My friend asked me to do a set before the launching of a webseries he was working on. Challenge accepted. The day before the event I went to a premiere party of another webseries starring Aasif Mandiv with a pro comedian doing a set to kick off the festivities. This premiere party was a parallel event except their webseries was of the Madison Avenue tier and mine was more 2nd avenue, a respectable avenue mind you- in fact that’s the avenue where I grew up! Let’s just say I was nervous for my gig. I also respect my friend who booked me and I wanted to do well for him.
I had a set right before the web-series gig which only went so-so. The benefit of it was I heard which jokes didn’t land ie: “I recently got offered a job that pays $8 an hour, $8 an hour, do they not know that I’m white?” That joke does very well as long as there is a smattering of black people in the audience. The black people always laugh, which then gives “permission” for the white people to laugh. No black audience members no laughter. Both of these shows were pretty much a strictly white audience and after the joke didn’t land during the first gig I scrapped it for the second gig. Over-all, the set at the premiere went well! Afterwards, I was able to hang out with my friend, see the webshow Bettina and Elaine which was really funny, and make it to the Comic Strip for my third and final set for the night. It was a great night and I hope to have many more like them in the future.