dry spell

Last night we barely had the minimum crowd (20) for a show. I wasn't on the list, and am kind of glad. I'd have to check past blogs to make sure, but I'm kind of sure I haven't been on at the Bone in about a month. In any case, I worked on some new jokes (writing only, of course) and have plans to do at least 2 new minutes next time I am there. Unless I chicken out and only do one. That happens...

Watching friends (not the crappy show)

Yesterday afternoon Brett Clawson called me and informed me that there was not room for me to do a guest set in Columbia. He put me +3 on the guest list, though, so that I could come see the show. Leroy, myself, Kate Hesse and Sarah McCort went to the show; while standing in line, I saw Matt Istevan who basically runs the place, (don't know his exact title) and following my cardinal rule of never bugging the owner/booker/manager just smiled and made eye contact. He spoke first (point for me) and said he had not yet reviewed my promo tape. That was good news because didn't know whether it had gotten there or not. When we used to get promo at the College Agency, sometimes it would take a while for us to look at stuff; so I'm not worried if it takes a while for Matt to look at my tape. I have never seen all of Brett's act; just bits and pieces. I thought his set was awesome though he is pretty politically incorrect. The audience was about half and half, but Columbia's a pretty PC town so... Louis' set was good also, I didn't recognize a lot of his material, but I haven't seen him in years (on TV or in person). Louis and I met in Tulsa, OK during a NACA conference and I gave him a CD with 2 sets I had recorded. I was giving them out asking for advice from comics and agents. Anyway, Louis was the only person to actually contact me about my "tape". He called and left a messege on my dorm phone and told me that he liked my Phone Sex joke and gave me some other advice. Anyway, I got to talk to Louis for about 20 minutes or so after the show and he actually remembered the CD, which confirmed why he's one of my favorite comics. We BS'd for a bit about shows and booking and how they actually tape Comedy Central stand up and stuff and it was very cool. The rest of the night was pretty fun too, and I didn't get to bed until around 5. And now I'm blogging this at 10 am. I must be insane...

Good times at Hard Times

Last night was my show at Hard Times. To setup the events that went down, I have to give a little "back history". On Halloween, my brothers, Jason and Darin, and I went to a bard, Hard Times, in Montgomery City, MO (wherein my brother Jason lives). The owner found out that I was a comedian and wanted me to do a show. We hashed out some details and came up with me hiring some comedians/friends of mine and hosting a show. (END Back History) Harry originally printed up 75 or so tickets to sell at $10.00 (admission came with one free drink). The day of the show (yesterday) he had 3 left and printed 20 more to sell at the door.
1). By fire code regulations we were only allowed 75 people in the bar, we had about 100
2). We were turning people away at the door.
As for the show itself, myself and others agree it couldn't have gone better. The comedians and I far exceeded my brothers' and Harry's expectations. I opened the show with a couple casual announcements (cell phones, table talk etc) and before the crowd knew it, I was half way into my first joke. I've never felt so comfortable on stage, and to risk sounding conceited; I was on fire. Joe Lehnig came by to do a guest set and then Paul Harris got up with his guitar. He played 3 songs (one I had never heard) and told some jokes throughout. John Garrison followed and did some jokes I've never heard before, and then Dano Sullivan closed the show. All four of those guys absolutely killed. I was laughing harder and longer last night than I ever have, and I've heard almost all of the jokes they told before. Anyway, the show was awesome, but due to a hole in my pocket, I think I lost the 50 dollars that Ruth (Harry's wife) paid me. She insists she might not have given it to me and so she's giving my brother Jason fifty to get to me. She's definately getting a thank you card. Anyway, the bar was awesome, the crowd was beautiful and no one expected it to go as well as it did. Except me. I knew all along that Paul, John and Dano would do great. And adding Joe at the last moment didn't hurt at all. I was only really nervous about me since I had to go first; because of all the guys on stage last night, I figured I had the highest percent chance to bomb. I did however forget to record myself, which stinks because I had some extra tags and little changes that really helped my set. However, I have no real regrets and Harry wants to do a show again. Last night was the absolute penicle of my comedy career so far; I've never had so much fun, and I've never recieved so many compliments, both on my material/presentation and on how I set up and handled the show. I think I'm still glowing.

