Hey gang-
So, before heading out on the road for a six day little run, I had two shows here at home base to help get warmed up.
I featured for Erin Jackson at the Liberty Laughs Comedy Club in Fredricksburg, VA. It was my second time featuring this room, and once again I had a lot of fun. It tricks you on the way in- since the show is in a bowling alley, you assume it's going to be brutal, but it's in a seperate room. It's designed perfectly for a comedy club- tables, candles, a brick backdrop for the stage, all that good stuff.
I desperatly need a thirty minute tape to send to a few bookers, and I was hoping to get it done in Fredricksburg- I hadn't been happy with any of my Williamsburg shows enough to use it. Once again, I felt the set didn't quite hit hard enough to use as a demo, but I was still glad I taped it. Back when I started at the open mics, I used to tape every show I performed at, just to study my stage presence. I probably haven't watched myself in at least a year, and it definatly showed. I say "like" too much, had more then a few unnecesary arm gestures- over the last year I've been working hard at being looser and more flexible onstage, but now I feel the pendulum has swung too far the other way. So, over the next few months I'm back to the early work of tightening up, and the fervent pursual of the happy medium.
The day after, I slid in last minute to MC a show in Westminster, MD. Mike Way and Marc Unger were on the show too, so it was nice catching up with them. The show itself was in a restraunt, and wasn't quite the best set-up. The closest audience member was 15 feet away, and they were fairly spread out, which makes it incredibly difficult to gel the crowd into one group mind. Between that, and going up cold, it's the kind of situation that would have made me shut down a few years ago. But, thanks to the college tour giving me a string of noon cafeteria shows last year, I've gotten pretty comfortable in almost any comedy enviornment. Just give me a mic and I'm satisfied I'll give a good show.
From there, time to go back onto the road! I had a ten hour train ride to Cleaveland, followed immidietly after by a drive to Pittsburgh in the van. That, of course, meant another visit to Hogfathers, the Star Wars of Barbeque. Since the college was so close to Pittsburgh, we made it a point to heavily promote Hogfathers, passing out menus to the crowd. It's stupid of them to not be eating there every day. The highlight of that show was Ryan interupting Joe's set, ala Kanye West. It just had a shelf life of a few days, but got some solid laughs.
The show ended at eleven at night, and we then had to be in Upstate New York at ten the next morning for a nooner show. So, that meant a seven hour all night drive, followed by three hours of sleep, followed by a hilarious comedy show. We did note wake up in the best of temperments.
On the way to noon shows, we like to place bets on how bad it's going to be. We each made a prediction on what important comedy show element is going to be missing. Joe's hunch was no stage. I often go the even higher pessimist route, and assume we're not even going to be in a cafeteria, thanks to how many times we've just been stuck in the middle of a lobby, recieving sound complaints.
Loki smiled upon us this day, my friend. Against all odds, we were put in an AWESOME performance space. It was an enclosed lounge room with a stage, sound system, and chairs set up theater style, with couches and tables in the back. We did two short shows for them. The first show took a lot of warming up before they were completly on board. But, they were a hip crowd, so I was able to do some of the more obscure material comfortably, it was a nice opportunity to switch up a bit. The second show, which had a lot of repeat business from the first show, went a lot better, and was fun consistently.
The hotel we were staying at was nice enough to send some bed bugs my way. I've been sleeping with oven mits on to stop from scratching. Leslie is collecting photgraphic evidence, which won't find it's way onto facebook.
From there, it was off to Vermont! Our favorite state! To make the drive up intresting, Ryan and I made it a goal to be honked at at least once during our driving shifts. Ryan cheated, by doing the "honk" motion to a truck. I got honked at by doing an awkward and dangerous merge. Joe opted out.
Last year in Vermont, we climbed the second highest mountain, Mt. Killington. This year, setting our sights lower, we decided on hiking up the third highest, Camel Hump. The funny name of the mountain was a deciding factor. We bought a five dollar scarecrow from Rite-Aid, with the intent on leaving him on the mountaintop.
As soon as we got out of the van, we began to suspect we were not fully prepared. Joe and Ryan were both in shorts, and some clearly drained hikers were walking down the path, wearing five layers. It was fairly warm where we were, but apparently the top of the mountain had some snow. Even though it was shorter then Killington, the paths were a lot steeper. Woefully out of shape, we had to turn back an hour in, failing the mountain. We left our scarecrow hidden behind some trees to mark where we had made it too, and vowed to return.
Since failing the mountain was proof of our poor state of health, we decided to go take a tour of the Ben and Jerry's factory, and eat free ice cream. It's EXACTLY as much fun as it sounds. While there, we bumped into someone from Maine who had booked us for some shows last year. She was working on a photography book collecting photos of people pretending to be dead. Why wouldn't she be?
Our show that night was at a Military Academy. Watching the freshmen students there, I reflected on how quickly I would have dropped out. They had to always walk a certain way, and due to hazing incidents they weren't allowed to talk to upperclassmen. Also, they had climbed up the mountain we failed too, but at five in the morning lugging heavy gear. It was the highest energy show we've had yet-they seemed incredibly grateful to have entertainment come by their way. I wouldn't be cut out for going through that kind of school, but I'm glad someone is.
Back home for two weeks of local shows, then on the road for the majority of October. Thanks for all the support gang!
-Jimmy
September 26th: Geek Show at Towson University, Towson Maryland
September 27th: Hightops Grill, Timonium Maryland (35 minute set)
September 30th: Judging "Funniest Fed" contest
October 2nd: Magoobys Joke House
October 3rd: Magoobys Joke House
October 9th: College of New Jersey, Ewing NJ
October 10th: A Bar Somewhere, Pittsburg PA
October 15th: St. Katherine College, St. Kentucky
October 19th: Shepard University, Shepard West Virginia
October 20th: Penn State, Mount Alto PA
October 21st: West Virginia Weslyanne College, Buckingham West Virginia
October 22nd: West Virginia State College, Dunbar West Virginia
October 24th: Pacific Unioun College, Anguin California
October 26th: Sonoma State Otero University, Sonoma State California
November 1st-3rd: APCA Showcase, New York City
November 6th-8th: APCA Showcase, Iowa
November 17th: Otero Junior College, Ottero California
November 20th: The Comedy Lab
November 21st: The Comedy Lab