What a fickle mistress

Comedy is such a weird thing. It's the only emotion you go somewhere to try to get it. You don't go to a live show to watch one person standing on stage to get sad or to get scared or to get angry. You go to get happy and to laugh. It's an even weirder thing to be the person trying to make the audience laugh. It's one thing to be the class clown or the funny one in your group of friends, but to get onstage in front of 200 some odd people, most of whom you've never met and never will meet, is very very strange.

The psychology of comedy is interesting as hell. I don't know all the fancy words and text book facts on it, but from what I've observed, the audience is one living, breathing entity that seemingly thinks alike. It's not 200 separate people, it's one body and if it doesn't think something is funny, it doesn't laugh. It's weird how one joke works wonders on one group of people and the same joke falls flat on it's face in front of another group. I like to watch the audience from the back of the theater and see what makes them tick - how their faces react to a certain joke or how their body language changes when they laugh. Comedy isn't just theater, it's psychology too. Then again, theater isn't just theater, it's also psychology.

I'm happy to say that my comedy has grown a lot since the first time I went onstage way back in September. Last night at ACME, I got more laughs than I ever have. I was comfortable and I talked to the audience and I ad libbed. It was great. I was surprised it went so smoothly because I wasn't prepared, I didn't even go over my material before going on, I hadn't written anything new in a few weeks and I wasn't feeling too well yesterday. I love how when you get onstage, even if you're sicker than a dog, as soon as the spotlight hits you the sickness vanishes. You don't feel your body anymore - maybe you should, it's important in stage presence. That's one thing I need to brush up on is stage presence. I sway sometimes and I do weird things with my hands apparently. I need to be more aware of my body and my movements.

I don't have a video for you today, kids, but I have a suggestion: go out and see some live comedy - it's ten times better than the stuff on tv or the radio.