You might remember that, a couple of months ago, I unleashed the snark cannon on ROR here in Osaka.
That post was about as well received as an entire set on Hiroshima. I was attempting to give back as good as I’d gotten on the night. And accidentally went overboard, to the point I looked like a grumpy bitch who’d slagged off those nice boys for no reason.
(“No, YOU can’t take a joke!”)
On Friday, I finally put my own funny where my mouth is and went to their monthly open mic night. Not to review it, but to do five of my own precious comedy minutes.
I fully expected to either die on my bum out there or be heckled off. Open mics are meant to be more forgiving. Did I deserve forgiving? I had no idea. I wasn’t expecting it, put it that way. Given my blogging history, I felt like painting a target on my forehead before getting on stage.
Then, something kinda weird happened. I stood up and told my first joke… and people actually laughed. Like, properly laughed. At me, sure, but for the ‘right’ reason. So I kept telling ’em. And the (mostly male) audience kept on giggling.
Hey, that wasn’t so bad. I didn’t get yelled at. If there were awkward silences and tumbleweeds, I was too blinded by the stage lighting to notice.
Thank you, ROR. I apologise. I’m sorry my previous post wasn’t the perfect, rose-tinted start to our budding relationship. We didn’t hit it off immediately, but I feel like we can move past that and be friends now. Right?
The ‘not sorry’ in this post title is that I don’t regret giving it a go. Every time I agree to do stand-up, I spend the hour prior feeling nervous to the point of sickness.
Who knows, maybe at some point I’ll do it again…
(Again, header from the ROR Facebook page.)
