Time To Prepare

Monday February 16th, 2009 - Chicago, IL

Still plugging away on my set for the Craig Ferguson show. The talent booker has been super nice in allowing me extra time to go over it and get a flow that I can work with and I really appreciate that. This is all new to me and I don’t want to blow my opportunity and go in there unprepared. In the end this is all probably going to make my entire act better.

I’ve spent more time tweaking and arranging this one four and a half minute set coming up for this TV taping than I have my entire act for the past several years. I’m a jazz riffer. That’s my style. I like to go on stage and let it flow in the moment and those moments are never exactly the same from night to night so my shows are never exactly the same either.

That’s part of the fun of it for me but that’s not how TV works. I get that. They can’t let some unknown goof go on their network and riff for four and a half minutes. Who knows what disaster that could lead to and I’m fine with this whole process. I just don’t want the chance I’ve worked so hard to get be wasted by me not being ready so I’m over cautious.

I know I can do the job but I want it to be something I’m proud of too. Part of me thinks if I rehearse it too much it will come off flat and stale but that’s not necessarily the case at all. Some of the jokes I’ve done before many times and I know they get laughs. Others are tag lines or offshoots of other jokes or lines other comics added after looking over my set.

The main thing is to give it structure and that’s what I’ve always had trouble with. I like keeping it loose because the laughs are more genuine but structure is never a bad thing for an act and that’s what I teach my students. I tell them to do what I say and not what I do.

Part of that is because I had nobody to tell me what to do when I started. I did it the best way I could with the knowledge I had and quite frankly I developed some bad habits. I’m able to overcome them now because I’ve done it so long but if I had it to do over again it sure would have been nice to have someone guide me along the way. I’d be even better.

I’m fortunate enough to be blessed with enough natural comic ability to be able to make my way through just about any situation. I can think quickly on my feet and when it’s not going right I can pretend that it is and get through it. Not a lot of people can do that and it has brought me through a lot of hellacious situations but now it’s time to do it correctly.

That means I need to go over the set and take out the fat and put the jokes in the correct order and try to maintain a flow the whole time too. That’s not easy but I’m up for the big challenge of creating it in just a few weeks. I know I can do this and I’m not going to fail. Plus I’ve had a lot of great input from comedy people I really respect. This is going to fly.

I hosted the rising star showcase at Zanies in Chicago tonight and wanted to try my new set out but it just didn’t feel right so I didn’t. There were a lot of new comics there I don’t know and the audience was young and rowdy so I didn’t think it was the right place to be experimenting. I had a job to do and I did it. I’ll have plenty of time to practice the set.