Blog Challenge update for the steemBloPoMo
Just came off an assface show.. You can follow our foolishness over at @assfaceproject.
At the best of times, I exit a show and feel elated, but then spend the whole week gathering up all my reserve energy to get back to a normal baseline
This is what happens when you are an introvert trying to play in an extrovert's world.
But this show, we had a complaint on one of our opening acts. So I had to talk to performers and the venue management.
That makes it extra hard for me to come offa show feeling good about any of it.
Here's the problem. We book experimental acts, and sometimes newbies. This is to give them an opportunity for stage time.
And also, Toronto comedy is world class, but also unforgiving. And the local community is as supportive as you moving away and coming back a 'success'..
So good acts move out to LA or NYC or the performers do and troupes disband. You take what you can get for a Monday night show..
And sometimes to fill seats you book two or three openers when you probably should have booked one.
And othertimes you offer up time to friends you have seen around town and do other shows with and you know they can do something good.
And sometimes their own experiments fail.
There's a teachable moment in this (as they say) and it's this. Comedy class 101: Doesn't matter if you are left, right, up down. A joke that skirts the bounds of children and anything sexual never goes over well.
I know all us comedians want to shake up the foundations and challenge norms and try to prevent that restrictive 'PC' culture that we all feel is strangling our creativity. And especially on a blockchain, I know we all feel there's too much censorship by corporations on our thoughts.
But if I grab 10 people off the street all 10 will say there's a very common set of things that make people uncomfortable at shows. And you want your audience on your side. You want to wow them with stuff they relate to and can laugh at. Cannibalism is another... you have to be a master to make that funny..
Anyway, that was my night. A show, a lot of dealing with it (validly). A lot of troupe discussion of where we want to be.
We've talked about doing Improv festivals, but we're pretty loosey-goosey with our line-up, and rehearsals, and practice, and everything.
For us really, it's a hobby. And it's fun. And organizing press kits and other stuff is sometimes too serious for us... it becomes like essay writing.
I've been doing it for a few years (the producing) after taking over from the creative energy of the troupe who wanted to move into just performing. And it's been a great learning experience.
But at this point we do just enough to keep the show going month to month.
TL; DR --> Nobody shoots us in our own feet more than us! And I am an introvert that has to hide in a cave after shows. And I had a tough night dealing with it all..