This week seems to have been shorter than others. Maybe because of Labor day? Basically what I'm trying to say, though, is I just did not have the time to concentrate on this project. I had other things to do like catch up on sleep and Scandal. Pretty soon though, this blog will have to move on from a list of excuses to actual work. It scares me how much I procrastinate sometimes. Like I was walking down the hall and noticed that Parkview Coffeehouse, where I plan on performing my first act, is on September 16 and (gasp) that's in 11 days!
It's not that I'm purposely just forgetting about this though. I watched stand up routines of Louis C.K. and Russell Peters as well as a couple of ehow articles, of all things, about how to perform a stand up act and write jokes. Frankly, I was just overwhelmed by the challenge I had taken on. There's a big difference between cracking a joke once and trying to entertain a crowd for 10 minutes. This epiphany rocked my world harder than your mom last night which leads me to my next problem. Performing stand up in school forces one to censor themselves and sometimes when the individual in question is a teenagers with way too many hormones coursing through their veins, it can be tough.
A quote I have always loved is about how one shouldn't focus on the problem but the possible solutions. Improv seems like a good idea but I'm not sure if that's the best thing for me. I want to focus on the kind of observational comedy that made Louis C.K. famous. Maybe even ethnicity jokes but that might be too far? Or maybe the story telling techniques used by Dane Cook and Kevin Hart?
So far in the act I have written, it focuses on mainly my experiences with being funny and funny encounters that I have had. I want to find a real zinger, though, that will make my act worth my audience's time. This week, I'll have to focus. I'm going to try contacting famous comedians to be my mentor but I'm scared. What if I don't find a mentor that does stand up comedy? I don't know anybody like that. Hopefully I'll find one by next week. I will also have to finalize my act by next week. So far I only have a rough draft done. I also need to start practicing in front of a mirror because apparently it has helped a lot of famous comedians. I think that's about it for this week. Tom? What's the weather going to be like this week?