Tommy T's Open Mic Finals - Round 1 Begins!

Some of you may have heard that I ended up in the open mic comedy finals at Tommy T's Comedy & Dinner Theater. By some of you, I mean anyone who's read this blog.

Well, tonight, it all began. All the details just got worked out, the names all got drawn, and round 1 of the finals began tonight. No, I was not in it. There are 18 comics involved, and round 1 is spread over three evenings, with six comics competing against each other each night (with a week between nights). In the drawing, I ended up on night three, which means I'll be up on stage competing on Monday, March 1st! Which is awesome because that gives me a couple weeks more than I thought I had to prepare. Whew!

But tonight, I had to show up to watch and support my fellow comedy peeps! So I headed out to Tommy T's. I just said there were six comedians each night, right? Well, tonight ended up with five. Oddly enough, the sixth guy (Aaron something-or-other) whom I'd never heard of before (I assume he won a competition before I became a regular there) apparently fell out of contact. They just could never reach him. So the competition was down to five, and they just happened to be five of my favorite local comedians, people I've been on stage with before, hung out with, and marveled at for their comedic prowess. So those lucky folks who showed up to watch were in for a big treat.

The comedians competing were Aaron Shine (he of the masturbating and stuffed animals), Willie Mac (the OTHER cable guy), Jennifer Rutherford (the showerhead queen), Ty Anderson (who fakes African accents at McDonald's) and Jason Tate (the big, muscular guy whose dog is a dirty, dirty whore). I got there early to talk to each of them and wish them luck. Great atmosphere in there, full of anticipation and excitement. I also got to talk to the painfully funny Boogee Quinn, another regular there (who I gave a joke to backstage once that he used, so that made me like him even more), who let me know he's slated for night #2. This made me feel much better, because competing against Boogee is not something you want to do if winning is, like, a big thing to you. I'll just have to deal with him in the finals. Optimism! Also chatted with Lou, the manager, and he finally got my headshot that he needed so he can post me up on their website, so that'll be coming soon when the night #3 details go up.

Went alone tonight, as Vlado's out of town and everyone else was busy, and that was just fine with me. Got me some chicken tenders and a Guinn and kicked back to cheer for the whole gang. Everyone stepped it up on stage...instead of the usual 5-minute sets we all do at open mics around town, the first round is 10-minute sets, so everyone had some new stuff. Great jobs by all. But much as I don't want to choose someone out of that list as doing the best? Ty Anderson blew my mind. Ty's a guy who started off, when I first saw him perform, not quite so strong. But Ty never gave up...he kept coming back, kept learning, and he got noticeably better week after week, until he finally won an open mic, putting him in the finals. Ty clearly KNEW he was in the finals and wasn't going to mess around. That man did things on stage I'd never seen him do. He was doing voices. He was doing physical comedy (including a perfectly executed on-stage ninja roll). He was messing with the audience, and the audience was loving it. He was more confident than I've ever seen him. He was loud. He was funny. He OWNED it. Couldn't be happier for that guy!

But, sadly, only three could advance amongst this whole awesome group. At the end, Lou got them all back up on stage and started with the audience voting. This took a while, because it was ridiculously close. There were several re-votes. In the end, the lucky winners were Willie, Jennifer and Ty. They're now going on to round 2, and it couldn't have happened to three better comics. Damned proud of all of them. For now. I, of course, will be forced to destroy them all later...

After this, the after-party was up at Po' Boyz in Folsom, where the regular Monday night open mic was going on. Some people went right up after their wins and did a new set here (like Willie and Jason). Jennifer, Ty and Aaron just wanted to hang and socialize. I wasn't feeling it for going up, as I had my head in the spectator place tonight, so I didn't do a set. Instead, I hung out on the patio and had a cigar and rapped with comics (always the best part of the comedian lifestyle). Oh, and speaking of Willie...he runs a comedy night up at Cafe Nostro in El Dorado Hills, which is booked a couple months out it's so popular. He came up tonight and asked me if I wanted to come up there and do a twenty minute set. Uh, you THINK? So that'll be sometime in April. I'll let you know.

My favorite part of the night, though? After all the other comedians started going in, there was this young guy still out on the patio, smoking. He started talking to me. Great kid. I eventually asked if he was a comic, and he said no, but he's really been thinking about it (which is why he showed up at Po' Boyz tonight, to see what it's about), but had no idea how to get started. And the weirdest thing happened. I became a mentor. I started telling him how the whole thing works, what the Sacramento circuit's like, the best places to go, the important people to know... Did this for over a half hour and totally filled him with info and got him psyched to finally get up and give it a try. In the middle of this, it occurred to me...I've been doing this for not even six weeks yet - and yet here I am talking like a vet. While on the one hand it seemed silly (because I still know so little, really), on the other, I marveled at just how far I've come, how much I've done with this, and how much of learned in so little time. All of a sudden, I'm actually, like...a comedian. What do you know? So here, again, I must give thanks to comic buddy #1 Vlado for calling me up and saying, "Screw it...let's just do it" and getting me started in all this. I'm having the time of my life, and it's all because of the Fist Officer. Thanks, man.

So, again...MARK YOUR CALENDARS. That is MARCH 1ST (Monday) at Tommy T's in Rancho Cordova. I will be doing 10 minutes with all my comedic might, trying to step up to the semifinals. As it's audience voting, I of course would be dumb to not invite as many of my peeps as possible. So as this gets closer, keep in contact with me, and watch this blog. Next week, when I show up to watch night #2 (go Boogee go! No, wait...that's bad for me. Choke Boogee choke!), Lou's going to be handing me a bunch of tickets to hand out to folks. So chances are your name might be on one of them. Would love, love to see you there, but more importantly, I'd love to get as big a crowd there as possible for the benefit of the other comedians who'll be sweating it out with me. A big crowd is good for everyone, and I want to share. So prepare yourself for a great night of local comedy, and a pivotal night in my burgeoning comedy career.

Lest ye be square? Be there!