Stand up comedy is dope
BOOOM yooooooo, let me tell you something about stand up comedy. this. shit. is. so. much. fuckin. fun. full. stop. period. I mean, yes, it’s stressful in a lot of ways. But my last four shows motivated me so much. I’ll throw a quick recap of them in a second. I’m probably not going to write too much about individual shows going forward. They’re not that uncommon anymore. There’s a lot of groups doing stand up comedy in Portuguese and English in Lisbon now, and it has been awesome to watch all that happen.
It’s not a “scene” yet, but there are more opportunities than ever for people to do English comedy in Lisbon. And I’m watching a lot of people who had never performed a single show in their life last year develop into comedians and performers. I mean, I’m one of those people too. I don’t know what the fuck I’m doing. But we’re all making progress, and that’s all that matters. Everybody gets better with more opportunities, and so figuring out how to create more opportunities is critical to building a real scene.
OMG SIDE NOTE: The second short film I worked on was released. It’s called “An Intervention.”. You can see the post with the link here. And it looks like it won’t be my last - more news on that later hopefully. Super thankful Pete invited me to be in that. It was so much fun to make. We did that scream shot like 30 times. Ana Cunha may have suffered some hearing loss. I’ve said it before, and I’ll repeat it. Acting is waaaaay harder than telling dick jokes.
An Intervention from Pete Fielding on Vimeo.
but anyway - some of the dope shows I did in the past month.
I did my very first production for Cais a Rir at Roterdão club on Pink Street.
It was the first time I’ve had to manage the comedians myself. Working with O Zebras for so long has been helpful because they organized the lineup and communication with the comedians for the shows. All I had to do was show up workout the order and focus on hosting. Now I’m comfortable with hosting. I’m not great, but I feel able, and the thought of managing a whole show and comedians doesn’t stress me out. I can do this, and I finally had my opportunity thanks to Hugo Rosa. I can’t say enough about how many opportunities this guy has put me on. So, I managed to get David Cristina to headline the event. And I’m thrilled he came through on that inaugural night for English comedy at Cais a Rir. And I got a bunch of comedians I’ve worked with at other shows to perform some open mic slots. We sold something like 21 tickets, so it wasn’t a huge crowd, but it was fun man. You can check out some pictures of everyone who performed here. I loved it — a new challenge complete.
So after that, there was another O Zebra show.
This show was the most packed I’ve ever seen that place. It was awesome. You can see some of the pictures here. There was this girl doing stand up comedy for the first time. And she was so fucking nervous. One of my favorite thing in the whole world is talking to worried comedians and trying to calm them down. So the comedian ahead of her finishes and I’m like “you’re next.”, and I could see how anxious she was. But its go time homegirl — go for it.
She fucking killed it. Made everyone else look bad that night. I felt bad for the dude that went after her. That shit was brutal. I don’t think I’ve ever heard that place so loud, and it was already more raucous than usual cause of the number of people. I stood up there for like twenty seconds, waiting for people to stop applauding after. No bullshit. And she came back to do another Zebra show after that. And now she’s doing standup everywhere she goes. Her name is Joanne Kai. You can check out her comedy Insta here. I’m lucky if I get some dude snickering in the corner, and she’s just gonna come outa nowhere and make the roof collapse. It’s cool. I’m not jelly.
Then I did the Short Film Open Mic!
It’s is something I alluded to in the last post, but I wasn’t all sure it was going to happen yet. The Short Film Open Mic is a format that has been happening in London for a long time. And Kino Short Film was the inspiration for Lee to put this together here in Lisbon. So the format is that I am the host as if it’s any comedy show. Except the comedians are short films. I open up and chat with the crowd, did my 10 minutes. Then I helped present various short films. And since it’s an “open mic”, filmmakers can bring their films to share. And after each film, we had a quick Q&A and discussion with the creators.
I liked it. It was verrry different for me, but I think it went well. Most people seemed to have a good time, and I had some great chats after the event. We even showed the Red Cocaine short. I was telling Lee this cause it’s funny I’m doing stuff like that since I don’t usually watch movies. Unless it’s something, I’m super interested in seeing it - like the new Joker film. That shit was doooooope. Hit a bit too close to home right now, but I enjoyed it. But I’m fond of short films, and I go to a lot of the Sunday Shorts Film Festival events now. I’ve done a lot of work with media in the past. And I really, really, fucking suck at content creation. So seeing these fantastic short stories that these creators can put together with limited budgets and time is inspirational. I’m gonna stick to telling dick jokes, but dipping my toes into the short film acting has been a fun new challenge. And I might have some more opportunities in the future. Let’s see how it goes.
Things are good.
Oh, hey, then I did another Cais a Rir show! My little monthly jam.
Again a small show - sold about 20 tickets. I didn’t do a headliner this time. I feel like getting more comedians on stage is better. After every show, I have people asking me when the next show is, and if they can perform, and if there’s going to be more. Shiiiiiiiiiit I’m asking the same questions y’all. There’s going to be more shows, but I don’t think they’ll be coming from me.
So yeah, all very cool stuff. I have another O Zebras show coming up soon. Then Cais a Rir again next month. I still have to work on my Portuguese set. I have more time now, so I’m gonna really sit down and grind away at it soon. Also, I think at the next show I might try a new 10 minutes. Or maybe a new five and mix it up. I’ve been comfortable with doing the same shit for the past six months. It’s time to switch it up.