Helium Comedy Contest

Tonight is the first round of the Portlands Funniest Comic Contest and I am excited. I have all new material that's only 2 weeks old and I'm happy to try it out. I should use more vetted material but I really like this new stuff....unfortunately the crowd doest and I don't advance. But....luckily for me I ready work at Helium and I'm really happy for the people that advanced. I'm gonna keep working this new stuff out and it will be my new opener soon.

Sweet Basil and Brody

Tonight I double dip at a Thai restaurant and Brody theater. First up is sweet basil, a small Thai restaurant located real close to where I live so I can just walk over. It's a very small room and only about 10 people are in the audience, and by audience I mean there's about 10 other comedians there just waiting to do time.
   I'm working on a new piece about giving customer service reps respect and how white people should not be superheroes. They Segway together well and It's new and I'm really like and where it's taking me so far. It's about five minutes long so that's all I say at the sweet basil open mic.
   Next stop I get to Brody theater and wait my turn. I'm probably the most dreaded comedian in the theater now, weird how time flies and I used to see Ian Karmel when I was just starting off and I thought he was the king. Now there's people that Brody who are just starting off and look at me the same way.
   Anyways I do the same superheroes material and added a tag about how Batman and Ironman are the Koch brothers of superheroes. Went very well, every time I tell this joke it gets a little bit better.

Holocene

Tonight, I am performing at an all storytelling open mic show called the moth. I am a very excited to put my name in the hat and possibly get drawn. There is a large crowd of a hundred plus people gathered at the venue and the stage is set up real nice.
    I got draw number four! I went up and told my swastika tattoo story and got a huge applause at the end and it was a hit. this crowd wasn't used to comedy storytelling so much, as this show had a lot of sad stories as well.

Curious Comedy and ASP

   Tonight I am double dipping at Curious Comedy Theater and Alberta Street Pub. I got some new stuff I really want to hammer out so I hit up both shows.
    Curious is first. I dont come to Curious that often, no reason in particular, I just dont. Tonight it has a sparse audience but they are all chill. I go up 10th and work out my new Cust Service -  Green Lantern/Super Heroes material and get a few hits. Then I take that material to Alberta Street Pub for some more fine tuning.
    I arrive at Alberta Street around 930 and the showcase hasn't started yet. The showcase is being mixed into the open mic so that the curated performers and doing 10 min sets randomly among the open mic 3 min sets....its weird but works. I go up 17th and hammer out that material again, trimming bits and pieces and adding more....its getting there

Fun House

    I've been going to the Funhouse lounge more often lately to try and work out new material. I've been feeling very creative and want to use this time to be as productive as possible. I like the funhouse lounge, it's a good atmosphere with pretty basic bathrooms you can read about on my other blog Barbathroomreview.com. I even stopped by goodwill and bought a putter to use for the putting green they have built into the patio. There's my contribution to the Portland comedy  scene.
   Anyways, it's weird now walking into a room like funhouse and being the veteran of the venue. I've been doing comedy for 5 years now and everybody in there knows who I am. I don't even sign up I just ask to be put up and it happens. God damn it, when did this happen.
    Anyways I went up there and worked out some new material about how we idolize false heroes. Pretty much a Michael Jackson joke. It hits good at the end but I need to work on the build up.

Dirty Dozen

   Tonight is the Dirty Dozen and I am excited as ever! It is a late night 10 p.m. Friday show instead of Wednesday and I'm hoping that we will draw a crowd. The lineup for this show is the best ever, & I am really looking forward to pushing the audiences limits.
    The turnout wasn't that great, only about a 120 people in the audience and I really wanted more. They were still super receptive and laughing hard but in my head I felt like there should have been 100 more people in the room. Granted, it was a super warm night and there was a lot of stuff going on downtown.
   My opening set was ok. I did a new bit about butt sex with my first girlfriend and by the end I had them laughing, but there's still a lot of build up that I need to trim down. I'm all for character development but I felt like I was on stage for 2 minutes building a story before there was a payoff.
  

Double dippin

   Tonight I'm feeling saucy and decide to double dip a few rooms for some open mic action. First up is boiler room, I got there early and was the first person in the bar. A few people filtered in as I sat at a table and went over some new material. It was a pretty meh set, with lots of pauses and loose ends.
   I used the audience to gauge where to add and subtract with the material and took that to Brody theater for my next open mic of the night. Brody theater went much better and I got a pretty good reception for my material. I still have to cut and add a lot more but I'm feeling like it might be a solid 3 minute bit when I'm done.