Day 48: Newbs 10/7/07

Ahhh... a good night.

Started off with writing circle. In attend are: Danielle, James, Paul, me, Josh Anderson in his comedy debut (who's probably going to end up putting the rest of us to shame) and special guest Richard Jensen. Richard is a good friend from Ashland OR that visits on his birthday. He's vloging his trip to Seattle which includes taping our writing and our sets. (Check his blog at blog.myspace.com/richardjensen for soon there will be intimate coverage of us... +it's one of my faves for political writing and all around Richard goodness). The circle was great. A lot of new stuff being thrown out there. I tried out a bunch of new bits that have been coming to me plus tried to restructure "non-drinker" which I think will be a lot more funny.

Then to Comedy Underground. Richard was goodly enough to video all of our sets. The fun part about tonight is that there are insanely drunk hecklers in the front. They really didn't mean any harm but they were intoxicated and thought it was audience participation. It's fascinating to see how other comics reacted to them. Some better than others. Danielle and James had great stuff. Josh was really good with them too (his first time up no less!). I did all right but jumbled what I said and got sidetracked. Andy Peters (probably my favorite local comic at this point) delivered genius with them. Look for him, watch him, he is the best.

A lot of people were (understandably) really upset with the hecklers. One comic went way to far. I liked the energy they brought to the crowd and what it did to/for the comics. This is an important hurdle to jump and open mic's as good a time as any to jump it.

So I tried out my new material: Wet-dream (did well), Owen Wilson (needs condensing, but all right), Bill Clinton (short but sweet), Bush (another short but sweet), Mit Romney (fucked up the premise so I abandoned it). I ended with Toby and exit.

Over all I think that my writing has improved a lot. The circle helps immeasurably. We get used to just knowing what works and doesn't and so every time we write something new we take care of most of the editing ourselves. That's why my old stuff is so clunky.

So we're gearing up for a showcase for our group on October 20th... if any of you read this lemme know and I'll give you the details.

Lesson: Heckling's a fact of comedy life. Learn how to get your licks in.

Back-up lesson: Writing circle is invaluable. Have it always.