The Struggle Within - To write "cerebral" humor or not.

Last night I stopped by a local bar to listen in on the ending of a comedy open mic.  One of the comics was on stage doing her bit and was getting the laughs when she tried some "cerebral" humor.  Short story made shorter, no one "got" the joke....to include me.  On the plus side, I was inspired to go do some research until I did get the joke. 

I appreciate humor that goes beyond what I call "Jingle the Keys"(JTK) humor.  To me, JTK humor is the equivalent of jingling keys in front of an infant.  They might laugh, but there's nothing really funny about it...it's just amusing.

So the question is, does a "cerebral" comic need to "dumb-down" their material to meet the needs of the audience, or, should they stick to what feels right inside? 

Here's an example.

Why 24 yrld "girls" should not have B-Day parties at Open Mics

Because, you won't STFU!  Seriously, we all know that you're 24 because you're wearing a retarded cardboard "24" crown atop your freshly glittered head.  But, when you're sitting in the back and the comic is still making comments about drunk bitches not "shutting-the-fuck-up" and you don't get it because you can't hear him...you're being an asshole, bad girl, you're a very bad little girl!
On the other hand I do hope you're in the crowd on Wed night. 
We can talk about it during my 5-minutes that I've been trying to practice and memorize for the last week or so, hoping against most odds that someone will find something I say funny only to have you come and fuck it up!  I love the fact that we perform in a tiny bar that has comic-minded owners, that now has a wireless mic."
Talk excessively or loudly during my 5-minutes....please.

"Do you have any idea what it's like to be on stage? It's really, really nerve racking.  It's kinda like what's going on right now, where everyone is paying attention to the person with the mic.  But, when you talk loudly during my 5-minutes, then obviously we're competing for this time.  So instead of doing that, I figure we can share it.  I'm a nice guy.  So you wanted attention, feel the eyes on you...hear the silence, creepy right?  See this is what's it's like for the comic, except the thing that helps us is that we know that the audience wants to try to find something funny.  But, this has got to be rather rough on you, knowing that people are staring at you right now, just hoping, hoping against all hope that after this embarrassing event, you'll be quiet for the rest of the night.  See, I've literally spent hours and hours practicing making cat-throwing up sounds and stupid dance moves to try and amuse you, only to find that you're here to amuse yourself. 
When I want to jack-off, I stay home, I suggest you do the same. Please do not talk any more."

Perhaps I'm just naive on how that will work.

First Post

Hey all, this is my first post on my comedy blog so I'm going to keep it short.
I'm taking a stand-up comedy class with Truckee Meadows Community College while I'm waiting for summer break to be over at UNR.
I'm heading down to 3rd St Bar (Reno, NV) to watch some live comedy and to support my classmate O.C. Gillham!

You can check it out at http://renostandup.com/index.php/live begining at about 10pm PST.

Don't forget to subscribe!

Don't forget you can watch and subscribe to my vids on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/user/LaBToday