"You will be docked one point from each judge for every minute you go over or portion thereof." The words from Stan Thomson as he explained the rules to the Yuk Yuks 2009 Great Canadian Laugh Off at the new Calgary club last night. Words that came back to haunt me...well, a little bit anyway.
We were given 5 mins and, due to me not sticking exactly to my set list I added one line. That line put me 10 seconds over and cost me points.
The good news is it only bumped me down to second place that night which allows me to go to the next level.
Congrats goes to Lars Callieou who had an awesome set and grabbed first place (and stuck to his time) and Mike Craigdallie grabbing third to advance to the next round.
I have to say the new Yuks club is very well laid out. Site lines are great from anywhere in the room. Sound is clear and rich. They also have something I have never seen before; LED spot lights. For those of you who have never been on stage before you may not be able to understand the discomfort level lights can create. With these LEDs there is no more baking like a French fry under a heat lamp. The comics are lit with bright lights that don't heat up. Cool on stage will do wonders for comics that are high energy, move around, have a long set or are just nervous. In fact, due to the short spots we did I felt almost too cool as I am used to the old hot lights.
Could I get used to the lack of heat? HELL YA!!
One other thing I should mention is the new backdrop. Gone is the old brick walls so common everywhere else. They have a subdued image of a mic stand under a spot light with 2 left shoes at the base. Subtle, classy and it says "This is a comedy stage". Well done.
Best of luck to all the other contestants. Whether I advance all the way to the end or not I did what I set out to do. Nail a 5 minute spot (+ 10 seconds) so I am better prepared for other show cases and to move to the next level. A successful night for me.
Keep on supporting live stand up comedy!
Daryl
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