Author: Jon Levine

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More Bars, Less Drinking

I was thinking about this this morning. I’ve been spending more times in bars and restaurants in the last few weeks than I have in years. In fact, I’ve been to one every night this week. The reason, of course, is because I’ve been hitting up all of these open mic nights. However, the more bars I’m at, the less drinking I’ve been doing.

For those of you that know, or maybe even for those of you that don’t, I’m a big fan of martinis (and vodka in general). It’s not uncommon for me to pour myself a drink at the end of the workday and relax. However, with all of this driving to different venues and my desire to stay ‘level-headed’ before and during my performances, I’ve become quite the teetotaler.

I’d say this is a good thing, which it is, but it also making me wonder. Had I gotten so used to having a cocktail at night not just for what I perceived to be the enjoyment and relaxing qualities, or because I was merely bored and had nothing else to do. Now with this standup thing, I’m occupied and this occupation is keeping me away from the booze, even though I’m surrounded by it now more than ever.

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New Faces of Comedy

New Faces of Comedy I reached out to the comic who runs the New Faces of Comedy show at the Fort Lauderdale Improv to ask him about how I could get into the show. He’d told me once before that the show fills up about a month in advance and that there’s a lot of comics that want to participate.

So, it was much to my surprise that he told me that he wanted me to participate in next week’s show! So, it looks like I’m back on stage at the Improv on Thursday, May 15th at 8pm.

To add some icing to the cake, he mentioned that the comic who runs the open mic at the Funky Buddha I’ve been to twice paid me some really great compliments.

This is all exciting stuff and I need to keep it going.

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Trying to find the grind

I’m sitting outside of a bar waiting to sign up for what will now be my third comedy performance and I’m thinking about doing this more. A lot more. Like four or five night’s a week more.

There’s four, scratch that, five other comics and we’re all trying to out funny each other while we’re waiting. It’s fun and interesting. There’s definitely an undercurrent of nerves and a desire to see who’s gonna be good. It’s like lions slowly circling a downed gazelle, waiting to see who moves first.

I just hope I’m not the gazelle.

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Mission (1) Accomplished

After taking a standup comedy class at the Improv Fort Lauderdale for the last five weeks, I got up on stage and made my debut. I was very pleased with the response I received and, as you’ll see in the video below, there were lots of laughs.

So, what’s next? More performances and the second part of the class. There’s an ‘advanced’ class that starts in a month that I’ve already signed up for and, in the meantime, I’m going to hit some open mic nights and get on stage as much as I can.

So, without further ado…

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Today is the day

Live at the ImprovTonight, I do something for the first time. I get up on stage and perform a standup comedy routine for a live audience.  I’m more excited about this than you can know as I sit on the precipice of this new endeavor.

I’ve been told that I’m funny all of my life and have no doubt that it’s true from the reactions I’m able to illicit from the people I interact with. However, all my life I’ve said that I couldn’t be a standup comedian because, ‘I wasn’t that type of funny.’ I always considered myself to be situationally funny where I could make people laugh by building on things that were said or the situation we were in. I could never write a comedy routine or, at least, that’s what I thought.

It wasn’t until this past year that I decided to jot down the funny things I said. Before I knew it, I had pages upon pages of ‘material’. Looking at it far removed from the original situation, some of it is funny, at least in my opinion,  and some of it is inane. However, tonight I’ll find out if it truly is funny.  If I can get the audience to laugh in the way I think they will.

If nothing else, I gave it a go. This could be a point in my life that I remember fondly as something that I set out to do and accomplished or it could be a turning point that I remember as the moment everything changed. We’ll know by 8:30.