I saw I was suppose to do 7, but the headliner came up to me right before and told me to do 10. I asked if there was a light, and he said "You're a professional, you'll get it." Ok then. I struggled off the bat, and once again had a rough set. The rest of the comics on there did mindless, hacky jokes. Which of course the moronic, older crowd ate up. There was even a table of 50 somethings holding up cards, ranking comics 6,7,8,9, etc. I was told only one woman scored me a "6." Oh well. I stayed for the whole show to watch 2 of the worst comics I've ever witnessed. One was a buff former Marine that unveiled a Charlie Sheen shirt as a punch line and talked about "recent" (things happened sometime in the last year) events. The headliner did hacky, rehearsed crowd work, about blacks, asians, mexicans, etc.
Fast forward to Saturday shows. I find out I'm only doing 5 minutes. I actually had a pretty good set. I was just going to leave but figured I'd do the professional thing and stick around. Anyways at 915 the crappy marine comic, who've I've never spoke to came up to me and another comic on the show and said we were not on the 9 show. I was like WTF, why did I stay all this time. He said he apologized but management told him their was too many comics on, BS. He even said he offered to cut his time back, BS. I once again asked why someone couldn't have told us that 2 hours again. I said whatever and went to talk to the headliner. He was sitting with his family, yeah kids and whatnot. I forgot there were kids 8 and under running around, legal I bet. Anyways I ask if I could speak to him a moment so we weren't in front of family. I ask him why I couldn't have been told 2 hours ago. He says he's a headliner and doesn't need to talk to anyone. Ha, excuse me. Then he goes into I brought no one to the show on Thursday. He said the guy that texting me said I was bringing 30 or so. I told him I've never met texter, and that I'm a comedian not a bringer. I once again say why couldn't you have told me two hours ago and walk away. I start talking to the owner near the ticket booth, and the headliner runs over and starts yelling, "don't talk shit about me." I say I'm not. At this point the local comic he called out for doing crowd work gets in his face, saying he was tired of being treated like shit all weekend. They exchange words then the headliner tells us to take it outside so he could knock us out. The owner takes him outside. I walk around a bit, then tell the headliner, who at this point is hyperventilating. I say no hard feelings, just wanted to know sooner and not have my time wasted. His gf comes out to check on him. I just walk away.
I hear about the local comic called him out some more after I left. I see said local comic the next night at Von's. He tells me that after they went back and forth telling each other they wouldn't perform if the other was on the show. Anyways as local comic was walking away the headliner tracked him down and said, "I really respect you. You got a lot of balls, no one has stood up to me before. I want to take you on tour with me. When I saw you Thursday I was seeing a young me. I shouldn't have taken your buddy off the show." It's so crazy how much he flipped his story. Me and said local comic I wouldn't say are great friends, and I think he was handed a lot of things. I gained respect for him after that, and wish him the best. He is making the move to L.A. shortly. I think for him it isn't the right move. He gets so much prime stage time, and never really uses it to work on jokes. He does so much crowd work, that I believe he will come into the same problem he faced with the L.A. headliner. It throws off the flow of a show to open with crowd work. Hopefully it works out.
Winston's has been hit or miss. The finals of the latest contest was probably the best show I've seen since I took over. Over 100 people paid, on top of 40 or so comics there. Everyone did well, and the winner definitely deserved it. The Friday shows have been somewhat slow, but that could be due to the holidays. I'm looking forward to the shows in January. As far as the contest. We will be moving to Wednesdays starting next week. I think it could be a good thing with the street fair going on at the same time. I think parking may be a problem, but people arn't going to drive down there and just leave. I've been performing a lot more on the Friday shows which is always a struggle but it's good to challenge myself.
That's it for now. I will try to get back to a show by show recap or at least a weekly recap.