Am I Getting Spoiled?

October 1st, 2009


In a matter of eight days, I have exited the stage angry. Angry to the point, I was cursing certain members of the audience under my breath. Last week at Kino, my set was interrupted by an idiot who was showing off for his friends and it completely took away the focus from the stage. Last night at the Great Bear Pub, some guy shouted out a part of the joke that I was doing and I pretty much told him to fuck off. In both instance, I still believe the individuals are guilty of being bad audience members. However, in both cases, I had to talk myself down from doing something stupid like confronting them after the show. Yeah! That stupid!

Lately, I have had a great run of luck in regards to getting booked at Laffs and Yuks on a fairly regular basis. And not only am I being booked in these prime spots, I am getting great responses from the audience each time I’m up. It was on one of these nights which garnered me a spot on this year’s Comedyfest. Is the anger that I’ve displayed this past week one of first signs of entitlement? Am I starting to get the attitude that “I’m Dennis FUCKING Litonjua and they’re going to love me?” Am I starting to become a prick?

Before the Comedyfest, I was in the midst of trying to take a short break from comedy because I was exhausted. To be honest, I’m still in that head space where I need a break just to get my wits about me because life is going so fast for me at the moment. I am big believer in taking one step back before taking two steps forward. I think my lack of energy and the amount of stress is part of the reason why I’ve been getting angry lately. So, some time off will help me get better control of my emotions.

Another thing that I’m sure will keep me humble is going out to the non-club shows and working on other material. In the last couple weeks, I have organized the material that I want to revise and edit into four subjects – Work, Driving, Youth and Religion. Granted, they’re not ALL ENTIRELY NEW, but they have newer elements and are in the process of heavy revisions. That said, the first two, Work and Driving, are both coming along nicely. Unfortunately, the other two are proving to be a little more difficult. I believe getting back to the basics of developing material into a polished bit will be the ball busting experience that I am looking for to keep me from becoming a prick.



Dennis L.