I'm a playa (no, not a beach, companeros) a player. I got my own spot, my own venue, my own mic. I found a place close to home, Tusk Restaurant on Rt. 206 in Skillman, where the owner is willing to let me use his party room and stage to put on a booked comedy mic. I no longer assume everyone knows what I'm talking about since I've mentioned this to several savvy people who nodded politely and had no idea what I meant. A booked comedy mic is a practice microphone for invited comedians. Just the way lawyers practice their opening statements for their spouses and mirrors, comedians need a place to work out new material and an audience to gauge whether the material works or not. It looks like a show from the audience's perspective, but it's usually free and usually on a weeknight, an otherwise slow time for comedians. My new booked mic is called Funny First Tuesday and will take place at 8PM on the first Tuesday of every month beginning on May 1st*. I have been very fortunate so far: lots of good comics have accepted my invitation, the comedians are booked for May, June and most of July already, a big audience is expected including comics who are not performing but will be there to support, and the Princeton Packet interviewed me for a feature article and will photograph opening night. This is all new and very exciting. An astute and experienced comedian who has been a great help to me over the past year pulled me back to Earth. He said, the real secret to success is keeping it fresh so that it will attract an audience not just for the first, second and third mics, but for the ones that come later, after the patina has worn off. Of all of the comments, solicited and unsolicited, that I have received over the last three months the mic has been germinating, this has stuck in my mind more than anything else. Comedians want to perform; they are willing to travel great distances for stage time and they will come. However, they see the same comedians all the time at different open mics, invited mics and shows and they've heard everyone else's new, old and middle-aged material. It is inadequate to use other comedians as a gauge of the success of one's material and that is why the non-comedic audience is so important. So, I'm going to get off to a rousing start on Tuesday with a little gravitational pull that reminds me to keep it fresh so the audience will want to come on in May, 2013 as well as May, 2012.
*and the second Tuesday in July due to the holiday
