When Erin Harkes made an audience laugh for the first time with one of her jokes — an off-the-cuff request for a clean microphone after the lewd, profane, blue comedy set performed before her open mic slot — she felt a rush of adrenaline she would spend the next decade chasing.
“My eyes were bugging, I was rubbing my legs, I couldn’t catch my breath — and I only did three minutes,” Harkes said. “My friend was like, ‘What’s going on with you right now?’ And I was like, ‘I want to do it again. I gotta go again.’ ”
While the singer-songwriter is a longtime fixture in the Capital Region’s music scene, Harkes is still working to improve her stride in the comedy world. Following the success of her debut comedy album, she’s gearing up for a new one and her first special, both to be filmed at her upcoming shows March 29 at Albany Funny Bone.
Comedy challenges Harkes more than music, which is why she wants to make it a larger part of her career. Ideally, she’d like a 50/50 split between music and comedy, but it’s a difficult dream when the “day job” that pays the bills — music — happens largely at night and on weekends when clubs are booking comedians. It’s why she’s started to produce her own comedy shows, so her paycheck depends more on how many tickets she sells, and she’s hoping to strategically book her music jobs over the summer to open up more weekends for comedy in the winter while maintaining financial security.
Erin Harkes comedy album and YouTube special filming
- Where: Albany Funny Bone, 1 Crossgates Mall Rd #K-206, Albany
- When: 6 p.m. (doors open at 5 p.m.) and 8 p.m. (doors open at 7:45 p.m.) Wednesday, March 29
- Tickets: $10 available online or by calling 518-313-7484; guests must be 21 or older
“When you’re self-employed, you always have this fear of just going…
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