Observation Dork

Sunday July 18th, 2010 - Somewhere In The Caribbean

Day two at sea. Simple strategy: mouth closed, eyes and ears wide open. Observe. I had an entire day of invisibility before my debut tonight and took advantage of it by seeing as much of the ship as I could without being seen. This thing is an absolute floating miracle.

I can only imagine the host of horrors most people’s ancestors suffered on their way to a life in America, and I can see why they kissed the ground at Ellis Island. Had they had the opportunity to be on the vessel I’m on, I don’t think most of them would have gotten off.

The more I wandered, the more I was blown away by everything. I don’t know where to start. From the sheer size of the ship itself to all the things that are available on it, this is a tribute to the modern era of mankind’s ingenuity, and I for one am extremely impressed.

The amount of food is beyond belief. Thousands of people from all over North America have access to an overwhelming amount of choices of delicious freshly made world class cuisine in unlimited amounts. How many countries would look at that in utter disbelief?

I’m having a hard time believing it myself. Then, there’s the truly diverse crew from all over the planet who come together to work on the ship. I have never seen any one place of work where so many different people can gather together and not have a riot. There are all sizes, shapes, colors and any other variations one can think of, and I’m really enjoying it.

Carnival wants to expand their comedy presence on all of their ships, and if I’m on their roster that means twenty possible ships. I don’t necessarily want to be lost at sea, but for a chunk of time it will be steady work and a chance to turn my financial situation around.

There are two comedians who alternate sets, and tonight Jim Brick went first at 7:30 to do his clean set. They advertise it as ‘PG’, but there are kids in the audience and we aren’t supposed to swear at all. That’s fine with me, but a lot of performers couldn’t handle that.

Jim is very experienced and he did his set without a glitch. He’s really good with crowd work, which I could be too if I worked on it more. I used to do it a lot, but I decided to go for a more structured set because it’s too inconsistent for my tastes. It’s a perfect fit for an audience like this though, and I’ll have to think about ways I can bring it back effectively.

I did my first set squeaky clean, and it went very well. I felt a little tight, but I didn’t go over the line, so that’s all I cared about. I just wanted to get my bearings and see how they would react to my style. It was fine. My late show was red hot, until I got to my big closer which kills in clubs. They stared at me so I adjusted and closed strong with a different bit.

That’s why I know I can do this. Not many could adjust on the fly like that, and nobody else had any idea it was my planned closer but me. The club manager is from Manchester, England and this is only the second week of the comedy club so I’m really in a great spot to be rehired. All I have to do is get some laughs and not be a pain offstage. I can do that.