Kyle MacDonald third time try at Stand Up Comedy Red Rope show Montreal HΩ Club Aug 19, 2010

So I stood up in front of a crowd for the third time tonight in Montreal at Paul Ash's Red Rope Show at HΩ Club. The premise of The Red Rope show is pretty simple: anyone who goes on stage must touch the red rope with one hand and hold it if they tell a joke they've already told before on stage, and must hold said rope with two hands if they tell the joke verbatim. The idea is to get comics to try out new material and it makes for an interesting show. Confident comics are pretty much brought to their knees as they try out 5 -10 minutes of brand new stuff. A tough gig to say the least, but the spirit of the event means that everyone tries to stay away from the red rope and the playing field is leveled considerably as sporadic ideas from earlier in the day are brought to life, and judgment, in front of a paying audience. Since it was only my third time on stage, it was easy to keep away from the red rope. I've got pages of un-birthed rants and ideas and premises from years of writing whatever pops into my head, but it was awesome to have the gauntlet thrown down and to try to stray from any previously enjoyed material. Still a long way to go to get comfy on the stage with this stuff, and I think I really need to work on my pacing of the material. I'm learning it's very tough to take a previously thought-out idea that you can think of at top pace, and to bring it down to speed that is easily digestible for an audience.

Category:

Comedy

Tags:

• 2010

[thejenigma]

Not bad. Pretty good for coming up with the stuff on the spot. Especially liked the "punching old people" and the "I dunno; is it a fan or somethin'?" I think you have to work on your transitions though.