Addendum

I really didn't want to get into a back and forth over in the comment section. Mike, Jake, I appreciate your comments; it made me think a bit more. Justin, there are no arguments to make. There is nothing to discuss. Though, I’m about to make an argument and discuss it at length.

I'll be the first one to admit, that when it comes to provoking posts on this blog, I lack more balls than ice hockey; and maybe it’s because my analogies are terrible that I retract from doing so. But here we go.

Before I became this blog's lone contributor, I made a modicum of additions to it but mainly was a reader. I was really pleased when I moved back to DC to see Jason Saenz and Nick Turner really pounding the pavement along with the keyboards to get things going for themselves and others in the DC comedy scene. However, my one beef with the blog was the negativity and the bickering back and forth. My great dear friend and fellow performer, Jason, I could have slapped upside the head for his blog regarding Mike Metz (see: Sorry Bill Burr) in which he detailed how he couldn't stomach the opening-act and left before Burr took the stage. It sounded out of character for Jason but was becoming the typical tone of the blogging. Then there was all the venom spilled out over: is DC a place for open-mics, or what people are not doing, this guy is an ass, Nick Turner sucks, shut-up Blejer, etc.. There is place for negative stances/vents but it was just becoming repetitive, there was no discourse just idiocy. It was a blog that was doing nothing for the community but hurt it, in fact embarrass itself. The blog had just become one big typical Youtube comment section. Add the all the spite regarding the DC Comedy Festival and we just continued to sound like an unproductive whiney community. So as I gradually was passed over the duties of the blog, I deliberately took it in another direction. Everything, for the most part, has been soft and fluffy. However, I did invite people to contribute to the blog via posts, email and in public. And what I got back was just above nil. And honestly though, I didn't care, I do a bit more now--but not much. If anything, it reaffirms the reasons people move out of the town to pursue comedy elsewhere.

The point remains the same, you want to know what is wrong with the DC Comedy scene? Get up right now and go look in the mirror. Until we are under direct threat from the likes of the Stasi, it will always be the case. There is never a lack of demand for comedy. People never want to go out for the evening and not laugh and not be entertained. For fuck sake, that is what America is turning into, a country whose prime contribution to the world economy is LIESURE.

Not getting enough time for an open-mic, that's your problem. The guy that hasn’t gotten a laugh for 3 years but continues to pursue comedy annoys the fucking shit out of you? Your problem. Riding the improv class system with the most annoying person on the planet? Your problem. Not enough open-mics? Your problem. Audience didn't laugh, that's your problem. You crush every time. Your problem. Got a spot on the "Tonight Show", that’s your problem. Rolling in money, it’s on you. Can't think of an idea to write about, it’s on you. Got too many ideas? It’s on you. Whether the DC scene sinks through the sewer or blasts through the crotch of Richard Pryor in heaven, the responsibility is yours to take care of it. The responsibility to do, write, watch, see, read, listen to comedy is always your problem.

That’s really end of story.

If you need help along the way, get it. Make some good friends and be a decent individual that people want to work with on a regular basis. If things really start to get hard, take somebody aside that you trust and ask them,

“What are my delusions?”

The paragraph in yesterday's post about challenging the audience was a subject that I really wanted to write more about. Topics like: Rape, Homelessness, AIDS, Cancer, and Abortion better be fucking funny. There is also a ton of elitism going on right now, the homeless, poverty stricken, people born into any unfortunate circumstance, get the living shit kicked out of them at some local shows that I have been to over the years. No subject is taboo but are you really being edgy or just an asshole? The comics that you’ve heard get away with it, through fame and fortune, have earned their audience. You start taking on topics that are sensitive, have a stance, have a perspective about the injustices. You want to be George Carlin, listen to George Carlin's old interviews, what did he want when he took on a sensitive topic? Justice. You are not challenging the audience when you rip into those who do not have a voice.

At Chief Ike’s one night with the usual 4 audience members , I watched a comic pick on a guy with one-good eye in the audience, the audience member was wearing an eye-patch, and after he got off stage, the next comic came up and congratulated him for the funny observations. Maybe I don't get it. Was the guy wearing the eye-patch heckling or saying anything? No, he was watching the show, in fact he was a comic that stuck around to watch the other sets. Wonderful, great vibe we created there. Unless it is a show lets say at the Apollo or the stage has chicken wire in front of it, leave the audience alone. If something happens, you have to call the moment, or you're enduring heckling, by all means, go for it.

Maybe I don't get it. Fine. The "Cringe Stuff", the outrageous stuff, can be funny; but you have to earn the audience's approval. It may work in New York, but remember this is Washington D.C. where your PC audience member just got off their job at the Non-profit International Institute for Peace, squeezed in their yoga class before an organic dinner from Whole Foods with their best gay friend so they would still have time to buy some gum at CVS, with a 20, so they would have change to give to the 3 or 4 homeless people they would pass on the way to your show. Over-generalization? Yeah. But something to keep in mind. And yes, I know--thats my problem.

Type rest of the post here