Category: Blog Grind

It’s been a few days since I’ve posted and I feel like a slacker cracker. It started with babysitting my niece and nephew and not getting up this past Saturday night. I felt down that day. If I’m not getting up, I’m not progressing and in turn feeling down.

Yesterday I wanted sexy time with the fella, but the request was delivered at an inopportune time. Upon rejection, I did 3 mics, a close second to hanky panky.

 

Since I got passed at the Strip I have been doing less mics. I feel like a spot with 8 audience members who have survived 3+ hrs of comedy is more useful than a mic with 20 comics half listening half checking out your legs. I dunno maybe it’s an excuse.

I’m off to my favorite mic which is the mic at the Creek N’ the Cave that I host. I just get silly willy on the microphono and call it how I think it. It doesn’t often make sense, but it makes me happy and lord knows that is important. Which is more important than the rest of the bullshit.

Meet Drink Laugh is coming up Thursday and lord knows I have been putting in the hours. I’m vying for a few celebrity drop-ins, but since drop-ins get me flustered I’ll be more than ok if it’s business as usual. Of course if they come…

Get Up 1x

 

I host an event/show called Meet Drink Laugh. After many failed experiences (that I hopefully learn from) I have come up with an idea. I promote different friends and friends of friends businesses and they purchase 10 tickets, this helps take the strain off of me to bring the entire audience. Fingers crossed it works. I have planted the seed to try and get Judy Gold and Michael Che to do a drop-in. I have succeeded in the past, Dave Attell being the one I was most excited about. Fingers crossed the hustler has still got some game in her, lord knows she still has the hustle.

I am on the Friars softball team and since I’ve been going hard at comedy I’ve had to miss a bunch of games. I was able to make it to the one today and I have to say it was intense. Not the actual game, but people yelling at the ump and each other. I am clearly not a pro hard core player and I am fine with one person guiding me as to where to stand when playing short field, but when 4 people tell me it just gets annoying. I was ready to just go to the Strip after the game, but in the spirit of well, being hungry I opted to go to the club for a quick dinner before hitting up the strip. I worked on a few jokes about a recent wedding I went to and felt good about it.

Get Up 1x

Today I packed up my final items from Broome st including a single Corona lite. What can I say I don’t like just throwing out $1.50.  Even if that means I am shlepping the bottle around all day. I guess that is part of the perks of being a bag lady. To be   contradictory I am putting off returning a $69 amazon purchase. I hate finding packaging and worse going to the post office. I am ridiculous I know.

I wrote this morning. I was down and figured it would be a good thing. I was inspired to write about how much I hate weddings. I created a few lines of which I’m not so sure I am sold on.

 

It looks like I might be meeting a comedy coach to go over writing which I could use a lot of help in. He charges $150 I said my budget was $50-$75 we agreed on $100. That’s show biz for you.

 

Tonight I had a show at Broadway Comedy club. I was looking at my notes in the back and the producer told me to be in the room aka put your notes away. Insert bratty child: even though I wasn’t the only one looking at notes!

That’s the second time I’ve gotten that ‘note’. It’s confusing because so much of the comedian etiquette involves not paying attention to other comics and focusing on your notes. The answer is that behavior is not kosher during a show. Eek. Duly noted.

I ran the mic at the Creek. There was only 12 people so it didn’t last long. It feels lonely because their other mics get 50+ comics. It’d be nice to find a happy medium.

 

I find the shorter mics ie: 3 minute mics are better because you are only workshopping your new material opposed to just performing your bit. It distinguishes the pros from the non pros. There is only so much new material you’re creating in a day so really 3 minutes is enough to explore that. I understand the philosophy. I gave people an extra minute and many of them didn’t even take it. A sign of a pro!

Tonight when I walked into the Comic Strip for late night I saw Richie the owner smoking a cigarette.  He looked at me and said “see the television cameras, Robin Williams died”. My mouth dropped- I wasn’t expecting to hear that. I knew without being told it was suicide.

We chatted outside about it then he told me to sign up for late night so I entered the club.

Like comics and non-comics alike I grew up watching Robin. I even watched Mork and Mindy c/o Nick at Nite. I remember watching him on Inside the Actors Studio being spontaneous and brilliant using a scarf to transform into various characters. As Richie said, ‘he was nuts but a comedic genius.’

An hour later while I was still at the club, the tv news program that had just interviewed Richie aired on the club TV. In silence all the comedians watched the news program that recap of Robin’s life, an old clip of Robin at the Strip, and Richie’s interview. It was very meta. After Richie watched himself  on tv he said, ‘I was good’.

I got up #2 on the order for late night. It’s a prestige thing when you get up. The earlier the better because there is more likely to be an audience.  I guess Richie and I bonded that night because I normally get up #6 or #7.

