Yesterday, I made the drive to Waco to visit my somewhat famous standup comic friend. And what a pleasure it was. We got drinks with her cousin and cousin's boyfriend, then I offered to drive her so she would not have to worry about paying up for a rideshare app. And, of course, to hang out a little. She had been on my podcast multiple times and we had both workshopped each other's standup comic material, so once in while she would just be commenting on how it was weird that we had not met before, since we were able to skip any awkward getting to know each other aspects of meeting in person.
So I drove her the few miles to the show and she introduced me to the booker and the venue manager as her comedian friend, which gave me a lot of points from the start. All of the comics were great, but she in particular was clearly the experienced headliner, despite her anxieties about it. And since she keeps her comedy clean and dislikes doing crowd-work, it gave me a real idea of how to aim my writing. Right after she finished her set, the venue manager turned to me and asked "you're a standup in Dallas?" and I responded in the affirmative with full knowledge that my standup experience thus far was bombing a week ago at an open mic, that my credibility was based on my friend's fantastic performance, and perhaps a little on my own conversational jokes. That standup friend told me afterward that the booker would probably put me in all of his shows.
So now I have to get good. Fortunately, this was a great learning experience. I am no longer so desperate to pull jokes on the audience now that I am borrowing from my friend's creditability.
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