Fritschie: Comedian

Tonight, I made good on my resolution to do something incredibly scary. In fact, it scared the living shit out of me until the moment I stepped up and did it. Now, I can say that I have done stand-up comedy.

For the past few weeks, I've been taking part in my friend Corey's stand-up workshop. Mostly, I've been observing the process of writing, performing, polishing and performing it better. I've been writing my material, practicing in the car, getting notes from the folks in workshop, and getting everything committed to memory.

Tonight, I put my name on the list. There were three people with reserved slots on open mic night, and all those who were left drew numbers for the remaining four slots (#4-#7). Given the number of comics drawing numbers, I thought my chances for a reprieve were pretty good.

I got slot number #5. Time to cowboy up, Fritschie!

I went outside and chain smoked until the show began. I tried my damnedest to recalll what I used to do in high school drama to ease my nerves and overcome stage fright. Nothing was coming to mind. I went over my act in my head and made sure I had it all down pat.

The first two comedians got up and did a great job. They got the crowd fired up. My nerves were settling quite a bit. Then the third comic got up and...Dear God, he was awful. The silence from the audience actually seemed like negative noise, in that it absorbed any and all sound in the room. It was death. I thanked my lucky stars that I didn't have to immediately follow that guy, but I needed a miracle to get the crowd back to laugh mode.

The emcee pulled it off, and the next comic brought everyone back in our favor. I stood by the stage waiting for my time, and my knees started to shake uncontrollably. When my name was called, I took one step on the stage, and all my nervous energy shifted into the sarcastic vibe I needed for the act.

I joked about growing up in Arkansas with pseudo-hippie parents, smoking pot, having the flu and Nyquil, and it went amazingly well. Practicing these bits, I had it all down to a trim four minutes, but in delivering it on stage, I got it all in at 3:45. I kinda choked on my closer, but overall, I did great...enough to want to do it again and again.

Now, I'm making the point to write one joke per day and try to polish them up into future bits. This is gonna get interesting.