Last night was a great way to end the year. The show was good, the crowd was great, I felt good. I need to attack all of my performances with the same energy as I did last night.
The cruise director, Risa, hosted my show which is rare for a midnight, but always adds a little extra credibility to the stage. I am taking some time off for the holidays, I will post more starting in January.
Happy Holidays
tommy on 12.24.07 @ 01:11 PM CST [link] [No Comments]
Those who have worked with me know that I love doing the show. I always volunteer to do more shows. In comedy clubs on off nights in a blizzard when there are eight people in the audience and the club has a policy of not doing a show unless there are at least twelve people and they ask me what we should do, I always say 'lets do a show'. I truly believe that each time I take the stage I learn something and get better. I also believe that up to this point in my life, I have spent about as much time onstage perfoming as was possible.
Some ships on the first night of the cruise do two 'welcome aboard shows'. This consists of ten minutes of the singers and dancers, fifteen to twenty five minutes of social hosts and cruise directors interacting with the audience from the stage, and 20 minutes of comedy or variety from someone like me. Other cruise directors only do one show. The ships that do two shows do usually do one at 7 and one at 8:45. The ships that do one do that show at 10:30. I thought I was going to be doing two of these shows on this ship last night, I found out they only do one. Knowing how much I love performing and how I pride myself on the number of shows I do in a year, some would think I would be disappointed in this. I wasn't disappointed when I found out, I was kind of happy. Just one show means a bigger crowd. I just had some pretty good shows at the end of the last cruise on the same ship so I was confident, and with one show at 10:30 I could eat dinner at 6 (when the staff mess opens) and still be ready to perform the show. When I have two shows at 7 and 8:45, I don't eat until after the shows. Eating at 6 and working at 7 doesn't work for me.
It wasn't until I got offstage last night that I wished there were two shows. I could have been better, a lot better, than I was onstage last night. I wanted to go again, immediately. I needed another shot at these folks. I have to wait until midnight tonight for that shot. Last cruise was like following a really good opening act, this cruise is just the opposite. I'm taking some time off for the holidays, so this is my last show of the year, I'm planning on hitting the stage hard tonight.
tommy on 12.23.07 @ 11:37 AM CST [link] [No Comments]
Much of comedy is about likeability and trust. Comedy fans have seen comedy shows where it just doesn't go well. The crowd doesn't seem to be with the comic or the comic doesn't seem to be on top of his game. It doesn't usually have to do with the content. I mean it doesn't mean that what is being said isn't funny. I can do the same act for the same type of people in the same venue on the same night and have one good show and one rough one. If the crowd likes me they pay closer attention and give me the benefit of the doubt. If the crowd likes me they force a laugh when it doesn't happen by itself. Also, audiences are like babies, if you are comfortable holding them, they are comfortable in your arms. But like a baby, if they sense any weakness or apprehension, they get fussy.
I had a very good midnight show last night. It had very little to do with what I was saying onstage. The two main shows (the PG rated ones) I did two nights ago for this crowd went really well. Because of that, my late show last night was packed with people who already trusted me and liked me. It felt like being in a club with a really good opening act. The crowd developes trust for the stage before I reach it and I don't have to win them over, I can just do my act. I openned for myself a few nights ago and did a good job so last night was fun and easy.
I made it back to my cabin at about 1:30 am and had to get up at 5:30 am to go through immigration. I am staying on this ship for two more nights and two more shows. I thought I had two shows tonight but it is just one tonight and one tomorrow and then I am done for the year. We are in port now (hence the immigration) to drop off the guests that liked me and bring on some folks who don't know me at all. I have to win them over tonight.
Yeah, I'm typing this on four hours of sleep. I will go back to sleep in a little bit. I think many entertainers are bi-phasal (not sure of the spelling there, or in the rest of this post, actually). We sleep very little at night and again in the middle of the day. My friend, James, is rumored to actually turn off all of the lights and change in to pajamas at two in the afternoon on show days to get three or four hours before getting up and going to the show.
After my show tonight, I get to sleep until I wake up naturally.
tommy on 12.22.07 @ 07:21 AM CST [link] [No Comments]
I had a couple of nights off at home. Last night I did three shows at a holiday open house in my neighborhood. This morning, I got up at 3:15 am to make a 6:00 am flight to Atlanta. I connected there for Grand Cayman. I am on the Carnival Inspiration for two shows tonight. I will be on this ship for the end of this cruise and the start of the next cruise before I fly back home from Grand Cayman again. So I get to do six shows in five nights on this ship. If you count the three shows from last night that is nine shows in six nights. It seems like about 1.5 shows per night is average for me while I am on the road, or at sea as it were.
Here is the sad news. My grandfather passed away a few days ago. The Greek word is 'Papoo'. That's what we called him. His name was Thomas as well, he went by Tom. He was a very funny person and great with kids. He was also a huge flirt. I learned a lot about talking to women from watching him when I was a kid. He lost his wife, my grandmother (Yia-Yia) eleven years ago and was never really the same after that. The last few years his health went downhill and he was experiencing some dementia so he wasn't all there. I don't think any of us are going to remember him like that. I am going to remember an attractive older man with a handle bar mustache, a vodka martini, and a cigar. He made it to his early 90s, I think he was 92. I should start drinking martinis and smoking cigars.
I am missing his funeral today. I feel very guilty about that.
tommy on 12.19.07 @ 03:34 PM CST [link] [No Comments]
For the most part, the job of road comic or cruise ship comic is perceived to be much more glamorous than it actually is. Like anything else, it isn't exactly what you think it is going to be.
Every now and then, it is exactly what you thought it was going to be. Last night turned into one of those nights.
