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Alas, no semifinals for me. There were some mitigating factors outside of my control--there was a nasty storm, so the crowd was about 2/3rds normal, and the whole show was just kind of mediocre and people actually started getting up and leaving with about 5 comics left to go.
And then I had to go dead last. Shit, even I was tired of being there by then, and I had to be in the upper echelon of excitement that night, so I can't blame the audience for being tired. Plus, because the show was stacked even more heavily than normal with the "I'm poor and can't get a girlfriend" casual-loser style of comedian, that meant the audience was mostly full of those peoples' friends, which meant they preferred that kind of comedy.
Long story short, they were not prepared to be screamed at and simply had no idea what to do with me. My set got a far better reaction at the little 15-person open mic I last performed it at than the big crowd last night. There were definitely some laughs, and I had a few folks come up to me afterward and compliment the fact that my stuff was different and deserved better than what it got, but mostly they were just bewildered.
Oh well. Not every joke is for every audience. Maybe next time I'll have two thematically different sets prepared and choose one on the fly based on the feel of the room. All in all, it was still fun, but it's a shame I don't get to do it again in front of the big wigs.
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