DouG Stands Up

Wow, DouG actually left the house....grab the camcorder!

 People that know me very well really don't immediately associate me as someone that would be an ideal public speaker.  For the most part, if there are more than 1 or 2 people in a room, DouG isn't going to say a word!  I have always been a big fan of stand-up comedy, so it has always been a dream of mine to at least try it at one point in my life.  Last year, I was given the opportunity to make that a reality. 

A local church was doing a 'comedy night' as a fundraiser, and I was asked if I would like to participate.  My initial instinct, based on my extremely shy nature, was to say 'NO WAY', I really didn't think that I would be able to pull it off.  It's hard for some people to understand my level of shyness, so I will try to explain.  Imagine how you feel when you are in an interview for employment.  You are nervous, your palms may be a bit sweaty, your heart is racing, you are shaking,  and you are mentally overanalyzing every aspect of your being, from the words that come out of your mouth, to how your body language might be interpreted.  That's pretty much how I feel 98% of the time.   Take that, and incorporate public speaking, and that makes for a very nerve-racking DouG.

I marinated on the thought for a little while, and realized if I didn't at least try, I would regret it the rest of my life, so I went for it.  In hindsight, I am very glad I did, it was so much fun.  I know that everyone in that room had some kinds if issues stirring through their heads (we all do), but for that short little ten minutes of their lives, they could just take a break from all of that and just laugh.  It may be one of the most synthetic and temporary ways of making people 'happy', but it was still such a great experience.

For anyone that is interested, I am going to share a few clips from the night.  They are very low quality as to make them 56k friendly, but you will get the idea.  They are in DivX format, so if they don't work, you will need to download the codec from www.DivX.com

This is a little intro clip: CLIP 1

My mic messed up in this one, so I made the best of it: CLIP 2

This one clip is in addition to my thoughts on back medicine:  CLIP 3

I have another stand-up performance planned in May, which I am very excited about (and nervous).  Some of the jokes that I have written will make good additions to my site, so I will update those after the performance (I don't want to spoil the show for anyone that might be going....*cough*no one reading this*cough*).