As a comic, every single time you a good show, a little seed takes root. You feel better, blah blah blah. Then you have what I had last night. At t minus ten minutes, no one was at this college show. I was up against student week, with rock climbing, a pool, air hockey, and general fun. Then nine students walked into conference room C to see me give them 30 minutes o’ humor. I think they all had their tongues cut out, b/c no one responded to any of my questions, but I did hear some laughs from time to time.
At the five minute mark (which felt like 15 at that point), an urbanized white youth walked in with his weird haired young ladyfriend. I mentioned that I live in Columbus and he told me he was from Cbus. A very pointless conversation ensued that contributed nothing to anyone’s life, but at least I had some interaction. Then the rest of the show went on. I did my career goals joke about how at 50 I will be running the scrambler at your local county fair. “Was that the Ohio State Fair?”, my new pal asked. “No, why? Would it be funnier? Then yes.” He looked back down at his cell, then he and his girl left. Back down to nine.
I went through my set in 20 minutes, then dug around in my brain for old jokes, which went over pretty well. At the end, I thanked them for coming and told them to run back to their dorms and tweet that they just saw a horrible comedy show. One dude came up and shook my hand, telling me I was really funny. Thanks. Thanks for not laughing much, I guess you show appreciation for humor with silence, but I’ll take your compliment. Oh well, off to the next gig.