Working Comic: 8 Shows

Shawn Carter spitting up water.

Hello again my numerous and brilliant readers.  Thanks for stopping by my little part of the internet to check this out.  This past week was busy as I managed to do 8 shows in 6 days but it’s all part of the preparation for the Boston Comedy Festival.  We’ll take a look at what went right and what went wrong.  Feel free to skip to the end if you just want to give your opinion on the “Stand Up Shots” thing this week.

Monday – Nothing new here.  Hosted Sally O’Briens in Somerville.  50 or so comics at the open mic.  Boston is bursting at the seams with creative funny people.

Tuesday – Hosted the open mic and debates at Stadium Sports Bar and Grille in Quincy once again.  The show is still somewhat new but it’s gaining some traction.  I’ll be editing the debate for the podcast soon.

Wednesday –  This was my busiest day.

7pm – I hosted a show at Middlesex Lounge in Cambridge.  It was a great show put together by Kenice Mobley (very funny young comic) and towards the end of the show they had an auction where audience members could bid on comedians and win a date with that comic.  All the cash from the event went to charity.  The highest bid for any comedian was around $115, I think.

9:50pm – I did a set at The Comedy Studio.  It was close to sold out and on a Wednesday.  Hell of a job by Rick Jenkins to run such a popular club.

10:30pm – Got to The Tavern at The End of The World in time to be one of the last performers of the night.  I just wanted

Matt Kona, Connor McGrath, Phoebe Angle, Shawn Carer, Mark Turcotte and Johnny Ater. Raising money for a good cause.

to practice the set I was thinking of doing in the Boston Comedy Festival.  Nov. 12.

Thursday – Another practice set at a show in Salem.  5 minutes.  BCF here I come.

Friday – Another charity show.   Sold out show in Auburn Maine.  Crowd was great, all the comics were great.  The show’s producer Mark Turcotte does a great job with these shows and is able to raise money for some worthy causes.  If you live in the area, it’s definitely worth checking out the next one.

Saturday – Getting in my final practice set at Improv Boston.  The set went great and I think I know exactly what I want to do on my prelim Wednesday, but I need to figure out how to cut 30 seconds out of the set without cutting any of the jokes.  Not sure if that’s possible but I’m gonna try it.

Sunday – I went to hang out and watch the first prelim of the BCF since I had a bunch of friends performing in the Fest.  It was a great show.  Lots of tough competition and in the end Chris Pennie, Rich Gustus and Anthony Devito advanced to the Semi Finals.  I wasn’t able to watch the second prelim which took place at 9pm but I’m told that two of my good comedy buddies (Ryan Donahue and Jiayong Li) also advanced to the Semi Finals.  This is all very exciting.

Monday – Usually I don’t talk about this day until next week but I have to let you all know.

I woke up at 4 am so that I could drive my pretty, funny girlfriend Phoebe Angle to the airport so that she can fly to Seattle for their comedy competition which is happening now.  Good luck pretty , funny Phoebe.

If you would like to support me in my attempt to get through to the next round of the BCF you can come cheer me on at my prelim which is Wednesday, Nov 12 at 9pm.

Last week I asked for your opinion on which joke to post to stand up shots.  The vote was all tied up and I used the joke “My mother always told me ‘honesty is the best policy’ but she also claimed that she coined the phrase.”  The joke was going nowhere on imgur or reddit and after a day I gave up on it and deleted it from both.  Then I posted another joke which also did next to nothing.  Oh well.  Still thinking of posting another joke to “Stand Up Shots” this week.  If it goes nowhere so be it.  But I’d still like to hear your opinion.  Which of these  three jokes do YOU think I should post?

1. A lady scientist wrote a study that showed that 25% of student athletes at the University of North Carolina read at below a 3rd grade level.  Since that study came out she has been receiving a lot of death threats…  Really poorly written death threats.

2.  Some people are into feet.  I don’t get it.  Feet are gross.  I only take my socks off to shower.  So basically I take my socks off for 15 minutes a day so that I can pee on my feet.

3.  I was talking to this girl on the phone and getting pretty graphic telling her all the different things I wanted to do to her.  She stopped me and said “you know Shawn, talk is cheap.”  I said “That takes some balls to say when you’re charging me $3.99 a minute for this phone call.