Lessons from George Lopez by Dina Kucera

Lessons from George Lopez by Dina Kucera
It was a Saturday night in Tucson and I was opening for George Lopez. All his shows for that week were sold out except for Saturday night late show. It was rainy and crappy out so the turn out was small, real small. Like 30 people.
I was standing in the back of the room and sort of shaking my head knowing this was actually going to be work as opposed to the sold out shows where you could do almost nothing and the audience would love you anyway. George walked up and stood next to me. I made some sort of comment like, "this is going to suck."
He said, "Why?"
I said, "It's such a small audience."
He pulled me into the hallway and said, "Listen. These people are here. They came out. They probably worked all week and this is the few hours they can relax and have a good time. Don't be unprofessional and go up and make comments about how small the audience is and make them feel stupid for coming out. You go up there and do your thing with the same energy and give it the same effort and focus you would if the room were full. Don't do less and rip off the people that actually came out in the rain to see us." (Like they were there to see me, but I got the point.)
So I go up and I tried. I didn't fold up and say the joke like it didn't matter. I did the thing. It felt good. Then George goes up. I watched. His timing, his movement, everything was right on the money. He did his entire act and went over his time with an excitement and energy that he would if the was playing to thousands of people. It was freaking amazing to watch. He got a standing ovation from 30 people.
This is one of the biggest lessons I've ever learned in comedy.
A couple of years later I was booked at this horrible casino in Vegas. Night after night there where four people in the audience. (Because I'm a draw.) And every night before I went up I remember what George Lopez taught me. And I did the thing. Four people or 100 people. Focus. Do your job. These four people are the ones that came out. Don't screw them, George Lopez taught me that. There was another comic that taught me how to smoke pot out of an orange. But that wasn't as helpful in terms of stand up comedy.
-Dina Kucera


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