An Open Letter to MY Comedy Brethren

Since I have begun my comedy career a little over 2 years ago, I have been afforded the opportunity to meet some of my favorite people in the world. The friendships I have fostered are things that I will cherish as we go through the shared experience of trying to make it big in our chosen profession. There is an issue among us that I feel like I need to address and I have chosen this forum to do so. I think it's a problem and I fully realize that some people might be upset with me, but I am willing to deal with that as I think it's for the greater good. I would count on my friends to tell me what they thought was the truth and I value their opinions as I would hope you value mine.

Last night, some of the best young comics in DC put on a show at the Wonderland Ballroom in Mt. Pleasant. It was the first show there and was not without glitches as first shows tend to be. There was a small group of people at the bar that insisted upon talking and it hurt the show. The show organizers asked them several times politely to keep it down, but to no avail. They continued to talk and the group became larger and the noise increased. A few of the comics handled this exceptionally well. Some of the others did not. After a couple of the comics yelled from the stage at these people, things got out of hand towards the end. Once things escalated, there was a solid chance of some violence breaking out.

I think there are several things that need to be said about this.

1) Of course it's annoying when people won't cooperate and keep it quiet, and yes it hurt the show. It didn't hurt Justin Schlegel or Doug Powell who had everyone that was listening howling with laughter. The point is, we were at a bar, not a comedy club, so the setup may not be ideal. This will happen sometimes and you've got to deal with it as best you can.

2) None of us on last night, not a single one, has any right to assume that people should show up to see us and be docile audience memebers. None of us have any kind of name recognition that merits the expectation that A) people will show up when we perform and B) people need to be respectful and attentive when they do. Every opportunity to perform in this area is a gift. When we start selling out the Improv, then we can torch people for being idiots. Until then, none of us is near big enough to have any kind of expectation whatsoever. This doesn't mean that we're not good, quite the contrary, we are good. It just means that we cannot allow our talent to dictate our expectations of strangers who have never heard us or seen us. Politely ask them to give us a chance, that's all we can do. If they don't want to hear my new 7, then they aren't going to.

3) Shouting insults and escalating things into a near brawl is very short-sighted. Again, the show was hurt last night by those folks. No doubt. But, after that show, Rory and Jon (the organizers) can go to the manager and say: 'hey, you saw we got a bunch of people to come out. You saw that we had a great product. You also saw that the show didn't really work because these people were talking. Can you get behind us on this? People will come back if we can put on a great product and you need to help us..." If they buy it, we can still have a show there. As it stands, we're never going back again. That room is gone. Is it that big a deal that a room failed? Not really. But, what if the manager or owner knows some other owners. He tells the story and all of a sudden, more doors are closed in our faces and we have less rooms to go to once words spread that comics harass patrons. Were those people there last night jackasses? Of course, but next time, we could have had some support from the place. We didn't on the first show but now we'll never know. Maybe they wouldn't have gotten behind us there and we would walk away in peace. As it stands, we shut the door on ourselves and may have closed others.

4) I can very easily imagine going to a bar with some friends and having people come tell us that we needed to be quiet. I can very easily see my friends and I objecting. I can also see us getting irritated when we are constantly being yelled at from a stage and in person. I can also easily see getting really pissed off when being called out and having someone approach us from the stage or from within the crowd yelling things at me about how 'if my mouth were bigger, he could fit his &*^#%^& in it'. Those people were not there for the same reason you were. How can we expect them to go along with what we wanted? They had a totally different agenda than we did. They were asked politely to cooperate several times. They were not going to do it without management stepping in so, our hands were tied. Hey, first show at a new place. Chalk it up to experience and see if we cannot have better crwod control next time. Was their behavior justified? Probably not, but I can certainly understand being preturbed and defensive if I felt under attack.

5) I don't quite know how to say this next part without sounding like a condescending pr*ck, so I'm just going to go with it. It seems that a lot of us comics have a very near-sighted and selfish world view. It seems that we are not able to think beyond our own expectations of all the things we should be getting and how someone else should be doing it for us. Last night, was like an interview; a trial run. And we totally blew it. We blew it so bad that we might not get interviews from a bunch of places as a result. I cannot believe that any of us thinks that we are entitled to anything. Jon, George Gordon, and Rory worked their butts of trying to get that room going, just as other people have worked really hard to get spots for us to perform. Ask yourself what have you done to get more places for you to perform. What have you done except to show up and do your time? Have you helped the community grow? I don't know that I have. I know Rory has, as has Seaton Smith, and others. I do know that there is no chance in h*ll I have any right to complain about stagetime, conditions of a room (jokes are fine), or what patrons are doing because I haven't done near enough to make my own breaks. I've capitalized on the hard work of others and expect them to continue to do their work. That makes me a spoiled selfish little kid who expects things to be a certain way so I can perform. It's sad and pathetic and it's inexcusable. The macho pissing contest that occured is best left to frat basements and motorcycle bars in Dundalk. We are all adults---some of us younger than others, but adults nonetheless. Last night, we looked like white trash teenagers looking to pick a fight. Embarrassing.

In many ways, the comedy world is very different from the real world. There are certain areas, though, where they are parrellel. Why would a bar owner want comedy? Is it because he's heard of Danny Rouhier and wants to help his career skyrocket? No chance. He wants business to come in on a slow night. Very rarely are you going to find a comedy supporter who owns a bar that will take a hit in the name of the careers of us struggling comics. As a result, its a difficult marriage between getting a show to work and a bar still making $$. That's why there aren't 1000 open mics around here. Rory started something when he tried to get us going, to get more places for us to perform, and he's right to do so. It's not easy to find a good place and shows get cancelled all the time. Every opportunity is precious and wasting an opportunity is ludicrous. Of course it's annoying when people talk. I was annoyed; the people I was sitting with were annoyed. But we as comics have got to see the big picture or we have completely missed the point of what Rory et al were trying to do to get us more places to perform.

If people are upset at me about this, I'm sorry. I really do see this as a tangible phenomenon that is correctable. I would love to talk to anyone individually about this further. I also realize this comes off as self-righteous and preachy. I don't know if there is much I can do about that given the content. We are all in this together and I think this is a very important point going forward. Thanks for reading.

Danny