On Saturday night, we went to the Lakeshore Theater to catch Mike Birbiglia perform. As it turns out, he was rehearsing/previewing his new off-broadway show, Sleepwalk With Me. First up, I have to say that hands-down, Mike Birbiglia is one of my very favorite comics. He's got some killer bits that stand up extremely well to repeated tellings, many of which have become trademark catchphrases that really only a great comic who connects with his audiences can get (and, no, "Git-R-Done" doesn't count -- that's not a punchline, it's a tic). If you've ever heard someone say "Cracker, please!", "What I should have said was...", or flashed the gang sign for Paper Scissors, you've run into a fan of Birbiglia. And rightly so. Buy his CDs, listen, laugh. They're hilarious. [caption id="attachment_360" align="alignleft" width="209" caption="Birbiglia assumes the defensive pose"] [/caption] The one-man show we saw was simply an extension of that. It began quickly and unexpectedly, with Mike walking out on stage with no introduction just as the house lights came down, and he launched into his show. Borrowing only minimally from the established bits you'll hear on the CD, he weaves a true tale of his battle with relationships, being a struggling comic, and some of the strangest sleep disorders you'll ever hear about. And while it's occasionally touching, it is consistently funny. I've a personal peeve when I find comics-turned-monologists getting just a bit too maudlin in their acts, and Mike didn't even touch on that nerve. He takes you through the highs and the lows, with the absolute best reactions when the audience reacts with shock to something he said or did in the story, but he always brings you back with a smile. If you're here in Chicago, you're not likely to get a chance to see this again anytime soon (he performed it on 9/11/08 as well, a show I was supposed to go see until an emergency at work got in the way), but should you find yourself in New York, look it up and check it out. I promise you, it's worth it.

In the hopes that I'll get off my ass and do something, I fiddled around with my web sites. This here will remain my spot for random writing and updates about things going on, but I wanted a site separate from my personal space to put up some of the stuff from my comedy writing and performing. Stace.com is going to be my "professional" site. Also, I started reworking little excerpts from the stand-up bits I've been working on and Admiral Sasquatch is where they'll go. You may see some stuff there that has already been touched on here. If that's the case, laugh harder. It'll make the elves happy. If you're reading this on facebook, it's all on the same feed and none of this makes any difference. So, for you, here's a dancing robot. I'm planning on going to the Edge Open Mic this week and try to shake the rust off again. Will post updates as warranted.

Sigh, I'm unrprepared again. I have some new stuff, but it's too fresh and unrehearsed. Next week for sure.

George Carlin was among my first comic idols. It's a real shame he's not with us anymore. Almost every eulogy and obituary I've seen on the talking picture box and the interwebs makes mention of his Seven Dirty Words bit, but he was much more than that. He was a great observational comic, a gifted wordsmith, and shied away from nothing. The profanity was nothing more than a tool in the toolbox, and he often used it to poke fun at society. One of his bits that I always held close as a personal philosophy centered on how words in and of themselves are meaningless and harmless, and therefore inherently inoffensive. Context is what should offend people, not a word. I can use a string of profanity while praising you to the highest levels, and I can not utter a single four letter word while belittling and insulting you, and in this so-called enlightened age it's the former over which people will get their panties in a bunch. It's ridiculous. Alas, now there's one less person praying to Joe Pesci. I guess I should start.

I don't have anything new prepared. Did some skeletal writing last night, but I've still got nothing rehearsed, and I'm not going to make the same mistake and get up before people without having at least some polish on it. I also have errands getting in the way, so all in all it's just not a good week for it. Next week, back to it, with new material.

(A) WTF is up with that picture on that story? (B) That man is far too happy about tomatoes. Link to full story.

Rust. There was plenty of it. It was a hot room, and I don't mean that figuratively. And I was the last of 26 comics to go up. So, while the crowd was warmed up in the quite literal sense, it was not ideal. I did okay. One of the new jokes got a big laugh, which made me happy. I swore not to look at my notes when I got on stage, since I was struck by how often I checked my notes at the Zanies show. (Small aside on that -- I watched the bit again to get myself prepped for going on stage and I realized that I wasn't so much checking my notes as it was just a nervous tic or something. Tonight, my nervous tic was staring at the mic.) Alas, not checking my notes meant I breezed past some stuff I meant to do. And the little voice in my head reminded me of those bits well after I had a chance to deftly segue into them. It's not terribly good form to say "Hey, remember that joke I did a minute ago? Pretend I'm telling this one right after it." So, I did the fastest 3 minutes in Comedy -- I think I was probably only up there for a couple, really. But, all that being said, I didn't bomb, I was hardly the worst one up there, I got some good laughs, and the only way I'm going to get better at this is to keep doing it. So next week, back to the open mic with a reworked bit. No audio of tonight's stuff -- the room was dead, the mic levels were really low... nothing worth sharing.

Over six months after my Zanies graduation, I'm finally going to get back on stage. I'm annoyed with myself that I let it go this long, frankly. Last week, I went to the Edge Comedy Club for their open mic to check out the room and the crowd, but not perform. It was a good crowd, friendly and supportive, which is no doubt partly because most of the audience were either performers themselves or their friends. But it was certainly an inviting atmosphere. So tonight, after work, I'll go try out some new material and a slightly different take on performing than I took in my graduation. I still need to find my voice, and this is really the only way I'm going to. So there'll be some reworked stuff from my first bit and some new material. Not a lot, though - it'll only be a three to four minute set. Still, it'll be good to do it again. Hopefully, I'll have audio to post.

Okay, so first, the video. Craig Stacey on ComedyTraining.com

For those who are interested in my thoughts on the process and the performance, read on. There's nothing funny in there, it's just a deconstruction of the whole experience.

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