I had the most humbling and horrifying experience a few weeks back.  I had my second paid gig and had about 15 of my friends show up with a 95% total full room.  I was the first opener with 2 to follow and then the headliner.  The club owner MC’d that night and warmed up the audience, who nonetheless always kills.  I was called up, did a little riff and “tried” to do my first joke…..............BRAIN FART!!!!  Second joke…..........BRAIN FART, third joke…....RAN OFF STAGE…..did a total of 3 minutes of nothing!!!!  Needless to say I didn’t get paid that night.  The club owner called me aside and was very “nurturing”, so were the other comics even the headliner ;and boy I needed it, I literally felt like I wanted my mommy there.  I don’t know if he (club owner) was genuine in counseling me that night, or if he REALLY wanted to tear my head off.  He did ask if I wanted to get back up, but I refused.  I was just to humiliated.  He did say he “hasn’t given up on me yet”, but I don’t believe it, I would have been pissed if I was him, after all, this is a business.  Moral of the story,  how do you remember your material, or not even that, but the over all wording of the jokes.  I was told by my buddy who was there that night, he said I looked “mechanical” up there didn’t seem to be “myself”  Nonetheless, right now I don’t want to do this anymore, BUT I know after I processes this event in my mind I’ll be back…......hopefully a little better and more confident.  Again if anyone has stories like this I’d like to hear them, cause it would sure make me feel a “little” better.

I’ve never featured, but I did this the second time I got on stage. I basically bolted, and the MC was out having a cigarette. He was a big fat guy like me, but he could *move*- he ran in so fast it I didn’t feel so bad- the audience got their laughs. :)

Ooh, I can’t say I’ve ever run off stage.  But what you need to do right now is get up at as many open mics and little rooms as you can.  Getting back on the horse is the key thing.  You’ll start to get laughs and be comfortable again.

I have a terrible time remembering material and lyrics.  I have to rehearse the heck out of them before I put them on stage.  It goes in three stages.  I take what I written out on paper and rehearse til it’s memorized.  Second, I get it so it sounds conversational instead of written.  I’ll usually riff some new stuff during this stage too.  Third, I run through it conversationally and try to reconnect with the thoughts I had when writing it to keep it fresh.  I will also usually come up with little connector thoughts to get from one part of the bit to the next.  Not a joke I say out loud.  Just a little connection in my brain.

But the big thing is just get back on stage as soon as possible, and lots.

I’ve never blanked on a joke but I’ve worried that I would before getting on stage, to the point that I start forgetting parts of jokes while backstage, but thats only before big shows. Once I’m on stage it comes back.

Personally, I use one word for each joke worked into a sentence. For instance, (these aren’t real jokes, just made-up examples): If I’m doing 5 minutes that night and my set list looks like this:

Gay Dinosaurs
Green Bay Packers
White Couches
4D TV’s

My memorization tool would be (I write it down and capitalize the taglines that help me remember jokes):

I was sitting on my WHITE COUCH with my GAY DINOSAUR friend, watching a GREEN BAY PACKERS game on my 4D TELEVISION

The tactic will probably make you laugh, but I’ve memorized 20 minute sets in three sentences. Its an easy tool once you’re on stage.

This is harsh but its something you’ll have to learn:

As far as the semantics of your jokes go, you need to know your jokes. If you don’t, either take a break or go for smaller crowds til you’re ready.

No matter how bad a set is going, you have to do your time. I’ve watched bad comics do 40 minutes because they were paid to do so, and I recently saw a normally-awesome comic storm off stage after 20 minutes for what was supposed to be a 60 minute set.

Don’t accept opportunities you’re not ready for. Its much better to say to a promoter/club owner “maybe next month” than it is to bomb and mess with your reputation.