My stint as an emcee at Magooby’s last week was, now that it’s done, really rather a lot of fun. Three of the four shows I did went really, really well. (Guess which one I got on tape? More on that in a minute.)

I learned a lot: First of all, that I’m not as calm as I think I am when I go on in an unfamiliar situation. Second, that I’ll forget the punchlines of even my oldest jokes if I’m distracted. And third, that I need to broaden the scope of my material some.

The second show Friday night was the tough one. The audience skews especially old at Magooby’s on Friday nights- the average age of that second show was easily 65. So while at the first show, I had a table full of drunk 25 year olds at my right hand, at the second, that table was full of little old ladies who look just like my grandmother. Yikes.

And aside from a couple of chuckles here and there, they laughed not at all. At least, not at ME. I’ve got a longer post coming about this, but the short version is that while it would be easy to shrug my shoulders and say, “Eh, old people. Go figure,” it would also be lazy. And I think that one of the things I can work on is broadening my material to appeal to people outside my own demographic. A huge part of what makes a standup bit funny is your ability to relate to the situation being described- when you can’t identify with it, you won’t laugh at it. I think that the average 65 year old isn’t identifying with my material.

So that show was really hard, and it kind of shook my confidence for the shows on Saturday night. And apparently it was noticeable to the Baltimore Sun reviewer who came to check out the club that night. My timing, it is impeccable. Hey, at least he said I was “fairly funny” in the middle of calling me “wordy.” Any press is good press, no?

And here’s the video from the show where no one laughed: