Funnybone and Quad Con Comic & Toy Show / Cool Stuff

Funnybone

Last week was quite a marathon. I've been trying to pursue stand up comedy more than I have been and I wanted to get back into the Funnybone. I had a couple guest spots there in the past but I was also working two (some times 3) jobs and going to school. Plus last year I had some personal tragedy so it wasn't a good time. My life is in a less turbulent place than it was so I thought now would be a good time to get back into the mix.

I'm extremely lucky that the Funnybone has someone that is willing to give me more than one opportunity to prove myself. I created facebook events and pushed it on everyone person I had ever meant trying to stack the deck in my favor.

My set Thursday night went well but wouldn't turn heads. The feature and MC both seemed impressed but not a lot to write home about. Friday I decided I needed to retool my act some. I dropped a joke that didn't seem to work the night before.

I am still pretty out of practice at shows like this so making adjustments to my set so close to getting on stage always makes me a bit nervous. I found a spot in the back of the comedy club, behind the green room and paced back and forth, trying to get my set down perfectly. Something about stand up is that one small flub of a word can ruin an entire joke, and if you only have 5 minutes then that can have a huge negative impact on your set.

So I walked back and forth, trying to contain my nervous energy and talked to myself like a crazy person. The Friday show I had a lot more people there for me. When I push a show so hard and then have people actually arrive I feel a lot more pressure to be funny.

So the lights go down and our MC, the hilarious Curt Fletcher took the stage. He was an extremely funny comedian and incredibly nice guy but I don't think i was able to really appreciate his comedy because of my nervous and excitement but soon I took the stage and my first joke, a new one about living in my dads basement, really hit! Once you get a really good laugh then all of that anxiety and those nervous melts away and I was allowed to have fun. And I did! A lot of fun!

I was not embarrassed to tell people that I destroyed the Funnybone that night! But so did Curt Fletcher, Matt Holt and our headliner Gabriel Rutledge. Friday night ended with a pretty amazing show that I was pretty proud to be part of!

Quad Con Comic & Toy Show / Cool Stuff

Funnybone show was Friday night, Saturday I had to get in my car and hit the road at 6 AM to get to Dubuque. Dubuque is about a 3 hour drive from Des Moines and Scott and I had to have our table ready to go once the event started at 10. Leaving at six should have given us a hour to get there and get ready, right? NOPE! First I said, lets sit and eat at this McDonalds and then I took a wrong turn! We got to our table minutes before the doors opened. Luckily I do not have a lot to set up, only my vampire shark comics and posters. So I was able to explore the room a little before everyone stormed in.

I saw an incredible cool Deadpool pinball game, sadly the guy who owned it wouldn't trade me for my vampire shark comics. I feel like it was a fair trade but whatever.

The show began and the first thing I noticed was that people seemed to really be attacked to my cover for issue 5 of the Ahab Van Helsing. A silly homage to the Little Mermaid. In fact one woman bought a poster for it without buying the comics.

This con was a huge success for the little ole Vampire Shark. People seemed to really take to the idea and loved the covers and artwork. The only negative was that I spent most of the money I made on old issues of Dark Hawk or Steve Urkel dolls.

At one point I saw a man dressed in a tan shirt with tan shorts. On top of that he was sporting a goatee. Now, this being a comic book convention, seeing people in costume isn't out of the ordinary so I thought, that's an amazing Walter Sobchak from Big Lewboski!

I approached this man and said "I love your Walter costume." He looked at me and said "FUCK YOU!" I found out the hard way that he was not in costume at all, this was his normal attire. A few moments later he approached my booth and said "Do I look like him?" I said "well the colors lined up so I thought that's what you were going for. I wasn't trying to be mean I was really meant that as a compliment." He shook his head and said "This is my favorite outfit. I love it because it's so comfortable." Keep at it man. Later on he approached me again and told me he was going to get the glasses and a bowling bag to take to cons the next time.