Second City Comedy Into The Wee Hours Of The Morning

Another day, another dollar. Just kidding. There is no money involved in playing open mics across the country.

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I played two open mics today. The first one was at Uncommon Ground and was music-centric. I opened in order to give myself enough time to get to the second open mic. I played two songs ("Orion's Utility Belt" and "Volveré") and... it felt good. After last night I feel like I'm getting a hang of playing these songs. Truth be told it was watching John Kimler last night that revealed the trick. I've got to enjoy myself. And I did.

MUSIC!

The other performers were excellent. Chicago is really spectacular and lousy with talented people. One of the guys, Ross, a really young kid, played some Dylan-esque originals that were really great. Another girl played with a cellist and did some heartbreaking material. She was in a leg cast because she's a dancer and after a routine during Chicago's Pride week, she slipped on a spilt drink and dislocated her leg. Anyways, she had a great voice and the cellist was phenomenal.

I took off shortly after that in order to get to the second event: A comedy open mic!

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Andrew and I decided earlier in the day that we would do a comedy open mic. We worked on our material, timed it, and said, "why not?" We prepared five minutes and showed up 15 minutes early to sign up.

Schubas was packed. And we found our way into what we thought was a line. When 9:00 came, the line... formed? Whatever it was we ended up in the back of it. And, after Andrew, I was the very last person to sign up to the 40 person list. Huzzah!

This guy was one of the hosts and he was funny:

OKCComedy Presents: Derek Smith - watch more funny videos

And then, we waited. At first, the room was alive and the comedy was good. But after two hours... after three hours... after FOUR HOURS... there was no energy left. And the room was practically empty. But I went up and did my four minutes. And it went okay! I had fun at least. My favorite joke went something like this:

I'm in a somewhat volatile living situation right now. I'm living with a couple. And they're really needy and obsessive-compulsive... (adjusts some drinks on the table) Sorry that was bothering me. They're always telling me to turn my music down, clean my room, get a job... And they fight a lot. I always feel like it might have something to do with me. I'm certainly not making it easier. Whenever I hear them fighting it always ends the same: "HE'S YOUR SON, TOO, GREG." ...I live with my parents, in case that wasn't obvious.

COMEDY!

At this point it was 1:45 in the morning and there were 5 people in the room including Andrew and his girlfriend, Abby. There was some laughter. But at 2:00 in the morning it's hard to discern between pity and genuine enjoyment.

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Tomorrow: 15 HOURS ON THE ROAD TO DENVER. Goodness, I'm tired.