What I Learned from Uncle Clyde's at Flappers.
Yes, that is a crazy looking picture of me but it's a brilliant headshot for bookings and shows. I had auditioned at Flappers thanks to a road trip with a Vegas colleague of mine, Spiro Siavelis, another incredibly talented comedian who performs at the Ha Ha Club and other venues in California as well as a guest and host at the LA Comedy Club at the Strat in Las Vegas, NV. The audition went very well and I was called back for a showcase in the Yoo Hoo Room at Flappers. It went very well and I was grateful for three minutes of tremendous laughs from the crowd.
Afterwards, I got invited to round two of Uncle Clyde's Comedy Contest. I had been preparing for it and I had two of my comic friends who made it on a Wednesday for it, but sadly it didn't go exactly as I had hoped. While it definitely wasn't a bomb, it also didn't feel like it was the best set I've ever done. That last part was the most disappointing. I definitely got huge laughs in some parts and they were captivated but it wasn't the huge reaction that I needed in order to win and get a recurring feature spot on a Flapper's show. However, I recorded the set and I noticed that I definitely needed to do a better job of addressing the whole audience and engaging them at the very beginning. The room was on the main stage this time so the angle was a bit different and a lot of my material comes from my physical appearance but if I jump right into my set then most of the crowd can't see my full appearance to get the joke. Also, if I only face the center of the crowd and am too close then I close myself off to the rest of the audience. The lack of eye contact with so much of the crowd hurt me and didn't get me the best reaction that I needed.
While I had worked so hard on memorizing and tightening up my material, I didn't engage the crowd enough with an introduction to get them behind me for most of it. I had 2-3 minutes of gold but 2 minutes of just steady material that didn't connect with the whole audience since I didn't engage the whole crowd as well as I should've. Since that performance, I got another guest spot at the Strat in Las Vegas and was able to keep the crowd engaged despite some intoxicated hecklers being taken out by security while I was onstage. The hecklers were definitely distracting but I powered through to at least keep most of the audience focused on me as the drunken couple were led out of the building. It made me realize that distractions will happen but as the performer, it is up to you to deal with them and truly power through it. Rather than get angry, accept that things will happen and go with the flow. That is what truly makes or breaks certain performers. How well do you compose yourself while onstage?
My next feature spot was at OMG Pizza where I received tremendous praise for my set and I was so glad that I did this room because it reminded me of the set up for the main stage at Flappers so I was able to focus on what went wrong and improve on that. It went incredibly well. Not only did I have the crowd engaged throughout, but I also got a solid reaction from all sides of the room and gave them the appropriate eye contact without looking like I was spinning my head around or only focusing on the audience that was responding to my comedy.
Directly engaging the crowd was something I had always tried to keep on the down low and rather just do my set, but I'm becoming more comfortable with responding to their reactions and adding more comedy to it if I catch them talking on their phones or to each other. I'm also far better at introducing myself and engaging with the crowd too to keep the entire audience laughing. In fact, I've been doing more guest hosting at mics to get better at engaging with crowd and really keeping the momentum going. A few veteran comics stopped by the Jackpot Comedy Club show that I had hosted and praised me for how well I did as a guest host.
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