Stand-up Comedy the drug.

This last week I've done gigs in a (ex) Convent (and that on a Sunday morning) , in a ex pat club in Budapest and yesterday in the old mine district of Beringen (Belgium) in a Theatre, tonight I take my show to a Cultural Centre on the edge of Brussels, Halle.
Stand-up Comedy at home everywhere there is a stage a microphone and an audience that are willing to open their minds and listen.
Personally I prefer the intimate clubs and places where the audience almost sits on stage with you.
People who just watch Stand-up on TV seem to think it's all about the Michael McIntyres of this world in huge arenas or Theatres, if that's your thing ,do it, but real -gutsy, rock n roll stand-up will always be the small venues, with affordable tickets and exciting new talent.
In huge arenas you get a certain percentage of the audience who are there because it's a huge 'event' and some of them are not stand-up comedy 'regulars' - this week the hype is a comedian next week 'the dog whisperer'.
If you want to get down and dirty and see what stand-up is and what it should be you have to venture out to the places that don't get all the PR and the management induced hysteria.
For 4 years now we've(my wife, daughter and me) been running a monthly stand-up comedy club in Antwerp, an original stand-up comedy basement style, with (top) club comedians from the UK, USA ,Canada and from other parts of Europe.
Stand-up Antwerp has become almost a part of the London club scene, every week we receive mails from comedians in the UK who want to come and perform. It's a small club (under a bookstore) and has the look and the 'vibe' of the comedy clubs of the UK and US where legends were born. Each month the 100 seats are sold out in advance,we could move to a larger venue ,but then it would become more about the money and the 'prestige' than the grass roots stand-up comedy we try to preserve.
As in every performance art form there is always the pull of the 'big' and the 'money' as opposed to the heart and guts of the art form.
Television (and more and more you tube etc) feed the masses the celebs and the artists that 'should be watched' and held high, only people who are really interested in the art form itself go and seek the new talent, the names that don't appear on (almost) every TV programme.
So do yourself a favour, if you are a 'comedy lover' go watch stand-up in a small club or bar, go where the vibe is real and not commercial thought control. Treat yourself to something new, open your mind and 'get real'.
See ya!