thanks for the feedback

after my set last night at the wild rover open mic, a patron at the bar gave me her feedback before leaving the bar for the night. i'm not posting this for pity. and i'm not posting this because i think i'm great. i'm comfortable with the idea that not everyone's gonna like me or laugh at my jokes. that's cool. and it's even cool for people to let me know if they think i'm not funny. i got no problems with that, just look at the name of my blog (or my twitter handle @joshaintfunny). it's just that this chick went overboard on me last night. and it was the sorta ridiculousness i'd like to share it with the world.

for the record, i never got her name.

as she's leaving with a dude (husband, boyfriend?? not sure, never got told the specifics) she comes up to me as i'm sitting down enjoying a beer and exclaims, "hey! i'm funnier than you!"

my immediate response was, "ok, that's great. how about you sign up and perform then?"

to which she replied, "i can't. he (points at the dude she's with who's practically one foot out the door and seems to have no interest in being at this bar anymore) doesn't like it when i perform. but i perform at the improv in new york. i have some feedback for you, something i thought of that you could add to your set."

it is at this point where i sorta tune out on people. this sorta thing unfortunately happens too often, especially when dealing with people of the drunk variety. my go to stance at this point is to politely nod and humor whatever it is they have to say. so i reply with an, "oh yea? what cha got?"

"well, i have this bit about butt fucking, y'know a dude fucking another dude in the ass. it's funny. you can add it to the part about obama (cuz i did have a joke about obama but it was short, not graphic, and doesn't get close to the topic of "butt fucking" in any way... but anyways....). you see obama's right hand man went to duke. and that's who tells him who's gonna win the final 4 tournament every year. they're like best friends (she mentioned the dude by name but it has slipped from my memory). you can do a bit about them fucking each other."

and that was it. that was her great, funny idea that would make my set so much better. but anyways, she bantered on a little more... with not much encouragment from me, but i went, "okaaaaay...."

and then she continues with, "like i said, i perform at the improv. but i'm 44. i don't perform that much anymore."

i butt in, "you should perform tonight!" (cuz i really wanted her to get up there and bomb at this point).

"no, no i can't. we're leaving and like i said, he doesn't like it when i do this stuff."

and then she left.

two things i've walked away with:

1- next time you see me perform, you can feel 100% at ease that i will NOT in any way have a butt fucking obama bit in my repertoire

and

2- if you're lucky, maybe you can hit the improv in nyc and catch her sometime.