Galileo Be Damned. As far as I'm concerned, THIS is the center of the universe.

Afterwards I described it to a friend as "I am white-girl excited right now."

I saw Colin Quinn walking in, and I did my best impression of a person who didn't even care.


Last night, I saw my first performance at the Comedy Cellar on MacDougal Street in NYC. And it was actually everything I hoped it would be. Here was the lineup:

William Stephenson (MC)
Phil Hanley
Lynne Koplitz
Colin Quinn
Matt Ruby
Greer Barnes

And, you guys. Not a single one of these motherfuckers was bad. Like, legit funny. Crowdwork, observation, act-out, joke structure. It was crazy. I'm sitting here trying to pick a stand out, and I legitimately can't. Each comedian had such a distinct voice, such well crafted material, and such an ease with the audience.

If you want some new comedy to listen to, any of these comedians would be a great choice. Maybe start with Greer Barnes, though. He opened for Louis at Madison Square Garden, and he was pretty freakin' great.

I told myself I would leave with at least one "walk away" lesson, so here we are:

1) It's time to start transitioning from this One Liner shit. I'm doing a lot of jokey jokes right now, just so  I can learn the form, and get some actual feedback from these brutal open mic audiences. But watching these folks onstage, it's clear that what stand up is is a different form. I'm not quite sure how to elaborate. Maybe a future blog post.

2) Crowd work is so essential. All of them did at least some kind of crowd work ("Are you guys dating? Where you from? etc). What was crazy was to see how they reacted when they asked the same people the same questions as previous comedians, and how they would know without asking just based on crowd reaction. Incredible.

3) This is what I want to do. That's a thought I had, verbatim, watching Phil Hanley perform, and then had again for every single comedian who went up. There is something so pure, and so silly, and so dedicated about this profession. It's what I want to do. Damn.

That's all for today folks! See you tomorrow!

-Jon


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