I knew last week’s show was going to different than normal when I got a call several days before asking me what intro music I wanted. Having been the only white guy on urban shows before, I knew I was getting token white guy music, so I said I didn’t care. I was expecting Kid Rock or Eminem, which are the go to choices, but secretly hoping Vanilla Ice didn’t sneak in. I was wrong. Every other comic got a rap song, in which they rapped the first parts of their act. My intro music? Nothing. Silence. The DJ decided, apparently, because I didn’t request a song, it would help smooth over the intro by the awkward and deafening sound of glaring quietness. Thanks!
My start aside, I had a few good jokes hit early, then completely lost the crowd on my fourth joke, one about some hillbillies blaming a guy throwing marshmallows at people on Obama. Why did I lose the crowd? Not sure, but it happened. I battled back, but one table hated me right up front, which was weird, because a table right behind them loved me. It is truly a strange thing, to look up and see apathy/hate sitting right next to a table losing their minds.
I could tell the crowd was tired of me, so I wrapped up, apparently one joke too late (bomb). Oh well. I got off and the next guy went up and did almost an hour (supposed to do 30 minutes), mostly thanks to reading off his sheet of paper he brought onstage. Afterwards, he gave me some advice about using a better icebreaker to start my set. This pissed me off because 1) my start was pretty good, 2) he was telling me to steal someone else’s material and 3) HE WAS READING OFF A SHEET OF PAPER. Sadly, his set went better than mine, so maybe I should take some advice…or get a cheat sheet.