20040414

March 3, 2006

Charlie’s Standup Comedy Journal

April 14, 2004: I’ll See You at the Isle

This show marked my first time back at the Emerald Isle in over a month. ‘Da Isle’ is a casual sort of place for comedy, with lots of room and often few audience members. It’s a nice place to try out new material, or put a new spin on old jokes, or just relax and let loose with something off-the-cuff.

That’s if you’re a real comic, anyway. Me, I just tried to get through five minutes without peeing my pants. Baby steps, you see. Baby steps.

But I did try to get the few folks in attendance involved, to the best of my abilities. Two of the guys sitting just in front of where the camera was situated are taking Rich Gustus’ ‘Comedy 101’ class — Rich is the emcee on Wednesday nights at the Emerald Isle, and I went through his class last fall. So, as I made my way onstage, I decided to chat a bit with those guys — you know, form that all-important comic-audience bond. Work the crowd, as it were.

Yeah, I’m not very good at that. Maybe I should practice more, talking to homeless people on the street or something. Looking at the clip, I sound like a tool. So, no more ‘crowd work’ for me for a while. Bitches.

But hopefully, you can get past that ham-handed fiasco at the beginning and enjoy the rest of the set. At least I abandoned the ‘chatty’ talk early on, once I realized that I just don’t have the chutzpah to pull it off right now.

(‘Chutzpah’, ‘talent’… you say to-MAY-to, I say to-MAH-to. Whatever.)

At any rate, it’s always nice to see Rich and do a nice, relaxed couple of bits at the Isle. Now, if I could just manage to relax when I’m onstage, it might all work out…

Download Clip of 04/14/04 Set —

Emerald Isle, Dorchester, MA (5 minutes, 31 seconds):