I am very excited about this week! I have three shows in three consecutive days. Tuesday I will be in Big Irish Jay's Superfriends Show at the Comedy Underground, Wednesday I have a guest spot at the Bamboo Bar and Grill, and Thursday I play a late night show at UW: the ASSUW lol show. I have heard lots of good things about the ASSUW show.
I think I am most excited about the ASSUW show, I have always wanted to play a show at UW. OK, maybe not always, but at least since I started school at UW. Now that I have graduated it feels right that I return there. It will be my first theatre show since restarting stand up. But I actually have done an open mic at the Ethnic Cultural Theatre.
It was right before my freshman year. I was in an early-start program, a MANDATORY considering my high school GPA early-start program with 80 other students. We all had to live on campus and all had to take the same classes. After completing the program we not only got six UW credits for free, but actually got to stay at UW. It was almost like an academic survivor...except the food was better...and the sleeping conditions....and almost everyone made it through the whole way.
About three weeks into the four week program they held an Open Mic. I was 18 and had been to the Comedy Underground a few times. I had a few bits, and one of them I actually liked. It always seemed to kill at the Underground, but the follow up jokes would always lag. I decided since it had been a while and I had nothing new that I would just do the one joke that I felt very confident in.
I was interested in getting stage time and figured this Open Mic would be a great opportunity and signed up. Of course, when ever I hear or read the term "open mic" I think of comedy. This is not always true. I learned this when it was my turn to go on stage and every one up until that point had done poetry. I was a bit nervous to get on stage with comedy. I wasn't sure how the crowd that had been listening to poetry for 45 minutes would react to stand up, but I figured there was only one way to find out.
Here is a rough version of the joke:
When I was growing up, my parents read me a picture book to teach me where babies came from. It was all about mommies and daddies and love and...Bull Shit! When my son asks me where babies come from I am going to be completely honest with him. I will tell him: "Um, well son. When teenagers get bored, they like to do things that make them feel good. So they will be drinking their magical brew and smoking their magical herb and then they will have...um their magical sex. And then, THEN (starting to get increasingly angry) later your mom calls me up and says she's peed on a magical stick and it told her that my life IS RUINED AND I'LL BE STUCK PAYING FOR YOU FOR 18-years.......(now suddenly calm) at least that's where you came from. I'm sure some of your friends were planned, but you weren't"
I think I am most excited about the ASSUW show, I have always wanted to play a show at UW. OK, maybe not always, but at least since I started school at UW. Now that I have graduated it feels right that I return there. It will be my first theatre show since restarting stand up. But I actually have done an open mic at the Ethnic Cultural Theatre.
It was right before my freshman year. I was in an early-start program, a MANDATORY considering my high school GPA early-start program with 80 other students. We all had to live on campus and all had to take the same classes. After completing the program we not only got six UW credits for free, but actually got to stay at UW. It was almost like an academic survivor...except the food was better...and the sleeping conditions....and almost everyone made it through the whole way.
About three weeks into the four week program they held an Open Mic. I was 18 and had been to the Comedy Underground a few times. I had a few bits, and one of them I actually liked. It always seemed to kill at the Underground, but the follow up jokes would always lag. I decided since it had been a while and I had nothing new that I would just do the one joke that I felt very confident in.
I was interested in getting stage time and figured this Open Mic would be a great opportunity and signed up. Of course, when ever I hear or read the term "open mic" I think of comedy. This is not always true. I learned this when it was my turn to go on stage and every one up until that point had done poetry. I was a bit nervous to get on stage with comedy. I wasn't sure how the crowd that had been listening to poetry for 45 minutes would react to stand up, but I figured there was only one way to find out.
Here is a rough version of the joke:
When I was growing up, my parents read me a picture book to teach me where babies came from. It was all about mommies and daddies and love and...Bull Shit! When my son asks me where babies come from I am going to be completely honest with him. I will tell him: "Um, well son. When teenagers get bored, they like to do things that make them feel good. So they will be drinking their magical brew and smoking their magical herb and then they will have...um their magical sex. And then, THEN (starting to get increasingly angry) later your mom calls me up and says she's peed on a magical stick and it told her that my life IS RUINED AND I'LL BE STUCK PAYING FOR YOU FOR 18-years.......(now suddenly calm) at least that's where you came from. I'm sure some of your friends were planned, but you weren't"
It killed. I left quickly on the high note. I left them wanting more, without them knowing that I didn't have any more. After this, I was known the students of Summer Bridge 2005 as the "funny white guy". (Did I mention the program was run by the Office of Minority Affairs?)
That was the last time I did that joke. I wrote it originally for a commentary piece on a radio show I was on in high school. It was well recieved there and even made it onto a pledge drive sample. For some reason I just didn't feel like doing it anymore. I thought maybe it could come off as mean-spirited, though it never seemed to be recieved that way and I didn't intend it to be so. I didn't do stand-up again until three-and-a-half years later and by then I had new material I wanted to try.
I have fond memories from the Ethnic Cultural Theatre and I am looking forward to performing there again. I am looking forward to take a UW stage with ten minutes of material that I feel really good about and enjoy performing. I am also very excited about the energy of a student crowd. If you are in the U District on Thursday around 10pm, it is a free show.
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