20040728

March 3, 2006

Charlie’s Standup Comedy Journal

July 28, 2004: What? The Studio Again? Woo hoo!

Ah, what a birthday will do for you, eh?

I think of this as my ‘birthday show’, seeing as how it happened on the day right after my birthday. And since

I didn’t do a show on my birthday — or even say anything remotely funny, as far as I remember — this is

close enough. It’ll have to do, anyway, at least until next year, when I can schedule a gig on the big day itself.

I’ve really got to start planning these things in advance. I’m kind of a douchebag that way. Moving on.

The other notable thing about this set (from my perspective, at least) is that I finally trotted out some new

jokes, after six weeks away from comedy and the standup equivalent of a clip show a few nights before. Most of the new bits came together in the day or so before the set — and they’re a bit choppy in spots, honestly — but it was nice to be doing new material again. I was starting to have that ‘not so fresh feeling’, if you know what I mean. Icky poo.

Of course, I did manage to go and ruin the most well-received bit by getting cute at the end.

(And by forgetting part of the material, though that wasn’t as big a problem, apparently. I’m finding that

audiences are far more forgiving of the good jokes you don’t tell than of the crappy jokes that you

do. As with most of my life, pulling material together is an exercise in crap reduction. Some nights you get

rid of the crap; some nights the crap gets rid of you. That’s just the way the shitcake crumbles, I guess.)

All in all, though, this set was a lot of fun, and encouraging, too. There’s work to be done, but the bits

that I stole from my grammar lesson post seemed to go over pretty well. See, now, I knew this blogging thing would come in handy some day. That’s synergy, baby!

Download Clip of 07/28/04 Set —

The Comedy Studio, Cambridge, MA (5 minutes, 32 seconds):