"Would you go to a comedy club where the stand up acts all read their jokes or anecdotes from a sheet of paper?"

Dunno about comedy clubs, never set foot in any of those, but I see a great many poets in folk, and other, clubs, and i have yet to see one recite his/her poetry from memory - they all have notebooks, tablets, or smartphones from which they read their stuff, usually with little or no feeling whatsoever.