48 Hours of Ups and Downs in Comedy

Recently, I had a somewhat extreme 48 hours in comedy. I arrived late to the city to headline a Thursday show which was supposed to start at 8pm but because ticket sales were better than expected, didn't start until 8:20pm as more and more people arrived to be seated. Some of the city's best comedians opener for me and crushed it. By the time I went on stage just before 10pm, I had, at best a mediocre set and at worst a bomb. It was late for a Thursday, but I should have done better and as a seasoned pro, I should have adjusted to the late show and the energy in the room but I didn't.

The next day I was scheduled to feature (open) a weekend for a friend of mine at a club I have been trying to get into for a few years. Twenty minutes before the first show on Friday, a disgruntled employee was threatening my friend's life so we had to cancel the shows. I quickly texted a few other comedian friends randomly in town that I knew to see if I could get up on their shows. I also looked up flights to leave town the next day to avoid a weekend without shows if that didn't work out. They both said ok.

As I was leaving to go to the other venue, the manager of the club contacted me to say the other show (same club, different room) they had that weekend did not have a feature all weekend. I called my friends who gave me spots and said it would not be necessary. I ended up featuring all weekend with a comedian I knew and respected and had four amazing shows. Then, that Saturday the shows that I was scheduled to perform resumed as planed, so I did those shows as well. I was on a high.

Well, the next day, I found out a gig I was headlining in March was cancelled for another comedian who had 500k followers on social media. About two hours later, I got a call where I was made a headliner for the Improv in Chicago this Sunday when the scheduled headliner had a conflict and had to leave town early. Two ups, Two downs, ending on a high.

Comedy #standup #formerlawyer #comedian