Great time last night at the inaugural event of Marga’s Funny Mondays at The Marsh, Berkeley. If there’s one thing that’s been running through my head since my set last night, it’s something that Miles K mentioned to me in passing a couple of months ago. He told me that one of the toughest/worst sets he’d ever done was in Berkeley. At the time, I didn’t think much of it. After all, I lived in Berkeley (albeit a decade ago), but the point is this, people. I thought I knew what I was walking into.

In reality, you can never tell, and last night was a sobering and educational experience. I definitely had the toughest (and quite possibly the worst) set of my comedy career, thus far. Was the audience incredibly PC? Yes. Were some of my jokes out of touch? Possibly. Did I alienate them completely in the third joke by making the wrong decision and not jumping ship before the punchline when the handful of groans that came during the premise indicated that I should most definitely do so!? Absolutely.

This situation is a great example of my current state of frustration as a writer. I am ever so slowly getting to a point where I can write more widely accessible material, but it always feels just out of reach. At the same time, ever since I was a kid my mind has always gone to unacceptable places, and I’ve pushed the envelope into dangerous territory. I was once sent home with a report card in elementary school that simply read “Unsatisfactory. Ilana is too street smart! She also crushes crayons under her chair on purpose.” Perhaps writing funny material about the mundane is more difficult than it seems. Perhaps this is just who I am. Hopefully, I’ll get there and find a comfortable middle ground as my writing continues to progress.

So, Berkeley was not ready for this jelly, and I was clearly not ready for Berkeley. I really hadn’t had a bad set in about two and half months, and these are always a welcome experience to learn from. On the upside, I held my ground and stayed true to my material, made fun of my differences with the audience, and I left the stage on a solid laugh. The end.