Our two-and-half-year downsizing saga was a tough go, requiring a lot of stamina, determination, focus and discipline on our part. To make it work we needed to stay happy, or least appreciative of the way things were going.
Laughter was always a good thing.
The timing of Alex’s recent decision to begin his stand-up comedy career was perfect for us. Not only were we able to follow him through the opening stages of something that’s been in his plans for a long time, but attending the Improv nights and watching him perform was a welcome break from our tedium.
Alex begins his comedy career
In late September last year, while we were in the throes of downsizing, Alex wrote his first stand-up comedy set and arranged to appear at the open mike night at the West Palm Beach Improv, his first appearance on stage.
We loved it, and he got a great audience response.
He has gone on to appear almost monthly at the West Palm Beach Improv and the Hard Rock Casino Improv in Fort Lauderdale, sometimes appearing twice in a month between the two locations.
The set-up is pretty straightforward. Alex signs up for a specific date. He then has to ensure that at least ten people show up at the open mike night, giving his name at the door.
For those attending the show, admittance is free if they say Alex’s name, but there is a two-drink minimum during the show. The drinks can be bottled water or sodas; buying alcohol isn’t required.
If Alex gets a good showing of attendees, he gets more choice about where he appears in the line-up.
Learning curve
What an experience it’s been watching him work his way steadily through the learning curve and potential pitfalls.
He’s got to write his material, with an allotted time of five minutes on stage, memorize his lines, and make sure his presentation is smooth. He’s got to get himself scheduled. He’s got to get at least ten people to show up.
He needs to have someone get a video of him (Amanda has been doing an incredible job on that). He created a Facebook fan page and he needs to get the videos posted on YouTube after each show.
He needs to decide what material to use on what night, and whether he should repeat or tweak some of his sets. He has to deal with a variety of crowds, not all of them easy.
He has to handle going on last in the lineup when the audience is likely burned out by a long evening, or going on first in the lineup when the audience isn’t yet focused and paying attention.
He has to deal with crowds who either talk all the way through his sets (and everyone else’s) or who don’t get the jokes.
He’s had to deal with a massive case of nerves on occasion. He’s had to deal with getting himself on stage even when he doesn’t get a minimum of ten on a particular night.
He has to think on his feet when the comedian right before him uses material Alex had in his own set for the night. He has to deal with his confidence when he freezes or stumbles over words, or his irritation when he forgets some really great lines.
Through it all he is steadily thinking through and overcoming each challenge.
Our part
We’ve thoroughly enjoyed our part in it, which has been supporting Alex and showing up faithfully at each show. For us showing up was enough of a challenge.
We always had to borrow a car. West Palm Beach is at least a forty-minute drive north, and Hard Rock Casino is about an hour’s drive the other direction. On a tight budget, we had to have gas money and money to cover our drinks.
We invariably lost a lot of sleep as we often got home and to bed by two or three, unlike our usual ten o’clock bedtime.
In fact, despite our rather brutal work schedule, we managed to attend three shows in three weeks right before we left. One was a midnight show, which meant we didn’t get to bed till after four in the morning, and the last show we attended was the very last night in our old home.
It was all so worth it! We dearly love Alex, and watching him do something so important to him is huge to us, never mind our joy at being a part of it.
We always sat faithfully up in the front row so we could get a great video, even though we risked the often-unpleasant attention of some of the comedians whose idea of humor is heckling the audience.
We loved seeing our family and friends regularly and having a drink afterward to critique the evening; in fact, we’ll always remember our first taste of a Mudslide at Wet Willie’s and our amazement when Tyler bought us each one.
We loved the chance to dress up and think about something other than packing and moving and Craigslist. We loved the feeling of attending the shows in a whole group of people we know and like.
The comedians
We were quite interested in the variety of the comedians. Some were quite sophisticated and funny, with a good presentation.
Others relied on potty humor, crude sexual jokes, or demeaning wife and girlfriend jokes. Some used all three. At times the humor was crude and offensive and aimed at their own spouses or girlfriends.
A few were so nervous that they’d come on stage with their sets written out, referring to their notes throughout the set. Some used physical humor, yelling and leaping around on the stage.
Two or three comedians were so crude and offensive that I was seriously tempted to walk out. Occasionally a comedian was drunk enough or buzzed enough on drugs that he was clearly in an alternate universe and eventually had to be “encouraged” off the stage by the emcee.
Others had no obvious set, or seemed to forget what they’d started with and disintegrated into heckling the audience, especially the folks seated in front.
Hecklers
During a particularly boring stretch of unfunny comedians one night, Chelsea was having trouble staying awake. It was late, we were tired, we’d been there a long time, we wanted to go congratulate Alex on a job well done and have a drink.
To stay awake meanwhile and to remind us who was who and who did what material, she jotted cryptic notes on each comedian. Sitting right up front at the edge of the spotlight, she was pretty hard to miss.
One young comedian started hassling the audience in front, soon getting around to Chelsea. He made some crack about what she was writing. Her notes weren’t rude, but wouldn’t have been terribly complimentary either.
I surprised myself by how fast I moved from behind Chelsea, grabbing the notes out of his reach. We didn’t want any awkward scenes on our time. We were greatly relieved when he moved on quickly.
Another night we’d talked Amanda into sitting up front with us, even though she hates it. Sure enough, to our dismay, she got hassled. I was incredibly impressed that she maintained both her cool and her smile and didn’t rise to the bait.
I complimented her later and laughed when she said, “Right. I was zipping it shut. I could just see me mouthing off and getting bounced and never allowed in again!”
That would truly be awkward as she does all the video, and has such a heart connection to Alex.
Still, I was impressed at her restraint.
