Hey there, ‘Redheads… Wow, so Blogust is off to a rip-roaring start. Two entries in 10 days…whoo whee. Ok, enough with the half-hearted self-deprecation…it’s my gift…my curse. This has been a crappy weekend for the entertainment industry. We lost Bernie Mac on Saturday, from complications from pneumonia. And this morning, Isaac Hayes died. They found him unconscious and unresponsive next to his treadmill. That’ll keep me out of the gym for another couple months. Since Scientology says that heaven is a fraud built by evil alien psychiatrists from outer space, he’ll probably end up in some cosmic L. Ron Hubbard rough draft. May a flight of sexy alien back-up singers sing thee to thy rest…can ya dig it?
Speaking of death, I figured out a hard and fast rule about digging an on-stage grave…at open mics anyway. You’d think this would be more apparent to me, but it’s all about the presentation. Audiences, non-comic audiences, simply do not know any better and don’t give a rat’s patoot if material is new and untested. If you present it with confidence, odds are you’ll get a more genuine reaction. If you do what I did at Wiseacre’s last week, sabotaged myself by telling the large audience that the material was all new then stammering through it, you’ll probably get met with a couple awkward chuckles. Never let ’em see ya sweat. That’s one to grow on.
The dust has settled from the DC Comedy Fest. I’d like to say the rumbling and grumbling from the collective local comedy scene has stopped, but it’s still as rumbly and grumbly as ever. I’ve only heard second and third hand info about a couple shows, so I won’t cast any extra aspersions. I did, however, take part in the Fest-sanctioned show at Solly’s Tavern on Thursday night. That show was fun and populated with attentive audience members. The line-up was great…I especially got a kick out of the bombastic silliness of Bostonian Sean Crespo and the comedy palsy of local Michael Foody. Crespo reminded me of the guy from Psych…Foody looked like the lighting stand-in for Napoleon Dymamite. Fun show. Big ups to Nick Turner and Jay Hastings for wrangling the comics.
Be back soon…
JARED STERN'S ONLINE COMEDY CUBICLE 