I have been hosting an open mic comedy night the last 6 weeks. Part of the deal is that I bring my own microphone and stand. As the host I am paid $50 per event minus any drinks consumed. Usually that brings my take home pay to $35. More of a hobby than a real job but it's still nice to get paid something for the effort.
The mic goes from 6pm till 2am. Other comics are baffled that I am interested in hosting it at all. For only $50. I view it as a was to gain more exposure and work on my ability to write one liners.
Last week I had a new comic take the stage for the first time. He had a suit case full of musical parts. He said he would be playing a comedic version of the clarinet. Since this was an open mic, I told him to proceed.
He needed to lower the mic so it would pick up the music. Instead he snapped my microphone stand in half. Whoops. You would think a musician would know how to operate a microphone stand. Maybe that was part of the joke. I was certainly not laughing.
I was a bit pissed off because now the remaining comics would have to set the microphone on a stool. This increased the chances of it falling on the pavement and being damaged too. The offending "comic" said he was sorry he broke the stand and then ran off into the night.
I had spend $50 to purchase this mic stand at guitar center. I wasn't looking forward to buying another.
As I picked up the broken pieces my mind began to wander. Maybe it would be better to get a long 2x4 and attach the mic to that for these animals. Unfortunately, that would be a pain to lug around in my tiny car.
Then I considered good old duck tape. The problem there is that the stand would then only be semi functional. Every performer is a different height so I need the stand to remain adjustable.
When I arrived home I took another look at the broken pieces. I realized that the adjustable arm and the telescoping arm were exactly the same part. I decided that I could dismantle the stand, switch the broken arm for the other arm and then remove a few excess parts. Then the telescoping function would still work.
After about an hour of tinkering I reassembled my new and improved microphone stand. Lighter, simpler and at no additional financial cost. It has all the functions I need for open mic comedy. Now if the participants would just write some jokes we could have a great show.
I am very proud of my Microphone stand innovation. So proud that I created a meme to commemorate the event. It feels good to figure things out. Saving money is also a nice bonus. I'll test it out at the open mic this week and we'll see what happens. If it breaks again I'll try something else. Either way it was a fun project.
