five years of open mic

five years ago this past sunday, me and some friends started an open mic at a local bar, the wild rover pub, in guttenberg, nj. this past sunday was the fifth anniversary of open mic. me and my co-host, james, didn't even realize it till things got started up that it had officially been five years. our friend liz came by to celebrate her birthday and that helped us to remember that we also celebrated liz's birthday during the very first open mic (there was a test run the week before that was a little sketchy and i honestly don't remember fully so it doesn't count).

five years is a long time. that's longer than high school or college. i'm 33. i was 28 when we started it all. so much has happened. i've met so many people and heard so many different performances. to this day, i run into people around town and they'll come up to me and say, 'hey,' and i'll always feel bad cuz i won't remember their name and they'll usually say, "i've seen you at open mic," or, "i performed at your open mic." what i wouldn't do for a complete list of all the performers that ever performed at our mic. somewhere in my belongings is a stack of sign up sheets. but even that won't capture everyone. there were so many disorganized weeks where we didn't have sign up sheets or people performed without signing up. we were never known for running the tightest ship.

there's been bar fights and drama. we've been in the front of the bar. we've been in the back of the bar. we're back at the front of the bar at this moment (we really like the front of the bar a lot better than the back of the bar. if you came around for the 'back of the bar' era, i'm sure you'd agree). if open mic is a band i'm in, it's a tumultuous one that had breakups and changes in the line up.

when we first began, it was four of us. me, james, liz, and chet. the whole thing was based on another crazy idea. me and chet had gotten into a conversation while we were both high about starting a record label. and from there we tried to move the idea forward. we gave it a name, "t'welv-step records." (not based on aa but based on my bad, stoned understanding of buddhism... i thought there was a twelve fold path to enlightenment or something like that... so boom, that's where the name came from). anyways, we convince liz and james to join in on the record label idea. and we figured starting an open mic would be a good chance to perform music (all three of them were musicians, i was nothing.... i had not yet attempted stand up comedy) and meet other musicians.

so the first open mic comes up and i figure i'll try some stand up comedy cuz it's something i'd always sorta been interested in. i have a recording of my first set somewhere but i never listen to it. it's pretty bad. but here i am five years later still performing stand up comedy and co-hosting that same open mic.

stuff happened and somewhere along the way liz stepped away from the label and the mic. i could delve into the reasons and whatnot, but i won't. you had to be there. as the weeks went by without liz, the focus on anything label related started to weaken. and at some point there was a moment where i acknowledged to myself, "this label shit's not gonna happen." but we kept going with the open mic. it was still something to do. it was nice to have an open mic to go to. having that every sunday night, it sorta felt like church to me or something. it just rounded out my week and if i didn't go, i'd feel a little emptier.

somewhere along the way, chet stopped showing up. he'll still stop by on a rare occasion here or there, but at some point he was out as a regular and me and james were on our own with this (though our homie chris has also been a constant with us for most of the five years and is probably as synonymous with open mic as me or james at this point).

there were also times i wanted to quit. there were times i'd take a month off. hosting an open mic late on sunday nights is a killer. i have to be fresh for work every monday morning and open mic makes it tough. when we first started it, i had mondays off. it was great. but then my schedule changed along the way and open mic suddenly became a bigger sacrifice. if the turnout wasn't good for a few weeks in a row, i'd get frustrated and lose interest. but anytime i'd take time off, i'd hop back into it refreshed, ready to go, and ready to make it work.

and a lot of good has come from open mic. maybe the best thing to come out of it is my friendship with james (ugh, it's gonna get emo up in here for a sec). i didn't really know james that well before this all began. but over the years we've become close friends and have had a countless amount of good times, whether it was at open mic or elsewhere (shows, parties, bbq's, other bars, etc, etc). and there's just so much shit that has gone down throughout the years. it's like me and james have been serving in the trenches of a war and no one else will ever fully understand what it's like.

i've gotten to meet so many people... so many interesting people. some mad people. some fucking nut jobs. some eclectic talents. some people that did things so amazing on the mic that the collective jaw of the whole bar dropped. we've even had our fair share of awful people and awful performances. a lot of the people i've met aren't even performers... just people who came to the bar to hang out. a lot of the people i've met are the bartenders, there's been so many bartenders over the years. thanks for keeping us drunk!

anyways.... i figured on a nice round number like five years, it was time to stop and reflect and devote some space to it on my blog. i'll never say how many more years we got in us. we've never been good at planning shit out. if and when open mic ends, i imagine it'll be abrupt and without much warning. it's gotta be fun. that's the most important factor. and it still is fun. and that may be the thing i'm most proud about. we started this thing that has provided people with five years of performances, good times, and memories.