I hate to leave you all waiting for more than 24 hours to get your dose of ListenToLeon…So for that, I apologize. Now that I’m in the habit of putting stuff up here every day, I actually feel guilty when I break my routine. It was broken for a good reason tonight, though. I hit an open-mic comedy event and did some stand up.
Technically, it was the second time I ever did actual stand-up, and the 4th time I just got up in front of an audience and said the first funny stories and one-liners that came to mind. Each experience has gotten laughs, but I’ve learned a few lessons from my week and a half of doing stand-up:
I need to actually try PRACTICING my material, instead of relying on the funny stories, jokes and trash talk already stored in my mental resovoir. Proper preparation will probably be the difference in me being considered kind of funny, or flat-out HILARIOUS!
I’m capable of doing funny stand up witout swearing. Although cursing sometimes gives a sentence that extra bit of emphasis, I don’t have to rely on it. Clean comedians are shaking in their boots right now…That’s right. Watch out Sinbad! If you ever do get another good job, I might have to take it from you!
It’s harder to get laughs when you’re performing in front of a roomful of comedians. Although all the folks I met tonight were cool, I had the underlying sense that everyone in the room was secretly sizing each other up, as if it were an audition or competition. It’s cool, though…If you can make a room like that laugh, regular folks shouldn’t be a problem.
Every time onstage is a learning experience. I’ve been taking notes after each time I did my thing in front of a crowd, and it’s helped me identify what I’m good at right now, and what I need to work on.
So you see, even though I went a day without posting, I was still out being funny somewhere! I might not have made you all smile, but somewhere out there, somebody is laughing at the Butch Black story right now. My influence has been felt!
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I am glad the other comedians didn’t hate on you. I have seen that happen too many times.
I’m glad you did well at stand up. And did you just figure out that you don’t need to swear to carry a joke? C’mon Leon.
I’ve heard of that being common, but luckily, I haven’t experienced it yet. Everyone seemed to be pretty laid-back and supportive of each other so far. It would probably be different if I were in a competition with money on the line or something…but so far, no negativity!
@ Leon, I’ve always known that I’m capapble of expressing myself and being funny without using curse words…I just have a tendency to get lazy sometimes and rely on the shock value of unexpected vulgarity.
You have more guts than I’ll ever have, I’ll tell you that. I’ve always thought being a stand-up comedian and making people laugh on-cue is probably the hardest occupation in the world.
I know I, myself, am a hatin’-ass-nigga to the core and try to resist laughing when someone tries to make me.
I tip my hat to you, sir.
This Obama video is well put together. I don’t know if you have seen it or not.
http://www.dipdive.com/