The Open Miker

I hate buses.

 

I wanted to check out two shows last Saturday: Comedy Death Ray's 10th anniversary show, an all-night reunion at the Upright Citizen's Brigade Theatre, and The Tommorow Show, the variety/standup show hosted by Brendan Small, Ron Lynch and Craig Anton at midnight at the Steve Allen Theatre.  So, I decided I'd take the 210 to Hollywood from near my apartment, got to UCB, go to the Steve Allen Theatre and then maybe go back to UCB.

 

I sat down on the bench at the bus stop and read one of the bus schedules I'd picked up here.  Five minutes later, the 210 flew by.  Ah yes!  I forgot!  One must hail buses in LA!

 

So, I decided to take the bus straight to the Steve Allen Theatre.  This means I need to take the 28 to Olympic and Vermont and then take the 204 up to Vermont and Barnsdall.  So, I took the 28 and waited.  This time there were about a dozen people at the stop, so I was sure that the 204 would stop.  Of course it didn't.  So, I just walked back stopping at KFC for one of those chocolate cakes.  I didn't even mind that I had to pay to use my debit card.  It ended up being about five dollars for the thing and it'd probably take a few days to eat, so it was a worthy investment.

 

I watched the season premiere of Saturday Night Live with Dane Cook hosting.  I'll give him this much, there aren't that many hosts that actually just talk during the monologue.  He did about ten to fifteen minutes of stand-up for his monologue and I think I realize why there is all the Dane Cook bashing.  I've never seen that much of his stand-up before, so I was new to the whole Dane Cook thing.  I thought it was just okay.  It was a lot of obvious observations punched up with over-the-top act-outs which didn't add much.  But I do respect what he's done over the past few years to popularize stand-up.

 

I was armed with a list of open mics.  So on Sunday, I went back to Improv Olympic West and put my name in a basket.  As I understood it there would only be about ten comics on the show (for an open mic in LA that's not that many).  I was the first to put my name in and thought, "Oh they probably just put the basket away when they get ten names or so and use it to determine the order."  Sadly no.  My punctuality was not rewarded.  There were dozens of names in there and the show went from 11PM to 12:30AM.  I saw a decent show and realized that their method was a good way of keeping everyone there to support the other comics and it's a great space for a show.  I'm sure I would've done great if I got on.

 

After the show I hung out for a while.  I saw a flier for a free improv workshop and decided to sign up for it.  I didn't know if I'd end up taking classes at Improv Olympic.  I thought it'd be more likely I'd end up paying for classes at Upright Citizens Brigade, but it'd give me a taste of improv.  I'd mostly only had experience in stand-up and sketch.  It would be on Saturday from ten to noon.

 

Monday I went to the Amsterdam Cafe in North Hollywood.  I don't know why I was surprised that it was a coffeehouse.  Perhaps it was just because it was the first open mic I would perform on.  It reminded me of Herrell's, a show run by a comic from Boston Myq Kaplan.  Except this, and the other coffeehouses of the week had a more earthtone color scheme.  There were a lot of browns and beiges.  I managed to sign up for an early spot in the show (at open mics it's almost always better to be up before the audience gets too tired as the shows are notoriously long, and heavily populated).

 

I went up and didn't exactly kill the room.  I actually felt less articulate than I usually am.  I wasn't the brilliant mind you've come to know, but I'd been searching for words.  Since moving here I've written a few jokes and I've been forgetting to tell them on stage too.  I suppose it's not entirely bad memory, I do tell myself, "We'll see how it's going, then maybe..."

 

I did notice that most of the comics that night were doing fratboy-type homophobic humor, a style I'm no fan of, but it was good to get some stage time in front of an audience.  In LA I think I've only been to one show that only had comics for an audience.  That's good to know since there are so many options for people in a city this huge.

 

On Tuesday I wasn't well enough to go out, but I suspect that this Tuesday I'll go back to Westwood Brewing Co. and do their open mic.

 

On the job search side of things I had two interviews in two days for the same company.  They were on Wednesday and Thursday mornings.  It's a really good sign that I might get something soon.  Unfortunately, it was also a reminder that I should get back at a decent hour on Wednesday night.  On that night I went to the Synergy Cafe in Culver City.  Two bus rides away from my place.

 

Another coffeehouse, this one had a room set up especially for a show, so that's a fantastic setup, as long as the people in the other room know there's a show going on.  The room was set up with an eclectic mix of comfortable chairs and tables (the tables weren't that comfortable to sit on) and a stage with a lot of odds and ends on them.  Among them was an upright piano with chipped white paint.  It looked like something Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem from "The Muppets" would play.  In short, it was great!

 

Here, I saw the host, Sean Patton, someone I'd met twice before at IO West.  He's a good guy and I had a set not unlike the one on Monday night.

 

Late in the show, Dan Rosenberg took over and brought up some great comics including a set from Elon Gold.  Those that left early missed out.  Apparently this show has some history as something called "The Comedy District."

 

But the real find was on Thursday night.  I had two choices for open mics.  I chose the one at the Sabor Cafe located at 5625 Hollywood Blvd.

