When to take chances onstage
There's a misconception about when you should be trying new stuff.
“It’s a crappy show so just do whatever you want.”
Nah. This is like trying to surf when there aren’t any waves.
A hot crowd is when you wanna take more chances. They’re giving you momentum and energy. Surf that wave. Add in extra tags. Riff. Throw in a brand new bit and see if it’s got legs. Just be ready to go back to your A material if they get restless.
Myq Kaplan talks about this here:
If I’m in front of a really warm audience, I’ll riff more. A joke that ended one way in the past might continue to expand, and I’ll add a line and if the audience keeps laughing, I’ll add another line, and another and another, and if I get to a point where they don’t laugh at one, I might stop that train of thought…After the show, I’ll listen back to everything new that I said, and I’ll write it down, and I’ll prepare to tell future audiences everything that that audience laughed at, right up until the line that they DIDN’T laugh at, which was the truck that broke the bridge.
Dear Matt,
Thanks for sharing your thoughts and my thoughts!
Love
Myq