20040208

March 3, 2006

Charlie’s Standup Comedy Journal

February 8, 2004: A Trip Into the Vault

I had heard good things about ‘da Vault’ from a few comics — and I’ve got to say, they’re all true, true, true! It’s a nice little place, with a great crowd, and the show was a lot of fun. Plus, you can sign up the week of the show for any Sunday night (provided you can coerce two paying customers to come with you), so it’s a show I might just be able to worm my way into over and over again.

I think this show taught me something — or rather, reminded me of something — that I sorely needed to learn (or relearn, but I think you get the idea by now). Anyway, that lesson is this:

I’m sort of a lazy fuck.

See, as I look back at my first couple of shows, when I was scared shitless up there, I find that I actually stumbled and ‘ummm‘ed less than I do now, after a dozen times on stage. And it’s because I got lazy — I put together sets the night before, and practice just a couple of times to get the timing down, but not really to work on the material. For those first couple of shows, I worked for a week or more to polish them, and play around with them, and get them just so.

(And no, I’m sure it doesn’t show, unless ‘just so’ has some drastically suckier connotation than the ones you’re currently aware of, right? Yeah. Thanks so much for chiming in.)

Anyway, I think I’ve discovered in comedy what I discovered in college — I can manage to not be a complete failure, and ‘sliiiide on by’ without putting in a lot of effort. Now the key is to fucking forget that, and actually try to get good at something. I’ll keep you posted on progress (or you can see for yourself, each time I post a new show, based on the relative suckiness of upcoming sets).

Anyway, enough about my personality flaws and failure as a person. Go watch the clip from the Vault. Yes, there’s a bit of stuttering and fumbling during the segues, but the jokes themselves are (generally) decently delivered, and there’s at least one or two bits you’ve never heard before. Oooh, and there’s lesbian porn — it’s an oldie, folks, but ‘lesbian porn’ is alwys a goodie. You can’t argue with that.

Download Clip of 02/08/04 Set —

The Comedy Vault at Remingtons, Boston, MA (5 minutes, 7 seconds):