Charlie Hatton About This
About Me
Email Me

Bookmark
 
Charlie Hatton
Brookline, MA



All Quotes
Site Search:
HomeAboutArchiveBestShopEmail

January 31, 2004: A Stop at the Chops Lounge

On paper, the Chops Lounge is a little bitty bar room beside the Chinese food restaurant in the Howard Johnson's near Fenway Park in Boston.

But in person... well, the Chops Lounge is pretty much a little bitty bar room beside the Chinese food restaurant in the Howard Johnson's near Fenway Park in Boston. But that doesn't stop the irrepressible Larry Lee Lewis from putting on a comedy show there every Saturday night, and it certainly didn't stop me from trying my hand at the 'hotel bar crowd' last night.

And honestly, it was one of the better crowds I've seen -- right around 30 people or so, ranging from college kids to an older couple that sat right in the middle up front, beaming up at the comics. The audience was a bit... reserved; none of the performer's bits that depended on crowd participation went over very well, but they were friendly and willing to laugh, and didn't throw anything, the whole time. So it was a good crowd, by my standards, at least.

This show also represented a few milestones for me. It was my tenth show in about ten weeks of doing standup, which is a nice hump to get over. It was also unique in being the first show I got for myself which had a cover charge. (The first show I did had a cover, but that was our 'Standup 101 graduation show', so it doesn't really count as something I went out and got myself. Not to me, anyway. You can count it if you like. I can't stop you.)

This was also my first 'bringer' show, where I had to guarantee that paying customers would show up with me. From what I understand, these are pretty common at the level just above 'open mics', where the bookers will still take just about anyone, but at least figure that if you can consistently drag people along with you to your shows, maybe you're fairly serious about it. (Or have some pretty ignorant friends, but I like to think of myself in the first category, thank you very much. And I think my friends would appreciate that, too.)

Anyway, Larry was a great guy -- very nice, supportive, and upbeat. And he even gave me some advice after my set.

(Which was, 'The spinach bit is too long. You were doin' great, but you lost 'em with that. You've gotta keep it tight and short up there.'

And he's right, of course. This is the third time I've done the bit, with generally okay results, but the 'spinach list' is just too damned long, and hard to remember, and it creates a gap with no punchlines for thirty seconds or so. It needs work, or it needs to be tossed. I got so caught up in writing it, and challenging myself to be able to deliver it correctly (which I haven't yet, thank you) that I forgot to notice whether it's actually funny. And it isn't. Another lesson learned.

So, the whole 'grocery store' thing may get shelved for a bit, until I can work that out. If you haven't seen it yet, do us both a favor and watch this past Wednesday's clip before this one. The same bit's in there, but at least I performed it a little more smoothly then. At the Chops Lounge, I started running out of juice halfway through, and sort of sputtered to the end. So at least watch the thing the way I meant to perform it, even if there's a bit in the middle that's not really all that funny. Thanks so much.)

Anyway, I had a great time at the Chops Lounge, and learned a few things, too. If you're in the Boston area on a Saturday night, you should definitely check out Larry and his merry band of comics. And he even said he'd 'be in touch' after the show, so maybe he's willing to have me back. I'll just promise not to talk about spinach next time. Peeing my pants, check. Leather chaps and baby oil, check. Anna Nicole Smith's bra... checkity-check-check. Spinach? Nah. See, when I put it that way, even I can see it doesn't really belong.

Download Clip of 01/31/04 Set --
Chops Lounge, Boston, MA (9 minutes, 11 seconds):


Charlie in comedy mode
(Click photo to enlarge)

MPEG Format -- 48MB
RealMedia Format -- 15MB
Windows Media Format -- 7MB



Post a comment

HomeAboutArchiveBestShopEmail © 2003-15 Charlie Hatton All Rights Reserved
Highlights
Me on Science:
  Secondhand SCIENCE


Me on ZuG (RIP):
  Zolton's FB Pranks
  Zolton Does Amazon


Me on Baseball:
  Bugs & Cranks


Me on Apartments:
  Author Page


Three Wee Tweets:
Favorite Posts:
30 Facts: Alton Brown
A Commute Dreary
A Hallmark Moment
Blue's Clues Explained
Eight Your 5-Hole?
El Classo de Espanol
Good News for Goofballs
Grammar, Charlie-Style
Grammar, Revisitated
How I Feel About Hippos
How I Feel About Pinatas
How I Feel About Pirates
Life Is Like...
Life Is Also Like...
Smartass 101
Twelve Simple Rules
Unreal Reality Shows
V-Day for Dummies
Wheel of Misfortune
Zolton, Interview Demon

Me, Elsewhere

Features
Standup Comedy Clips

Selected Clips:
  09/10/05: Com. Studio
  04/30/05: Goodfellaz
  04/09/05: Com. Studio
  01/28/05: Com. Studio
  12/11/04: Emerald Isle
  09/06/04: Connection

Boston Comedy Clubs

 My 100 Things Posts

Selected Things:
  #6: My Stitches
  #7: My Name
  #11: My Spelling Bee
  #35: My Spring Break
  #36: My Skydives
  #53: My Memory
  #55: My Quote
  #78: My Pencil
  #91: My Family
  #100: My Poor Knee

More Features:

List of Lists
33 Faces of Me
Cliche-O-Matic
Punchline Fever
Simpsons Quotes
Quantum Terminology

Archives
Full Archive

Archive by Date

Archive by Category


Plugs, Shameless
Alltop, confirmation that I kick ass

TopOfBlogs

HumorSource

Blogging Fusion Blog Directory

bloglovin

Listed on BlogShares

Top Blogs

 

Heroes
Alas Smith and Jones
Berkeley Breathed
Bill Hicks
Dave Barry
Dexter's Laboratory
Douglas Adams
Evening at the Improv
Fawlty Towers
George Alec Effinger
Grover
Jake Johannsen
Married... With Children
Monty Python
Nick Bakay
Peter King
Ren and Stimpy
Rob Neyer
Sluggy Freelance
The Simpsons
The State

Feeds and More
Subscribe via FeedBurner

[Subscribe]

RDF
RSS 2.0
Atom
Credits
Site Hosting:
Solid Solutions

Powered by:
MovableType

Title Banner Photo:
Shirley Harshenin

Creative Commons License
  This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons License

Mint Installation

Performancing Metrics

Page copy protected against web site content infringement by Copyscape

Valid XHTML 1.0

Valid CSS!

© 2003-15 Charlie Hatton
All Rights Reserved