A few weeks ago I did an open mic at a small café in West Lynn. The open mic was geared towards writers, storytellers and poets, so it wasn't strictly comedy, unlike the open mic at the Tavern at the End of the World in Charlestown.
So when my name was called, I got up and did completely new material. I opened up with a joke about Bruce Springsteen's son becoming a firefighter and the audience was mine for five minutes. There wasn't a single person I knew there. They laughed at all the right moments and there were only one or two jokes that missed, so yeah, it was amazing. I'm definitely going back to this particular café to see if I can get the same result, but what happened the next day at work was surprising.
See the Tavern at the End of the World has a comedy open mic. So it's mostly comics who are testing out their jokes, with a few customers there to eat food and enjoy the show. The two times I've performed there, I only had a couple people laughing, but I didn't let it discourage me because I knew it was a tough crowd to begin with. So I faced a bunch of people that are hard to please, but I was proud of myself because I got the job done. It makes going to work to deal with basically the same thing so much easier and I feel less stressed.
The irony is this: The Café audience was ten times easier to please and I felt such a good swell from doing a great job and receiving positive reactions for it, that I had no defence against the crap I normally deal with at work. The thing is, I would gladly sacrifice my paycheck right now if I could get those laughs every single time. I really felt like I could have gone for half an hour, given the chance.
So at this stage in my career I have launched myself into writing. I'm not taking any extra shifts at work from here on out and I'm going to keep at it until I can confidently do one whole hour's worth of material.