Jokes and Spokes Day 3 The Rush

Nothing makes me quite as nervous as performing in my hometown.

The pressure I put on myself to fill a room where people should know what I'm doing is pretty high. This was amplified on this show by possibility of the sponsors that I'm working with, the non-profit I'm raising money for (F.A.S.T) and friends that have never seen my show coming out.

Between running gear to the venue and setting up the bike I was left arriving at the group ride Meetup location at the last minute. My brother and a couple of new cycling friends that I had met on RAGBRAI joined me for the group ride. They set the pace pretty high. I've been used to really managing my speed to maximize my endurance but as it was a short ride we all just matched the pace of the fastest rider which left the group a little strung out from time to time but it was nice to have some other people along, some conversation along the way.

Arriving at a bar where you set up a comedy show it's always a bit of unknown. I had the luxury of this being in my hometown so I knew there had been posters in the room and I knew they had shared things to their social media along the way but I still was a little concerned about a Saturday night show in a bar that's usually fairly busy anyway.

The bar was packed when we arrived but it was hard to discern how many were actually there for the show and we didn't truly know until the show began. As these bar shows can often go, the back of the room was a bit rowdy during the opening comics set. It's a tough job opening a show especially in a bar. Expectations and etiquette are not always fully understood by the crowd so getting them in line and acting like a crowd is a hard earned skill. Joey Stibral did a good job of establishing the show in these difficult conditions.

Nathan Hult is a seasoned veteran in the comedy and someone who I should probably be featuring for instead of the other way around. I couldn't have been happier to have him. Contrary to popular belief it is best to follow the strongest possible comic because the crowd is loose and having fun so it is up to you to just not loose them.

My anxiety finally melted away as the crowd stayed engaged to the show or perhaps it was the IPA I was drinking. I was no longer doing a show in my hometown. I was transported to a bar in Wisconsin, the type of bar I started out doing comedy in. During shows like this where crowds are drunk or rowdy or just generally disruptive once you have their attention you have to keep it and it's very easy to lose it. Cut the fat off of every joke, cut the tags that don't kill and fire through twice the material you otherwise would. You still have to give them time to laugh but you can't let it breathe the way you could in a comedy club or showroom. You have to start the next joke before the last few people stop laughing at the previous joke so that conversations don't start to pop up.

It turned out to be one of my favorite shows I've done in Sioux Falls and we had a handful of people who rode their bike to the show so it was a win on both fronts.