so after a 2 year "hiatus" (october of 2003 was the last time I was up) I took the stage.
the show started at 6, I left work at 5:20... tried hailing a cab for 15 minutes to no avail...
then I heard, "ding ding" - bike cab rikshaw thing. the girl asked "where do you have to go?"... I told her 24th between 2nd & 3rd... "easy. I can get you there in 9 minutes for $20"
I weighed the alternative: no cabs, massive traffic and being late to the mic and not getting stage time.
fine. I hopped on the bike cab rikshaw thing... holy crap! that's fun! nearly died 4 times! almost got hit by a police truck and an suv! went down one way streets the wrong way! I did my best princess elbow, elbow, wrist, wrist wave to the passers-by... looking ever-so-touristy, yes I took photos. (later, kids, will post later.) and I made it from 35th & 6th to 24th & 2nd in SIX MINUTES! awesome. yeah, $20... but I wasn't buying drinks or eating at the club, so... worth it.... she drove up onto the sidewalk and I made a spectacle of myself with my entrance :)
NOW TO THE GOOD PART!
the thursday aaron haber open - my review...
aaron kicks ass. true, I haven't been onstage in awhile, and the last open mic was a crappy one I ran at Coffee Blue in belmar in front of 14 year old punks likkered up on coffee... but, i've been to open mics in the past (parkside, gladys', etc) but it was a really comfy experience... complete with movie theatre candy (i chose the huge bag of swedish fish... hell yeah. glutton)
only 5 minutes, my throat was closing and choking back coughs as the six comics ahead of me did their thang... I got up there wound up doing my erin go braghless bit (hadn't planned on it) - rusty and filled with cobwebs.
yep, had my notes up there with me. crutch. skimmed through them... okay, I lie, I frigging held the book up and actually read from it at one point. which, I had written this stuff during lunch (nothing like calling an audible and winging new stuff)
yeah - I will check my recording when I get home, but I KNOW that I did that nervous rush-thru ramble...
silly thing is, I feel a lot calmer. might try to find another mic between now and wednesday...
wound up talking about fat matt's fanny pack... haven't done that in 4 years (onstage) but for some reason there it was.
at least the initial jitter crap is over. it was a room of like 23 comics (quite a number of whom were really good.)
it was great to meet aaron, alan and jonny (all have had their mics listed on the site) as well as amy, robin and quite a number of others
another girl who will be performing at the improv next wednesday, shannon, she was good... I really will need to tighten up my set and work on being a little less bitter in one bit of it for wednesday...so, wrapping things up, I think I rambled about being a leper - will have to listen to my recording (i bought a $30 digital voice recorder at bloody kmart - so odds are it'll be garbled)
I know I was nervous as hell up there. I was using 98% new material... was so used to working my old set into the ground, but only opened with the braghless bit.
didn't throw up. that was a plus.
my memory/learning diability has gotten worse since I last performed. maybe I should just talk off the cuff rather than "perfectly" written sets that get effed if I go off-track. (folks, hard to believe, but most of these posts I think about and comb through the words for your reading pleasure)
right now am on the 9:02pm train home. will post photos later of the skanks that were screaming in spanish in my seat from ny to newark, then I asked them to lower their voices and they were like "escuze me?"... oh sistah, puhleaze, you are effing with the chick who dealt with the princess & the pea commuter, don't even... yadda yadda, words exchanged... let's just say that when they got off, well, i may have released a bird... and the one skank proceeded to kick my window... and as the train was pulling away I saw her surrounded by 2 security officers... thank you. my work here is done for the day.
what else? will post and tweak site more a little later
