Hollywood Here I Come...There I Went!

I finally went back to Hollywood to do a gig last night. I actually haven’t been up there to perform since Bastille Day. No, I didn’t perform FOR Bastille Day, it just happened to be Bastille Day. The only reason I remembered that it was Bastille Day was because the Emcee did a bunch of jokes about it.

I also recalled that I totally bit it. The LA Comedy Scene™ is, to say the least, cliquey. It’s like walking in to a box social without the proper petty coat ifyou know what I mean.

There are a group of these people that perform all over town together, know each others sets backwards and forwards and usually just goup on stage to make one another laugh. I’m sure “inside joke” comedy is sure to be a huge hit soon and they well all be ready for it.

Please don’t think I mean ALL LA comics are cliquey. I’m sure many of them are very giving and friendly people. I’ve just never managed to encounter any of those LA comics.

So this time I went in with the knowledge that I’d probably be up against a bunch of comics who believe that by laughing at someone else’s material from outside their crew, it somehow makes them less funny. That somehow if they laugh out loud it sends a ripple throughout the cosmos that will somehow keep them down in the dregs of the comedy world forever. That somehow laughing at me will give me a leg up on them.

Not the best way to go into a gig, but it really justleft me to focus on my material and stuff that I know is funny; whether they outwardly showed it or not.

My first joke, probably my BEST opening line, kind of fizzled. I knew at that moment that I had two ways to go; either I shake it off and move on to my next joke, or let it effect the rest of my performance, phoning it in, and getting the hell off the stage.

I used my latest mantra “FUCK IT” and just kept trucking along, not changing my rhythm, my inflection, my persona.. Slowly but surely I brought them around,so that by the end they actually seemed to enjoy my set. I even had one of the other comics come up to me afterwards and compliment me. And I don’t think he was even trying to get into my pants.

Last Bastille Day I let that first line bombing affect me. I gave up. I guess I have matured with my comedy, without even knowing it.

So I won’t wait ‘til this coming Bastille Day to go back into Hollywood. I just have to remember that the vibe between L.A. comedy and O.C. comedy is completely different, but that the funny is the same no matter where you are.