Well this was my second Gala at Just for Laughs and by FAR the best of the two. Actually, I really hated my first one. It was just one of those sets where you walk off stage and think, “well shit, I blew it”. Never a good feeling. Of course you never say that when people ask you how it went immediately after. You just nod and say, “Yeah, it was great.” Which sucks! And then of course, worse than that is when the people who saw the set, and know you, come up and say how “good” your set was. But you know and they know it wasn’t your best performance and it’s that unspoken recognition that eats at your soul for days afterwards – and then years later, when dickheads write comments on the YouTube posted set like, “this fucking blows!!” you get to experience it all over again. Ah YouTube, you never cease to cut to the quick.

But this time around, five years later, I was much more comfortable on stage. I went first in the lineup, which kinda blows but I actually called before hand. I just had a feeling. It was a pretty stacked lineup and for whatever reason I seem to have a face that says “I like taking one for the team!” It’s not the best spot in the show but as it turned out, it didn’t matter. They were buying what I was selling right off the bat.

My biggest decision, which I mulled over right up till about a minute before I went out, was what joke to open with. I had my set list all worked out I just wasn’t sure of the order. The problem was I wasn’t sure what the crowd was going to be like. When I did the 7pm Friday show five years ago it was a really old crowd that seemed kinda conservative. So this time around (same day, same time) I was going to open with some new material about being engaged. It’s clever (I think) and a solid opener but it’s a little more generic than my other options so I thought if it was going to be a tight crowd it might be the best way to go.

And then the show started and that plan got shot out the window. This was a “pot” crowd. Stoners through and through. There to see their heros, Cheech & Chong. They were a great audience from the start and I could tell from the reaction they were giving to the darker material Cheech & Chong were doing that they were going to be up for pretty much whatever. So I opened with my Job Interview bit, the first joke of which goes:

“Job interviews are the worst of all interviews. I’d rather get interviewed by the host of To Catch a Predator, inside a 12 year olds house, while carrying a giant bag of condoms than go through a job interview. Why a bag of condoms you ask? Cause I’m already dressed like Santa Claus, the point is…”

Not crazy dark or anything, but a risky joke to open a gala show with. But again, they were up for it and I pretty much just crushed from there.

I was really happy with the Gala and have been on cloud nine (a phrase that needs updating) since then. I feel like a fighter who avenged a major loss and can finally put to bed the set I did five years ago. After the show I shook Cheech’s hand and he actually smiled and said, “Jesus, Jim, you’re a funny dude!” Which considering the amount of drugs that has gone through his system is actually quite a compliment. The fact he got the first letter of my name right, and then even the subsequent number of them, says a lot about what he thought of my set.

The other highlight of the night was watching Bill Burr do his set. This guy is a genius. There’s just no one funnier than him on the planet. He started off by disagreeing with the idea that there’s “no reason to ever hit a woman” and as you can imagine the audience didn’t know what to think and were kinda quiet right off the top. But that’s his style. He digs a hole and then jumps out of it like a goddamn dolphin, leaving the audience clapping and jumping up and down like a bunch of kids eating ice cream next to the giant water tank at Sea World.

It’s painful watching him to standup. Because you just stand there thinking “Why didn’t I think of that! How is he so good? What is it that his brain does that mine doesn’t!!” And it’ll drive you crazy if you let it. But the bottom line is, the guy is a machine. Everything he says, often no more than throwaway lines, are so viciously funny and carefully crafted that you feel like you got hit in the brain with a tire iron.

This is the bar for comedy and it’s a high one. But I do feel it’s reachable. It’s just gonna take a lot of time and a LOT more writing than I’m doing now. To be honest, that’s probably the best part of coming to a festival like this for me. I don’t drink or do drugs so the after parties can go shit in a hat. I’m not a big schmoozer either, which is why I have a manager. For me, it’s about watching the best comics in the world up close and then asking myself if I’m working hard enough. A couple of years ago at the Halifax Comedy festival I didn’t like my answer. I didn’t feel like a comic or that I even belonged with the rest of them. Since then I’ve worked harder and this year, at Just for Laughs, the answer was somewhat better. But it’s still not enough. It sometimes feels like it’s never enough. Like you’ll never “figure it out” or reach that full potential level you constantly feel is just around the corner. I’m just hoping that one day you’ll look up while you’re on stage and you’re suddenly doing to a crowd of 2000 people what Bill Burr did the other night. I’m hoping that day comes sooner than later.

But hey, there aren’t any shortcuts in comedy.