America's Funniest Mom?

Doing Stand-Up comedy is fast becoming a real part of my life. And so, like just about every other part of my life, I will write about it. It’s interesting to note that writing about doing comedy is not as funny as actually doing the comedy, but I will keep trying!

Last week I tried out to be a contestant on Nick-At-Nite’s Search For America’s Funniest Mom.

I know.

How fitting it would be for me, lover of Reality TV, to then be on a Reality TV Show? Well, let’s not get ahead of ourselves….

There were four of us trying out at the Funny Bone here in Dayton. Five if you count the guy with a beard who dressed up as a woman. He was hilarious. (“What’s with the husbands and the football? All day long I clean things, and wash things, and he sits around watching football?”)

There were maybe 30 people in the club, which is always tough, but even harder when you go on first. Of course, I went on first. I felt like I had a good set and I did some material I have never done before, but had written about here and here.

The last couple of times I was onstage I “ramped up” my Brooklyn accent, basically becoming a caricature of myself. I decided not to do that this last time and I felt much more comfortable. But I did want to highlight my “point of view” as a comic. I am not just a 30-something (OK almost 40) Mom living in the suburbs. I am a Brooklyn girl raising my kids in the suburbs of Ohio. So I tried some “fish out of water” type of humor and it went over pretty well.

When I left the stage, my new friend Sharif (a real comic, with an agent and everything!), came up to me and said, “That was great. The best I’ve seen you do.” It means a lot to me. The people at The Funny Bone have been so great and welcoming – From the lady who runs the place, Lisa Grisby (with 2 decades worth of experience giving comics their start), to Sharif and Ryan Singer and the sweetest waitress you’ll ever meet, Kim – it’s so very encouraging to a newcomer like me and I am so grateful.

I met Angie Montgomery, a comic from Cinci who made it all the way to the finals on last season’s show. She’s a great girl. A strong girl. A funny girl. I hope to work with her at the club she’s opening in Cinci next month.

This is such a great experience for me on so many levels. I’m not sure if it’s the insecure girl in me or the ego maniac in me, but I love hanging around the club after the show and getting some feedback and hearing, “You were good!” from an audience member.

I’m also learning a lot. It’s hard to explain how you learn comedy. It’s in the doing of it really. So, you have to get up there and try new stuff, and put yourself out there and try not to be afraid of failure. Or maybe you embrace the failure so you can at least say, “OK. That stunk.” That’s the scary part. And that’s the thrilling part.

Sharif says to me, “You’ve got the material. It’s a confidence thing with you. Just be strong.” This is a huge compliment because at my heart, I am a writer and a storyteller. But I think I could never put a book or an article out there and never know what people think. This is why I loved the immediacy of working in radio, this is why I tell stories to my friends and family. This is why I love to blog and hear your comments. Perhaps it’s a weakness, but I really love making people smile and know for sure that I’ve done that is important to me.

I was in the bathroom at the club and a woman tells me, “I have to give you credit for going up there. You are very brave.”

“Everyone tells me that,” I say, “But I’m not going off to war. I just want to make people laugh. Did you laugh?”

“Yeah!” she answers.

I don’t know what kind of day that lady had, but during my five minutes, she laughed - and that’s pretty exciting.