So naturally it made sense for us to break our comedic cherries together! ... Because nothing is easier than exploring new territory with a group of your closets artist friends, and their HUGE emotional chips. (Present company included!) To make it even more fun, we decided to have weekly meetings in one of the members living rooms and "workshop" ideas and eat a fun "family style" dinner! ...like one big happy family! We called it "Stand-Up Salad" because we were an eclectic group of aspiring comedians who gathered and usually ate salad. (The idea made more sense at the time...)
Nevertheless, the first few meeting were a blast... we laughed, we critiqued, we argued and we drank... a lot!
Then the time came to do our first "gig" together.
I will say this, it was wonderful to have a group of people to go to the clubs with and have that support and laughter... to bad we were the only people at several of the first clubs we performed at!
I remember the very first time I got up, I was on stage and I saw the rest of my group in the audience, a homeless man, and the barista (the venue doubled as a coffee house) whipping up a latte right in the middle of my act... It was too painful, but in many ways was an excellent buffer for what was in store!
The time finally came, after weeks of living room meetings and testing our material at crappy coffee houses and holes in the wall around LA...
We decided to have our first show as: "Stand-Up Salad!" Which we did in a great space above Red Rock Bar on the Sunset Strip!
I was so nervous, we had a packed house and I was second in line to go up... When I heard my
name called a nearly shit my pants, but somehow made it to the stage and actually really enjoyed my set! ...it helped that the room was full of our friends who were drunk and ready to laugh... but all and all I had a blast. There was no question I was going to do it again. Eventually we started doing so well, that we moved into the Friar's Club of Beverly Hills and began performing there.
That's the thing about stand-up, if you have a great experience it's amazing... I would say the best high ever! However, if you bomb- GOD help you! There is nothing worse than being up on that stage alone in a sinking ship... and sometimes there is nothing you can do except plug your nose and go down with it!
Over time our group slowly faded to a glimmer of what we were... (I want to spare all of the gory details as they are too painful for me to EVER relive...) The only thing that is important to know is that; friendships suffered, there was a failed reality TV show and I had a really bad set one night and vowed I would, "NEVER DO STAND-UP AGAIN!"
You know that old saying, "Never say never" ...well dammit I should have listened!
I don't know if it's because I'm a glutton for punishment, a masochist or if I just love a good challenge... but something inside of me is dying to get back up and try it again. I'm not one to shy away from a risk, and I really think life is too short to waste it wishing I would have given it another shot... so I'm gonna go for it!
Let's just hope I don't suck! ...again.
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