Ryan McMahon at the 2010 CBC Winnipeg Comedy Festival
Last night I performed at the 2010 CBC WINNIPEG COMEDY FESTIVAL and I had a blast. This is my first major comedy festival as a standup comic (I’ve performed in numerous Improv and Sketch comedy fests) and I’ll admit that yesterday morning was a rough morning for me. The CBC WINNIPEG COMEDY FESTIVAL is one of Canada’s premiere comedy festivals. Every comedian I know wants a shot to play at the festival because of the crowds, the camera’s and the general awesomeness of Winnipeg and the amazing crew of people that host the festival every year. I’ve heard it said that it’s “a performers festival,” which simply put, your treated well, the crowds are amazing and the shows are top notch for the comics.
But yesterday, something happened. Suddenly, every joke I’d ever written didn’t seem funny. I got in my own head and that “negative voice” started working overtime. I was thinking to myself, “Do I do Native material? If I do, what if they hate it. You’ve only got six minutes, and if they hate it, how do you get them back with such little time. Dad material, do dad material. No, you’re a hack if you do dad material. Do you’re angrier ranty stuff. Ya, do the angry stuff. But, what if they hate the angry stuff because alot of it is too dark. If you go dark in your jokes what will the bookers, and CBC festival folks think……” This went on for a few hours. I started getting grumpy. I hit the breaking point though. I said, “Fuck it.” I threw my book in my office and took my youngest daughter to the park and did anything and everything to forget about the show.
I don’t know why I was so stressed out. It wasn’t that I was unsure of the jokes, or of my abilities, just, that, I think I put too much pressure on myself to put together the “perfect set.” Once I let that go and decided to just go up there with nothing and do and say whatever came out – I felt great. I felt relieved. Looking back on it, worrying about it was such a waste of time. I do 90 minute shows all the time. It’s how I make a living. But for some reason – this 6 minutes just about killed me. I decided to throw my set lists, notebooks and comedy notes out the window and go up with nothing – just tell the jokes that come when I’m up there. The video of the show is below:
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3 Responses to “Ryan McMahon at the 2010 CBC Winnipeg Comedy Festival”
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[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Ryan McMahon and Ryan McMahon, gogreenwinnipeg.com. gogreenwinnipeg.com said: RT @rmcomedy: <NEW BLOG/VIDEO POST> here's the blog/vid from my show last night at the @wpgcomfest. http://bit.ly/b0h8N3 [...]
Great job, Ryan. Thanks for sharing that experience, both the performance and the lead-up to it. I can identify with the nerves — sometimes you just can’t get out of your own head. But hey, there are a lot of famous and highly respected performers who suffered chronically from stage fright, so having one day where you psyched yourself out isn’t so bad, is it? 
Sharon B says: Here i am again digging around on your blogs….lol just such a good read that i can not put you down…like a good book eh? Well I enjoyed reading this one too, you have really come a long ways from your early days of comedy but that ndn style swag was right there the whole time, your just a natural…and with time your just going to improve it, I can see it already with your latest video’s you have done…I know you will continue to amaze me in all kinds of ways….enough said.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Ryan McMahon and Ryan McMahon, gogreenwinnipeg.com. gogreenwinnipeg.com said: RT @rmcomedy: <NEW BLOG/VIDEO POST> here's the blog/vid from my show last night at the @wpgcomfest. http://bit.ly/b0h8N3 [...]
Great job, Ryan. Thanks for sharing that experience, both the performance and the lead-up to it. I can identify with the nerves — sometimes you just can’t get out of your own head. But hey, there are a lot of famous and highly respected performers who suffered chronically from stage fright, so having one day where you psyched yourself out isn’t so bad, is it?
Here i am again digging around on your blogs….lol just such a good read that i can not put you down…like a good book eh? Well I enjoyed reading this one too, you have really come a long ways from your early days of comedy but that ndn style swag was right there the whole time, your just a natural…and with time your just going to improve it, I can see it already with your latest video’s you have done…I know you will continue to amaze me in all kinds of ways….enough said.