Everyone else has already commented on your set. I enjoyed a lot of it.
But I had to comment to say your voice is lower than I expected. Which is weird, since I usually don’t have any expectations from reading real people.
I will also note that professionals tend to refine the jokes that worked from before. Granted, they don’t go to the same place every time, so they can try out the same jokes elsewhere. Still, I think it might be good to look at what jokes got the biggest laughs and analyse why they liked them and do more similar jokes. If nothing else, as an experiment.
If you don’t mind some additional feedback, I’ll throw in my 2 cents with the following slight changes:
I just bought these glasses. I told them, [confidently] “I need my glasses to reflect my personality.” The clerk came back and said, “Try these: they’re square and a bit thick.”
I love children. When I grow up, I hope to have two of them. One for the food stamps, and one to grab me a beer. [pause, as if just realizing this] Oh, and I guess I’ll need one more to raise the other two. [keep considering it for a beat]
Earlier I implied I don’t have any children, but that was a lie. I actually have three…[pause]…or four.
+1. That’s the one in the initial show in front of a friendly audience that I thought was a palpable dud (and I feel the rest of the set was a bit worse for it.) That said, if you really want to try it again, at the end there I think is the place for it.
Anyhow, I thought you did a great job (and I could have sworn I commented as such in this thread, but my last post seems to be before your show.)
Honestly, I was terrified to listen to this. I was so nervous for you. The level of courage it requires to just get up there in the first place blows my mind.
You did well. You have a good voice for comedy, very pleasant to listen to. I probably mentioned this already but the Nerdist podcast interviews stand up comedians all the time and I bet you could get a lot of insight there.
The ‘‘crying is unmanly’’ joke cracked my shit up. You seem to have an instinct for the fact that jokes have to turn. Keep at it.
I was having a silly philosophical conversations with some friends last night about statistics and odds, and ended up articulating a joke that made me think of this thread, as it seems it would be better suited to your routine than anything I have use for.
“I invest my money in a well diversified portfolio, Powerball, MegaMillions, and Hoosier Lotto.”
For the curious, here are six minutes I did tonight. It went well, though it was kind of a weird crowd. There were these odd delays in the laughter. Like, people would laugh loud, but it was often like it was on a delay.
Couple of clunkers, but I’m not ashamed to share the recording.
When I say “oh shit I think I might be a prop comic now” I had just dropped random stuff from my pocket intentionally onto the floor. Then during the mummy joke I am picking it up, moving in and out of mic range.
Which is to say, I figured out how to get a laugh out of a terrible joke: Combine it simultaneously with another terrible joke. It’s like NaCl.
