Well-played, 2009. Giving me the opportunity to check off one of my resolutions and even throwing in some inspiration to motivate me to carry it out.

Thus, I have kept a New Year's resolution for what may be the first time ever: Tried standup in front of an actual audience -- in particular the audience at the monthly coffeehouse/open mic at the Unitarian Church in Exeter. (See: "Resolution Revolution, take one" down below there.)


Had dreamed of, but chickened out of, trying standup for like 15 years, and had been mulling over performing at that coffeehouse since fall, and after I had a burst of 3 a.m. inspiration Friday and spent two hours reviewing/editing stuff I'd already written, and writing additional stuff, I talked myself into ... well, into going to the coffeehouse, anyway.

Once there, I talked myself into signing up to perform. Then spent the evening arguing with myself about whether to go through with it. But since much of what I'd planned out was time-sensitive 'cause it pertained to current events (the economy and 2008), it had a now-or-never urgency.

Most of the other performers were doing mellow guitar music or poetry or spoken-word stuff, so I wasn't sure the audience would be in the proper mindset for comedy by the time I went on (I'd signed up for the last slot).

But it went much better than I anticipated, although granted it was a very supportive audience with the expectations bar set very low, not a bunch of potentially hostile drunks like at a comedy club.

So I wasn't up against a crowd that was gonna challenge me. Still, I had an opportunity to respond to someone who interrupted me (in a teasing way), and I got to practice picking a target out of the audience to interact with spontaneously, so there was some real-life experience. And the crowd (I didn't count, but maybe 35 or 40 people) laughed at the right times, and I saw a lot of nods as people related to what I was talking about (a lot of 50-year-old woman-type stuff). I did an OK job of maintaining audience eye contact, although I think I relied a little too heavily on my "portable TelePrompTer" (most everyone used cheat sheets, and I brought my laptop with my notes up with me as part prop, part crutch since there was no way I'd have it all memorized).

Afterward, several people, including some of the other performers, came up and complimented me. So I might give it a try again and see if I'm a flash in the pan or if there might actually be a path to an occasional local paying gig.

In any case, it was a badly needed confidence boost.

So, 2009. Guess the next move is mine.

If you know nothing else about me, know this: I have long harbored a (not-so-)secret desire to do stand-up comedy. However, there is an obstacle: Fear. Not just of speaking in front of audiences, but also of bombing. I'm not always like this, but I'm in a phase right now where I'm having difficulty dealing with things like rejection, public humiliation, bad news, all that stuff that's an expected part of building any kind of career in standup.

So, the other day I'm doing my seasonal job, giving school groups tours of a local orchard, in which I try to inject humor wherever I can. I say, "try," but really, it's often just off-the-cuff stuff. That seems to work best for me, at least in this setting. And when I try to repeat it, it doesn't always play as well the second time.

So I'm giving a tour, and after one of the stops, one of the class chaperones comes up to me and says, "You're funny." I thank her, and for some reason am compelled to tell her about my secret desire to do standup. So the tour continues -- we're walking, we're walking, we're picking apples -- and at the end, the lady comes up to me again and reinforces that she thinks I'm funny. I again thank her, and make polite chitchat with someone who's paid me the highest compliment anyone can possibly pay me. Then she says she'd like to hire me to come entertain at her house. I play along; "Cool," I grin. "So I can contact you through here?" she says. "Of course," I affirm, thinking maybe she's played out this fake I-want-to-give-you-a-gig banter quite long, and maybe it's not really fake and she really wants to hire me to come entertain.

So that's as far as it's gone; so far, no gig. But I mentioned that conversation to my invisible Internet friends, one of whom, encouraging my standup aspirations, urged me to work out at open mike nights. Which, I replied, I'd thought of before, but could never find one local enough or regular enough for my convenience and bank account (thinking particularly of COMEDY-specific open mikes).

So tonight, I mentioned all of this to yet another friend, who told me about a monthly coffeehouse at a local church that kind of functions as an open mike night. Well hey, it's better'n nothin', and might be a way to build up some confidence, in front of a mellow, affirming audience rather than boozy, belligerent bar patrons. So see what happens when you put something out to the universe? Sometimes, the universe nudges back.