Bombing 101

There are two types of "bombing": 1. Where the audience doesn't laugh at you, but they withheld laughter for comedians before or after you as well. 2. Where they laughed at the other comedians, but not you. With the former, it really is just the audience. People coming out for the first time, attending their first stand up shows ever or even the social distancing which makes laughs smaller all contribute to the former. It's not really bombing, if they have not laughed all night. As for the latter, it had been a while since I had bombed, so I was overdue. Being 10 years in, I usually can find a way back to laughs with enough time. But on one show recently, I couldn't. It was one of those nights where they just didn't like me for the first five minutes. I tried the "hits" and then I went into some crowd work and addressed it, then tepid laughs arrived. Then a couple big laughs and I thought I was clear. But nope, back to bombing for the last 5 minutes. As comedians, we need bombs to not only keep us humble but to grow as comedians. I watched my set after (I recorded) and it wasn't as bad as I thought. Hope to avoid the bombs this weekend in Detroit where I headline on Thursday! #laughs #standupcomedy #careerchange