Stand Up Debut

1991 - Stand Up comedy - I took a class from John Cantu about how to perform Stand Up. It was a 3 week class. Week 1 - Learn how to write jokes. Week 2 - Learn microphone technique and practice telling jokes. Since everyone else was practicing, nobody laughed, so I didn't know if anything was funny. Week 3 - Open mike night. San Francisco bar on Union St. There were 10 people in the class. There were 4 completely unfunny people. When John Cantu set the lineup, he put me fifth, right after the 4 unfunny people. I was sitting there worrying that the audience would be all pissed off and then I'd be getting up there or maybe since I knew I was funny, they would be ready to laugh after the people that had bad jokes and no timing. The guy right before me told his final joke about scraping gum off the floor of a theater. All 4 people got 1 or 2 people to laugh at each joke, but the bar was packed with about 60 people and so I walk up there with people on all sides just looking at me to make them laugh. I was really nervous - I had never been any good at public speaking. As you can hear on the video, I told my first joke and I didn't get a huge laugh, but lots of people laughed and at that moment, my mind went blank! My next joke doesn't work unless I can remember it perfectly and I couldn't think of anything... I seemed like it was a long time - that's how your mind works. Of course, it was only a second or two at the most and I told the next joke and it worked and I got some good laughs and applause when I was done. I edited my last joke because I did mess it up and it wasn't that good anyway. I got some kudos from some of the regular comics after I was done and some of the audience stopped by and said they liked it. I was standing in the back for a long time because my legs were so weak I could hardly walk and I knew I couldn't work the shift pedal on my car, so I waited about 45 minutes before I could leave. Check out my regular Blog - <a href="http://carbubble.blogspot.com/">http://carbubble.blogspot.com/</a>