THREE MINUTES [stand up comedy BLOGRMAGE: DAY 11]

On Monday, I'm signing up for the open mike at the Acme Comedy Co (one of the top 5 comedy clubs in America) and I don't feel prepared. Newcomers only get three minute sets and depending on how you do with performing and etiquette, you can perform again for five minutes the following week.

I'm primarily nervous because bombing the set could hurt my chances of performing again in this great environment. Nonetheless, I must try, despite potential failure.

I'm also nervous because I really want to be good at this.

Today I went to a coffee shop, wrote and practiced my jokes on my girlfriend. It's crazy how eliminating a word here or there and rephrasing something can turn a bad joke into a good one. One liners are fun to write, but are hard to think of. I kind of just wait for something to pop in my mind, and then I write it down. Writing stories is a lot harder. For some reason, my stories have been my weakness in comedy. This is surprising because it's my strength in real life.

To keep me thinking, I could use some help.

Please comment with half sentences and I'll finish them.

 For example, a comment could look like, "The other day I walked into a grocery store and..." or something crazy. And I'll try to finish it.

-Pradeepan

JOKES AND SUSHI [stand up comedy BLOGRMAGE: DAY 10]

Another Friday night with my family means another chance to practice joking. We went to a sushi restaurant, and a lot of people were interested in the comedy challenge. Naturally, I got to practice a few of the one liners I had been working on.

This environment felt especially natural after the sterile couch performances from last week. A lot of my one liners went over really well--not all of them, though. There were a few times when I naturally told a story and everybody laughed and said they liked that joke. The thing is, I wasn't trying to tell a joke, it was not preemptive humor, and it went over well. Then I'd try to tell the joke again to another person and it'd become all sterile. Must bridge the natural to stage humor gap!

Hanging out with groups is great for gathering material for two reasons.

1. Conversations and jokes naturally happen
2. It makes everyone paranoid (I loved writing in my notebook whenever my cousins would speak and then make eye contact)

Today, I watched the dvd Zach Galifianakis: Live from the Purple Onion.

It's the most unique comedy dvd I've seen. It felt more like a documentary than a stand up set. His routine is highly abstract, and while it is entertaining, it's not my favorite. I respect the genius of it and give him mad credibility, but I wouldn't want to watch the dvd again. Maybe a few certain parts, but I think part of the appeal of his persona is not knowing what to expect.

Peace.

Pradeepan

WRITING AND WRITING [stand up comedy BLOGRMAGE: DAY 10]

Writing stand up comedy is probably the most difficult part of this whole process. Performing, memorizing and editing material is much easier once material exists. Creativity is a core issue for stand up comedy. Comedians that use "easy" material to get results are considered hacks. In order to maintain respect amongst comedians and audiences, it is important to develop original, innovative and consistently fresh material.

This is so difficult. 

I sat in a coffee shop and kept my pen moving--one of the best cures for writer's block. No matter how dumb my jokes were I kept the pen moving. 

More than stories, I focused a bit on one liners today. One liners are great for openings, breaking the ice and building momentum. Many of the one liners I wrote are pretty bad, but I think some can work.

Here's a bad one I wrote:

When people tell me that I count, I tell them I can spell too.

Who knows what jokes work with a live audience. I sure don't. I want to get some of these in my arsenal for quick laughs and building upon small victories.

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TOOK DOWN THE VIDEO [stand up comedy BLOGRMAGE: DAY 9]

Yesterday I posted a video of Aziz Ansari, and after 800,000 views and one night on my blog, it was taken down. I guess my blog brought too much exposure.

Today, I watched a Bryan Regan DVD called, "The Epitome of Hyperbole." I love his story telling using daily observations. Most of the day was spent on music, so after the DVD I didn't focus on comedy as much as I would have liked to.

Here's a crazy video of my roommate dancing to a song I quickly put together on garageband.

AZIZ ANSARI--MY STAND UP ROLE MODEL [stand up comedy BLOGRMAGE: DAY 8]

[My transcription of Aziz Ansari's stand up is below]

For my challenge day, I spent way too much time watching stand up comedians. In fact, I have a role model and his name Aziz Ansari. He's actually Tamil, just like I am.

He's gained a lot of success in movies, stand up and shows like Parks and Recreation. He's only 28. I am 25. Maybe If I follow this stand up comedy challenge to 28 I'll find success comparable to his, though I'm only looking at the 30 days for now.

One thing, in particular, that I like about him is that he's not dependent on "cultural jokes." The brown culture doesn't have to be the brunt of his jokes in order for him to be funny--not that I'm against that. I like that a brown comedian isn't pigeon holed into doing cultural comedy.

Another thing that I like about him is that his style reminds me of my communication when I'm not on stage. His facial expressions, intensity, story exaggeration and body language incorporate some of the things I do naturally. I haven't figured out how to translate my stories into great material and presentation like his, but I feel that his stand up is a key for me to understand mine.

So, I took one of my favorite clips of his, and transcribed it (I put it below his video). This took me a very long time (props to those secretaries in court cases that short hand everything). I'm looking through his material to find patterns or skeletons for a good routine. In no way am I trying to steal his material. I just need to learn some generic chords before I can write my own songs on this stand up comedy guitar.

