Beyond the Stale

I went to Comix last night to watch the XM Radio Taping of "UnMasked" hosted by Ron and Fez. A comedian is interviewed about his or her journey of making a career in comedy. Luke attended the last installment and heard Richard Lewis talk about what it was like to confront someone who steals your material. This time we both went to listen to Jim Gaffigan. It was fantastic and very informative. We left feeling encouraged that the hard work we put in will some day pay off, and we were both psyched at the next chance we had to perform.

Fortunately, that chance was a few hours away at Randy Epley's show, Comedy Dungeon. Produced in a hostel, the show can test your salt with its challenges: make foreign tourists laugh (or stand by your material when references and plays on words are lost), get the people on their laptops to pay attention, assert stage presence under dim lighting and with finicky sound equipment. This evening, luck was a lady, because the room was full and attentive, there were two new, effective spotlights, and the microphone was working fine. Randy gave one of his best performances ever with plenty of one-liners to keep a group of Ft. Lauderdale girls giggling between acts.

I went up first and mixed in five new jokes with my material and a couple of ad-libs. It wasn't an audition for Late Night, but it was work and it was fun. Full steam ahead tomorrow at Broadway Motel.

Comedy Dungeon
Mondays at 8:30PM, FREE
Jazz on the Park Hostel
36 W. 107th St

XM UnMasked Taping
TICKET INFO: send an email complete with your full name and contact information to live@xmradio.com.

Photo credit:
comedycentral.com