Another night, late in the lineup, a comedian started heckling. I was second seat back. I knew the routine by then, so I started sliding slowly down in my chair, studiously avoiding any eye contact.
After he insulted several folks near me, I saw him look my way. He pointed and said, “Like you there! Look at you, sitting there twisting your hands, rubbing them together!”
I looked down at my hands. He was right. I was doing that. He was talking about me.
“You’re probably sitting there just trying to figure out how much the babysitter is going to cost you tonight!”
I could see the question marks in the little cartoon balloon over my head, as I tried to figure out what he meant. Then it hit me. He thought I was young enough to be worried about babysitters! Yes! I’ll take that! I’m good with that!
Audiences
In our experience the West Palm Beach audiences were the most attentive and Fort Lauderdale audiences talked all the way through all the sets. After several very successful experiences in West Palm, Alex was thrown off his stride when that happened to him in Fort Lauderdale. Though frustrating, it gave him good experience.
The non-stop talking happened in Fort Lauderdale after we left, too. In one video that Amanda took of Alex during a particularly noisy audience night, she can be clearly heard saying to herself in disgust, “Oh my God! Shut. Up!”
We laugh every time we hear it, as that’s what we muttered when we were there.
But an audience reflects the local community, and there’s certainly a variety in what people like and laugh at. And having variety is a good thing.
More on comedians
In the six or seven times we watched Alex and the sometimes-long lineups, some of the sets seemed to take forever. We found ourselves thinking, “That was only five minutes? Really? That’s all? Oh gawd…it felt twice as long!”
Other sets flew by, leaving us laughing and wishing for more.
We may not like a particular comedian’s humor and choice of material. We may in fact have been incredibly offended and find it very crude or very unfunny.
But we really do appreciate those who work to be professional: creating a routine, memorizing their lines, making sure their material flows, polishing up their delivery, showing confidence on stage.
That’s all worth a lot in our book.
Risking public failure
Regardless of how good or how awful an individual comedian is, I’m always incredibly impressed at the level of self-confidence and commitment it takes to be willing to fail so publicly.
Most of us would rather die than be forced to get up in front of a large crowd of often rowdy or rude or drunk folks, never mind being up there “showing off” in order to make them laugh.
Freeze up? Everybody sees it immediately. Forget your lines? Stumble over your words? Don’t speak clearly? Mess up your timing? Lose your cool? Realize belatedly that your humor missed the mark?
It’s all out there and you can’t suck it back. You can only recover and move on and make it better for next time. That’s impressive.
Alex’s humor
One thing we thoroughly appreciate is that Alex’s humor is original, unique and refreshing. He avoids swearing, doesn’t do wife or girlfriend jokes, nor does he do crude or sexual or potty jokes.
To date he’s done sets on infomercials, water parks, laughter, weight loss, thoughts with Alex TD, and the E!True Hollywood story of. Mickey Mouse.
We always look forward to whatever he’ll come up with next. We know it will be good.
Knowing and handling the audience is probably the biggest thing Alex has to deal with, and seeing what kind of humor works in what area. One night in Fort Lauderdale, the “talky-talky” crowd, he did a set on laughter.
One of his lines was about a friend who laughed like Mozart. Alex then laughed the melody of one of Mozart’s most famous pieces. It was very funny and well done, but didn’t get much laughter.
He continued on for a few sentences and then did a Rhianna laugh. Everyone laughed uproariously, with one guy happily yelling out, “Cool! Rhianna!” Clearly that crowd could relate to Rhianna but not Mozart.
Contests
On contest nights the audiences can be particularly rough. Audience votes determine the winner, so the more people the comedian gets there, the more votes he’ll have. One memorable night before Thanksgiving, West Palm Beach Improv held a contest.
One comedian got over a hundred people there. Another got nearly seventy. That meant that two-thirds of the audience was there to see only two comedians.
Guess how much attention the other comedians got during their sets? Guess who won the contest? In our observations it wasn’t based on talent.
That’s rough on the other comedians, but that’s the way it works.
Following Alex
Alex does have his own Facebook fan page. Take a minute and sign up for it. He’s also got his own YouTube channel – he’s AlexTD66. Pop on when you can and watch his videos.
Though video cameras are not allowed inside Improv, they don’t enforce it during open mike nights. Still, the quality of Alex’s videos is varied, and depends on how close Amanda can get, so bear with it for now.
I would say you should check out our favorites, and I started to type up a list for you, then I realized I was listing all of them. I guess you’ll just have to log onto YouTube and watch them all.
And be sure to check back, as he’s adding new videos every month or more. He’ll only get better, and you’ll be able to look back and say, “I knew Alex TD back when he only had a few video clips on YouTube!”
We want Alex to record a CD or DVD because we have such intermittent Internet access that YouTube is often not an option. That means we can’t listen to him whenever we want, and that is just unacceptable.
He really makes us laugh, and improves our mood tremendously, so we want him “on demand”, so to speak. Hear that, Alex?
He’s been making us laugh for more years than we can count. We are thrilled to now be able to share him with the rest of the world!
Update, May 2012: Alex participated in another contest last night at West Palm Beach Improv. Though he didn’t win, it was perhaps his best performance to date, relaxed and engaging. You rock, Alex!
Headed out
We’re headed off to Mexico soon, but we’ll miss Alex and his shows mightily. We’ll miss adjourning to Wet Willie’s for an after-event drink – in fact, we brought our plastic cups from the Fort Lauderdale Wet Willie’s with us on the road.
Every time we use them, we think of the fun we had. We’ll just have to come back and get more when these wear out.
Then again, maybe we’ll talk Alex into coming down for an Improv type show in Mexico.