Thursday, August 23, 2007

Day 29: Deeper Underground 8/20/07

Another meeting of our as yet unnamed group minus Paul. We threw out new material. I had a new impression (actor George Gaynes... look him up) and a bit I've had in my head awhile, and I've used parts of, but have finally put together called "Christian Comics" (it doesn't harsh on Christians, before you get that in your head).

I went up relatively early (#6) and the new stuff went fairly well. Only two parts of bits didn't go over, and for brand new stuff that's pretty good. The writing circle helps a lot because trimming the fat is such a big part of comedy writing and you can cut out stuff that just doesn't work.
Danielle put up some new stuff that I don't think hit as hard as she wanted but it did have some jems in it. However her transition into her "anal bleaching" closer was surgically perfect and landed me on the floor.

James stepped up to bat for the third time. The host made a joke on his name (Parkinson's... the disease) and James's response was perfect. He did some new stuff that he was really comfortable with and it did well. He tried some stuff that he hadn't solidified and it didn't do well. I like it but he doesn't so he's trying to write new stuff. He's doing good though and I'm exited to see what comes from him as we keep going.

Later in the night a person who had been up as many times as James went up and died. I wasn't paying attention to her bit, but I guess she got frustrated and at the end made a cheap jab at molestation jokes... which I had performed earlier (...the George Gaynes impression... be afraid)... so I guess was a dig at me and a few other comics. I could say a lot of things about that, and would've in other contexts (like if I was hosting), but I'll just say that, well, people were laughing at MY jokes.

In other news, I recently added a bit to "neuva ring" which someone pointed out was close to one of Emmett Montgomery's bits. I finally was able to tell him the bit and see if he was cool with it and he ended up liking it and said it was cool that I used it and thinking of similar bits was part of the game. Theft is a whole different deal. Our bits were in a totally different context... but why take chances.

Lesson: Err to the side of caution when dealing with material that is similar to someone else's.

Back-up lesson: Child molesting jokes are funny

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