A Comedist Request

Brothers, Sisters, and Transgendered Comedists Everywhere,

This weekend, I, the Irreverend Steve, come to you for advice. I am in need of pastoral counseling from my flock.

We stand a mere eight weeks from April 1, Saint Shecky's Day, the holiest day of the Comedist year. A mere eight days later, is my 40th birthday. Faithful readers may recall a post in which I asked for suggestions for a creative mid-life crisis.

Upon careful Comedist reflection, I came to realize that there was one and only one thing that I had to do...as a true believer, I would have to stand up for my Comedist faith and that standing up requires stand-up. So, in the next eight weeks, I will be honing, editing, and practicing my routine for an open mike night, most likely at Magooby's Joke House in Baltimore. I will post details as they become known, so that anyone who cares to attend can be prepared with their best heckle lines.

I know a number of playground regulars have experience doing stand up (Lyle Bateman, for example), and that the rest of you have stand-up comics you love, so any advice? Telling jokes in a classroom full of people you can fail for not laughing is probably easier than working a real room. So, what makes for good stand-up comedy? What do you really dislike, pitfalls to avoid?

I'll leave you with a couple jokes that I decided against putting in the routine:

People are cynical about politics these days. I can't really blame them. It seems like scandal after scandal after scandal. And half of them have nothing to do with governing. Dick Cheney has a hunting accident, Bill Clinton gets a blow job...I guess it goes to show that either way, they'll shoot a friend in the face. The only only difference is whether it's making love or making war.

Of course, when you put it in that way, it doesn't seem like a hard choice. After war, some people come home with post-traumatic stress disorder where they can't believe what they just did, feel remorse and depression. After sex, on the other hand, some people come home with post-alcohol stress disorder where they can't believe who they just did, feel remorse and depression.

Still working on the A material...

Live, love, and laugh,

Irreverend Steve