The Comedy Odyssey - Part 4 ("The Boyz at Po' Boyz")

Okay, just a quick one tonight, as I've gotten home late from this one.

In the first of our back-to-backs this week, Vlado and I hit the open mic night up at Po' Boyz in Folsom. This is a bar and grille that features live music (mostly blues, I hear), but has comedy nights on Mondays. This open mic is hosted by Cheryl the Soccer Mom, a well-known and hi-larious Sac area comedienne who handed me her card (by way of John Baradin, if you remember that story) on our first night up at Tommy's. With Vlado back in town from his paying job (who needs one of THOSE...?), we finally got a chance to take her up on her offer and head up. Good news - I emailed her first last night, and since she knew we were coming, she just went ahead and put us on the list ahead of time. No need to rush there. Awesome.

So we decided we'd take my van, and Vlado and Babydoll showed up at my place at 7:30ish. We drove up there figuring to eat and drink before the thing started at 9:00. We got there to find all of two or three people there (?!). After talking to the bartender, we found out more people show as the comedians come in at 9:00. Whew! We grabbed some chow (I got tacitos! I've missed tacitos!) and some beverages and relaxed. Well, *I* relaxed. I was just up there to do my same basic 5-minute set with some minor tweaks. Vlado, on the other hand, had decided to come up with mostly all-new material...like, an hour before he headed to my place. Ballsy. So he was still trying to get it memorized. He basically used this is a personal test to see how well he could pull off last-minute material. Right on.

Cheryl and others started to show, and I found out from her that while she was the host, instead of doing any MCing she was just going to have each comic finish their set and have them introduce the next comic coming up. She had me set at person #2. I asked if she could go ahead and put Vlado at #3, because I was the only one in the place capable of properly pronouncing "Vladimir Zeravica".

The crowd was not what you'd call huge, and seemed mostly made up of comedians and their guests, but it was a small place and a closer atmosphere, so it didn't seem empty. I got up and did my stuff, felt it went really good. I liked some of the changes I put in and may hold onto them. I got done and enjoyed getting to feel like an MC by introducing the Fist Officer. And I also enjoyed getting to hear Vlado's new stuff without knowing it all ahead of time for a change. We've been trading routines back and forth and editing each other this whole time. Finally, I got to go in with no spoilers! The new stuff was awesome...more pilot-based stuff, naturally...and even a little bit of Broadway choreography thrown in (whaaaaat? Well, that's what you get for not showing up to see it, isn't it?). We both felt great about the experience, enjoyed the really relaxed atmosphere of a largely-comedian crowd, and were quite happy to be #'s 2 and 3, so we could just kick back for the rest of the night and enjoy the show...you know, and drink.

Very happy with the Po' Boyz experience, and definitely going to do it again. I think I knew every single other comedian there save for one, as all the regulars from Tommy T's showed up - including our perennial host, Ellis Rodriguez, who showed up to do some new material (and material that just killed, dude. The man has skills). This is a great venue, I now realize, to try out new material, so I plan to use it for that purpose. New jokes a comin'! Only downside is the 9:00 PM start on a weeknight. We didn't get done until almost midnight. Not that this is a problem for me with my sleep schedule, but it does muss up things if you want to invite people along. You know, people who HAVE jobs?

Still no final word on tomorrow night, but it's looking more and more like Laughs Unlimited downtown. So seems we'll be hitting the big room in less than 24 hours. Stay tuned here for confirmation and a full report!