Speaking of bombing, I remember watching Last Comic Standing years ago and they had Kathy Griffin on there. She did an awful pre-taped set and every audience shot showed zero smiles and, I would estimate, a negative amount of laughs. Somehow, though, the sound behind her set was just crazy raucous laughter.
The next day, I was still incensed that NBC had obviously added laughs in an attempt to manipulate the viewing audience. I searched Twitter looking for anyone who shared my outrage and found…
Nothing.
I let it go but I never forgot it.
Nice post (or column or Substack or article or whatever you prefer to call it). I’m a massive fan of stand-up and am fascinated in the behind-the-scenes view and nuts and bolts of the craft. What you wrote is right up my interest’s alley (that’s a thing) and I am now a subscriber.
I’ve always wanted to make an attempt at stand-up or at least writing for stand-up, but never have. For now I’m just content being known as the funny guy in my social circles. I guess. I’m probably too old to try it at this point, anyway.
Maybe I should just start interviewing comedians and writing about it on Substack. That could be fun.
Gary, this is such a thoughtful comment! Thanks very much and glad you were interested in these terrible tales haha.
If stand up is something you’ve wanted to do, I big time recommend just taking 5 minutes to an open mic to cross it off the bucket list — and if nothing else, it’s a story.
Thanks for reading and subscribing and hope to catch you at a show sometime!
That open mic idea is a good one. I know myself fairly well (self-awareness is a blessing but also my curse) and I’d have to be pretty damn confident in my five minutes to do it in front of people. Maybe I’ll see what I can work up.
If you ever make it to Eureka, CA (hidden behind the Redwood Curtain) I will definitely show up.
It feels like we don’t get a ton of comedians up here. I remember Mike Birbiglia came through about 8-12 years ago (I’m thinking that’s the time span because my wife was still alive and we were in this house) and I missed his show because I didn’t want to go by myself and my wife was too sick to go. I should’ve just gone. It would have at least made for a good memory from that time.
BTW, you never told me who the underwhelming female comedian was. I’m dying to know. Unless, that is, I hit it accidentally by mentioning Kathy Griffin and you, by not referencing it at all in your reply, were slyly confirming my sideways guess.
“welp, I guess I’ve been demoted to audience member.” 😂😂😂
Haha some days I’d like to be
I'm askin'. You know I'm askin'.
Oh you KNOW I’m DMing
Yeah, I was a curious who that was.
Speaking of bombing, I remember watching Last Comic Standing years ago and they had Kathy Griffin on there. She did an awful pre-taped set and every audience shot showed zero smiles and, I would estimate, a negative amount of laughs. Somehow, though, the sound behind her set was just crazy raucous laughter.
The next day, I was still incensed that NBC had obviously added laughs in an attempt to manipulate the viewing audience. I searched Twitter looking for anyone who shared my outrage and found…
Nothing.
I let it go but I never forgot it.
Nice post (or column or Substack or article or whatever you prefer to call it). I’m a massive fan of stand-up and am fascinated in the behind-the-scenes view and nuts and bolts of the craft. What you wrote is right up my interest’s alley (that’s a thing) and I am now a subscriber.
I’ve always wanted to make an attempt at stand-up or at least writing for stand-up, but never have. For now I’m just content being known as the funny guy in my social circles. I guess. I’m probably too old to try it at this point, anyway.
Maybe I should just start interviewing comedians and writing about it on Substack. That could be fun.
Gary, this is such a thoughtful comment! Thanks very much and glad you were interested in these terrible tales haha.
If stand up is something you’ve wanted to do, I big time recommend just taking 5 minutes to an open mic to cross it off the bucket list — and if nothing else, it’s a story.
Thanks for reading and subscribing and hope to catch you at a show sometime!
That open mic idea is a good one. I know myself fairly well (self-awareness is a blessing but also my curse) and I’d have to be pretty damn confident in my five minutes to do it in front of people. Maybe I’ll see what I can work up.
If you ever make it to Eureka, CA (hidden behind the Redwood Curtain) I will definitely show up.
It feels like we don’t get a ton of comedians up here. I remember Mike Birbiglia came through about 8-12 years ago (I’m thinking that’s the time span because my wife was still alive and we were in this house) and I missed his show because I didn’t want to go by myself and my wife was too sick to go. I should’ve just gone. It would have at least made for a good memory from that time.
BTW, you never told me who the underwhelming female comedian was. I’m dying to know. Unless, that is, I hit it accidentally by mentioning Kathy Griffin and you, by not referencing it at all in your reply, were slyly confirming my sideways guess.