Stand Up Virgin No More!!

October 27th I finally did it! As Faye mentioned below, we've been talking about me doing a stand up routine for the past 2 years or so. I was supposed to be at a Def Leppard concert but it got canceled and when Yuk Yuk's called me on Sunday the week before, I thought, "it's now or never" and I accepted the date. I had 5 mins to make people laugh...

That night I put pen to paper and ended up developing so much more material than I had collected over the past two years. It started becoming difficult to pick what I wanted to talk about. I spent the week trying to work things out. When it got to the Monday night before my performance I had a friend come over to review my material and time my act. There was so much I had to cut out! When we slashed through everything I ended up with something I was confident about. I went to bed anxious and woke up the next day full of nerves. I spent the day running through my material until it was time to head over to Yuk Yuks.

Funnily enough once I got to the green room backstage my nerves started to calm down. I went on third and I could hear my friends laughing in the audience. Then it was my turn.

I've got to say, I have some of the best friends in the world. It was so good to hear them cheer me on as I took the stage. I started with my first joke - and whadya know.. PEOPLE LAUGHED!!! (Thanks Akhil!!) It was awesome!! I couldn't believe it! So - i carried on, and except for the red light that I became increasingly conscious about which was throwing my timing off, I pretty much said everything I really wanted to say.

My biggest laugh came when I referenced a joke the MC made about small dogs when I was talking about my small dog. (He said they're like swiffers, and I said my dog was not a swiffer... you should have been there if you weren't :P ) I learned a lot from this first experience - about myself, nerves, and getting started. Unfortunately we couldn't record this performance - but I am considering giving this another shot.

So, stay tuned and come out the next time I'm up - I'm looking to do this at least one more time before the end of the year.