Adios.

Combining Americans' love of video games with Japan's love of selling-Americans-video-games...

Last night a bunch of my coworkers came to my show, which was very cool of them. Because I brought more people, Jim Stout let me do more time, which helps because I need practice for the show I have tonight. I dropped my newly revised air hockey/pokemon joke, which went over better than I expected; and I didn't have to use my cheat sheet. Jim actually lit me and I have about 4 more bits to do, so I think I could probably do a semi-solid 12 / 13 minute set. I'm going to try tonight. One thing that was weird was there was a lady in the front row video taping the show. To my knowledge she wasn't a comic nor was she with any of us performing; I don't know whether or not she taped my set, but I hope she didn't. There is only one REAL reason to tape an amateur show, and that's to lift material off of someone and use it as your own. I'm pretty sure she was doing that, either for herself or for someone else. In any case, L. Mello had to ask her to stop at least three times, which is absurd; you shouldn't have to ask someone that many times to be respectful. I wasn't the only one to run long last night; I think Mark Lacer did 7 to 10, I know Matt Wolff did 7 to 10 and Jim Stout did nearly 20, so by 10pm, we were really only half way through the list; though everyone after that only got 5 minutes. I was driving Paul Harris, so I had to take him back to the Central West End to get his dog, Lucky, then over to a friend's house to drop off Lucky and pick up a guitar for tonight. I got to bed at 11:59pm, but I was on time to work, so I guess that's what counts. I'll be in Columbia tomorrow so I'll probably have to blog from Columbia College about the show tonight. Also I'm trying to get a spot light at the Déjà Vu with Louis Ramey and Brett Clawson. If I do, I'll definitely blog that.

It happens when they change something

Last night I didn't get on stage, but I did talk to Brett Clawson; he's in Columbia, MO this weekend with Louis Ramey; who's one of my FAVORITE comedians ever!!! I met Louis in Tulsa years back when I had just started comedy, I gave him my "demo" which was just 2 poorly edited video files of me doing comedy. He actually called me over Christmas break and left a messege saying he liked my Phone Sex bit (which I still use today). Louis was one of the first professionals for be really nice to me and I'd seen him on Comedy Central before I met him, so it was like meeting someone famous. Anyways, I'm trying to get a spot light at the Vu in Columbia Saturday; it would be awesome to work with Louis again, especially in my old college town. I didn't get on, but I worked on a couple new bits, one involving Paul Harris' Girlfriend's roommate. Figure out the grammar there. Go on, figure it out. Tonight is the Forum and a bunch of people from work say they might be going. I'm relying on the old Rule of 10 (for every 10 people I invite / 10 people that say they'll show up) I'm happy if one shows up. I need practice for tomorrow, which is the show at Harry's. I'm super excited and I really hope I don't eat it since I'm going up first at Harry's.

In the Lafayette Hotel:
Neo: Whoa, deja vu.
Trinity: What did you just say?
Neo: Nothing, I just had a little deja vu.
Trinity: What did you see?
Cypher: What happened?
Neo: A black cat went past us, and then another that looked just like it.
Trinity: How much like it, was it the same cat?
Neo: Might have been, I'm not sure.
Morpheus: Switch, Apoc.
Neo: What is it?
Trinity: A deja vu is usually a glitch in the Matrix. It happens when they change something.

ROADTRIP!

Tuesday at the Funny Bone, I tried organizing a road trip out to Springfield IL for the competition they have once a month. It boiled down to Matt Wolff and I driving out in my car and Gabriel Kea, Nikki Glaser and Joe Lehnig driving out together. Even though Matt and I were 20 miles behind the other group at one point, we got there first! We signed up with Tiffany and waited around for the show to start. There were a total of 8 contestants, 5 from St. Louis, a guy named Tim who was there in December, a gentleman named Kyle and Aaron Hurley (the winner from December). I have to go up first and "bite the bullet" as it's called. My set was average at best, I didn't punch my jokes and the microphone there is very sensative, if you touch the mic-stand it transfers sound to the microphone. I am proud to say the St Louis comics swept the competition, Matt Wolff grabbing third, I think and Nikki Glazer getting Second (or the other way around) and Joe Lehnig won 40 bucks (5 dollars from each participant). After the show, we hung around and played some pool and I talked to Tiffany to express my interest in MC-ing (there was an ad in the bathroom about part time MC work). I plugged the website and the contents therein. She said she's pass the info along to her boss. Then Matt and I had to leave as he was getting his wisdom teeth cut out Thursday and I had to work. It rained on the way home, but we made decent time until I got into Missouri, where everything slowed to a crawl. I ended up getting to bed around 11:15 or so. In anycase, I'll probably go back up next month. It is, afterall, stagetime.

