Mic 32 — She/They
Venue: Imposters Theater
Host: Cam Godfrey
Show: She They Comedy Hour
Set Time: 5 Minutes
Saturday’s She/They Show was full of surprises. Obstacles, Easter eggs, you know I don’t exactly know what to call the new things I am continuously learning or exposed to. Honestly it is like walking into a spider web every time I go out to do comedy.
Green Room
I arrived 15 minutes before showtime and headed downstairs to the green room. Imposters Theater is a collection of nooks and crannies for classes and shows. A small labyrinth of rooms with doors leading to other rooms with doors. Today’s show was in the main room with the stage and seating for up to 50 or so. I had no idea what to expect from the show, the crowd line up, the material, etc. but I did know a couple of the performers. Two, I knew two and this room had 6 people in it.
Most were seated on the couches that lined the green room. They look comfortable like this is familiar. It could be someone’ living room and I am the new kid in town - friend of a friend. I don’t sit. This is where talent waits to go on a stage through another door or in this case, up a set of stairs and through another door. When I am in a new or unfamiliar situation I start looking for things that I recognize to ground me, give me something to hook my carabiner to as I climb whatever proverbial mountain in front of me.
I spot a lineup tacked to a pole. Lists are a staple of the comedy scene. Other than lawyers, comedians might be the only other consumers of legal pads.
There is a lineup list on the wall
Cam
Missy
Improv
Substance
Cam.
I glanced at it thinking it would make me feel more comfortable but all it did was confuse me. Cam, Cam Godfrey, host and producer of the show. She is on there twice. Who knows what that means. I know my name - Missy - and I was asked to do 5–7 minutes and if you read Mic 29 you know I wasn’t even sure what she was asking then but walking in I thought I was prepared. But next is Improv, which spontaneity is implied and I have no idea if this is an everyone participating kind of thing or a troupe. Then it says Substance. Spider web. Smack in the face and I have no idea what is crawling around on me.
The host has us circle up to do some warm ups. I stop and and ask if I can introduce myself. I have been invited in and so I have to pretend to speak the language until I learn the culture. It is an ever changing classroom as each venue, each show, each host, is like another dialect. The nuances are overwhelming. I will continue to say that I am drinking from a firehose. My age suggests experience and my demeanor offers a narrative where I have met everyone and been around forever. In my head I am perpetually screaming I am NEW! But out loud, I assimilate and forge ahead.
One of the comedians’ names is Substance.
Her name is Substance — so I didn’t need to figure that out — which is great because I am limited on substance to be honest.
As for Improv, based on the number of people here, 4 of these lovely comedians are part of a troupe that is being put together today to bring us some improv. Still not sure if I am included in that or not — but feeling better.
We do some warm ups. Let’s stop here for a second. NO I DON’T KNOW ALL THE WARM UPS. I did take an Improv class last year and in 8th grade I played Mrs. Noah in the community Theater - that was 46 years ago. So yesterday and I should be fine recalling. Fake it until you make it. Our entire childhood is a series of learning things, doing things and failing at things in a circle with the eyes of our peers staring into our souls. It never gets better.
Warm ups are over and people drop back to the couches and I stand - it's what I do and I started chatting with Deena Nyer Mendlowitz, my Improv instructor about Snowflake comedy. I was trying to get to see a show. It is run by Leah Addison who put it together because she wanted a place that wasn’t just Dick Jokes. My words, not hers. She says something like:
I understand. Being out at open mics it is a boys game. But I am familiar here. I do well as a minority and it challenges me to push harder. I wanted to know what the Snowflake thing was all about and Deena told me to send an email, attach a good five minutes and ask to get booked. I asked Deena to watch my set tonight first and then tell me if I should send them a tape. It is easier to get booked than you think, the pool is small. But I am not from the generation of participation, I want to earn it and do what I am asked. When I applied for anything in my youth, even if we knew the owner, I was in a clean outfit, showed up early with a firm handshake and a resume. It is in my core and thus applied to everything including this.
The show was good, funny, and a combination of comedic presentations. And I was glad I could contribute.
After the show, Deena told me to send the tape, asked to get booked and to tell them that she recommended I do so. That was an endorsement and I appreciated it.
I also appreciate that she asked me if I was open to critique and notes.
She asked.
It threw me off. Deena is nice, and I am weirdly approachable and frightening and she knows that. Her asking was lovely and kind and a politeness that I don't get much of in comedy.
I had done some of the dog and border patrol material. I had unintentionally shifted the decisions of the dog patrolling the border to me, and not something she started that I was a bit uncomfortable with.
It was an interesting conversation with Deena, who I don’t know on a truly personal level but we were talking about how I am not a racist but the juxtaposition of which material is delivered is very important.
I said that things dusted up when the chihuahuas moved in and we upped her biscuit budget and put her on the wall.
Earlier in the joke I had alluded to the dog starting a sovereign nation and profiling the squirrels and the joke was supposed to continue along that line — of her getting to be too much. Like maybe my dog was slightly racist. But with the slightest changes in my word choice, it was ME that didn’t want the chihuahuas in the yard.
It was a great note, but I take criticism poorly.
That I got in my head.
When Deena asked if the joke about stealing a loaf of bread each week at self check out was true — I said yes.
I said yes.
It’s not true. I don’t steal a loaf of bread.
But I felt like I was being questioned about lying because I was so paranoid because I can’t handle criticism without feeling like I was in trouble.
What is wrong with me?
Seriously, what is wrong with me?
I will send Deena a note. I need to for so many reasons but mostly to thank her for her honest and helpful feedback and for recommending I send a clip and email to Snowflake, because I got booked for August and I am thrilled. Spokes and Jokes.
