'Worth' Your Time

For some comics, the toughest house to please can sometimes be, well, a house.

Luckily for comedian Michael Worthington, he can handle just about any stand-up gig thrown at him, from a large college crowd to an 80th birthday party.

“One time, I performed in somebody’s kitchen while all the people were standing in the dining room and living room,” Worthington said. “Talk about really needing to have confidence in your ability.”

As Worthington explained, when comics play to audiences like that, they are usually playing to a group of family members or friends who tend to know each other decently well.

“If one of them doesn’t think you’re funny, you’re going to have a tough night,” he said.

Fortunately, though, Worthington, who headlines this weekend at Scotty’s, has made a career out of delivering material that is constantly changing and universal to just about any audience.

Reticent to isolate his comedic style to a specific category, Worthington said his set is a “mixture of everything” from observations to one-off jokes, with very little vulgarity and nothing dumbed down.

“A lot of it is personal, though, based on my personal experiences,” he said. “My material changes quite a bit because life is dynamic, and things are always happening.”

As somebody who changes his material so frequently and, as he said, gets bored of constantly doing the same jokes, finding time to write new jokes becomes a key priority.

With a full-time day job on top of his full-time comedy gig, Worthington squeezes in time to write material whenever he can.

“Thank God I’m a night owl,” he said. “I stay up pretty late writing material.”

Sometime he’ll even jot down a joke at work or write up the premise in an e-mail or on his Blackberry and finish the joke later.

However, he said he rarely fleshes his material out completely before trying it out on stage, opting instead to let the joke grow organically while he is performing it.

“That way it doesn’t seem so rehearsed where you see the punch line coming from a mile away,” Worthington said.

And, as a comic who gets booked for a lot of private parties and doesn’t know much about his audience before walking in the door, Worthington said he knows he has to be quick on his feet.

A lot of that comes from a combination of 21 years of stand-up experience, starting right out of college at clubs in Indianapolis and now honing his skills in New York and New Jersey, and a level of enjoyment that comes from interacting with the audience.

Over the years, he said he has become adept at and comfortable with instantly reacting to anything that’s happening in the audience, from a sudden crash to a heckler or loud audience member.

“If you want to start yelling stuff out, go right ahead,” Worthington said. “I will handle that.”

Worthington will perform at 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday at the Comedy Cove at Scotty's Steak House. His set will be preceded by comedians Michael Young Cho and Doug Adler. Tickets are $12. Visit the club's website for more information.