Treatment.

Last night I had a show at a new Comedy venue called “Slice of Life” @ The Pulp in Asheville. I get there an hour early because my set takes a little time to prepare. I get everything set up, talk to the sound guy to make sure he knows the ques for playing the CDs. I meet with Kelly Ro who is over the show along with Michele Scheve and she is very kind and seemed to go out of her way to make sure I was comfortable and had all that I desired plus an “All Access Artist Pass”. Which is odd and delightful after spending a week doing open mics in New York. The room was designed for comedy, low ceilings (probably because it is in the basement of the Orange Peel, which was exciting for me because all my favorite bands have performed there. So I performed underneath where all my favorite musicians have performed.) The lighting was perfect along with the sound system.

I take a look at the set list and realize that I am third from last. So I grab a couple of pbrs and sit in the very comfortable sofas that were for “Artist Only.” I watch many comics and my parent’s (to which this was their first time seeing me perform) faces as they sit through dick jokes. Which was comedy in it own right. Then it is time for me to put on makeup and get ready for my set. (I was doing a mime bit to which I don’t actually mime anything.) I put on the makeup with extra care this time because professional photographers are there and I need to look my mime best. Kelly introduces me but not before holding a raffle which gave me extra time to start thinking about getting nervous.

She introduces me as a Raleigh comic who drove a long way and brought my parents.

I go to the stage and give the sound guy the que to start the cd. After an awkward couple of seconds I go over to him to see what is wrong. The CD doesn’t work… the same CD that I have used at serveral venues and never had any issue with. But things happen be it act of God or clown makeup making it onto the surface of the CD. So everything I had planned for the night was out of the question. I am standing on stage with mime makeup on and having never took a miming class or even watched an actual mime ever get out of that damn box. So I just had to do regular stand-up in full fledged mime makeup. I have been thinking of doing something similar but not at all prepared to do it. So I go to one joke that helped me win a competition and has proved to be a good joke to me and then a joke that I had been working on since New York, which got a good reaction that was not expected. It could be that I was talking about Drag Queens while wearing makeup. I probably looked like I was one eyeliner purchase away from having a boob job and learning to tuck the appropriate places.

Granted  everything went horribly awry but I still had an awesome time and was able to make a few people laugh which is the whole reason I do comedy. That and I have no other creative outlet that allows instant gratification.