Surprised by an Open Mic

An Interesting SMS
I wasn't planning on doing anything that night. While sitting in the kitchen doing nothing in particular I received a text message, "Open Mic tonight. Want to go?" The message was from Stephen, a friend of mine from the United Kingdom. I responded with a request for details. I killed time surfing the web, and thinking of ways to stay calm. This would be my first solo performance since comming to Poland in May of 2009. I hadn't been doing anything like Open Mic nights for over 18 months, so I was quite rusty.

It's My Time
The host of the evening a bearded man holding a wireless microphone and standing in front of a large LCD screen introduces me, "Rich Greenfield." I fumble up to the stage and grab the mic. I was excited about the peformance not only because it was my first in a long time, but also because I could try and see how I would do performing in Polish. I decided earlier in the evening that I would use a bi-lingual blended method for getting my ideas across to the audience. The people at the show where these hipster-artist types, and probably all lived in lofts. When I spotted their funny hats, and sharp colored outfits, I knew that English would have to be used to wooh them, and Polish to put them into their place. After 10 minutes of rambling and improvisation I was finished.

Post mortem
All in all, I think it was a performance that would of been better had I been really warmed-up. When I would do shows at Thai Joes in Milwaukee I would have a good amount of time (and quiet) to get into "my zone." However, at this cafe I didn't have a place to hide. It was raining outside and I had been fighting a cold for a few days and didn't want it to get worse. I had no place to hide inside as the place was packed. So I just kind of burned myself out talking to people and getting distracted. My main issue was my lack of focus, and a distinct cohesiveness or plot in my performance. In the future I must force myself to warm-up before going on stage, and most importantly to refrain from idle chit-chat prior to performing, as it tends to melt everything in my mind together into a glob of nonsense, rather than a well-formulated tale.