Coulda' Been a Contender!

Went into Beily’s on Monday for the second night of the Comedy Contest; small turn out comic wise. I’d decided to do some of my poor material, because ....well, because I have plenty of poor material. What little I have that I consider above the ‘poor’ bar I want to save for later in the game, sort of, I suppose, “Joke-a-dope”. Jim Fooks and Joel Jefferies took first and second place last week. I’d heard that the Jester and a few others were coming to compete, but, as it turned out I was wrong.


The Master presided over a short ‘comedy’ lesson, immediately prior to the show; it was good. We had one comic ‘virgin’ in attendance, but, when asked to compete he demurred, as he’d left his material at home. The Master said that one of the first things he’d tell any starting comic was, “to slow down on their delivery,” however, he was kind enough to state that I needed no such advice; I suspect he feels a carrot and stick/cattle prod might be more aligned to my needs.

The show began about 9:35 with the Master at the helm, followed immediately by Mr. Fooks. First comic up was Trent Paisley, who did very well; I’m always impressed with Trent’s work. Then, it was my turn to rise to the occasion and shine; and, shine I did in a low wattage kind of way. Joel had suggested that I try to do my material in a very angry manner, as it seemed to be working that evening, so, I turned up my rage engine, but admit that it wasn’t firing all that well. I did an unscripted bit each of the topics of, Winnipeg’s Dominatrix Judge, (Fun in the sack, I imagine, but, you’d have to remember that you were on your honour. I followed that with a brief look at the recent dilemma in Regina that ensued after it was found that people were stealing and drinking hand sanitizer.

Immediately after coming offstage, I vacated the premises; it’s tough living under a comic curfew! That leaves me with another four, possibly five, appearances in the Comedy Contest, and I don’t think that I’ll be able to stay to the finish of any of them. In addition The Jester is having a comedy night at Vangelli’s on the 22nd, and I have two Toastmaster’s Humour contests before the month’s end. It’s stuff like this that break up the monotony.

I learned yesterday, when I arrived home, that I’d made it into the finals; I imagine that I placed second to Trent Paisley. That’s good; now I can have a little fun, and work on my material for the finals!