Ending

This is it. My final blog post of the summer. For full effect, you can listen to these songs while you read the post. Here and here.

That's better. This morning I awoke and hung out for the last time downstairs. At around 11 we started the final clean-up and packing effort. It culminated with the baking of cookies (from a mix...) to welcome the guys back. We headed out around 12:30 and had an uneventful ride home, though there was a touch of traffic. We also listened to Rush Limbaugh ironically. Nice. And then, upon my arrival home, my Dale summer was over.

Overall, I think I am pleased with the comedy aspect of my summer. The comedy class, though not as great as the reviews made it out to be, was certainly a nice way to jump-start my comedy career. The performance, however, definitely spoiled me. Even a show at school might not be for that many people, even at its most successful. So in DC I did 24 performances in the about eight weeks after my class, which works out to about three performances a week. But I was definitely too skittish in the beginning, I should have just dived in at the beginning. But once I got into my groove, I was out four to five nights a week, which is about what I anticipated.

I don't think I realized how much of a constraint performing would be to writing. I definitely could have written more material, but then it would have just sat on my computer. Either that, or I would have been tempted to do new material each night and would have never worked on my old stuff. So I definitely thought I would be spending more time writing than I actually was. Maybe that's the benefit of writing sketches or things like that. But then you have to film them. So, it's tough. In retrospect, I wish I had taken some sort of random job at a comedy club in town. Even just calling people to remind them of reservations. I certainly had the time, and I could have made connections and even filled in for a comedian who was stuck in traffic. And then Seinfeld's agent would have seen me. And then I would have made it big. When I realized I had more free time than expected it was already too late. Oh well.

I definitely think that DC was the right place for me. I don't know about the NYC scene, but I can't imagine it would have been nearly as easy to get stage time. I never had to get places super early to sign up, I never had to bring people with me. It was also nice to have the same comedians on the circuit so I could at least form a marginal relationship with them. It was really a core group of 10-15 comics, and they all knew each other, they were all friends. Perhaps I'll hunt some of these guys down on facebook and keep marginally in touch. And make them give me an internship at their government contractors next summer.

So where do I go from here? Back to school. Where there will almost certainly be a stand-up club. I'm not sure exactly how I want it to function, but I want it to exist. I want to get a stand-up culture on campus for people who would not have pursued it otherwise. I want there to at least one or two shows a year where everyone makes their friends come and we perform for a large number of people. I want to keep getting better. As for further down the road, I don't want comedy to dictate what I do next summer. But I will certainly give it some weight if I'm deciding between jobs/internships in NYC and DC. When the time comes, I'll see how much it actually factors in.

So that's it. I am home for two more weeks, just hanging out, seeing family and whoever hasn't already left for college. I am glad to have found something that I can continue indefinitely and that I can bring back to school with me. And I'm glad it is something with basically only one goal: to make others laugh. What could be better?

Packing

Today was basically a day of preparing to leave. After TPIR, we spent the afternoon cleaning and getting the house in presentable shape. We cleaned the whole kitchen and the bathrooms and had to deal with a lot of random items no one lad claim to. We got it done though, so all we have to do tomorrow is a final vacuum and a final counter wipe down, then load the car and go. Other than that, as detailed in the other post, no show tonight, but I'm OK with that.

Tomorrow, when my summer experience is truly over, I'll discuss the comedy side. Tonight, I'll discuss the non-comedy things. First, the five non-comedic goals I set.

Explore DC - Not fantastic, but decent. I hit most of the things on the mall and did the Capitol Building thing. So I accomplished what most people in a week's vacation. I didn't see any of the food/nightlife/etc, but I was not particularly interested in that.

Learn basic piano skills- I think this went well. I got through the lesson book I have and can play pretty much all of the songs in it. I can play most songs with a simple right hand melody and left hand chords. If it's more complicated, I can take some time and get close, especially if the key is easy.

Beat Ocarina of Time - I did this as well as Majora's Mask. Nice.

Arrange a song for PUB - This just did not happen. One of these days...

Blog about my summer - This went well. I blogged about every day and only missed blogging one night. I don't know exactly how large my readership is, but it's greater than zero, so that's something.