YArrrrr

It turns out my posts that I emailled from work concerning Saturday and Sunday's shows were lost somewhere; that's a bunch of crap. In other news, I visited The Original Talk Like a Pirate Day site and through a link took a little quiz and found this out; My pirate name is:

Mad Harry Read

Every pirate is a little bit crazy. You, though, are more than just a little bit. Even through many pirates have a reputation for not being the brightest souls on earth, you defy the sterotypes. You've got taste and education. Arr!

Get your own pirate name from fidius.org.

I thought that was pretty cool... Plus I'm at work, so it's not like there's anything else to do...

Gimme Some Mo'

Last night was the final show for the week in Fairview Heights, which mans I got paid! Woo! The crowd was pretty interesting, as a pizza place called Pizanno's or probably Pie-zanno's or something like that was having it's Christmas party. Restaurants usually have their party's after the season, because they are busy catering to other people's Holiday parties. In anycase. The group was already drunk when they showed up, so it got interesting pretty quick. I tried out some old(er) jokes in a new way and was pleased with the reaction, so they'll probbaly come back into the rotation, if I can make a rotation that is; We had a guest last night, Scott Derringer, who is also bald. He had a bunch of restaurant material because he used to be a waiter, and so he did that for the pizza group and they absolutley loved it. You can check him out here http://www.shaveyourhead.com/. It turns out I misspelled Chris Speyrer's last name, but I did get his website, which is http://www.misspelledcomic.com/(for good reason). While we're at it, this is the website I found for Kevin, http://www.barbaracoppersmith.com/collegeside/Interface/comedy2.html. It was a great week, thanks to Joey and Bret an the Funny Bone for being so nice and giving me work!

All about friday

8:00pm show; Man, there were about a hundred people in the audience and it was like talking to a stone wall. It didn’t faze me too much though, if I recall correctly. I’m reviewing the tape and there is one lady in the middle a couple rows back who laughed at most of my jokes, compared to the rest of the audience who didn’t laugh at most of my jokes. All in all, it’s stage time, and I’m getting my bits down more.

10:30pm show; this show was much better, the crowd was much more lively. Chris Speyrer, the feature gave me some advice about not jumping into my set too quickly, but to let the crowd get used to the idea that the show has started… ask them questions, and just let them settle in. I got home around 12:30am and stayed up until about 3am watching Dodgeball. It was pretty much what I expected, thankfully I didn’t pay to see it. Block Buster Movie Pass. Booyah.

Someone, I think Richard Pryor, said that it takes like 15 years to find your voice. I’m probably butchering that quote, but the idea behind it stands, and I can’t get discouraged. I also heard that Lewis Black didn’t hit it big until his “voice changed” and he started sounding really angry all the time. He kept his material the same, but his deliver was so unique people loved it. Patience, I suppose.

For anyone reading this, sorry it’s boring, here’s a joke for you…

Why’d the fat lady cross the restaurant? To get another side!

I wrote that myself.

one late night

Last night's shows were pretty fun; both of the crowds were really energetic, and I didn't have to look at my notes at all. I also have an addition to my college jokes and my buddy, Leroy, came up with a tag for my Tetris / Sam's bit. The only real bad news is that my camera wasn't framed properly for the first show, so you can basically just see my feet to my shoulders. I'll try to put up a picture because it's funny. On the bright side, I can see when the audience gets up to stretch and yawn> Also, since Illinois bars don't close until like 6, I was out pretty late, and grabbed some McDonald's breakfast. Sweet.

