Oh the Road again. Yeah go ahead and scoff at me for calling Corpus Christi, a place less than 3 hours away "the road". In my Defensive Driving class, I teach students that the night before a road trip one should get plenty of rest and avoid drugs and alcohol. Here in lies the conflict, Drugs and Alcohol are part of this comics thursday night/friday morning activites. So I get home around 5am and get a couple hours of sleep. Before I head out of town overnight I make a list of things I need to take with in priority. Cell Phone charger then extra underwear etc. This time I didn't ride down to Corpus solo.
My Chariot, the Nissan Cube(icle)
I got to be the driver, personal assistant, navigator, gopher, venue coordinator and most important of all opener for Chris Mata. (sure, I made up a couple of those titles). I had a blast the whole time we hung out. I'm getting a little too bro-mantical over here. I relish the opportunities when I can pick another (way more successful) comics brain in a confined area. We talked shop, and he put up with my questions. Growing up my Dad would always tell me, "You got 2 ears and 1 mouth, You should do twice as much listening as you do talking". I couldn't be happier sharing points of views, approaches to comedy and road stories. When you hear stories about after party hijinx with other comics you know, it's pretty cool. "He did WHAT?" was said plenty of times in the car.
We leave San Antonio after 5, which for me I don't like doing. Most of the time I open shows, so I like to be there as early as possible, asses the venue, meet with staff, go over some notes, get some down time before the craziness starts. We roll up to The Vent Comedy club at Gators right at 7:53. 7 mins to spare! Usually that freaks me out, but since I only did guest spots, there was no pressure on me. I always have a good time performing there, Mike and his Brother Billy Henneberger are the reason Corpus has a comedy club right now. I cant thank those guys enough for what they do for us. Mike is a comic, and both of them write for The Vent. Its a publication in Corpus thats kinda like The Current (weekly s.a. newspaper covering local music, entertainment,etc.) meets The Onion. After every show on friday night, without fail theres an after party at Mikes place too. The House the Debauch built, (out of 4 lokos) and Destroyed. Crazy shit has happened there. There are tales of midgets doing cocaine, people learning how to dougie and the occasional vase/blinds that break. The story of a Little person doing a controlled substance is probably highly exaggerated. It was probably just a short guy doing lines of (prescription) adderall. (My lawyer told me to add the last 2 sentences you read) All the comics that were part of the show did great, from the host, to the feature and Winner of 2011's Funniest Person in Corpus Christi John Roman. It was easy to tell the crowd was having just as much if not even more fun than the comics. Mata's second set of the night clocked in at an hour and ten minutes. He spent the first 20 mins on stage riffing with the crowd. I was so jealous (still am) that he could do that, then launch into his material. It was more than crowd work, it was a performance unto itself. I feel like if you can personalize the show, the crowd feels like their part of a experience and not just watching a show. If you make it unique every time, the same people will come out and see you again and again just because they want to hear what you're gonna have to say this time. When Im on the road, especially to a place i go to a lot like corpus, I try to switch it up as much as possible. Trying to build my fanbase I suppose, and offer something new, if not different from the previous time.
We didn't stay too long at the after party, I wasn't feeling well and the next day would be a busy one. We grabbed some drive-thru burgers, checked in the hotel. I wanted to blog some stuff out, and post thank you messages to the people that showed up, but no Wifi at Motel 6. I let them know on the comment card after I took BOTH rolls of toilet paper. (Seriously I haven't bought toilet paper in the last 6 months, I keep taking it from places, call me Ghetto, but Im not gonna spend money on something I wipe my ass on)
Day 2 starts with us cruising around corpus killing time before the 730 showtime at a Catholic School auditorium. We grab lunch and head to the mall (the nice one). Chris' priority was finding something nice for his special lady friend for Valentines Day. I tried to help him out as much as I could (As much as this 26 year old virgin could) We check out jewelery stores, Bath and Bodyworks, and Spencers. I guess it's been a while since Ive been to a Spencers' because I dont remember them selling lingerie, let alone having a maternity clothing section in one. Maybe thats unique to Corpus, which would say a lot about Corpus. After our mall-crawl we hang out at a Starbucks, I do some correspondence and take some notes about the trip. Mata and brainstormed about what he could do make the time with his lady friend special. While there I got a chance to pick his brain and ask him about some of the new stuff I was trying to work out. He humored me and helped me out.
I learned a lot, he obliged me and answered question after question I had. Things like, when I should get out of San Antonio and the like. He also told me to have a portfolio of work that consists more than just standup. Things like this blog, youtube skits and the like. Another thing he taught me is pay it forward. The the Headliner should help out with gas or a meal or two if your (opener) driving them around. Its good to help out other comics. Things like hang out with the club staff, get to know them and build relationships.
After we hangout for cup after cup of hot stuff at Starbucks, we checked out some other stores. I gassed up the cubicle and we made our way over to the venue. As soon as we get there the two of us are greeted with handshakes, cold ice tea and hot food. They sat us at a table with our names next to the plates. Someone was thinking very highly of me and listed me as Alex Angel. I told the organizers if Alex Angel shows up he is gonna be mad I ate his cheesecake. We got a "Gift" bag with Valentines themed trinkets and Church propaganda. This gig being a Fundraiser at a Catholic school, there were a lot of older folks there. As soon as you walk into the banquet hall there were two statues of Angels holding the doors open. It took a lot of will power not to put my blinged out Kool-Aid man necklace on one the statues necks and take a picture. Emcee of the evening was Paul Anthony a Corpus comic and church parishioner of where we performed. Paul was the first comedy club manager I met at my first road gig at Sparkling CT in Corpus 3 years ago. (almost to the day). Second up after the show was Father Glen, he did some jokes sermon style. Great performance. Then it was time for me, yeah I had to follow the Priest. The stage was maybe 5 ft across and went back about 3. There was a long black curtain hanging down and a light hanging right above the center of the stage. I was kinda like doing stand up on a raft with a sail while under a porch light. I made due. I was proud of myself for not cursing and for once actually recording a 25min CLEAN set all the way through. I had some risqué material, but all in all the crowd enjoyed it. The last time I performed for a Catholic fundraiser was last Halloween. Some of the jokes about my Dad coming out, did okay. But this time in Corpus they killed. I thought they would be more uptight, but they loved those jokes. One of the best parts of the show is when I caught Father Glen laughing at my weed jokes. I closed strong, thanked the crowd pimped my website (AlexAnsel.com , not Alex Angel) and got off stage. Then Mata got up there and knocked it out of the park. He started riffing with the crowd, talking about the venue and decorations and so on. It was a lot of fun to watch. He even did a bit that I could tell halfway through was totally inappropriate for the room. But it was fun to watch. And of course the one dude who sat up front and didn't laugh at a thing laughed his ass off at a bit where the punchline is about a lady having unborn children in her eyes. I was too busy laughing at Mata for doing that joke than to look at Paul Anthony for his reaction. Chris went on, and closed strong. We took a couple pictures with people and got out before the auction. We both wanted to get back to San Antonio as soon as possible. Money in hand we hit the road again.
We got to talk more shop, share philosophies and stories about shows where stuff out of anyones control went wrong.
We got back to town before midnight, I drop him off and go home right? Nope I go to NightRocker and do a set there, have a couple drinks then head to my own bed.
Women Lie, Men Lie, Numbers dont lie. 4 spots in 2 days at 3 venues 337 miles.
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