Sunday June 10th, 2012 – Fox Lake, IL
I have to say, this weekend has really opened up all kinds of new doors in my already cluttered brain box. I’m glad I was able to be a part of ‘Internet Prophets Live!’ both as a performer and as an observer. If nothing else, it showed me I don’t have to be stuck in the comedy club rut for life.
I really do love to perform live, and I think I’m pretty good at it – especially when the audience isn’t drunk to the point of zombiedom. Working in clubs can be hand to hand combat, and I don’t have the patience for it anymore. Is it too much to ask to have a crowd who wants to see a show?
The people who showed up this weekend were there because they wanted to be there. It wasn’t a room full of freebies that won tickets for them and 200 of their closest friends by dropping their business cards in a fish bowl. They paid a significant chunk of change for a weekend of learning.
There was some entertainment thrown in there too, and that’s another thing I enjoyed watching from a distance. Most of the scheduled speakers incorporated technologies comedians don’t tend to use like power point presentations and flashy video intros. It was more WWE than anything.
The performing conditions were ideal. There was a big beautiful stage with plenty of room for speakers to roam and giant video screens on each side of it like a rock concert that made it larger than life. The sound and light systems were killer, and all of that together is a recipe for success.
How many frustrating nights in my life have I spent standing on a rickety beer crate in front of a single flickering bug light straining my voice hollering into a tinny sounding ‘Mr. Microphone’ with one Radio Shack speaker the size of a quarter trying to entertain drunks? WAY too many.
Being part of this weekend was like getting called up to the big leagues. I know how to deliver when I’m on a stage, and I know I could do more of these kinds of events if asked. I’m not dumb enough to expect to be asked though; I’ll have to seek them out myself. But I know I can do this.
I’ve got as much stage chops as anyone I saw this weekend, and that’s no insult to any of those that I saw. They were competent, but I am too. I’ve been teaching for years in addition to being a comedian, and I have content I could use to educate a corporate type audience in the humor field.
I really think this needs to be a direction I go, and quickly. Dale Irvin is an example of a comic who has successfully transitioned into this area and has made a LOT more money. Greg Schwem is another, as is Tim Clue. Those guys all worked comedy clubs, but have evolved to other areas.
One thing I definitely need to do yesterday is get a book out. Every one of the people I watched this weekend had some kind of a book, package of books or audio/video instruction course ready to be sold in the back of the room at a huge discount ‘if you buy today’. It was a big sales pitch.
You can bet your library card I’m going to have at least one book available toot sweet, and that probably won’t be the last. I know I can pack some good content into it too, not just some quotes rehashed from Zig Ziglar. I saw how the big guns do it, and I learned a lot. I’m not over matched.
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