"Losers try their best.... Winners Fuck the Prom Queen!" Sean Connery-"The Rock"
16 months into a self-imposed exile to what amounts to the Comedy Siberia of Southeastern Idaho… Time for this comic having cut his comedy teeth up and down the east coast of America and across the mid-west to do some reality checks, assessments and make some course adjustments…
The comedy road work secured upon first arriving here for all intents and purposed has dried up now due to long distances between gigs, high gas prices and false hope in the promises of bookers dangling quality gigs for a willingness to take the shitty ones, too…
More than a year’s worth of additional writing and polishing of material that has yet to see the stage needs to find an outlet other than while standing in line at Wal-Mart… Thinking out loud like an asylum escapee…
A non-existent local comedy scene… Except for what is known among road comics who’ve been there as one of the shittiest places ever to perform… No love of the art form to be found or practiced there… A “Do your time… Get your check, then leave”, waste of your time venue… It’s only quality being 15minutes from my home… Last setting foot upon its stage this past September… I’ve promised myself… “Never again…”
If a real as we know it comedy scene is going to happen here… It’s going to be up to me to build it… Build it from a populace un-schooled in how to “enjoy” almost any kind of live performances from comedy to live music...
There is no concept that talking through it… Talking over it… Or shouting incoherent BS in the middle of it… Doesn’t make it easy for the few in the room trying to enjoy the performance to have a quality experience and it certainly doesn’t endear the audience to the performers working hard to practice their craft…
The search for venues willing to take a chance on a comedy night running a fowl of the language/indecency police of church people is a constant battle in a city almost devoid of nightlife… In what would be considered the Happy Hour time slot anywhere else in the country… Live music is featured most places from 7-9pm… Live music that plays later than 11pm even on the weekends can be difficult to find… After all people need to get up early for church…
Why are there so many families with 5-6kids here??? FUCK!!! There ain’t anything else to do!!!
But the battle continues and small victories are celebrated… And hopefully built upon… Saturday, January 14th @9pm Three Dog Comedy Productions will break the comedy cherry of a new venue JJs Saloon in “Historic” Downtown Idaho Falls… Just don’t ask me why Downtown Idaho Falls is “Historic”… I don’t have a clue… And I doubt many others do, either… I have some theories… But you’ll have to come to the show to hear them…
I’m happy to have finally found a venue willing to take a chance… Willing to listen and learn how to make a show successful… Quality shows don’t just happen, folks… The dynamics going into a great show are things the audience never sees… But overlooked bring failure… Sound, lighting, room set up… And numerous simple but important other things…
Promotion being an all-important facet also… I’m happy they have embraced it and I’m doing my best to assist via Facebook and email… Remembering of course one of the last shows I produced in Upstate NY to a more than half empty room…
Not a poster, sign or anything appearing on the walls, doors or rest room stalls… The venue, a marina and restaurant/bar, whose owner, shortly after his divorce for an affair with a 17yr old waitress, wanted to cut my pay due to the low turnout… No, that’s why we had a contract, dummy…
But that’s water under the marina dock as they say…
With JJs Saloon already asking about monthly and possibly weekly shows… Things are hopefully looking up… Though I may run some of them as open mics… My personal preference of instruction being a “Boot Camp” scenario… I’ll do my best to tame it down… No pushups for shitty jokes…
I think the best way to teach people how to act as an audience during a live performance just might be to give them a chance to be the performance…
Who knows it could be a small start to something big and who knows someday I just might be known as the “Godfather of Southeastern Idaho Comedy”…
The search for additional venues continues as my thirst for comedy road work remains unquenched… The search is expanding to reasonable driving distances in all directions… The hope being to build a run or two of one and two nighters back to back… Then maybe parlay a piece of that into additional road work from other bookers… Then again maybe not… I’m a GOPer… Elephants never forget…
I’m not sure I’ve said all the things I planned when I sat down to write this…. I’m sure I’ve said some things I hadn’t planned on saying… Though if I’ve said them, they were probably hidden in my not so sub-conscious, conscious and they needed to be said…
Things are looking up as we await the start of 2012 and hopefully more shows to be produced are on the horizon… It’s been awhile since I’ve blogged, but I resolve now to do a better job of that as the New Year unfolds…
Hopefully you’ll all come along for the ride with me as… The 2012 Witness Protection – Comedy Breakout Tour causes Southeast Idaho and the surrounding area to soil their garments…
It’s time to “Fuck the Prom Queen!!!”
