Thursday, March 8, 2012

Too Raw

I am ashamed to say that this is not a new post. This is from March earlier this year to report back on how I went in an Unearthed Australian Stand-up Comedy competition. I am extremely proud on how well I performed on this night, and I want to share it with you all on DudeWrite


Dude Write



Earlier in the year, a whole two months ago, I revealed one of my goals this year was to do more stand-up comedy and to enter into the Raw Comedy Competition. It is the premier comedy competition in Australia and one that has introduced many famous acts to the greater Australian public.

I have been doing comedy for only a short time and I have grown to love it. Nobody is guaranteed fame and fortune in this competition, but not the reason why I wanted to do it. There is no greater feeling than making an entire room of strangers laugh. And nothing worse when they don't. Every rush has a price but I want it.

Being a competition, I chose the best jokes I had from my previous performances, all three of them, and developed my set of "gold" from there. That way I would have a chance to at least get something other than crickets, but no two audiences are the same, and you are never guaranteed that every joke will work every time.

Leading up to the competition I had an opportunity to attend a workshop with Greg Fleet. Greg is a well-known comedian in Australia and a legend of the scene. He showed me how to identify weak spots in my performance, shared how he develops his material, and offered suggestions to help make jokes pop. For example, if you move about on stage when you talk, make sure you are still for when you deliver the punch line.

The workshop filled me with ideas and enthusiasm, and I hungrily developed the “script”; which is more like a series of punch lines in dot points. I did a few run throughs, changed the order, more run throughs, tried to change the words to “enter” into each joke differently, changed the order again, etc. using suggestions I had learnt from Greg.

I had more than 7 minutes of material on average. During the competition I would have only 5. Some jokes had to go.

Culling is hard. Like any other creative endeavour, cutting your blood, sweat, and tears is hard. I liked all the jokes, they were my children, but I had no choice. I brought them into this world, I had to take them out, and it was tough to let go. I got to around 5 minutes, give or take, and now needed a test audience.

My girlfriend is amazingly patient with me, and has an invested interest in my happiness and no choice to be anything but my test audience. She is generally not a fan of the jokes I try and crack day to day, and we have different upbringings and experiences growing up which allows her identify if I am being too niche or not making sense. Therefore she is perfect, and as a test audience (see what I did there).

And awesome. Her feedback and suggestions helped bring more of me into my act and in two hours, I no longer sounded like I was whinging, the weaker jokes were gone, and stronger overall. There is no doubt I ever would have been as good without her.

All I had to do was practise.

The night of my heat arrived and coincidently was bloody hot. I got to the venue early to sign in, but my name was not on the list. “Shit! Fuck!” screamed my eyes, "I have friends coming, most didn't know I was trying stand up. The organiser called me last week to confirmed, I confirmed, I'm sure I did, why am I not on the list?"  but my mouth went “um… err… um… are you sure?” but only just.

The lady at the door, who was really nice about the entire thing despite me panicking, went and checked with the organiser who apologised. I was on the list, but for some reason not on the door, probably when she moved names from blah blah blah. I breathed an audible sigh of relief; Copy + Paste thou art a harsh mistress and I will never forgive you.

The crowd started arriving and the room filled quickly and soon was at capacity. I found out I would be on in the second period and started pacing my drinks accordingly. The MC called my name, I had a mouthful of courage, and I headed towards the stage...


It was amazing. By far the largest crowd I had ever performed to; there was not even room enough for all of the comedians to watch the other performances. Although I did not progress to the next round I performed my arse off despite my nerves trying otherwise. It is the best performance I have done so far and one I am extremely proud of.

If you would like to see the original rendition of some of these jokes, you can find videos here and here.


Cheers,

Rusty

32 comments:

  1. That was awesome! Much better video quality this time around...or people weren't trashed already around the camera. Lots of good shtick... How big was the stage? I think if it was as small as it looks you gotta work in something quick at the beginning about how your pacing is going to look more like you're chasing your tail... Or maybe you've been to bigger phone booths.

    Onya!
    WG
    http://itsmynd.com

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    1. Cheers mate :)

      The stage is bigger than it looks, and besides the man that owns the stage books the gigs ;)

      Best not bite the hand that feeds

      Delete
  2. That was very funny. It looks like you are having a good time.

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    1. Cheers :)

      The fun only happens when the first joke goes well, otherwise it is a slow demise of a thousand deaths

      Delete
  3. I loved it! The only problem I had with this has nothing to do with you. The banner is incredibly distracting. There is something about a headless chicken that will pull a person in.