Show numero dos

Last night was a pretty good show; we probably had a crowd of one hundred and twenty people are so; of course I could be way off. There were a lot more younger attractive women in the audience than the night before, not that it really matters. I saw one female who was pretty attractive, then when she took off her coat I noticed she was noticably pregnant; I don't know how I missed that when I saw her at the box office; In any case later I saw here drinking from a giant tropical plastic drink glass, the kind that area foot and a half tall or so. I wondered if it was a virgin drink or if she had on a fake belly and was doing some sort of social experiment; either way it made me laugh. I had to use the cheat sheet again, which bugs me, but not as much this time because I did remember some new tags to jokes and a couple changes I wanted to make. I was on stage for about 12 minutes or so (that's what the video says at least) and the last half of that or so I was just pulling jokes from my mind that I hadn't planned on doing, so I was pleased that I could remember my "library" of jokes or whatever you want to call it. I got home in time for Futurama, the one where Kiff has Leela's babies. Then I went to bed. Also for dinner last night I had breakfast, eggs and sausage and hashbrowns. I need to get some bread for toast...

A series of comedic events

The last Wednesday I MC'd at Fairview Heights they served pizza and so the crowd showed up early to eat dinner; the crowd was huge when I walked in the door at 6pm, and got bigger by showtime. The Fairview Heights Funny Bone does that about once a month, and last night was pizza night again! After a slice of pizza, I hung out with Mark Morfey, who was hoping to get a spotlight. The headliner was Kevin Bozeman, I recognized some of his material from Comedy Central's Premium Blend, and somehow two feature acts got booked. The first to show up was Chad Thornberry, who I'd met last month at one of the Open Mics in Westport, Chad is a KC comic. Chris Speyrer was the other feature, and he was the one who actually performed last night, I suppose because he was booked first, though that is only my guess. In anycase, my set went well, some of my jokes were received well, skiing and work in particular, but my bachelor party joke probably needs some help. I don't want to believe that it is too "touchy" because it's worked before. Anyway, most everything went well, except I skipped Mark's spotlight, so we had to put him between Chris and Kevin instead of between myself and Chris. No real worries though, I got home safe dropped the video onto my computer and got it on Mp3 format on my iPod so I can listen to it. I'm feeling a little rusty since I haven't been on stage every week like I was when the Red Sea was still having a show. For as bad as the place seemed sometimes, I really miss the stage time, it helped out more than I really knew...

Ixnay on the iatus-hay

Last night I went up second, Chad Huff MC'd and I followed John Garrison. I started with my "blackest thing about me" joke and moved into a couple jokes about my ears being big and then did my skiing jokes. In the beginning I also made a comment that I look like Gullum from Lord of the Rings; some of the comics at the Bone think there's a resemblence… I'm kind of hoping there isn't. I did a joke last night that I haven't done for over a year; so I've never done it in St. Louis, but it involves snoring into the microphone and making my head turn bright red; anyway the joke worked, but a bunch of the comics last night said that I had a great set, which is a great compliment. However, my set last night didn't take a whole lot of "work" the snoring joke is kind of simple, and doesn't fit the pattern "premise, setup, punch" very well, because between the setup and the punch is an act out that takes about a minute. Anyway, I am glad that I had a good set, but with all the work I've been putting into my other bits, I wish they would get as much recognition. Then again, maybe my set stood out because I didn't do my Tetris joke for once… Who knows; I was on stage and it was fun. My friend, April, said I've never looked more comfortable on stage, which is weird because I was really nervous before I got on. Probably because April and her friend Dorian were in the audience. It's always MORE difficult for me to perform in front of people I know...

just a bum

Wow, Man am I lazy. I didn't blog at all this past week... Here's the short of it; Tuesday. At Funny Bone. Didn't get on.
Wednesday. Drove to City Improv, apparently no show.
Thursday. No comedy. Sad.
Friday. New Years. Lots of Red Bull, Mug Root Beer and Skor-bars.
Saturday. Went to sleep at 8am. Went to casino. Lost money. Speeding Ticket. Sad.
Sunday, re-vamped website. You like?