The Show Where Kent Must Regain His Self-Confidence Or Die

Show tonight at this place called Dr. Dremo’s in Arlington. I am excited, partly because of some new material I am excited about, and partly about the other good comedians who are performing with me. Rory and Danny, whom I mentioned in my last entry, are both great, as well as Jeff Maurer, whom I also saw (but forgot his name until I looked it up on the roll call). Jeff, actually, was the only guy to truly do well at Topaz in terms of audience response. So I am excited to talk to them a bit during/after the show. My new (good?) bit is about how the exclamation mark has become the gay punctuation. This is actually a bit hard to explain onstage if you haven’t noticed it before, so here is an example. Imagine that you are you, and the following is an email you receive from me:

Hey, ____! How are you? Good to hear from you, it’s been a while! I’m having a great time in DC, working for the future and doing stand-up. What are you doing? Well, it was good talking to you, can’t wait to see you this weekend, or in the fall!

Compare to this email, without the exclamation marks:

Hey, ____, how are you? Good to hear from you, it’s been a while. I’m having a great time in DC, working for the future and doing stand-up. What are you doing? Well, it was good talking to you, can’t wait to see you this weekend, or in the fall.

Verdict: The first email is gayer. I don’t know why, or how, this became the common diagnosis, but it is and that’s just something that we heterosexual male email-writers are going to have to deal with. So look forward to that bit beating you over the head with internet-gay-related-humor. Also, I wrote a large portion of the bit in the voice of my hypothetical friend, whom I will call Trey, since he talks and acts exactly like that guy Trey that Matt and I wrote about for a year.

Actually, that’s a really fun part about this stand-up bit. I am able to keep exploring the characters that we created for Elected just by affecting their mannerisms and personas onstage. On Thursday, when Dryer was there, I tried to throw a little Jeff in there for him, including a line that I ripped off, word for word, from the follow up. I don’t feel bad, though, since it’s a very general line, and I fucking wrote it anyway. Basically, as much as I don’t miss some aspects of the show, I definitely do miss writing new jokes with those old characters, and this way I get to explore them a bit more, which is very exciting for me.

Anyway, I also have a bit I may or may not do about the guy who drove his car into Andreas in Providence on St. Patrick’s Day. Basically, that’s the best premise ever, and I want to make sure my joke lives up to it, so that I don’t let that crazy guy down.

If not, I will do my bit on Warren’s tattoo, which went over well the first time I did it, as well as my bit on 9/11, because any joke about that is just money in the bank. Then I’ll finish with my bit on being a drunk asshole, which is my favorite/best joke, and a good closer in my opinion.