I perform what I call free-associational stand-up comedy at The Buttonwood Tree in Middletown, CT, every Monday night. A friend of mine who also is a comic, Basil Ali, posted a video of my performance on April 23, 2012 on YouTube. Here's a link to the performance if you want to see what I do in my act.
I always have some general idea of what I'm going to do, but I also use free-association from cues which occur during my performance. I also invite my audiences to interrupt me anytime, heckle me, try to throw me off-pace, or otherwise participate, and they do. I wish I could have at least a half-hour or more to do a full performance and really have enough time to get the audience even more involved than they were the night of this video.
Here's the link to the video, which is 7 minutes and 48 seconds long:
http://youtu.be/ahCJaJGGVBo
The reference I make to the weed wacker is based on what happened a few minutes earlier in the evening. Our hostess and emcee, J Cherry, was limping that night. She told the audience that that afternoon, she had been working in her garden and hurt her foot pretty badly while she was using a gasoline-powered weed wacker. As soon as I heard Jennifer mention a weed-wacker, I knew I'd be able to use that reference to comedic effect in my act. I've been asked to keep my act "clean," so I love it when terms like weed-wacker come up before I go on stage and I'm able to be "clean" but suggestive.
I had an open mind before watching this video, but in all honesty I don't get it. All you do is ramble on about nothing. There's no jokes, no one liners, no nothing. You had no material. You bring in props but they offer nothing to your act. I understand the concept of free association, but there was nothing comical or comdian-like in this performance. I hope your dancing is better cause this was a major disappointment.
ReplyDeleteDear Just Don't Get It Anonymous (May 2, 2012 at 1:29 p.m.),
DeleteDid you notice how "into" the performance the audience was? I think my act is best appreciated by a live audience, with respect to whose reaction my performance is part free-associational riff. The comedy I like to do is not highly-scripted. I've seen comics who stand there and recite one-liners and find it amusing but overly-scripted and controlled.
Hey, you're entitled to your opinion. I just like doing what I do in front of a live audience. As long as the people in front of me are engaged and laughing, I'm happy.
All best,
A Man who has no control over your reaction to my brand of comedy
Attempting to keep an open mind Ionly saw a sad old man who was able to get a reaction from a few easily entertained voices in the audience. So very self serving for attention with slurred speach and repetitive references to single comment which didn't get much other than a polite laughter the first time. And again, references to a former law career... who cares I ask?? Obviously the entertainer is hanging on to that like a life line protesting all the time about how it squashed his "inner serf" the whole time. I was embarrassed for you.
DeleteDear Embarassed-for-me Anonymous (May 6, 2012 at 5:20 p.m.),
DeleteI am surprised you viewed my demeanor on the video as "sad." I'm anything but sad. As for the "easily entertained" voices in the audience, I agree that people who are open to being entertained by me do find me amusing, even funny.
"Slurred speech"? Are you kidding. I know the sound quality on an I-Phone video not connected directly to the sound system is not great but my speech was not slurred. Certainly you're entitled to your own perceptions but I would suggest you either get a neurological test of your aural perceptual ability or stop drinking or smoking pot before writing your Comments here.
What were the "repetitive references to single comment" you're referring to?
As for my references to my very successful legal career, I don't know of any other comedians who once were practicing lawyers. Actually, all of my audiences are most interested in that disjunction and how and why I made the radical transition from rear-end-kissing lawyer to writer, dancer, and comic. You may not care but who cares?
I'm not hanging onto anything but my legal career lasted 36 years, and I still give a lot of free, very helpful legal advice, so why would you expect I wouldn't refer a lot to my former life as a practicing lawyer? It's a gigantic part of who I am. And it wasn't the law so much as the business aspects of my legal career, especially having to make a big payroll every other week for 36 years which cramped my inner self. If you've never had to make payroll on a regular basis for nearly 4 decades you just have no idea how stifling that venture can be to a creative human being.
No need to be embarassed for me. But if you want to be, I won't try to stop you. How you react to my life, my comedy, my writing, my dancing is your business. I just love being a creative person now, rather than a money-raising lawyer.
I enjoyed your Comment. Write again. Also, come to The Buttonwood Tree some Monday night at 8:40 p.m. so you can see my act first-hand.
All best,
A Very Happy Old Man
I'm trying to surmise what happended to you at Pig's Eye Pub. From the info in your "act" it sounds like you were acting like you idiot self and someone clocked you. The polce were called. Then what? Was there an arrest? If so who? And who called the police? Please clarify.
ReplyDelete-Curious
Dear Curious Anonymous (May 7, 2012 at 5:25 a.m.),
DeleteGreat question. Actually, the big difference between my other confrontations in bars, dance clubs, and the KKK (Koji Komedy Klub) and the incident at Pig's Eye is this: I was just dancing and getting a lot of attention from young women. This 28-year-old drunk guy, with whom I had had NO interaction ran over from 30 feet away and grabbed me by the neck. The bouncer ran over and peeled the guy off me. The drunken guy then put a broken beer bottle into the bouncer's forehead, which I saw had become bloody when the bouncer and the drunk had moved about 20 feet away from me. All the kids were cheering my surviving the attack without injury. The police were called, I'm sure by the manager of the club. The drunk guy was arrested and put in the back of a squad car. When I left the club a cop asked me to tell him what happened and I did. He then opened the cruiser and I identified the drunken attacker and told him everything was okay and just to relax. The drunken guy was charged with assault on me and a more serious charge of assault for what he did to the bouncer, who had to be taken to the hospital. The drunken guy denied he attacked me or the bouncer, even though the police report said he had blood and glass all over him.
The criminal case is pending in Hartford Superior Court. The Court ordered the defendant to stay away from me and the bouncer. This is too bad because once the case is over, I plan to contact the defendant, invite him to lunch, and get to know him and why he attacked me. I believe it's probably because he's jealous of all the attention I get from women in the dance clubs I dance in. But until I can talk to him, this is just my feeling, my speculation.
As a writer, I'm delighted I had this experience. And I'm looking forward to meeting my attacker.
All best,
Bob
P.S.: You're certainly free to view me as an idiot. I am what I am and I do what I do. It's up to you and others to interpret what I am and what I do, however you wish. Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn. But I do like to stir up controversy. That's an important function for writers in our very staid, buttoned-down, culture. And then I have material to write about and make comedy about. Including your very uptight attitude, sir. Thanks for writing in.