So I just returned home from my first night as a paid comedian. Pretty cool. I still have no idea how much they’re paying me, but something is way better than nothing and getting to chill in the green room makes me feel pretty VIP.

I got to MC open mic this Tuesday, and it went pretty well. I felt like I warmed the crowd up as I should. I did some moves from my hip hop abs dvds…had the crowd clap me a beat. Pretty embarrassing. Vulnerability builds trust with the audience though, what can I say?

When my friend, Oskay, told me that downtown crowds were rough, he was not joking. Seriously, before anyone was even on stage and the announcer lady said “are you guys ready to have a good time?” silence. absolute silence. I just started cracking up because it was the only way to keep from stressing at the huge job I had ahead of me to warm this crowd up in 10 minutes.

I went out on a limb and opened with new material…it went well and actually opened up dialogue with the headliner for me because apparently he also has dachshunds. But they were seriously giving me no love, so I made the entire crowd do the wave with me. I don’t know why or how that popped in to my head, but as soon as the words fall out of your mouth, you gotta go with it. So I’ll be damned if every single person in the crowd did not join me in the wave. When I got off stage, the manager & Matt (guy who booked me as an MC) applauded me on the wave…the word ‘genius’ might have come up…but Matt said I should be pretty damn proud that I actually got them to do it. But really, I wouldn’t have left the stage until I had. I’m no quitter.

Oh, but the other comics were Mike Veneman & Patrick Deguire. Really good show. I guess Veneman has worked with Jeff Foxworthy & the Blue Collar crew for about 15 years. I’m looking forward to hearing some more stories about that the rest of the week.

Also, after the Tuesday show, a bookie (can i call him that?) came up to me and asked me to MC a show for him. Pretty cool. He also offered money. $75 to do a 10 minute set is pretty sweet, so I need to call him tomorrow and confirm I’ll do it.

Anyway, I’m exhausted. I still have 5 shows ahead of me before week’s end. Those 10:30 shows are gonna knock me on my ass.