Maybe, Just Maybe I’ll Catch This Next Wave!
Tags: amateur comedians, Saskatoon comedians, stand-up comedy, The Stand-Up Diaries, trevor dean, Trevor Dean comedian, trevor dean saskatoon, writingI have been back for a few weeks now as part of the Saskatoon comedy scene once again, with Dez.
I’ll let that sink in for a minute.
I am part of the Wednesday night open mic performers at Buds. When you go to see an open mic, it’s a lot like…..well, I guess the beauty of it is that one never really knows what it will be like. On the one hand we do have the ability to say whatever we need to, providing it’s funny. I’ve mentioned before that comedy is about structure, first and foremost. You can take anything and make it funny when you follow the structure to building a joke. Anyhow, back to my point.
Two weeks ago I was on stage, and again last night. The difference between the two sets was noticeable to me, at least. The shitty part was that I forgot to tape the last show. That’s probably because I didn’t have a lot of confidence going into that set, so I did what any normal semi-decent-on-some-nights-but-not-very-many comic would do when they see everybody else doing well. I drank.
But this time, the results were much better than the last time I got on stage three sheets to the wind.
Two weeks ago everyone was doing well, and it started to weigh on me once again. I had enough and was frustrated and nearing the end of my rope, never being able to get a decent audience response from Dez’s open mic, ever. It happened once. That’s it, and that was the first set I wrote with Jerry after I came back. Other than that, I’ve been eating shit most nights when I hit the stage.
So I got up there, and instead of doing my material, I figured since this is a bar type of crowd, I would do things that people in a bar want to hear.
So I went off the cuff.
I started talking about my looks and bingo. I know, don’t ask. Anyhow, I had some energy right from the start. Maybe it was from the three cheerleader beers I had before I went up (Smirnoff Ice), but right off the bat I got everyone’s attention, and I got laughs at the start. Then something happened that absolutely floored me.
When I went into my stock jokes for adoption, they got solid laughs. Good, solid laughs. Why? I’m thinking it was because of the fact that I got their attention early by just being me. Then once I got into the actual structured material it worked because I already had them into my act from the word go.
So, fast forward to last night. I had brand new material, and without being long-winded on here, I tried to replicate that energy. I started off a bit flat, knocked it out of the park, went flat again, then was able to pick it up again for a decent finish, but to nowhere near the level of the joke about “bad boys”.
But we are onto something here, because two other comics on stage after me mentioned me. They talked about my energy, meaning I stood out. It’s not perfect, as open mics sometimes aren’t. However, there are moments within a set where you have that brief moment that makes you smile, makes you feel proud and knowing that’s the right path for you to take. So, without further ado, here is my set from last night.
Some of you may wonder why I post open mic stuff that isn’t solid from start to finish? It’s because I feel a responsibility in a sense to my followers to let them in on the journey. I don’t know of anybody else who would post sets that aren’t solid and tight, but I truly do not have an ego when it comes to comedy, I’m more determined than egotistical in that sense.
Most of you know about the struggles I’ve had over these last four years. It hasn’t been fun at times, but I still keep going. I still have to keep moving forward.
Jerry told me that the audience is in whatever state the performer is in. Not only that, but the audience also is rooting for you to succeed, they want you to succeed from the moment you hit that stage. I can’t be like everybody else. I have to be me. Being me means being self-deprecating, being dynamic and a good story teller. This coming week I will be working on that material, refining it, tightening it up and getting rid of most of the profanity. Next week I will post the video from my next set so you can see the difference quality makes. Sorry, that’s a Ford slogan. What I meant to say was, next week you’ll see what daily practice does to hone a set.
Now, lastly, some of you may be surprised to learn that I am back. At the end of the day, there weren’t too many options for me to perform. The shows in Regina aren’t as frequent anymore, and the bookers at the pro comedy club want me to submit some newer material for them to figure out where I may fit into their rotation of hosts in the future. So, that left me with one choice.
So far, the response and feedback has been positive, and I will be working with the other comics and Dez to make my set better. Thank you all again for following along. Feel free to leave comments below if you wish.
Be blessed!