Holy Shit! You're Reading This!

People are actually reading this! And not just my Mom. My sister too!

It's almost like there are these people in the world who, somehow, I don't know, maybe ... share my blood or something? ... I know that sounds freaky ... and therefore are interested in what I write. I wonder how this weird, almost biological connection came to be. I'll have to research this strange psychic phenomenon.

I went to an open-mic tonite (more in a moment), had dinner with my good buddy Murray came home and there were 11 comments and messages waiting.

Thanks for the comments, everyone. And I'm glad to hear that so many of you are making backups.

So since I said this would be a creative journal, here are some thoughts about tonite's show.

I morn the death of the Tuesday Motel at the Village Lantern. Even though I haven't been there in a while, Matt O'Brien ran such a great, friendly, supportive room that when it closed recently I was quite sad. I cut my teeth on open-mics there.

So having some regular gigs and some polished material these days, I haven't done an open-mic in a while. To be honest, I'd gotten kinda sick of them.

Murray said he wanted to see me perform and he was only in town tonite. So, not having a gig tonite, it had to be an open-mic. Danielle, the lovely woman who runs the Stand-Up NY open-mic, had invited me to do her room, so I decided to give it a try.

Doing this show tonite reminded me of the things I actually like about open mics.

At a regular show, I feel I owe the club and the audience, a certain minimum performance. Sure, I can be spontaneous and I can try new stuff. I do at every show. But the bulk of my set at a regular gig is going to be proven material.

At an open mic, I don't owe anyone anything. So I can do whatever I want. I had three new bits, about 6 minutes of all new material, I've really been wanting to try out. It would have taken me three shows to try out these three bits. But at the open mic, I was able to find out what works and what doesn't very quickly. I came away with a very useful recording (I record everything) and ideas about how I'm going to edit this raw material.

My coaches Dan, Jim, Frank (love you guys) have all taught me to learn something from every performance.

So here's tonite's lesson. In addition to learning some specific things about this specific material, I am reminded that it is occasionally a good thing for a comic to drop into an open mic every now and then, even when he doesn't have to.