When I started doing comedy I had no idea there were different crowds. Thus, one of the reasons new comics stink (myself included). I did every show the same, no matter whether the audience was full of drunk college students or senior citizens. I would do really terrible vulgar jokes to someone’s grandma and walk off perplexed at why she didn’t laugh, or decide to do a lovely college joke to a room full of blacked out rednecks…you get the idea.
Over time, I started to pick up on these things. Yet consistently, of all the rooms I heard other comics whisper about nervously was doing a “black” room, mostly due to sightings of YouTube clips from the Apollo or other white comics getting destroyed by the audience. Interestingly, most of the most frightened speculation came from comedians who had never worked such a room. In fairness, I first did an all black room about a year and a half after I started. I followed my pal Camp (who is very white) and as I walked onto the stage, a very large black woman yelled, “Another white motherfucker? Damn!” Maybe these fears were justified.
My experiences in rooms with all black crowds have vastly improved since that fine start and I think as a comic you have to get good at rooms you fear or suck at. Or realize there is no hope for you and stick to whatever works, hoping against hope you constantly get a crowd specifically for your material, which rarely happens. Then again, you may work to improve your skills for years, walk onstage, and absolutely eat your own ass – which I did last Saturday. Stay tuned for that tale.