My First Stand-Up Experience

I finally took the plunge and did an open-mic night. The result? Better than I thought I'd do. I had been putting together joke ideas for the last few months but never wrote anything concrete until the past three weeks or so. I decided to go for it last Tuesday, partly because of my friends' departures (both from the company and/or from Philadelphia...who would've thought I was that passionate and persuasive?), and mostly because of my own looming departure. There's actually a funny story about the whole ordeal:

I was originally slated to perform at Helium Comedy Club, which is a known locale for its good quality open mic nights. I had been there a few times as an observer and audience member (there's a distinction between the two: an observer is someone who pow-wows with the comedians two hours or so before the show, audience is actually sitting in and watching the show). What I didn't realize until the night before is that there's usually a surplus of comedians who sign up to perform. They generally get 50-60 people signing up around 2 hours before performance time, and then post the 20 performers for that night about half-an-hour before showtime. So I go there at about 5:30 (2 and a half hours before showtime) and already see a line of 10-11 people waiting for doors to open so they can sign up. Eventually we make our way to the bulletin board where people place their name for selection around 6pm. My friends from work were excited at the prospect of my performance, and so knowing the whole process, incessantly sent texts asking me whether I was performing that night or not. For the next hour and a half though, I hung around with the other prospective comedians, trading quips, experiences and just chatting the time away. As I moved from one person to the next, voicing my opinion on their topics of discussion in an aptly timed manner, I realized, I was way out of my league with these people. Some of them were just hilarious without trying, and some of them had three-subject notebooks full of material. THREE-SUBJECT NOTEBOOKS! I was actually debating just telling my friends that my name didn't get picked to avoid demonstrating my obvious deficit of comedic talent when the names were announced. I was not one of the 20 chosen ones. Breathing a sigh of relief, I was about to leave when one of the more experienced stand-up guys, Mike*, who had recently moved to Philly and was trying to break into the scene here, informed me about an open mic night at Tabu on 12th & Walnut. A (much) known fact about Tabu: it is considered a gay bar for all intents and purposes. Another known fact about this point in time: I was about 3 beers deep on an empty stomach and was approaching tipsy. When this happens, I throw all caution to the wind and with a rousing "Fuck yeah!", I decide to follow him (which reading this line out of context, makes the intent seem a lot more insidious and dirty). I quickly text all my friends that we're heading to Tabu where I'm guaranteed a spot in the lineup. Immediately, my close friend Lauren* replies "You mean TABU??? The gay sports bar we all went to under Mickey's* recommendation? YES I wanna see u do open mic there (no joke either)".

Looks like I'm doing open mic stand up for sure.

We make our way to the bar, and thanks to the sweltering heat of the Tuesday evening, I sober up slightly more. At this point, I'm informed thanks to a sign on the wall that there really is an open-mic night here (and it wasn't some sort of insidious plan of Mike's to get me in a compromising position), and even better, $3 Coronas. I proceed to sign my name on the roster and pick up two coronas to keep myself socially lubricated. At this point, the rest of my posse arrived here, more than excited to watch this performance. David* pulls out a rather nice quality camera, vowing that he will record my performance and looking more than dedicated to the task. My fate was sealed. Eventually, we all moved upstairs where the performances were taking place, and I sat at the back where the remaining comedians were. One by one, we were called and we exposed our talents to the remainder of the crowd. Some succeeded, others bombed, one comedian in particular decided to take pot-shots at my friends, which was hilarious for me as I reveled in their awkward smiles and clenched grins. Eventually, intermission was called, and I decided I needed one more beer to "relax". I asked the emcee about the roster order. He pointed at my name and remarked, "Looks like you're next, kid." Putting my game face on, I stood ready as my name was announced. "...BROWN SUGAR SINGH!!!!!!!!!!!!" *insert hip-hop track*

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFKOAcKr4-g

And that was it! Honestly, the days leading up to it were a small amount of hell and butterflies flying in my stomach but in the end, I had a lot of fun. I have this story to tell. I can stand proud and have my friends say that they know a stand-up comedian (albeit a not-very-good-one yet). And I'm actually motivated to do this as a hobby (I'm planning on doing another one in another two weeks at a slightly larger bar/lounge, new material). Actually the whole motivation part came from Mike who remarked that my material was good and has potential but my delivery needs some work. Which I agree with. Who knows, maybe with a few more shows under my belt, I'll become the next Ken Jeong.

*Names changed to protect individual identities.