 

I thought I could find in easily enough.  I'd take the 210 or the Rapid 710 to Hollywood and Vine and walk towards the Steve Allen Theatre.  There was traffic, so I can't really blame the buses for that one.  But I still made it on time.  I didn't know who was in charge so, I just asked a barista.

 

I found the comics and got a spot on the show.  There was a guy taping the show and he makes DVDs for the comics in exchange for blank ones.  The host's name was Rich Pierrelouis from "New York by way of Haiti" and he and his friends, affiliated with streetgangs.com "Where all neighborhoods get along," were all part of a show from Brooklyn that was now at the Sabor Cafe the first and third Thursdays of the month called "A Latte Comedy Thursdays."  The audience was great.  It was my first good set since moving out here.

 

How appropriate.  My first set as a standup was not February 12th, 2003 at the Comedy Studio, but two years earlier, the first Friday after Emerson's Spring Break at the Starbucks across from my dorm building.  It too was a great little set.  Word had spread around campus that "that weird kid that's in my friend's TV Production class is doing stand-up on Friday!"  The Starbucks was packed to see the crash.  They were all actually laughing though.

 

Back to 2006:  I'm not sure why the show was on my open mic list, Rich told me that it wasn't technically an open mic and to email him the week of the next show.  He let me on because I told him that someone told me to check it out.  He was pleased with my set, and I'm not surprised.  We share a quirkiness to our stand-up.

 

The rest of the show was pretty good too.  The audience actually stayed for most of the show.  Perhaps I'll upload my set when I have a DVD of it.

 

Last night, instead of going back to the open mic at Andy Dick's Black Box Theatre at Improv Olympic, I decided to try the open mic at GroundWorks.  I went to metro.net and plugged in the address.  "Ah, it's right around the corner from the Black Box Theatre.  Maybe I can do both!"  I thought to myself as I took the bus and made sure I made enough time to get there early.

 

The open mic list said that signup time was 5:30 and the show was at 6:30.  So, I got there a little late--er a lot early.  "The list should be out in about forty-five minutes."  So, I went for a quick walk between Sunset, Hollywood, Vine, and Cahuenga.  I considered walking over to Buster Keaton's other star on the Walk of Fame (some people have two.  He has a film one and a TV one), but instead I just did some window shopping.

 

I went back and found the list nearly full, but noone signed up for the first three spots.  I promptly scribbled my name on the third spot, although in retrospect, I wish I put my name first.  It was a little too close to 6:30, so I decided to wait it out and hope that I'd get on soon enough to head over to the Black Box and sign up there.

 

Next week, I'll play it differently.  As soon as I sign up at GroundWorks, finding an early spot in the show, I'll run over to the Black Box and sign up for a late spot there.

 

I came up with that little plan because the show started after seven.  The place was actually filled with audience and there were acts on the list doing things other than standup, like magic, music, and monologues (the three Ms).  The host came up and did some jokes blaming the audience for not laughing and did some women-bashing, specifically female writers, before walking over to take a look at the list.  I saw who wrote a name in the number 2 spot, the only one before me.  It was a female writer.

 

I went up and had a pretty good performance.  I went up there confident as hell and even worked in one of the jokes I've written since moving out here.  It's the damndest thing.  When I walked back towards the audience, one guy put out his fist, so I pounded it.  On my way out, he put his fist out again, so I did it again.  Then someone outside said, "I really liked your jokes."  I tend to believe people when they tell me that.  I kind of wish they would laugh, but I think it says something about what kind of performer I am.  I don't know what this chronic reaction to my act says, but it says something.  Hopefully something positive.

 

I swung by the Black Box Theatre and was, of course, too late.  So I decided to go downstairs and see if I could find out where the improv workshop would be the next night.  "I don't know, but come over later and check out our show, it's free and there's pizza.  It's a different group of improvisers every half-hour."  So, I went back to GroundWorks and thought I'd check back in for the improv.

 

When I got back I stuck around for a couple of hours and watched some improv.  One of the gimmicks for the show was that about half the troupes were alumni representing their colleges.

 

I waited for the bus for a while and decided to go back into the bar at IO West and hang out for a bit.

 

Then I waited again for nearly an hour.  I hate buses.

 

I hate buses, although this morning it wasn't really the bus's fault.  There was a 5k walk, so there were detours a plenty so I walked a mile or two to Rossmore and 4th.  I managed to flag a Rapid 710 down, even though its stop was a few blocks away (sometimes the bus drivers aren't too bad).

 

The improv workshop was in a different location than I was told last night.  It was on the mainstage.  It was taught by an energetic man with the type of sing-song voice usually reserved for teaching children.  But it was a valuable excercise because I found that I wasn't too bad at improv.  It was something I've always feared because I tend to overthink things, and be a bit controlling, would I be able to let go?  Yes.  I took a Meisner class earlier this year and there's a lot of overlap between the two skills.  Both rely heavily on the relationship between the performers and using your reactions to others to fuel the performances.  I think I'd like to take some form of imrov classes, perhaps next year.

 

There are no Saturday open mics on my list, so I'll probably just go to the Tomorrow Show tonight.

 

We'll see what next week brings.

 

Thank you, I'm Eric Cheung.  I'm on MySpace and Live Journal.