Bogey's!

Fun night, good show, great audience!

Laura Hayden has invited me to participate in a couple of her shows. Last night's show was at Bogey's Sports Bar in Redondo Beach. She had told me at the last gig that Bogey's is a dive bar, so I wasn't sure what to expect. Tracey went with me last night. We arrived about 40 minutes early. Even before we went in we could tell that this was a rowdy place. From the outside it certainly looks like a dive bar. You could hear people yelling at the football game that was on tv. We went inside. This place is just a little bigger than the Sire. It had two pool tables at one side, the bar at the other. The place was bustling; lots of people drinking, watching the game, and playing pool. Tracey and I looked at each other. How are they going to have a comedy show in here?

Laura wasn't there yet, so we went across the street to a Mexican restaurant to grab dinner. I kept wondering about how this was supposed to work out. I figured either way, it was going to be fun, and at the least, another notch on my comedy bedpost. I had visions of something like the bar in The Blues Brothers, where they played behind a chicken wire fence so they wouldn't get hit by beer bottles. It made me chuckle to think of some poor comic in a sports bar playing for people who'd much rather watch tv and play pool. Would they supply goggles and a helmet?

When Tracey and I went back the whole place had changed. The pool tables were now covered with plywood and tablecloths, and a stage had been set up in front of a big, red, velvet curtain. People were clearly waiting for a show. Laura arrived and began passing out cupcakes (that's her thing- Comedy and Cupcakes). After a little while she got up and started the show. Boy, she has that hosting thing down. One of my goals is to someday be that good at being the emcee. I've seen her act several times now, and she always makes it seem fresh.

I was the second feature comic to go up. I really think there's an advantage in being a musical act. When people see you get up on stage with a ukulele, they pay attention. The table full of rude (like, really rude) women sitting next to the bar all shut up and started to listen. The rest of the audience were just wonderful. I felt we had a good connection and people really laughed. Of course, this was certainly the most inebriated audience of my short career, so that might have had something to do with it. No wonder that some comics at Flappers would get a little flustered by performing for a sober audience (by the way, Flappers Claremont now serves beer and wine). Alcohol does get people in a jovial mood. But it can also switch off the normal social filters that serve to make people aware of their surroundings, i.e. a performer trying to make people laugh. I came armed with a ukulele.

Oh, man. It is a huge ego feed to see a room full of people enjoying what you're doing onstage. This was another audience that I just wanted to box up and take home. On Friday I performed at the 10:00 show at Flappers. The late show can be iffy and for a while it looked like they might cancel this one. Finally, enough people showed up and the show went on. This was a squirrely audience; the room was lopsided. All the laughter was coming from one side. It didn't help that the host immediately launched into material that was just plain too dirty for that group. She lost the room. The second comic had a lot of long pauses in her material that would have worked in a room where the energy was up. I thought she was good, but she didn't get the laughs she should have gotten. I did ok that night, but I was a bit thrown by the dynamics of the audience. Most of the people were seated on one side, and they were the laughers. The people on the other side were like statues. There was one woman right in front who was really enjoying herself, which was great, but she was very chatty with the comics. That can throw you off, and it showed me a weak spot in my performing. I need to learn how to deal with that stuff. Anyway, it was one of the weakest nights since I've been doing this.

Last night was one of the strongest. I was having so much fun with that audience I actually got lost in the middle of Health Science. Suddenly I noticed that I forgot to change chords! I'm just merrily strumming along on C for I don't know how long. I made a joke of it and recovered. There was one guy I particularly enjoyed. He was laughing hard at just about everything. Every once in a while he'd put his head down and pound his fist on the table. Loved it!

The rest of the evening went very well. Laura gets some really good comics for her shows. I feel honored that she has included me in her line-up. Bogey's is a fun place, and I'm grateful that no chicken wire was required.