A Certain (Stage) Presence About You.

So in an earlier post I typed about creating your own opportunity. Back in March, I approached a couple buddies who have a local bar and we talked about the potential of bringing comedy to St. Paul and how there's nothing really like it in the city. They decided to give it a go every third Friday. I stressed promoting and they got a sponsor(Yaaaay)! Our first show was in July and I had a good turn out. My dad even came out and introducing him to the comics has been one of the highlights so far. He's been to all but two. I booked over ten folks and it ran well over two hours. Couple "names" stopped by unexpectedly and I felt like crap because I couldn't give them time. I really wanted to, but I didn't have the onions to tell comics that I approached when I needed comics that they couldn't go up now. The people had a good time and the bar said it was one of the best nights in 3-4 months.
There are opportunities where I feel we can take advantage of, I know it's going to take persistence. Now, I have 6-7 comics I know the crowd will like and am saying no more often and it aint that bad.

I did a show up the road at a spot called Walking Jax and I wasn't really nervous. What helped is that I knew the other comics except for the headliner who was so nice! I kept thinking that I was the only comic that didn't have a head shot for the poster outside and couldn't help but wonder what the reaction would be once they got a load of me. I did well and returned back to some feedback by the older comics, jotted down on some paper. It actually helped. Then I sensed a disturbance in the force and noticed that this man walking toward me with that familiar walk was my dad! I told him I didn't expect him to show up and he said he knew. Easily one of the best moments of my life.

After hosting the Capitol City Comedy Show, I felt something was missing and it was bugging me the following day. That night I was hosting another show, but this one was special. Another comic had asked me to host his birthday show and it meant a lot to me. I took on an entirely different mindset. It was also a fellow comics first time doing 30, so this was a big deal all around. Before the show, my friend was telling me how nervous he was, having never done this before. That made me unecessarily nervous for a little bit, but I got over it a lot faster than him. I had to.
Minus the comics there were a grand total of 5 people looking to laugh! I ran through my set and saw I still had time, so I did some crowd rap. I had never done that before and it felt good. Afterwards, the feature told me that he didn't have a good feeling about going up until he heard the crowd open up. I was honored just be a part of the show. I had more fun at that show than my own!

One show was fun because it was in a nice setting, the host was cool and I was a fan of most of the comics. An old friend came to see me at a show. We caught up for a bit and he said that it encouraged him to keep following his dream. That meant a lot.