Mic 36 The Difference Between Failing and Bombing

Venue: Lakewood Village Tavern

Host: Zach Welch

Show: The Village Idiot

Set Time:  5 minutes

I love an audience. I have since I was old enough to realize what attention felt like. I would imagine at first the basking glow of adoration is what fueled my need to perform as a child, but that slowly evolved into the understanding of how people interact.  It is the togetherness that is my favorite part.  How even on the stage, the eyebrow raise, the shake of a head, the silence and the laughter all add to the course and determine where we will land.  When I am on stage I am merely the ship, the audience is the wind, the water, the weather.  I have to adjust the sails, change course, find the tack, so the journey is good for all of us.  

Entertainment is a distraction and stealing a stage can diffuse or escalate a situation and the power of the pivot was fascinating. To be able to diffuse an argument by acting the clown or introducing something so foreign the concentration is broken and the argument smolders out. This is all transferable. 

I have not outgrown the behavior. Recently I was a spectator to a small domestic squabble between my daughter and the boy she spends time with and the insanity of the conversation begged for an interjection so I licked her face. An action so egregious and ridiculous that the scene froze and laughter and chaos and disgust took over and the day moved on.

Physical comedy is so jarring it never fails to be corrective. My brother and I for separate reasons and with a completely dichotomous brand of humor have been deflecting, pivoting, redirecting, diffusing and coping using humor our entire life. For me it is even my go to defense mechanism. I tend to make fun and my brother makes fun of.  Of himself, of others, the situation, etc.  and I put on a red nose. 

So comedy is comfortable. I realize for some it is therapeutic, cathartic, for me it is just joy. The biggest practice I am working on right now is how to be me in this environment. Unapologetically me. How not to forget it has worked for 58 years and stop second guessing it. 

My dear friend TT, a school teacher, mother of daughters, and a soulmate gave me this lovely book by Judd Apatow, “Sick in the Head: Conversations About Life and Comedy”. I have been reading it slowly whenever I get a few minutes. It is a collection of interviews he has done over the years, even from when he was a teenager, so reading it one interview at a time is like being there, focusing on just that moment and putting myself in the room. It is a very intimate and honest book and as I spend time in the local Cleveland Scene it is also very familiar. 

I just finished an interview with Jerry Seinfeld where he talks about how it has always just been about the joy of it. I understood that so well. He is one of the few comedians interviewed that talks about it in that way. Regardless of the audience it is about the joyful and comedic way he sees life and shares it.

This brings me back to the audience. There have been a number of times I have been out where there have been references to the audience.

 "Tough crowd tonight" 

"Dead in here tonight"

Most recently, a young, college aged, talented comedian, who goes to school in New York,  told an audience how these same jokes are killed in New York and then told the audience to suck his dick.  The insinuation that the material was right and the room was wrong is so entitled to me.  I understand the frustration and how it can be derailing but funny is as funny does and it doesn’t ever do what you want or expect.  

I came into this comedy thing knowing and assuming everyone knew that it is all on me. The audience is there to be entertained and if we are not doing that then we are not doing the job.

I was at the Lakewood Village Tavern (LVT) last week and I failed. No, I didn't bomb. I failed. The LVT is an institution. It has been 15 years of comedy and it has been a rotation for the area that draws all kinds of comedians.

This week a group of people got up and switched rooms when comedy started and someone put them on the spot. They had been there about an hour before the show, food, a couple rounds, people joining as time went on.  If I had to guess they were friends who work together.  There was chatter about the job, the day and their lives sewn through the conversation. They were settled in and they were polite in their retreat, even though they were heckled for it.  

 "Not interested in comedy?" 

"We want to be able to talk and we didn't realize it was comedy" 

"It's been happening here for 15 years."

Sometimes the gap between civilian and comedian is so large that its the most awkward moment of the night.  A hostage joke would have landed better then heckling them during their retreat. 

“The women and the short one can leave but the rest of you are staying through the first 5 acts.” 

They moved and I doubt they will ever come and see comedy at LVT. 

The host and the first couple comedians didn't get a lot of love. The comedian before me was the one who was just in New York. So the audience was primed.

I got up and did my set to two tables of civilians, 8 comediens and the host.  The tables of guest that started after the earlier exodus were here for comedy.  The larger table of five was eating and drinking and although I don’t know that they came for the show - they were game.  The other table was two adult males who looked famliar but I couldn’t get a read on them. 

I thanked the two tables of civilians for staying, made a little joke and then launched into a set that didn't land too many times but it was ok. 

Where I failed, was I should have started the set this way:

Ladies and gentleman, thank you for staying, if you are being kept against your will blink twice. 

Actually let me buy these two tables a round of drinks. 

We need a little reset. Be quick about it - I only get 5 minutes. 

Ok - Thank you for coming. 

You, you there, lovely smile with a face that has no pores, how does your skin breathe? 

I am always amazed by people with great complexion. 

Listen, just to put us all at ease - I am a female - so no dick to suck. 

You gentlemen - I think I saw you at the Five O'clock earlier this week. 

You look familiar and mysterious. 

Are you with Michelin? 

Is there a burger on the menu here that I really need to try? 

Curly fries? 

Is that a napkin on the floor?

And then launched into my set. 

Yes this is a little Monday morning Quarterbacking but it is also awareness that I am not letting my freak flag fly and of all environments — this is the place!

An audience is a sacred gift. It is a collection of earned approval. It is the space where you get to give something and get something back. I have a job, no, an obligation to provide them the best version of me and lift their spirits, lighten the load, take them someplace other than life -  for 5 minutes.

And if I don't do that, I need to try harder, be better but keep pivoting until it is achieved in even the littlest way.  This is who I am.  I read a room, I have been doing it one kitchen table, boardroom, hospital, office, bar, etc. at a time for 5 decades. 

The LVT room wasn’t dead - It just needed its face licked.