-Pradeepan

MY TRANSCRIPTION (0:17-5:08)              *not grammatically correct

[I love harris because he has really odd choices in entertainment. You know how you see billboards for shows like burn notice. You're like who watches burn notice? Harris watches burn notices! Harris told me his senior quote is going to be TNT KNOWS DRAMA! You call up harris and say hey harris and you hear things like HEY HARRIS WHAT"S GOING ON? I'm piss off man, my dad just erased all my shows from the dvr. Guess I won't find out what happened on las vegas this week. Who Dvrs las vegas? Josh dumal doesn't dvr las vegas? And you don't get that joke because Josh dumal is a star of las vegas and NOBODY watches las vegas.

So I ask harris, i'm like hey harris you like the dark night.yeah. is it better than burn notice. Is it better than las vegas? yeah. Is it better than eating a cinnabon? No. And I knew that would get him because he's a little chubby guy and he loves shoving cinnabon into his little chubby face. yomyomyom. 

And I love that about him. I love that he's chubby. Because there's not a lot of chubby little indian kids. most of them are small and skinny like me. But every now and then you see a chubby one and it's awesome. It's like of like seeing a shooting star except for its fat brown and on the ground.

I found harris to be most entertaining to me when he's really angry at me, and I found the quickest way to get him angry is to f with him on facebook. He does not like it. He's got his little updates meticulously planned. Like harris just became a big fan of will smith, and i'll write up there F WILL SMITH. and he'll be like why did you do that?

And so one time I noticed that he was posting a lot on a study group for his world history class. And I was like I know what i'll do. I'll join the study group. I'll write all this dumb s on there and harris will get really pissed and it will be awesome. and that's exactly how that s went down

as soon as I started posting, i started getting all these angry ims from harris. He's like hey man you need to get off the boards! and I was like why? he's like the admins are getting on my case. and he posts his conversation he had with the admin, where their admin is like hey harris who 's aziz? my cousin. why do you ask? he goes he's posting on ap world wall. Do you know what period he has ap world? and harris writes in all caps. NOOOOO. you got to boot him out. With like 30 O's  like 30 w's and 50 exclamation points. and other people are starting to get suspicious of my presence on the board as well. Maybe because I'm supposed to be in the 9th grade and I have a full beard.

But I'm trying to act like I belong, right. That I'm in the class. I know what's up. So, there's was like a  controversy about this one quiz questions, and I'm like I know what i'll do. I'll go and independently do some research. And I'll post my findings on the board. They'll think I'm smart and belong in the class.So the next post I wrote was GUYS! I've been doing some research. I think the views on salvation in buddhism and christianity are far from similar. In Buddhism salvation is something one can only be achieved through the noble 8 fold path. where as in Christianity, salvation is given to all those whom accept Jesus Christ as their savior. quote. For whomever calls upon the name of the LORD shall be saved. romans 10 13. Hate to say it guys, but our teacher Mr. Eddlesteen is right. Bam!

And then I waited like two minutes, and I wrote this. Guys! I just got an email from Mr eddlesteen. He read what I wrote here and gave me an extra point on the quiz. He said I showed initiative and critical thinking skills. What a cool guy.

And then this kid replied WHAAAT! And then at this point, Harris got Fing furious.

He was like I don't know if you should've written that last wall post, aziz. I was like why? he goes what if people go in tomorrow. and say eddlesteen, I heard you gave aziz an extra point on the quiz. Can I get an extra point back to? Because I put the same thing he did. And He'll be like I don't teach aziz that person doesn't exist.

And I was like F you harris, I do exist.

And then he starts attacking me publicly on the boards. He writes in all caps AZIZ get out of this room! With like a bunch of exclamation points and then emoticons like rararara. And i was like what's that supposed to be harris? You eating cinnabon all day. And then I start mounting my offensive. I start poking him like crazy. I start sending him vampire requests whatever the f that is. He's like I don't know what's going on. And then he writes up there he goes Hey everyone if I were you I wouldn't go to eddlesteen and ask for points back on that question. I'm positive you wn't get the points back. and then I write. No guys. I just talked to eddlesteen again. You'll definitely get the points back. Just mention my name and the fact that I exist. F YOU HARRIS.]

WATCHED FIRST OPEN MIKE [stand up comedy BLOGRMAGE: DAY 7]

Not all comedians are funny.

Feeling more confident after attending an open mike night for the first time. I went back to the ACME COMEDY CO (one of the top 5 comedy clubs in America) and watched more than 20 amateur comedians.

This BLOGRIMAGE opened my eyes to a whole sub culture that I am very familiar with. Though I'm not sure what other venues are like, this club is very inviting. A few comedians bombed sets and the audience didn't heckle or insult the act. Actually, the audience was very forgiving and let the people try until some of the jokes came through--the audience wanted to laugh.

Not everyone was very funny. You can easily tell the polished people from the rookies. Stuttering over words, forgetting lines, making horrible jokes are all indicators of bad comedians. This night also help me to indicate something.

I can do this.

Next week, I'm signing up for the Monday night open mike. Newbies only get 3 minutes to perform and may not get stage time at all. Either way, I'm going to have material ready to go. Even if I suck, I feel like this can be a good experience. If I do my homework, practice and get some local feedback, there's no reason I should bomb the set.

Some of my observations from the night:

-Be confident
-One liners are great for building momentum or changing subjects
-Jokes need to be concise
-When the audience doesn't relate or understand, the humor is lost
-Jokes don't have to be in order. Changing subjects rapidly works
-Start and end strong. The middle can be paced a little more slow
-Body language really emphasizes
-Don't be annoying
-Build on laughter. Don't wait for the crowd to stop laughing
-Forgetting a line isn't the end of a set. Move on
-Some people look like they are going to be funny

Hope you enjoy the video above. Do you think she was one of the funny or unfunny comedians?

-Pradeepan