We took in some local stand-up tonight at the dimly lit lounge of the Holiday Inn. That in itself has a depressing ring to it. One after another brave, young soul stepped behind the microphone to deliver five to six minutes of material to a small, quiet crowd. It was one of those occasions when you expect feedback to shriek through the speakers, allowing the performer a moment to run away from their flaming crash already in progress with some of their dignity intact. Clearly this weekly comedy show is but a training ground for many years to come of futons and Top Ramen.
Getting up in front of an audience is no easy feat. It must be twice as hard while attempting to stroke a room full of funny bones. The evening wasn't all bad, but as predicted for this sort of thing the end result comes down to averages. Of the ten guys (yes, only guys) that performed maybe three of them were deserving of the spotlight and a few others were downright despondent by the lack of applause, laughter, and love the audience was offering. We were supposedly a "shit audience", to quote one Lenny Bruce wannabe. In the middle was everyone else, who seemed to have either too little material, decent material but no idea when the joke was over, an incessant need for audience validation, the occasional minority "joke" misstep that marred the rest of their set, or some combination therein.
Yikes!
ReplyDeleteI've only been to two comedy clubs and both were sort of unnerving in the exact same way you described.
One was being filmed for a local cable access show & it was just as frightening to see the audience HOWL about all of the poop or boob or fat jokes as if they didn't want to be caught on camera not laughing at those things.
At least I remember the fries were good.
Wow. This is the kind of social scene I have to look forward to in Florida? Hm. I may have to rethink things. Or else, just get creative.
ReplyDeleteI'm already thinking about our Thanksgiving weekend-day-o-fun! I'm thinking it should involve a straw bale, lots of driving, and, as always, an incredible soundtrack.
Stevie: I've been to "real" comedy clubs before, but this was sort of lower tier comedy club. I use the word club lightly. Watching enough comedy central gives you some idea how TV likes to cut stand-up: if you've got glasses then they'll cut to you on the four-eyed jokes (etc, on down the discrimatory line). I prefer IMPROV stuff the best, because it's so (duh!) unplanned.
ReplyDeleteTrina: Not really. We went on a whim, because I know someone involved (not that night, though). For your tastes, and sensibilities this would not be your thing, but suffice to say the choices are seeming limited lately & THIS was branching out.