How Do You Make A Cake When You Can’t Buy The Flour, Baking Powder Or Egg Whites?

Tags: amateur comedians, Saskatoon, stand-up comedy, The Stand-Up Diaries, trevor dean

I know it’s been quite a while between postings for me, as work and the occasional trip to Regina are all that I can stake a claim to over the past several weeks, in addition to winning $1007.00 at Casino Regina, all on a $20 bet 🙂

As far as I know, we’re still on for Friday, October 18th in Regina.  I believe each comic only gets a tight five minutes to do their sets.  If this is the case, it will require some work as my comedy comeback video was roughly seven minutes long.  I then have to strike the delicate balance of knowing which jokes to take out or shorten, to not do it at the expense of disrupting the ebb and flow of my material.  The good thing is that this material from the comeback video is all I have for material, as I trashed the rest and decided it was way easier to apply the new writing techniques to new material rather than comb through each joke to re-work it.  Once you know how to properly structure a joke it makes it a bit easier to write it.

Aside from this show in Regina next month, there is nothing on the comedy horizon for me at all.  There is the Laugh Shop in Saskatoon, but I am a bit apprehensive to stick my nose in there and see what happens, especially when I haven’t been on stage in a few months.  I guess part of it too is that I don’t have any help to put together a media kit, or something similar to it that would show my ability.  I have not been able to talk with my comedy coach as he is still in the process of running his summer comedy classes and wrapping up production on the movie he co-wrote that will be due for release in March of 2014.

I was told by a comic once that if you really want into the comedy scene but don’t have the stage time to perfect things, it’s a good idea to perform your act wherever an audience is present, whether it be at work, at the mall or a club, just for the sole purpose of getting your name and face out there.

While this sounds like a good idea, take it from somebody who’s struggled in the laughs department before.  The audience you have at a comedy club versus that of the workplace, or mall, or club is drastically different.  For starters, outside of a comedy club environment people are pretty easy to make laugh, at least from my interactions with them, because for one, they don’t expect it and two, they are generally in a good frame of mind making it easier to laugh when I make a good impression upon them.

The comedy audience is completely different.  At a comedy club people are there because they expect you to make them laugh.  There are two types of people who are in a comedy club audience.

1. The happy-go-lucky type that is receptive to decent material (not crude or racist).
2. For whatever reason these people sit there with their arms crossed and they dare the comic to make them laugh.  They give the comic zero benefit of the doubt and the first words out of the comics mouth have to be spot on or it’s tough to bring that person back around.

I’ve bore witness to both types.  It’s easy for anyone to make the first type of audience member laugh, as these people are usually the same way outside of a comedy club environment.

Hence the relation to the baking reference in the title of this posting.  Without flour, baking powder or egg whites your cake will not rise.  If it doesn’t rise, it’s not a cake.

Same thing with comedy.  I’m sure you are smart enough to piece it together.

I will probably do another posting towards the end of this month or in early October, when I get the details for the Regina show.  Be blessed!