p.s. I hate you Coree Spencer.

On Sunday I was added to the lineup at my friend RG’s show 3 Of Cups and was able to do my very first set as a New Yorker.

In my opinion, it went… meh… I brought in good energy but the audience was quiet and I was missing… something. They laughed but it was one of those sets when I had to apologize to RG and said “I’ll do better.”

WHY THE FUCK DO I SAY THAT?
OF COURSE I WANT TO DO BETTER!

I think in my head it’s better to acknowledge that the set could have gone better because I know I’m capable of more. I mean, my first set was lukewarm just over 4 years ago and that didn’t stop me then.

I know I need to start over here in New York and I can’t tell if I’m being too hard on myself, not hard enough or just right.

I skipped out of there to go to my friend Hannibal’s show at the Knitting Factory. He had mentioned he should have me perform sometime and from what I gather from New York, the opportunities will come if you make yourself present.

When I got there, there was a line out the door and it was pouring rain. I didn’t have an umbrella so I sat out there like a drowned rat thinking “If this was San Francisco, I would never wait to get into a comedy show.” Then I realized that I could just show them my phone text where Hannibal texted me to drop by. DUH.

I marched up to the front and showed them my phone. “I was asked to be here.” I fibbed, not mentioning that the invite was “sometime” and not specifically tonight.
The door was opened.

The place was packed. I pushed my way thru, sweating up a storm. I got to a reasonable spot and parked there for a bit and there was someone pushing behind me to get to their own reasonable spot. I turn around and see Robin Williams. We’ve met a few times this year so I gave him a hug and then we went to stand near the back. Okay, I followed him because… I mean… DUH.

Then another person was pushing thru the crowd and I realized it was Demetri Martin. He was standing next to me. “Did you lose 5 pounds in sweat making it thru the crowd?” I asked him.

Needless to say, I was not going up that night and I was completely okay by this.

Hannibal gave me a needed drink ticket and I’m pretty sure I’ve never drank a beer so fast in my life and I struck up a conversation with Demetri about stand up. He said something to the effect of how I was lucky because I can try out new material and I was guarded by being anonymous. “So I’m on the right path with my bath and body works interview tomorrow?”

It reminded me of the last time I ran into Robin Williams. He was doing a set at Dirty Trix in San Francisco and he had to stop because crazy Sweet Gail was filming him and didn’t have the sense to stop even after he begged her. Robin can’t try new material very easy and I understood what Demetri meant.

I have room to grow here. It’s exciting to know I have no idea where I’ll be in a year, a month or even next week. But I can only float along for so long. Plans need to be formulated and put into action.