Record your set
Record every set you do make this your habit! Just to bring a digital recorder or iPhone/ Smart Phone with you to all your open mikes or show and record your set...
Then the hard part comes...listed to your set! If you are anything like I am you cant stand to hear your own voice recorded...but you will get so much information from this habit...more than you would have ever thought.
To begin with you will know if you performed the set the way you thought you had or wanted to... When your on stage you may even change the wording for better (hopefully) or worse. Its inter
esting to me how some times I would think I had a fantastic set ... would wait to listen to the recording thinking I did so well I'll just skim through it and when you actually do its so much worse than you thought... Don't kid yourself the recorder never lies... it work in the the other way as well you may think you did awful and it was a lot better than you thought.. Never depend on your memory from being on stage its not dependable.
So your listening to your set...what are you looking for?
How is your delivery?
Are there laughs?
Are they where they should be?
Any bits fall short?
Did you ad-lib anything that you could use again or that you can use for another bit?
These are all questions you should be asking yourself... Clean up your act get rid or the dead weight or tweak it and then practice it to deliver it better and do your set again and repeat until you have a polished set.
I have to say I am a bit of a tech nerd so I have gadgets...I ended up getting the Digital recorder when I first started and it was OK... The quality is fantastic...its just that all it does is record... so your carrying this thing around for one job only...I have an IPod that I record on and that work well and I can listen to it when ever I want but at the same time I use the note pad feature on it to write my bits and it has a camera and so many other apps available... So iPod works out great... I also have a Droid...it has all the Ipod has as well as a phone and the camera on this thing has a flash and shoots some great video. I still like to use the iPod for most thing Comedy...besides it automatically Syncs with my IPad with out me doing anything...so when I write my bits on the note pad and then walk into the office and pick up the iPad it will have the same notes as the iPod... Awesome...
But you can use any one of these or any recording device you want...Just make it a habit and listen to your sets.