Comedy, Bar Mitzvah & Football....What a Combination?

Comedy
I finally got to have some shows locally. I got booked last weekend at the Joke Joint outside of the Mall of America in Bloomington, MN as the headliner. Shows went from Thursday night to Saturday night with two shows on Saturday night. I also got a show Sunday night in Excelsior, MN off of Lake Minnetonka and a Bar Mitzvah before the Saturday shows. More on that later.

The Joke Joint was a lot of fun, as expected. It is a wonderful club that really took the next step when they remodeled to create more space and symmetry to the club. It is run Ken and Becky Reed who are super nice people and very accommodating. The Feature act was Amber Preston who I have known since shortly after I moved out here. She is a very funny, original comic who has really improved a ton since I last saw her (not that she was no good before, she has become very good now). We also had some guest spots throughout the weekend and rotating hosts who were brand spanking new. The hosts were very nice, but also very green. New comics typically seem a bit scared on stage, and they were no exception to the rule. But both had a good basis of material and if they keep getting up on stage, they will be fine.

The toughest show was probably the Thursday Night show. I felt sick as a dog that night. For some reason, I had a 24 hour bug that I could not shake until the next day. I was miserable at work all day, but since I was so busy I could not take the day off so I had to brave through it and then head to the show. You could tell that the crowd was a little tired or just not in the mood because they really did not give the other comics much of a chance. It didn’t help that the crowd was small (about 20 people), but that is expected with summer shows on a weeknight. Even though I felt sick as heck and they were a timid crowd, the set went OK. It was far from great, but it wasn’t bad. I would have liked it to have been a better set, but I can’t complain too much considering the circumstances. I think overall, the smaller crowd had fun but I expect more from myself. I was worrying after the show that Ken was thinking, “Why did I let him headline?” Fortunately the other nights were better.

Friday was a fun night. A lot of my co-workers at my day job came out to see me which was great to see. There were even some co-workers who I thought would never come to show of mine there. Friday was also fun because Holly came out with a couple of her friends. All the comics did a fine job getting the show going with Amber just rocking. She really had a wonderful set. I came up and the crowd was all warmed up and ready to go. It was a blast because they had a lot of energy and I was just able to feed off of it. I may have come up with a little too much energy because the sound apparently had to be turned down and it messed me up because I thought the mike went out. There was a bachelorette party sitting up front in the middle of the room and they got a little nutty (like all bachelorette parties do). Typically, when comics see a bachelorette party, they think “Oh shit, they are going to screw up the show by being obnoxious.” A lot of times, they do. This one was on the fence. I was able to get some interaction with them that was funny. I even had one of the girls yell out 15 minutes in “Are you married?” which was odd because I had spoken about my wife often during the first 15 minutes. The only one that just got a bit old was the bride’s aunt. She would not shut the hell up. She was not heckling, but she thought she could be a part of the show. Even when you put her in her place, she thought it was fun and the crowd loves to see the comic put down some 55 year old over-tanned women who stinks of cigarettes. Besides the old woman occasionally barking out nonsense, it was a really funny set and it was cool to have co-workers and Holly’s friends there to see it. It is always fun to have people look at you after the show with a bit of surprise at how funny you can be. I think a lot of them get used to seeing me in a work environment and don’t know that I am capable to turn it on for a show. I wish I got to hang out more with people after the show, but we try and sell T-shirts and crowd members come and talk to us after the show. By the time people started to leave us alone, Holly’s friends were ready to leave and a bunch of the co-workers had taken off.

Saturday’s shows at the Joke Joint were a lot of fun as well. There were a fair amount of people I knew in the crowd for the early show as well, but not as much as Friday night’s. The early show was a lot of fun and I was very pleased with the performance. The later show was a harder crowd. They seemed to be on and off for the other comics and it was similar for me. They seemed to love me one second, then the next just OK. I am used to late shows being a bit more rowdy as they are typically drunker, but this one was a bit tepid. After the show, a couple of us hung in the bar and that was pretty fun. Overall, the weekend at the Joke Joint was great and a lot of fun and I can’t wait to go back. I have already had people who could not make it ask me when I am there next. Hopefully sometime in the winter I can be back to headline again.

