In March, on here, I shared that I’d been itching to give stand-up comedy a try again. In early June, I learned that a bar at a nearby town had recently begun hosting a monthly open mic night, so I checked to see if that was just for musicians or if comedians were welcome. They replied that they’d only had musicians so far, but that they’d love for a comedian to come.
So, I went at the end of June, and I gave stand-up a try again. I was a mess prior to performing, but once I began and got that first laugh, things went pretty smoothly after that. My mouth became completely dry, though, just like it used to, and that makes it difficult to talk, but since I was only doing a few minutes of material, I survived that.
I have already prepared another set for a second appearance, hopefully at the end of August. I skipped July because I was too busy on that day, but I do want to return.
Since I’m not teaching anymore, students and their inane comments and stupid escapades are the fodder for most of my jokes. They’re not really jokes, but rather real experiences told in a humorous fashion. I’ve always had the ability to make people laugh, and that came in handy over the years I was teaching because it’s hard to keep teenagers engaged in lessons, but if you can add humor to them, then you’ve won half the battle most days.
Perhaps after I give stand-up a second go at the next open mic night I will then share some of my jokes on my YouTube channel. We’ll see. Stand-up, in my opinion, is best when delivered in front of an audience and in the moment.
Since the town is fairly small, I expected the crowd that night in June to be small, too, especially since the open mic night was a Wednesday from 8:00 until 10:00 p.m. I also expected it to be an adults only crowd since it was in a pub. I was wrong on both counts!
Because there were a couple children there, I did remove one joke I’d planned to do because it was a bit dirty, but that irritated me because I’d practiced my set repeatedly with that joke in the mix, and I was worried it would throw me completely off track. Fortunately, it didn’t, but I don’t think the kids should have been in the audience at a pub.
Surprisingly, there were well over 100 people in attendance — it’s a large pub — and that made me very nervous. I don’t really get nervous at all prior to speaking before crowds anymore because I taught for so many years that I became comfortable speaking in public, but doing comedy is a different beast. I taught and coached speech for twenty-some years, too, and I can definitively say that stand-up is by far the most difficult form of public speaking.
Humor is so subjective, and every crowd has its own personality. I’ve done sets that got wonderful laughs at one club before one audience and then done the very same set at a different place and before a different crowd and barely received a chuckle. And as an amateur, you are very limited on time, so it’s really hard to get the feel of an audience and also get them to laugh and like you in the span of only a few minutes.
However, now that I’ve returned to the stage, albeit not a real stage and not for very long, I plan to go back. I will keep you posted, and I will share some jokes either on here or on my YouTube channel, so if you don’t yet subscribe to that, please do so. Here is the link for it: Tammy Marshall - Author on YouTube
Behind the paywall that’s coming on this post, I am sharing the next story of my Leave ‘Em Laughin’ Lounge Stories. I shared the first with you in March, so if you weren’t yet a paid subscriber then or if you don’t remember the story, you can revisit it from the dashboard/archive of “Tomes and Topics” — Tomes and Topics. I’ve been doing some editing on these stories because I would like to publish them at some point. This particular one about a young woman giving the open mic night a try contains a lot of autobiographical detail. I hope you will enjoy it, and if you are not yet a paid subscriber, I hope you will become one, so you can access my fiction pieces
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Tammy Marshall
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