Last night i was at The Office Bar in Mountain View, CA, where my friend and fellow comic started a new open mic. As expected, there were about 10 comics and 3 audience members. And inspite of that, the comics insisted in picking on the audience. One guy left, his brother was still sitting around, drinking and yelling out. Another lady walked in and sat at the back of the bar and laughed at almost everything that every comic said.
And finally came the time for the last comic to hit the stage - me. I pleaded one of the guys to not leave and he decided to stay back. I walked up on stage, pulled the barstool (dropped it first) and sat on it, with the mic in my hand and the stand behind me. And the first thing i said was, "Thank you, for waiting back. Lets talk. You guys live in south bay (i heard that during other comics sets) and must be pretty acquainted with Indians. Maybe i can share a little more about the people you see all around you and maybe i can learn something from you (and i said that in sync with the talkative guy). So i found out their names were Tibbs, lives in Mountian View; Dan, lives in Palo Alto; Stenya, lives in Sunnyvale. And i started off...
Dan is married for 4 years and Tibbs was married for 5. So i asked them if they had ever attended an Indian wedding. From Indian weddings to Indian restaurants to the SF Zoo to the Simpsons to my trip to So Cal to my Jewish heritage. Anything i uttered out of my mouth, i saw the peope responding, either with a chuckle or a nod of the head or plain simple "i dont get it". And at no point did i feel, "you morons, dont you get it?". the magical part for me was, i was not concerned about doing my set, nor was concerned about the time or the fact that all comics were outside, 2 were still sitting in, but then walked out since i was only talking to the 3 audience members. After a while Dan decided to return home to his wife, Stenya moved to the front right next to Tibbs and the bar staff stood around listening to everything i was saying. And by the end of the night i had Stenya laughing non-stop at the point i was making about Apu (the simpsons character). Tibbs ended up commenting "You are funny, you made me laugh" which i thought was funny in itself.
As i walked off the stage, i really felt like i have finally achieved what i had been trying for so long so hard - to make a small audience laugh. That little voice in my head screaming - I AM ON TOP OF THE WORLD. But i know how quickly it can go south. I have seen it before - Jan 31st - will never forget the day. So here i am, headed to a comedy contest in 30 minutes, and ever so scared that after such a high last night, may end up frustrated at the end of my set tonite.
I actually wanted to blog this last night, but i slept like a log. Why am i writing this still?!!! Cause i had the best time of my life last night, and hopefully someday this little blog will cheer me up again - bringing back the wonderful memories of the night i killed on stage for an audience of 3!
