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I was.
After weeks of not connecting for various reasons, I was hanging out with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
roadnotes, baldanders, reive, and a few other people at Rose's Turn. With an actual drink in front of me, sipping it slowly as I listened to the pianist and just relaxed. Suddenly, Roadnotes asks me "Do you know this woman?"
Yes, I know that woman. She's my cousin. And she's doing a comedy gig upstairs. She convinces me to come upstairs and listen by offering to get me comped on the door--doesn't mention that the two drink minimum is at extortionate prices. So I went upstairs, and scribbled in my notebook while a few other people scribbled in their notebooks as we waited for something to start. The bartender asked people what they wanted to drink, and would they want the same thing for their second drink. Ginger ale, and let me think about the other one.
The MC who started things off completely failed to be funny. Demanding that a mostly-empty room applaud you for no reason except that you want to be applauded rarely works, either. Then she introduced my cousin Janet.
Janet's stand-up act seems to be a random walk of insulting people and groups who aren't there: a woman with facial tattoos, drag queens as a class...and, to finish things off, she went on about how she had dressed up for us. "No, really, in my family this is dressing up--in my family, a clean lab coat without stains is dressing up."
When your cousin is doing a stand-up act, getting up and saying "How dare you insult my aunt?" isn't quite on. I fled as soon as Janet was offstage, paying the extortionist bartender $11.75 for a ginger ale and a pineapple juice, both tiny.
It isn't sufficient to be labeled "comedy" to get laughs--you also have to be funny.
Fortunately, my friends were still downstairs, the music was still going, complete with cheerful silliness.
After weeks of not connecting for various reasons, I was hanging out with
roadnotes, baldanders, reive, and a few other people at Rose's Turn. With an actual drink in front of me, sipping it slowly as I listened to the pianist and just relaxed. Suddenly, Roadnotes asks me "Do you know this woman?"Yes, I know that woman. She's my cousin. And she's doing a comedy gig upstairs. She convinces me to come upstairs and listen by offering to get me comped on the door--doesn't mention that the two drink minimum is at extortionate prices. So I went upstairs, and scribbled in my notebook while a few other people scribbled in their notebooks as we waited for something to start. The bartender asked people what they wanted to drink, and would they want the same thing for their second drink. Ginger ale, and let me think about the other one.
The MC who started things off completely failed to be funny. Demanding that a mostly-empty room applaud you for no reason except that you want to be applauded rarely works, either. Then she introduced my cousin Janet.
Janet's stand-up act seems to be a random walk of insulting people and groups who aren't there: a woman with facial tattoos, drag queens as a class...and, to finish things off, she went on about how she had dressed up for us. "No, really, in my family this is dressing up--in my family, a clean lab coat without stains is dressing up."
When your cousin is doing a stand-up act, getting up and saying "How dare you insult my aunt?" isn't quite on. I fled as soon as Janet was offstage, paying the extortionist bartender $11.75 for a ginger ale and a pineapple juice, both tiny.
It isn't sufficient to be labeled "comedy" to get laughs--you also have to be funny.
Fortunately, my friends were still downstairs, the music was still going, complete with cheerful silliness.
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