Overall, I am happy with my non-comedy summer. The housing itself was perfectly adequate. I only wish I realized that a fifteen minute walk to the metro was much longer than it looked on Google maps. I would have preferred less ants and bugs, but other than that, it was exactly what I needed. The company was nice too, a nice cast of characters. But all really nice guys, hopefully our paths will cross again. I ate well, cooking for myself, ordering in maybe four times and eating out maybe six or seven. Four of five goals seems pretty good too.

Hope to be out no later than one tomorrow, trekking through the storms on the way home.

Performance the Twenty-Sixth?

Was, unfortunately, not tonight. A month ago I e-mailed the host to get on the show, saying that I was 95% sure I'd be in town, to put me on, and I'd let him know for sure later. I realized yesterday that I had not received a pre-show e-mail, so I contacted him. He responded saying he never heard from me and figured I had already left town and that the show was full, so he'd e-mail if he heard from someone who could not make it. There was no such e-mail. I think that I'm like 60-40 in the right, since if he assumed I was out of town, why not just e-mail, and I'm pretty sure I originally made it seem like I was coming. Then again, I should have followed through with my original e-mail. So just a misunderstanding. It was...understandable?

But, that's OK. I think last night was a much more appropriate final performance. I even had a final thank-you speech, at which point the movie could freeze frame and roll credits. And I'm not grumbling because the misunderstanding was reasonable on both ends.

So, the question is now, where and when will performance the twenty-sixth be? I'm not quite sure yet, but hopefully it will be soon and somewhere on Princeton's campus. Maybe Whitman Theater, or one of the black-boxes? We shall see. But I am pleased to say that it is indeed in sight.

Thanking

Another unexciting morning. The usual TPIR and such. Kabeer was home today, so we just hung out in the afternoon. We made a trek to McDonald's where Kabeer got the new Angus 1/3 pounder. I took enough money for an item on the dollar menu and ended up getting a sweet tea. It tasted like iced tea with an extra helping of corn syrup. Not too delicious. The I picked my things for tonight, ate some leftovers, and headed out for my final Comedy Spot show.

Tonight went decently. It was not terribly crowded, so the show was moving along. There were some regulars who weren't there. I went towards the end, but not that far along so there was still a decent crowd. My set went decently, definitely some things worth keeping. Whatever that means at this point. At the end of my time I thanked people and shared a minute summary of my comedic time this summer. They seemed appreciative and entertained, as I feel like I had the same experience the first two months as everyone else had.

The other comics were okay. Noteworthy was that there were two other young male comedians. One was very nervous and awkward and not funny. I think it was his first time. Hopefully he'll stick with it. He reminds me of me when I was a young comedian. Another had apparently been on the scene before but was away from the summer. He came back and was off his game, but seemed like he was normally funny. So, although I had the under 20 male spot locked up this summer, there were others on the scene.

Tomorrow is a day of cleaning and packing. Then hopefully my final show, provided the host returns my e-mail. We shall see.

Performance the Twenty-fifth

Tonight, Comedy Spot. My sixth and final performance at this lovely venue. This is where the largest faction of comedians I know hang out, so hopefully I leave them wanting more.

Joking

Pretty uneventful day. The attempts to clear out the fridge and pantry continue. As does watching TPIR. Other than that, not much to report during the day. I worked on my stuff a bit, rewrote some things, changed some things around. I have a fair amount of material that right now is at a pretty good place, it needs some practice before I make any major changes. Unfortunately, I have only two more shows, so I don't know what will become of those jokes. For dinner we threw some things on the grill, tasted good, some leftovers for tomorrow.

I headed out for my final gig at Listrani's. It was a strange night. It was mostly comedians, most of whom I'd never seen before. Two audience members wandered in to see one of their friends, but that was about in. No one was particularly good, but they all seemed to be doing it for their first or second time. My set was pretty good. People were laughing at most of it, I felt pretty at ease. I talked to some of the audience/comedians after the show and they seemed pretty positive. It seemed pretty genuine, which was nice. I thanked the one guy who had been hosting most of the time since I had been going.

Two more days, two more shows, then I'm shipping out. Hopefully the next two days and shows will be solid.

Performance the Twenty-fourth

Tonight, again at Listrani's. My final of eight performances here. This is where I saw my first open-mic. Not too much ridiculousness last night, hopefully there will be more tonight? Maybe. Also, I think Kabeer and Sam are coming, so we'll see what they think.

Edit: No Sam and Kabeer. Just me, flying solo.