20050216

March 3, 2006

Charlie’s Standup Comedy Journal

February 16, 2005: All Comics, All the Time

Wednesday nights at the Emerald Isle are interesting beasts.

Lately, we’ve run into a bit of bad luck as actual ‘audiences’ go. As in, there haven’t been any. But in a lot of ways, it’s nice to have an occasional show where there isn’t anybody watching, as strange as that sounds. Sure, we’d all prefer to play to a packed house of loaded-but-not-yet-belligerent fans. But with no audience, there’s also no pressure — with any civilian asses in the seats, you’re tempted to fall back on old, tried and true material. If they’re there, then you want to make them laugh.

And if they’re not there, then you can do whatever the hell you want. It’s just a roomful of comics, telling jokes to each other. You can try out new stuff, tell inside jokes, take off your shirt and wiggle your pasties on stage, even. You see it all at the Isle.

(Editor’s Note: To the best of our knowledge, there have been no pasties wiggled at the Emerald Isle during comedy Wednesdays. Charlie’s either drunk, delusional, or both. Again. But if there ever is a bout of pasty-wiggling onstage, he’d damned well better have the camera rolling. That shit is comedy gold.)

So, there’s no pressure there, which is nice. And lots of comics show up, so it’s a good place to chat with friends, old and new. Of course, that doesn’t much help you, the prospective clip-watcher, but hey — if you watch this set, with the scarcity of giggles and the long, uncomfortable silences, just tell yourself that I was having fun. So at least one of us enjoyed himself during this set. Which is about right, frankly. Maybe next time, it’ll get to be you. Fingers crossed, folks!

Download Clip of 02/16/05 Set —

Emerald Isle, Dorchester, MA (6 minutes, 59 seconds):