Sunday, June 13, 2010

Focusing On The Fun

Saturday June 12h, 2010 - Louisville, KY

All kinds of fun today, and it reminded me why I’ve spent my life as a road comic. I got to teach a three hour seminar at The Comedy Caravan that went extremely well. Teaching is a lot of fun, especially when the students are interested, which they were. Time flew by.

My friend Adam White is the one who put this together. He teaches his own class at the club, but I don’t mind because he’s a lifer in comedy. I’ve known Adam almost since he’s been an open miker, and it’s great to see his growth both onstage and off. He moved up to Chicago for a while to study improv and do comedy, and I helped him settle in up there.

Now, all these years later, he’s moved back to the Louisville area and has taken over as the guy when it comes to classes and mentoring the new comics. Good for him, they’re in excellent hands. Adam cares, and it shows. I helped the right guy, and now it‘s paying off.

Adam has a web whiz kid partner named Jordan Cooper who helps put his class on line. That’s totally what I need, and we talked about it after the seminar. There were people of all ages and interest levels, and everyone got along. They asked good questions and I saw that they were serious about the comedy business. That makes it worth everyone’s time.

I’d love to do these all over the country. I saw a wide range of people come out for this, many of them in their 40s and 50s who either tried comedy and got away from it or have always wanted to try but never did. I’ll bet there are THOUSANDS of those types around.

The buzz of the seminar hadn’t worn off yet, and it was time to do more comedy shows. That’s why I’m here, so I enjoyed every minute of all of them. We did three shows but the time flew and it didn’t seem like that at all. I leaned into it and gave it my very best effort.

The second show is the ‘money show’ of the week. Usually there are no comps for that one and it’s what pays the bills. We had about 120, which is very good for a muggy night in June, They were nice people, but about halfway through I noticed I had to really work a lot harder than I’d been working to keep their attention. They just got tired, and I felt it.

They weren’t mean and I don’t think they stopped enjoying themselves, it just seemed a little strange to have such an energy switch right in the middle of a show. I kept on going, and took it as a personal challenge to bring up more energy and carry the show to the end.

I suppose I could have belittled them, but I didn’t. They just sat there quietly, but it was all I could handle to squeeze some laughs out of them for the rest of the show. I worked it as hard as I could, and it felt good to rise to the challenge. They made me earn each laugh.

After the show the feature act Roger Keiss and I went across the street from the club for a delicious dinner at a fantastic restaurant called Ramsi’s. It’s open until 2am and has one of the most interesting and eclectic menus I’ve ever seen. It’s got everything from a bison steak burger to vegan dishes and, prices are reasonable. Everything I did today was fun.

2 comments:

jnason58 said...

I attended the seminar today and was impressed with Dobie's friendly demeanor and willingness to share the trials and tribulations of being a stand-up comic. He shared and showed real interest in me and the other attendees. His experiences are great lessons. I learned a lot from "Mr. Lucky", Adam, and special guest lecturer, Tim Northern. I am glad I attended the seminar.

Dobie 'Mr. Lucky' Maxwell said...

Thanks very much for the kind words!