Voting is open now until February 28th. Vote Now HERE! Every vote counts, so please help make a comedy night favorite, for both comics and audience, the Best of Columbus!!!
I, as a comic, love the Surly Girl Open Mic night on Wednesdays. I have voted for it already at ColumbusAlive.com, and I hope you all will too. I wanted to share one of my favorite stories from the SGOM.
I once had an idea for a joke (posted below). It was based off something I had been talking about with a fellow comic and a few friends while casually hanging out one night. I thought the idea was funny and had legs, but I was hesitant to tell it for a variety reasons, least of which was how much hilarious yet embarrassing information I had to reveal in the joke. I was relatively fine with that, I just wasn't sure it was funny. I was way more nervous about being embarrassed by sharing the story and hearing crickets than people knowing this information about me. I had told fellow comic and friend, Dan Wilburn, the joke idea the Surly Wednesday a week before I actually told it. The week I told it, he asked if I was going to do the joke, I said I wasn't sure but probably not, and he told me I should just do it and that it was really funny. Even going on stage that night I wasn't sure I was going to tell it.
The thing about the SGOM is that it's awesome. Seriously though, the best thing about it is that the audience is always good, but it's not the same. Also, they're always good, but not easy. You still have to be funny to earn their laughs. They're always ready to laugh, but sometimes they want heady stuff, sometimes dick jokes, or sometimes something in between, a nice, smart dick joke. Some people say that shitty open mics are wear you learn to be funny. I think that's stupid bullshit and a long running myth. Sure doing a shitty mic will prepare you for the shitty rooms where you'll make your first few bucks doing comedy. And don't get me wrong, plowing through shit is a totally necessary skill, so do the shitty mics, but they won't make you funnier. As much as the shitty mic myth proprietors will say that easy rooms are too easy and they don't test you, a shitty mic just provides a homogeny of the opposite sort, you just learn to shout and/or not give a fuck. Again, a necessary skill, but you don't grow as a comic or performer. A room like Surly, where the audience is always ready to laugh and starts off on your side, but brings in different crowds all the time is where you learn to write and tell jokes that will make you appealing to a wider variety o' folks.
This particular night, the room was filled with a good amount of people, but they were split into only few groups. Meaning, these were big groups of friends. This usually leads to a rowdier crowd I find because your with people you know, drinking and having fun, like you normally would, and the show is your entertainment for the night. So the crowd's rowdy, but good. I do my jokes, and it's going well. I notice, due to the booze, they're digging the dirty stuff and letting me get away with rambling a little after jokes, trying to find tags and whatnot. So, I get the light, and I have to decide what to wrap on. I decide a rambling joke with some dirty overtones probably has no better shot than now.
The joke killed. It was amazing. You might be able to hear it in the recording, but there was a handful of people actually slamming on their tables and cheering at the top of their lungs after I left the stage. It felt great. I walked off stage and found Dan at the back of the room like a quarterback finding his coach after the big play in some overly dramatic sports movie. I was like, "That went well."
Thanks Surly.
I encourage comics and audience alike to leave any memories or best of's they have from nights at the Surly Girl Open Mic in the comments section below. I really look forward to hearing from everyone!
Voting is open now until February 28th. Vote Now HERE! Every vote counts, so please help make a comedy night favorite, for both comics and audience, the Best of Columbus!!!
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