Comedy is very regional. What is funny at the Stardome in Birmingham, Alabama isn't always also funny at Penguin's in Cedar Rapids and may not be funny at all at the Ice House in Pasadena, California. One of the most important parts of writing an act is to edit. The crowd helps you do this. Take out the jokes they don't laugh at, leave in the one's they do. When you start doing comedy you do it close to home and the crowd helps you write an act that works close to home. As you move around and travel, you learn how to subtly change your act for the places you visit.
The best road comics become citizens of the road and have acts that work everywhere. My buddy Keith Cissel told me about Brian Regan's bit about renting a car in St. Louis and driving to the club, I told him about Brian's bit about Houston Intercontinental. I'm not there yet, but I have performed all over the place and there are certain places where I'm pretty good at endearing myself to the people with a few bits that they believe (and in some cases they are right) were written just for them. When I get to do those bits in those places I always have a little extra spark of confidence onstage. I'm excited that I get to do the joke about the Virginia state flag again and it usually makes for a pretty good show.
This ship, the Fantasy, is out of New Orleans. Lots of southern folk, lots of Louisiana on board. Most of my act was developed while living in Houston and I spent a lot of time working Louisiana so last night I got to do those jokes. Made for pretty good shows. After the show I like to go to the crew bar for a few cheap drinks before I go to bed. I always hope it is a slow, quiet night in the crew bar so I don't have to wait to buy my drinks and I don't have to listen to really loud music while drinking them. Last night was neither slow nor quiet.
There are quite a few musicians employed on cruise ships and they are at various stages of their career. For some of them, it is there first real gig out of school, for others it is the place they end up when they are sick of hustling and living job to job. For a few, it is where they come to hide after divorce or tax problems. A good show band has musicians from all three of these categories. Last night, these guys played a very casual but very smooth jazz/blues/ big band set in the crew bar and it was great. The horns wailed, the drums shook and the strings zinged. I drank Jack on the rocks at $1.50 a shot until I thought the bass drum pedals were under my feet. When they broke into 'Do You Know What it Means' (to miss New Orleans) I looked to the corner of the bar where two Philipino engine room workers were playing a first person shooter video game and I wondered if they got the joke.
I would imagine that no matter how good the music is, being in a show band and playing the same show over and over in your still sweaty from last night tux jacket has to drain part of the musician's soul. Well I'm sure playing whatever the hell you want in the crew bar in jeans and a t-shirt fills it right back up.
tommy on 12.14.07 @ 01:32 PM CST [link] [No Comments]
The midnight show on the last night of the cruise is similar to the late show Friday in a comedy club. If there is a rough night and time to do a show on a ship, that is it. That being said, I have had much tougher shows in clubs than I have ever had on a ship. Last night was work. The show wasn't bad, but I've had lots better. It is funny, I am trying to start up my online journal again and I know what is going to happen. Whenever I used to write that I had a rough night, people that were in the audience inevitably would write me and tell me that it was the best show they ever saw, or that it didn't seem rough at all. First of all, if my show is the best show that you have ever seen, you need to get out more, seriously. My show is fine, but it is definitely a work in progress. See Jake Johansen, Kathleen Madigan, Mark Gross, Dan Gabriel, John Witherspoon, I could go on and on. I'm glad you liked the show. Don't be offended if you were in a crowd that wasn't the best crowd ever, it isn't your fault. I take full responsibility for the success or failure of my performance. You have seen me one time and you liked it. I have been at ever single show I have ever done, so I have something to compare it to. If I didn't like the show last night, it is okay, I have two shows tonight.
I'm not saying I didn't like the show or the crowd last night, I'm saying it was work. I never felt like I built a proper rhythm and I felt if I had another shot at it, I could have done better. I'm in the Miami airport now waiting to get on my flight to Cozumel to board the Fantasy. Two shows tonight, one show tomorrow and I get to fly home from New Orleans. This is my last day of travel into a show on a pretty high stress 7day run, so I am really feeling like I am in the home stretch here.
Some of my comic buddies have been reading my posts and responding. I would recommend that you journal. It doesn't have to be online, it could be private, just write about your day and your show somewhere. If you don't have a show, write about how you don't have a show, go see someone elses show and review it. It is a great way to learn about yourself and believe it or not, a great way to generate new material.
tommy on 12.14.07 @ 01:31 PM CST [link] [No Comments]
Well, I made it through a few nights of little or no sleep and a few days of holiday travel into shows. I had two shows last night on the Carnival Imagination and they went pretty well. The only real effect that fatigue had on me it seemed was that I was leaving out material I planned on doing and going into jokes that I didn't want to do, but the crowds were friendly and I was working with the Fire Gauchos. Their act really wakes up the crowd and gets them going which made my job a lot easier. Also, I was working with one of my favorite cruise directors, Jorge Solano. He was my first CD on and I consider him a friend so I was very comfortable last night.
On the ships we do two different shows, a clean show and a 'dirty' show. It is an interesting thing for a comic to split his act in two. Because on the same cruise you have the same people watching both shows, you can't repeat any jokes. Since I was so tired last night and leaving bits out and doing bits I hadn't planned on doing, I really have to be paying attention tomorrow night when I do my 'dirty' show. I have to create some transitions from bit to bit that I wouldn't normally do and bring back some jokes I haven't done in a while. Now that I am rested, I am actually excited about it. Sometimes you discover things about your act when you do it in a different order that you would have never noticed and often when you bring back older material you find something that you should have never stopped doing.
Because the Fire Gauchos do essentially a circus style dual drum, poi swinging, whip cracking act Carnival doesn't like to have a juggler on the same show as them so I am just doing stand-up out here. I've noticed lately, as effective as my variety act is on the ships, I seem to be more useful and valuable to Carnival as just a stand-up. I'm pretty happy either way.
tommy on 12.14.07 @ 01:30 PM CST [link] [No Comments]