The Cool Kids

I’ve come to the conclusion that there will always be the cool kids in life. I’m not talking about the annoying preppy assholes, I mean the people that you actually like and admire. Maybe they’re the fun coworkers at your job, or the athletic people at your gym, or the most creative mom in your mommy group. Whatever it is, it’s all completely relative.

The cool kids I happen to be speaking of are the ones that rule the Chicago comedy scene. They’re the hip girls and guys who have been in the scene for years and years. They book gigs all over the city and travel all across the country to do shows. They’re on Chelsea Lately and Conan. They’re people that I might have passed on the street a year ago and couldn’t have cared less about. They might have served me dinner at a restaurant and I thought oh, he was a funny server and that was that. But now that I do comedy and I know who they are, I think they’re cool. And I want them to like me. Even more so, I want to be one of them. Is that weird? Probably. But I don’t care, they’re cool to me.

Tuesday nights I go to an open mic at Four Treys. It’s one of my favorites because it’s hosted by the Jeffs and I happen to like both Jeffs. Toward the end of the night the cool kids start to show up. They hang out by the bar and don’t bother listening to newbies like myself tell jokes. Us new kids pack the front near the stage while the cool ones hang out in the back. They all know each other because they’ve been doing this for at least five or six years. Some for even more. And I know who they are only because I’ve turned into a bit of a Chicago comedy junkie/loser. I’ve watched a lot of their videos online. I follow them on Twitter. And I love watching them tell jokes. Because they’re good, they’re really good.

But they don’t know me. When it’s my turn to go on stage they don’t stop talking. They take shots with each other and continue their conversations. They don’t even turn to look at me and to be honest that’s okay with me. They have no reason to know me. I’m new and they’re established. There doesn’t seem to be much in between in comedy.

When I get in my cab to head home the cool kids are hanging outside smoking cigarettes. I look at them and I wonder who the cool kids are in their eyes. We’ve all got them, some of us just don’t write blogs about them… Man, I’m a loser.