Bar Mitzvah
The interesting show of the weekend was the Bar Mitzvah I was hired for before the shows on Saturday. It was booked through Ken at the Joke Joint and it involved Amber and me. She was to do 10 minutes and I was to do 20 minutes. We were going to be pressed for time as the show was supposed to start at 6:30 to 6:45 and the show at the Joke Joint (30 minutes away) started at 7:30. I showed up at the Bar Mitzvah at 6:00 and it was empty except for the mother and a few stragglers. As people were coming in, the “man of honor” was outside with his friends and brother smashing cans of soda on the ground near the entry way. He was also dressed in a T-shirt and crappy pants and sneakers. I was under the impression that Bar Mitzvahs were a pretty big deal, but this kid did not dress the part. Not even khaki’s and a polo shirt. Eventually people came in just in enough time for the show. People really did not have a chance to be situated or have a drink or two (for the adults) before the show started.

I knew it was going to be a tough start when they introduced Amber as the “warm up” act to the comic. Ouch, what a brutal intro to give her. It completely minimizes her ability and gives the audience and out to not give her a chance. Amber did fine and fought through it even though the “man of honors” table was talking throughout her set. She eventually wrapped up her set and took off for the Joke Joint.

My set was OK. It was not near as bad as it could have been but it was not an “A” show either but it was decent. Once you realize that you need to ignore the kids at the front table and concentrate on the adults it was fine and they were willing to laugh. The kids at the front table though, oh my GOD! They gave me a great example of how I don’t want Quinlan to act when he is older. Not all the kids were bad; it was actually just 3 of the boys, including the “man of honor” who acted up. The one that the party was for would like to brag during the show that he likes to “blow things up” and hopes to continue to do that when he grows up. He made it a point to say this a few times during my set and Amber’s. There was also a smaller kid (may have been his brother) who would start talking out loud about stuff that made no sense. In the end, it was a fun time except for the kids. I can’t believe that I have a Bar Mitzvah on my comedy resume now. Big things are ahead, I am hoping to make perform at a Baptism in the near future. Maybe even a funeral.

Football
Football is right around the corner. It is hard to believe. I am both excited and sad because I love football but it also means that summer is almost over. Football feels even closer than normal because we had our draft in the Waltham Goofs league this past Wednesday night. This is a keeper league that is entering its 11th year that I have run the whole time. Since the first year, we have had all the same people in the league. Unfortunately, we lost of them this year. My friend Jay bailed on the league last minute because we were going to implement two more people into the league. We ended up going back to an 8 team league after his quitting and replaced Jay with another guy named Jay so it is easy to keep track of. There are rumors that another guy will leave at the end of the year, so we may be looking for more players and that may be the reason to go to ten people. It is a shame to see one of the original guys leave the league because this has been my link to the college buddies back east since I moved to WI. If I had to choose one of the guys to leave, it definitely would not have been Jay. Such is the life of grown up men who play make-believe football games.

I kind of dig my team after the draft. I kept Adrian Peterson, Tony Romo and Calvin Johnson (I took Calvin over Brandon Jacobs, Laurence Maroney and Greg Jennings). Here is my final roster to start the season:

QB – Tony Romo

QB – Matt Hasselbeck

RB – Adrian Peterson

RB – Joseph Addai

RB – Larry Johnson

RB – Brandon Jacobs

RB – Chris Johnson

WR – Torry Holt

WR – Chad Johnson

WR – Calvin Johnson

WR – Donald Driver

TE – Chris Cooley

TE – Vernon Davis

Kicker – Shayne Graham

Kicker – Phil Dawson

Defense – Green Bay Packers

Defense – New York Giants

Considering it is an 8 team league where we can keep three players (with some rules on keepers), I think it is a pretty nice team. I had the #2 pick where I had the choice of Brian Westbrook and Joseph Addai. I could not decide and I was leaning towards Wetsbrook. I ended up making a deal that would allow me to move from the 3rd round to the 2nd round if I went back to the #3 pick. I made it and ended up with Larry Johnson in the 2nd. So my trade essentially made it so I traded Brian Westbrook for Joseph Addai and Larry Johnson. Seems like a favorable deal although Larry Johnson is a one man show in KC for better or for worse. In the end, it is just a guessing game who has the best team.