Can you and should you avoid bombing?

To bomb or not to bomb?

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What is bombing?

There’s no way to sugar-coat it, bombing feels like crap. It’s a rejection of your whole being by a whole roomful of people, it’s the feeling of being dumped by everyone in the room. But the good news is - you get used to it! Yeah you get used to ritual humiliation - ain’t comedy the bees knees?

It can feel deeply unpleasant, especially if it’s a tried and tested set, because essentially the audience are rejecting you. It feels just like all those kids that wouldn’t let them sit with you at lunch - right guys?

Bombing gets easier

As you get more experienced, bombing doesn’t hurt as much. It still doesn’t feel great, but you learn not to take it so personally. You’re a person doing a performance, and that performance wasn’t so hot tonight. As someone with low self esteem though, I can’t help the sinking feeling that tonight I let all the grotesqueness in my soul bubbled to the surface, ad the audience saw my true soggy self. lols!

Bombing is relative

Bombing can also just be the feeling the audience response was way below your high expectations. I’ve often slouched into the green room and declared how I bombed so badly, even when I know it wasn’t that bad. It’s a cringey compulsion I have to beat people the insult, which reads as fishing for compliments - and I hate compliments!

Bombing doesn’t necessarily mean total silence. Feeling like you bombed can hurt just as much as actual bombing. It’s good to have high expectations as long as you don’t let it ruin your whole week. Too many comedians are satisfied with chuckles, you should aim for roaring laughter.

Bombing is always your fault

It causes me no pleasure to deliver this news. Yes, some audiences are total trash, but if you feel like a kick-ass professional comedian could have won them over, then there’s a way you could have as well. Instead of blaming the audience, think about what you could do better next time. Think about it all night, forever.

How can I avoid bombing?

Some peoples fear of bombing mixed is so great, that once they develop a strong(ish) club set they almost never try out new material, even at open mics. I assure you you don’t want to be that person. That is a wretched existence for a comedian, you can easily spot these comedians on the circuit by their dead eyes. That’s like being a chef that only cooks the one dish he’s good at. Ha imagine if I *only* made fish-finger sandwiches. The *only* way to improve is to keep writing and to keep trying out new material as often as you can.

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