The comedy of dating

We all have funny dating stories about our forays into the unpredictable world of dating. Often these are tales of dates gone bad.

What if you had to tell about your dating adventures with the criteria of making them positive and funny!

I gave myself that challenge a few weeks ago when I offered to be the opener for an evening of humor at a private fund raising event. I raised my hand when the organizer announced the event and said if anyone had a few minutes of funny stuff to let him know.

I’ve been wanting to perform at a local comedy club open mic, but the prospect of performing humor in front of strangers was a tad daunting. However, I knew I had some funny pieces so thought I could string together 7 or 8 minutes of funny dating stories. But we know that what we or our friends may laugh at or say is “killer” does not always translate into guffaws from strangers.

Working hard to pull out my best vignettes and funny lines, I crafted my piece. A former stand-up performer helped me with the beginning. A musical director friend helped me ditch parts that were flat.

I invested hours reworking the flow over and over until it seemed to stream well. That isn’t really too much of a concern in comedy as most sets appear to be stream of consciousness.

Limiting the stories to only positive or self-deprecating pieces made the task harder. My focus is to inspire and encourage midlife daters to explore other singles, not to think “all the good ones are taken.”

Rewriting, crafting and rehearsing the piece made me comfortable. Even still, I made crib notes in case I forgot what came next. I even reworked the ending hours before performance time.

Saturday was the event. The preparation paid off, as the audience not only laughed at all the expected places, but some unexpected ones. Now I have the confidence to try it at an open mic in front of — gulp — total strangers!

Who knows, maybe I’ll get a date out of it!
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Want to see how you can have courage reentering the dating scene? Get your copy of Dipping Your Toe in the Dating Pool: Dive In Without Belly Flopping.