Entry One Hundred Twenty-Five.
Friday, 2010.06.25, 8:57 AM CST.
I'll be hosting Gypsy's open mic night for a while.
Current Mood:  Cautiously excited.  Current scent:  Faint lingering traces of Visit by Azzaro..

It's a Friday morning, and things are going pretty well.  My son X isn't awake yet (thank God) and I'm currently undergoing a bit of intestinal wackiness, which I think can be attributed to an abnormally large amount of pizza that I consumed last night.

Overall, though, life's not going too badly.  My dad appears to be recovering fairly well from his girlfriend's death, my job and health are going well, and even though X appears to be getting a bit brattier, he intersperses his brattiness with occasional helpings of cuteness, so he's at least tolerable.

It's time for a bit of a change.  I have been planning on a couple of really major announcements for a while now, but I had been waiting to make sure that all the arrangements had been properly made before actually posting anything.

The time has come for the first of the two big announcements:  I am going to take over as the host of the Gypsy Coffee House open mic night, for all four Tuesdays in July.

Now, some of you may be thinking that this is an unexpected move, considering the two issues I had with the open mic night the last time I was doing regular performances there.  Well, those issues have since been resolved, and both in good ways.

I feel "cleared" to return to the open mic.

I've talked things over with my wife, and she supports my return as well.  She has things that she needs to do on certain weekday evenings, and I rarely go out without her and/or my son, so this will be a nice chunk of "me time" for a few weeks.

However, I'll also admit that this is going to be risky.  I have not attended one of their open mic nights in months.  I have only a vague idea of the type of crowd that attends the open mic nights these days... and they will only have a vague (if any) idea of who I am.  Since I've signed up to host for four weeks, even if the first week goes down in flames, I'm still committed to hosting this thing for three additional weeks.

So, wish me luck.  :)

It's hard to believe that the first time I ever performed one of my writings at the Gypsy open mic night (or any open mic night, for that matter) was seven years ago.  Seven years.  That's crazy!

Back then, things seemed so different.  The culture at the Gypsy was a lot different.  On a given open mic night, at least half of the people in the room knew each other.  The place seemed to have an odd little "Gypsy society" of its own, composed of countless regulars who came week after week and knew each other well.  The legendary Captain Chambers would usually host, and he was a great host, very irreverant and open to just about any weird stuff that people wanted to do.  People could - and would - throw comments out of the crowd at the performers, from "We love you!" to "Show us your boobs!"  (For the record, the women were almost always the ones yelling that out to the men.)

A lot of the performers knew each other, looked forward to each other's work, and really cared about each other as people.  We had a similar relationship with the audience, because so many of us were just friends.  We weren't there to try to get a record deal or more club gigs.  We were there because it was just fun.  Was it perfect?  Oh, no.  Not at all.  But it also wasn't predictable (some elements were, but the nights in general weren't).  Back then, open mic was just... awesome.

I want things to be like that again.  I know that the crowd is different, but I would love for the feeling of the 2003-2005 span of the open mic night to return.  That's one of my goals as far as this whole thing is concerned:  I want that feeling injected back into the Gypsy open mic night.  The last few times I attended the open mic nights, there were a number of great performers and there were some great audience members, but that unusual kind of "synergy" between the crowd members and the performers just wasn't like it used to be.

That "synergy" is what I'd like to help bring back to the open mic.  I just want to bring back a little of that synergy and that bizarre awesomeness from the old days.  Since I'm not sure how many people there will still remember what it used to feel like, I'm undertaking these four weeks as a bit of a challenge to myself.   Like the old saying goes, "If you want something done right, do it yourself."

The image way up at the upper right is a significantly-shrunken image of the poster design that I'm using at the Gypsy to promote my return.  Incidentally, in case you're wondering, the fine print towards the bottom of the poster (just above the web address) reads as follows:

Open Mic Night starts at 8:00.  Signup starts around 7:30.  WARNING:   Adult content and foul language.  Some of this stuff is not for kiddies.  Oh, yeah... ALL ORIGINAL MATERIAL.  That means "Only perform stuff that you wrote."  Cover songs are NOT ALLOWED.  Don't try and fool us, either.  You won't get away with it, and we'll all viciously laugh at you behind your back.

If this four-week span goes well, I'm not ruling out coming back to the open mic as a performer on a regular basis.  I also reserve the right to do a bit of hosting now and then after July is over.

(For that matter, I reserve the right to bow out of any of these four weeks if there is something drastic that needs to be addressed, like a family emergency... but that's kind of obvious.)

So, if you're up for a good time, I recommend showing up.  I'm planning on performing some of my classic writings as well, and I definitely have a surprise or two up my sleeve.  This is going to be a beautifully raw series of weeks at the Gypsy, with me, committed to host, live without a net.

Things might be tremendously successful, or it may end up a complete and absolute train wreck.  Either way, if you're a newcomer to the Gypsy open mic, or an old-schooler who went away for one reason or another... you'll hopefully find it enjoyable.

I'm really looking forward to this.  Now, if you'll excuse me...  I need to go pick out a tie.

Badger

Gypsy Coffee House Open Mic Night
303 N. Cincinnati (behind Spaghetti Warehouse), Tulsa
Every Tuesday evening, starting at 8:00 PM
No charge to enter, but please buy something (food/beverage).
SHOW UP EARLY FOR BETTER PARKING/SEATING