Open mike plays in Peoria

by Brian McKim & Traci Skene on September 14th, 2007

Dan Conlin, quoted in the Peoria Journal Star article on the Jukebox Comedy Club’s open mike night:

“If a comedy club doesn’t have a place where aspiring comics can try it, I don’t know how else they could see what it takes,” he said. Comedy isn’t something you can try out in front of the mirror or in your living room; aspiring comics need to get up on a stage and see if they can connect with a crowd.

Conlin gets it. And so, apparently, does the article’s author, Danielle Hatch. Her copy is blessedly free of the usual cliches and the article is evenhanded and informative.

We’re not so sure about open miker Casey DeFauw, retail manager for a local video store:

DeFauw was on stage telling a joke and the audience went silent after the punch line.

“Get it? Get it?” DeFauw prompted, but the audience didn’t.

“I’ve told that joke before and murdered crowds,” DeFauw said after the show. “I think the crowd that night probably would have preferred if I just went up there and rehashed Larry the Cable Guy.”

Do we detect frustration and bitterness creeping in already?

But DeFauw, who is participating in the club’s annual, multi-week amateur tourney, seems more introspective later on in the story, “You just tell the joke,” he said. “When I first started, I’d get genuinely flustered. I’d freeze, would forget my next joke, wouldn’t know what to do. But you just gotta keep going.”

Cheers to the PJStar for a decent account, giving a few aspiring comics a nice clip for that important first press kit.

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