09/17/2024
Tomorrow's show will be my 150th comedy show I have produced in the last five years. My first ones were two outdoor shows in a downtown park that Sondra Slade helped me put on. I could not afford to pay the comics but I did arrange for professional filing of everyone's set to help them. The first show had child performers and was a clean show and the second one was "decidedly adult" in content.
The show tomorrow is one of my fresh faces shows where we highlight comics either new to the scene or new to comedy. It is one of my favorite shows to produce because the comics usually do very well and the crowd loves new people and material. For some, it is the first showcase they have been on and often the first money they have made performing.
The 150 shows have been fun to produce and I have learned much and made little money. I don't put on many shows anymore but do have three comedy open mics per week where I pay a host and provide sound equipment to help comedians work on their material. Between paying comics, sound guys, and hosts I have paid out now over $30,000 to local performers and spent another $3,000 in posters and Facebook ads.
It is fun. Many of the comics are brilliant people to watch perform and some of them are good people too. Sure there have been some others that attack me and send hateful messages to me, but luckily, they are mostly terrible comics with no life. In every circle, there are just mean people and there is nothing one can do to stop it.
I choose to spend my time focusing on writing new material and trying jokes on everyone I meet. I perform a few times a week on stages and wish I could do more. If you want to see me this week, I will do a few minutes tonight at Bricktown Comedy Club and then host their comedy open mic tomorrow night at 7:00 pm. Then at 10:30 tomorrow we go to Stumbling Monkey for the Fresh Faces show.
