The first place I ever went on stage was the “Comedy Connection” in Boston but that place is closed now. (Probably because they didn’t book me enough). So, let’s talk about the second place I ever went on stage.
Dick Doherty’s Comedy Vault in Boston. It was a Sunday night and it was a bringer show, each comic on the show needed to bring two audience members in order to perform. Instead of bringing two audience members I brought 12. Like I said it was my second time on stage. I paced the green room, which was literally an old bank vault, waiting for my turn to go on the tiny stage in this L shaped room that might have seated up to 60 or 70 people. That night I met Ted Pettingell, and Shawn Donovan both of whom I remained friends with for years, but I also met Jon Law Hastings and Arthur Deych both of whom I have only talked to a handful of times and haven’t seen in 10 years but I remember them because it was such an event for me that anyone who even bothered to talk to me that night made their way into my consciousness permanently.
I went on stage, fumbled through my herpes jokes and condom jokes and sex jokes and butt stuff jokes. I received much undeserved laughter. As I said I brought a dozen friends to the show, and they were generous.
None of this really matters much, I’m just being sentimental.
The point is 10 years later Dick Doherty’s still exists, although in a different location.
This past Saturday was the first time I headlined at Dick Doherty’s. I’ve done closing spots plenty of times, 10 mins closing, 20, 30. I’ve done shows in the suburbs or at christmas parties where I had to do 60 minutes. But this was the first time that a club that I really wanted to work at when I started invited me back to be the main act at their venue. This wasn’t out of nowhere I should mention, I had been featuring at Dick Doherty’s for a couple of years by this point. Headlining is a different task tough and I was concerned, not so much for the amount of time that I needed to fill, but more so for the amount of seats that needed to be filled. I’ve done shows at numerous venues where it was just a slow night for whatever reason and the show had to be cancelled or it was a borderline call and I sure as hell didn’t want that to happen my first time headlining a club in Boston. So I spent a little money on social media advertising. It’s difficult to track whether that stuff works or not but we had a packed room Saturday night so whatever the reason I’m not sad that I spent that money.
The show went great. Everyone that went on before me did well, the audience was nice. Still I need to figure out the best order for my material in the context of a 45+ minute set, it’s definitely different than 30 minutes where I could do just my A+ material. When doing 45 minutes I have to dip into my A- material. I would never subject an audience to B material.
Here’s a clip from early in the set where it became clear that some audience members were going to be loud if given the chance.
A strange thing did happen toward the end of the show. I had been talking about tattoos and I asked if anyone had a tattoo, a few people responded, nothing too exciting. Then minutes later after I had finished talking about tattoos and was in the middle of some other material this woman wanted to SHOW me her tattoo… and… well…. I’ll just show you the clip. FYI people were bumping into this camera all night so it is a little shaky.
Anyway, that’s how my weekend went.
Also, here’s the first episode of a new web-series I’m working on. If you’ve made it this far maybe you’re just bored enough to watch one more video.
