The Third Time
April 29, 2012 § 6 Comments
I did standup again. Yes, this goes against my whole “I don’t have the head space to do more than one a month” thing. In all fairness, I signed up to do this a month ago, thinking MORE TIME ON STAGE IS GOOD.
A comic I met my very first time doing standup – Carla “The Truth” Youngblood - asked if I’d be interested in performing in a club downtown. She got my name, number, and email address. When she called me up, she said, “We’re only wanting four or five comics who will do 10-15 minute sets. Can you handle that?”
Up until this past Thursday, I’d only done two 3-5 minute sets, each one ran on the long side. I went over my first time and finished right at five minutes on my second. Add those together and you’ve got 10 minutes.
“SURE,” I said. Comics all over the internets are shaking their heads at the computer screen, shouting, “NO. DON’T DO IT.”
Between last Saturday’s bomb and this past Thursday’s bout, I practiced and practiced Saturday’s material. I only went over the entire 10-15 minutes once to time it, but felt confident.
It was held in this swanky longue, Legend’s Bar right across the street from the Alabama Theater in downtown Birmingham. It was a smaller room, but filled up pretty quickly. This was actually the Legend’s fledging comedy night. “The Truth,” who spearheaded the event, has been doing standup for about a year, knew the owner pretty well, and the rest is history.
The environment and mood were just so different, so much more relaxed. When I got up there, it went great. The crowd was awesome. I felt like I was actually talking to them, having a conversation. When they weren’t laughing, they were nodding their heads in agreement. I definitely want to do it at that venue again (if they’ll have me). ALL the comics were so different and fantastic. The most experienced was Down Town Tony Brown who’d been on BET for a comedy tour.
Something interesting happened that night – I experienced a form of “muscle memory” from my first night’s material. Musicians know what I’m talking about, where you practice a piece of music enough, your fingers remember what to do without even thinking about it. It felt like that. The words came so naturally, without any thought or effort. I was able to focus on feeling comfortable, my expressions, and the performance.
Everyone in the audience came up to us after the show and had great conversations. It was more of a mingling than the Hallway of Glamor and stage. For a fledgling comedy night, all the performers agreed it was amazing and so much fun.
GO TEAM STANDUP!
Way to go for hanging in there and getting right back in the saddle again. You just gotta do a whole bunch of it and encounter every weird kind of room, crowd & situation possible – and you will be able to handle anything and at some point you will just OWN the thing and be yourself no matter what. Worlds. longest.run.on.sentence.
Third time lucky! This is awesome.
Did anyone tape it? I want to see it!!!!
Oh, this is fantastic! I’m so glad you had this experience. And 15 minutes is a good chunk of a set – way to go! That’s a big deal, lady.
Bask in it!!!
XOXO
Anna
I FORGOT TO GO SEE YOU NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Seeeeeee?? Look at you go! Mama proud! RAWR