Tonight I did my first ever standup comedy gig at an open mic night. It went pretty well actually. I was of course hell nervous. My hands shook, but I controlled my voice and got the delivery I wanted. People laughed! In fact, quite a big portion of the audience laughed at most of the jokes. (The person who laughed least was actually my friend who came, because she was offended by one of the jokes, which I have since re-worded to clarify that it is not intended as a racist joke).
One woman even came up to me afterwards to tell me how funny she and her partner thought I was and that they laughed the whole way through. That was really nice. And the host complimented me, which she has to, but she actually made reference to me a few comedians later (not to take the piss out of me) and chatted with me after the show with some suggestions about how I could develop my act further, which was flattering that she could see that potential in it. She also happened to laugh at my jokes, which is the main point.
I also got compliments on my Aboriginal flag tie, which is cool. It's a good way to pick lefties.
I really can't believe that I got up tonight and performed a whole bunch of jokes that I wrote to a bunch of strangers. No music to hide behind, no excuse that someone else wrote the material, and the most scary, no guarantee that any of the material would be liked by anyone. When I sing, I usually have someone else's material to use. When I have done comic acting, again, it's been someone else's material. This was new. This was scary and I'm glad I did it. I'm kind of proud of myself.
The material was stuff I have posted here about the news, along with a few new gags in the same style about more recent events.
People in Brissy, if you're interested in supporting me, my next gig is next Wednesday night at the Pavillion in West End. Night starts at 7pm.