ego, continued

I talked to some comics at the open mic last night. Its a little unusual for me to ask people for advice, but thats exactly what ive been doing. If youre in comedy, and i respect your opinion (and sometimes even if i dont) i want to hear what you have to say to me. Some of it was bullshit ("there are no bad audiences. Its your job as a comic to get their attention and make them laugh, no matter what"... yes. thank you) and some of it was really useful. Some of the stuff that stuck was that its REALLY important to make a connection with your audience, to get them to like you. The thing that was most useful to my current situation is that its not always a good thing to advance faster than youre ready for, because if it goes poorly, you dont get a chance again for a long time. Talked to a guy named Jeremy Whitman, who has been doing comedy for 10 years. He said that somehow or other he got into SICC after two years and just wasnt ready. He was all cocky, and got his ass kicked. So that helped me put things in perspective a bit. A number of people talked to me about patience. Im starting to think that maybe i dont need to go to the bad open mics. I can probably get by on 3-4 open mics a week instead of 7. Parker asked me how missing open mics would help me get better, and i guess that the answer is that in the long run it helps me get better by keeping me enthusiastic about comedy, and my place in it.