Open Mic

I have been remiss about blogging since I started doing Open Mics around LA.  I've also been remiss about sleeping, so there's that.

My first open mic was at Sal's Comedy Hole - a newish spot in Hollywood that has been transplanted from its successful roots in New York.  It's rapidly becoming my favorite non-Store place to catch a show and it's definitely my favorite open mic so far.  The vibe is fantastic - kind of like the Store - it's role as creative incubator trumps being an uptight place of business.  But Sal's gives its performers even more free range and, since it's new, hasn't yet been bogged down by politics and tradition.


Anyway, it was a weird sort of place to start because, depending on the week and the number of folks who show up, you get anywhere from 4-7 minutes (instead of the more standard 3).  I didn't want anyone I knew (except my open mic buddy Jay) to be there, but it turned out my good friend Gail was the host.  That made me both horrendously nervous and a  little bit more at ease.  What I've discovered is that these open mics are mostly a bunch of other open mic-ers for the audience, maybe only half paying attention to you.  That was the case my first time, though there were actually a fair number of folks in the room when I went up.  I did six minutes of stuff that I'd been working on for about a week, mostly pretty raunchy stuff and got one real laugh and a couple of chuckles.  It was AWESOME.  I've never done heroin, but I'm pretty sure that feeling was better.

In the week since then, I've done about half a dozen more open mics, ranging from a tiny cramped room at Sunset Grill to Monday Potluck at The Comedy Store.  And holy cow was The Comedy Store the worst.  When I was first talked into doing standup, people said I should do the Store and my response was "No way, that's like doing porn in front of my dad."  But after 4 other open mics elsewhere, I knew I had to face my fears sooner or later.

It was a surreal experience, kind of like if your mom is a teacher and you get assigned to her class.  You remember being 8 years old, having the privileged access of spinning around on her big chair and drawing on the chalkboard, but now you have to go sit at the tiny student desk just like everyone else.  And knowing that my friends were going to see me and judge me was far more nerve-wracking than I ever could have imagined.  The cherry on top of this stress sundae was the fact that there are actual audience members.  Tourists who came in and bought a ticket and were so excited to see big time comics at the World Famous Comedy Store and are stuck watching an hour of sweaty, nervous un-funny idiots like me, before they get an hour of slightly more seasoned "Friends and Family" and then finally the real comics.  I don't think they laughed once the first hour.  It was awful.  I did something (clean) that I'd only been thinking about for about a day and it wasn't really tight.  But I got through it and every time I go up, I at least get the compliment "You looked really comfortable on stage" or "You didn't look nervous at all" which is really all I can ask for at this point.

And I've really enjoyed the experience of doing all these open mics.  You end up seeing the same people over and over and, besides coalescing into little friend groups, it lets the comedy nerd in me watch people develop their acts.  I really am kind of aspergers about comedy, I've come to realize.  I'll notice really subtle differences, just like a longer lead-in or an extra tag that make all the difference in the world to whether something is good, bad or awesome.

The other fascinating thing is that in only 10 days of doing standup, I think I have experienced mild forms of every single issue I've ever heard about that women face in the boys club of comedy.  I've been told that I shouldn't do so many blow job jokes or I'll just blend into the sea of "all those other female comics" (I asked my favorite male dirty comic if he agreed with this assessment and he pretty much said, yeah, as a woman, I need to have a lot of non-dirty stuff to start with and can really only sprinkle in the dirtier bits), I've been specifically pointed out as "a female comic" and "not bad to look at" in intros, and someone actually had the gall to ask me "so who writes your material?" (Though I guess that's kind of a compliment, albeit backhanded).  On the other hand, I know I've gotten some preferential treatment, I think people are much gentler on me knowing I'm new than they would be to a guy and I am fully cognizant that the fact that I am a female who is not bad to look at gives me much more access to solicit advice and talk shop with successful guys who have been doing this for years.

So, yeah, I'm addicted, I'm giving it a month or two of going up as often as work will allow and then I'll see if I need to revise my idea that I am the latter of "Those who can, do - those who can't, blog"