Today was my first day in the big city. Most of today was spent getting here, but I arrived at my friend Jeanine’s apartment (where I’m staying for most of the week) around 5:30 and unpacked. The only open mic I researched at all ahead of time was a Sunday night one and I spent a good hour on the 6 train coming into Manhattan from The Bronx just sitting and people watching (I need to remember my Kindle for the rest of the week). I got off the train, found the theatre, and went off for dinner. I’m a big burger fan so I was drawn to the New York Burger Company (I need to remember I have a Yelp account for this) and had an awesome burger called the Bowery Burger.
Anyways, after food I went to The PIT (the place the open mic was at, though also a place I found out when I arrived is chiefly used for improv) and stood in the bar area awkwardly for a while. I felt a little weird knowing I was taking a class at the competing UCB Theatre, but I got over that quickly. I decided to ask the girl at the ticket desk what the deal was and it turns out I was an hour early to sign-up. I ordered a $7 Brooklyn Lager (though $1 off for my Foursquare check-in) and stood there awkwardly a bit longer. Finally I spotted someone with a notebook and asked a group of people if they were comics. Two of them did sketch and one was there for stand-up. We talked for a bit, then the sketch guys left, and not long after the stand-up girl walked away without a word. Turns out the sign-up list was about to come out and she was getting in line. I ended up jumping in line a few people behind her and it was a good thing I did. There was a 12-15 person limit (I don’t remember exactly) and I was 7th.
The show is called Vicious Cycle and is hosted by Molly Austin and Mike Brown every Sunday night at like 9:30/10. The hosts didn’t really do any time up top and we each got 5 minutes and best of all it was free (a lot of open mics in NYC cost money to perform in, weird right?) The crowd was all comics and pretty quiet, though I got a couple laughs so that felt good, I was trying mostly new jokes too. I guess tonight is the last night of it being a strait sign-up show and is moving towards a lottery style starting next week. This New York style of open mics is a lot different from Boston, where most shows just run until no comics are left, but that’s just the way it is and I knew that going in. Tomorrow is my first day of classes and it’s time for bed now…