Unbeknowst to me Richie was in the room during my set and afterwards said to me ‘good set’, in this biz I’ll take whatever compliments I can get. Get up 1x.

 

I was given an opportunity to audition for a solid B level club. I opted not to accept because it was really a bringer. Sorry folks, but not falling for it. And truth be told I am so not ready for the club spot. I have 10 minutes, by the skin of my teeth. Slow and steady wins the race right?! Yeesh it’s so easy to lose site and track of things. I want it all now daddy! (think Veruca Salt in Willy Wonka). Ok now a Stuart Smilie reminder: Celebrate small accomplishments. Now if the barter with Manhattan Comedy School works… I’ll be getting guest spots at Gotham & that will be awesome. I’ll explain the barter in a few posts, I’m sure. It is a business after all.

Today I went to the Friars club to support a comedian friend. It was fun but obviously I didn’t stay and watch other comedians.  Enough comedy is enough comedy. Plus tonight I’m hosting my favorite show… the open mic at the Creek and the Cave. I have fun on that microphone. So let DJ hollah back girl step up to the microphone… Michelle!

My favorite intro of the night: “I love me some chicken stock, I love beef stock, but my favorite is Mike Shu-stock!”

Today was the graduation show for Wali Collins class in the Vintage Lounge at Gotham. I tagged myself on Facebook “at Gotham telling jokes”. Let the world know I performed at Gotham, even if it cost me a good $300. Ha! Never trust Facebook.

The set went well and someone from Noma- North of Manhattan Comedy expressed interest in booking me. Whether or not it happens, being thought of is flattering. Though, if I were living hand to mouth that gig would be even more important for me to book. They say being financially strapped builds an extreme thirst and hunger to succeed because success is not an option it’s a means of survival.

I don’t really want to start going hungry or homeless to get a stronger drive for success. But am I lacking the bohemian struggle? This feels pompous and like a white privileged “dilemma”. And it is. Whatever.

I need to celebrate what I got. I got up today, wrote, in fact I finished my journal in the Artists Way which is a huge journal of over 250 large and blank pages. I wrote a blog entry today. Lord knows, I am working hard and I have never worked harder in my life. Comparing myself to myself I’m killing it. Comparing myself to others I’m way older than my peers at this stage. These kids are 24 some of them! I believe my strong drive for success in the present is related to my unhealthy drive for success in the past. More of that subject in therapy.

Lets imagine an alternate reality I’m 27 years old with the AXS credit, getting club spots semi regularly, and a 5 min clip on Comedy Central under my belt. Truth is it sounds nice, but it wouldn’t be satisfying, I will still be and will never stop climbing and reaching. So take a chill pill sistah and enjoy the ride and happy graduation. Get up: 2x

Everyone is entitled to a day off right? I didn’t have a gig Saturday night so I opted to go to a friend of a friend’s country house. It was a nice getaway, but I am not used to hanging with civilians. I wound up sleeping a large portion of the time. I did listen to my rough set in Cranbury NJ and came up with a few alternate tags/punchlines. I am hoping to go to a mic & late night to try these new jokes. Between rewrites and getting up Sunday that means I will have gotten some work done this weekend.

I wound up going to the UCB cliquey mic. I didn’t get up, instead felt socially uncool for no reason since I didn’t have a chance to perform. How am I going to achieve my 10,000 hours at this rate? I did manage to purchase a rug a la craigslist. It was double the size I realized so err here’s hoping it fits in my apt. Doh/Double Doh. I am getting up at a friend’s mic in the neighborhood. So take that UCB! Get up 2x

I have a gig tonight in nobody cares Dirty Jerz. Otherwise known as bumble fuck. I’m exhausted it’s between 1-2 hs away and I think I will get the same caliber of gig than as a brooklyn open mic.

But I’m going why? Cuz I gotta make my own mistakes. Turns out it wasn’t a mistake. It was a legit crowd of people who wanted to see a show.

I did get an applause break which was nice, but I started negative. I was angry at the audience for being non-responsive to the other comics, but truth is they were right. The comics that went up were weak and didn’t deserve a strong response. So I learned not to start angry, not to throw out the F-bomb, because that’s not who I am. Most importantly I learned not to blame the audience. Now I’ve heard and read that several times, but sometimes you gotta make your own mistakes.

The car ride back with my comic friends also made the whole trip worth it because we analyzed our sets/ the process. Three cheers for Dirty Jerz!

Afterwards I went to Klimat and negotiated that I would get $1 per drink which is one more $1 than Solas is giving me for my bar show. Bam baby bam! The name of the show is changing from One Flight Up to One Flight down…you can guess why!