Learning to sand-up
I want to chronicle my path so I can learn from my mistakes and hopefully get to be a better comedian and public speaker.
Background: I took my first Stand up comedy class in November of 2008 so it will be 2 years in a month. I decided to take a stand up comedy class because I was never good at speaking in front of a group of stringers. I was never comfortable in my skin growing up, I couldn’t talk to other guys…I have no ability to do guy talk, or even how to start a conversation with a guy. I bartended for years and then went into the corporate world and within the last 2 or 3 yeas had to work in a sales capacity and had to give presentations. So I used this as an excuse to take the class…
I have always been considered a nice guy, funny, and personable. I like to be liked and I do have a lot of fun in social situations with people that I know well enough to fool around and play. I can be quick with a creative reply at times and I do like to make people laugh. So “Stand Up” has always been something I admired in others as a skill and a gift you’re born with.
I loved the way they told stories and entertained people… I wanted that attention… I wanted to be able to relate to people like my idols did. There is a difference between being “ON” at your family’s dinner table making them all crack up and a room fool of strangers that have no idea who you are and being able to make the room crack up. That is like the greatest high I have ever felt.
So I took Brad Trackman’s class for 2 sessions (8 weeks, with 2 graduation shows) I had my basic set to work with and learned what I needed to go to open mike nights… Then I went nuts with Open Mick nights as much as I can in Philadelphia, NJ , New York City… Fell into the “Bringer” trap… That when the Show will give you stage time in exchange for bringing a set number of people that they will then gorge for a cover charge and 2 drinks…minimum.
I got out of that early and decided I also have no idea who I am as a comedian and what I should be writing my material about… I don’t have my voice, I wasn’t a good writer and I needed to figure out what to do… So I decided to learn and find out what I can do better…
I “Googled” and found some MP3 files from a comedy coach with general knowledge and some of his teaching style witch I listened to at the gym every day. I bought some books, and read some articles. I went to some free workshops in Manhattan, took some one day workshops with some good comedians and then noticed a lot of time this “Judy Carter” and her Comedy Bible would be referenced…So I got it…then left it on a shelf for 4 months…then I started reading it but fell asleep every time I started to read… I found the same thing available on DVD so I bought it …and was not cheep. My sand up comedy stayle has not been the same sense.
[singlepic id=17 w=320 h=240 float=right]I am a lot more active on stage, I love to write bits and am very inspired to do better jokes…My set has gotten 1000 better just because of Act Outs and the joke writing style. But now I have an issue… I don’t know how to act and I am really bad at improve so I am not a good MC type and that is the next logical step for my stand up path. I need to get better at dealing with the stage fright and fear of hecklers… I want to do this bad and feel that I can be a great comedian and even better motivational speaker once I break through my fears. I also to this day have no idea how comedians make money. Just putting that out there…
So that is what this Blog will be about, Its my next steps and what’s going on along the way.