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    1. Yeah, the headless chook is the most appropriate mascot I have seen in a long time

      Because some of the comics pace at warp speed when they get nervous - which is all the time.

      Delete
  4. Fucking internet connection sucks here in the mountains (I'm on vacation), but I do promise to watch this when I get back. Congratulations on competing, man!

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    1. I recommend changing your port settings:

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IP_over_Avian_Carriers

      Delete
  5. That was funnier than I remember. Probably because I was filming it too and because I was in the front row I had to concentrate on following you around the stage.

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    1. Thanks mate, it is a shame we were out of the competition early, but look how much arse Marc and Nick are kicking

      Time to start working on next year.

      Delete
  6. I can't stream videos on this computer, but applause applause for stretching yourself! That sounds like you put a lot of effort into it and got good pay-off. (apart from the copy+paste bitch)

    You are now my hero.
    (also? I saw your comment to my post, in my email, but it didn't show on my blog. Don't know why. Sorry.)

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    1. Thankyou for your kind words, but I think you should have higher standards for heros.

      I recommend The Phantom, at least he can't punch people into the sun.

      Delete
  7. In great hopes that you are spurred to much prolific and hysterical blog writing, I have bequeathed upon you and your blog this day an award! Check out my post Even Mark Rypien Won a Super Bowl.

    WG
    http://itsmynd.com

    ReplyDelete
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    1. It's been a couple of days since I read your post. I still don't believe it.

      Although I may have started writing my acceptance speech, I will give you the benefit of a cooling down period, just in case you change your mind.

      Delete
    2. Clearly,I have not cooled down on my love of a little aussie comedic relief!

      Glad to see you're in Dude Write again.

      WG

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    3. I never left DudeWrite, I just haunt in the background

      I am however working on a new post that should be ready for next weeks submissions ;)

      Delete
  8. Rusty! I adored this post :) I love hearing about the process for things about which I have no knowledge...and for sure creating comedy routines is one of them. And then, to actually get to see you perform...Wonderful! You were so good, funny and natural.

    Great job! Keep at it, I'm sure you'll make it!

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    1. Thanks for your kind words :)

      Hopefully I can get this new material right soon so I can post it for you guys.

      Delete
  9. That was a great act! I love stand up comedy, good luck to you on your endeavors.

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  10. I have great admiration for anybody who has the balls to get up in front of a crowded room and preform material that they created themselves. You preformed wonderfully here. I get nervous just telling my friends a joke. I could not possibly come up with 7 minutes of material. Maybe that's why I hide in my little blog? Excellent job, can't wait to see more.

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    1. Trust me, I was still packing the dacks with nerves. When that first joke gets a response, then you relax a little. When you get off you are drowned by a wave of euphoria. It is amazing.

      I started off just in my blog, you never know Ken, you never know what you can achieve ;)

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  11. It takes a lot of guts to what you did, I applaud you good sir!

    Funny stuff, nice job Rusty!


    Michael A. Walker
    Defying Procrastination

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    1. Cheers mate :)

      I read your Poem on DudeWrite, it was fantastic.

      Delete
  12. I've always wanted to try stand-up, but haven't been able to build up the courage. So I applaud you, not only for doing it, but doing it well. That was a very tight act, and extremely funny.

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    1. You should, it is a blast.

      Just book a date, take close friends. The only way to find out if its for you or not is to do it :)

      Delete
  13. BZ! (That's Navy lingo for well done.)

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    1. Ahoy!

      That's my go to reference for lack of Naval lingo

      Thanks mate

      Delete
  14. As others above me have said, I've always wanted to be a stand up comedian. Too bad I lack the self confidence to get up on stage and give it a try. My hat goes off to you for your bravery!

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    1. Who has ever wanted to do should do it. The self confidence comes when you hit that first joke. Take friends, have beers, it will instantly turn into a memorable night

      Delete
  15. Very funny. Congrats on a great act. I've always loved standup comedy, but not for me. You've got a bigger set of balls than I (and not just because I in fact have a vagina, but you know what I mean). I prefer to deliver my punchlines from the tips of my fingers through the anonymity of the internet. I think if I was ever to try stand up, I'd probably vomit on the whole first row.

    Grats on the new man card.

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    1. Thanks, but having balls is not an advantage, it's just one extra thing the mob can lynch.

      If you vomit on the front row, it would be a hard act to follow :p

      Delete