Category Archives: More Misadventures!
My misadventures in the world of comedy.
Tales From the Script: Part 4 (The Book is better…)
I mentioned before that Final Draft is the most important tool and screenwriter can use. Another, almost as important, tool is this great book called Writing Movies for Fun and Profit.
I’ve read a lot…a few…books on writing scripts. This one by far is my favorite. It’s written by Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon who are most visibly known for Reno 911. What you may not know is that they’ve also written pretty much ever third comedy made since 2000. They don’t write giant award winning masterpieces, but they do write extremely marketable and successful comedies like the Night at the Museum movies and Herbie Fully Loaded. They’ve also done a literal shit ton of punch ups on movies they’re not credited for.
In their book, Ben and Thomas take you through every step of the career as a screenwriter. They go in depth about the different kinds of writing jobs you can get and really dive into the business side of writing. It’s also a really practical writing guide too. They cover everything form pitching your script to dealing with the Hollywood powers that be once it’s in development.
It’s a really quick and light read that’s full of humor and really great information. I can’t recommend this book enough. In fact, if you’re a screen writer and you don’t own this….then you’re probably and asshole.
I’m in LA right now as you’re reading this. Unless of course you’re reading this sometime other than August 2012. Chapter 22 will tell me what I need to know now that I’m here. Okay, I’m not supposed to write in public because everyone will assume I’m a douchebag. Okay, there’s a list of all the In-N-Out Burger locations as well as a guide to their secret menu. I’m going to grab a bite to eat and go write in private.
Leaving Las Vegas (Not Soon Enough) or Viva LaBove!
I’m in Vegas right now. Even though I’m writing this on Sunday, the 12th, I can assure you I’m not having a good time. I’ve only had a good time once in Vegas and that was when I was trying not to cry in the hotel room of a man I met earlier that month.
During the day I work part-time doing marketing for an entertainment company. I don’t know how much I’m allowed to say, so I’ll leave it at that. Every year we have our conference in Vegas. I don’t generally enjoy it. Yeah, the conference itself is fine. It does what it’s supposed to. It gets you pumped up for the coming busy season. It’s also great to see in person the people who also work for the company across the country. There are a handful that I have a lot in common with so it’s nice to see them outside of Facebook. I don’t gamble, so Vegas holds no appeal for me there. I generally don’t party either. Although last year a ton of little things piled on top of each other and just caused me so much stress and anger that I ended up drinking way too much Scotch, much to the dismay of the guy with whom I was sharing a room. I coated the bathroom from both ends.
I’ve been to Vegas to perform at Trooperfest, the first Star Wars convention specifically for the 501st. I got to hang out with all sorts of nice and wonderful people. Every time something cool happened, I felt like I was verbally and emotionally punched in the face when I wanted to share that with the person I was closest to at the time. It was years ago, but my overall memory that festival wasn’t a happy one.
Last year I was in Vegas for the World Series of Comedy. Again, trouble in my personal life kept me from enjoying this potentially awesome networking opportunity. My head wasn’t in the game and I was out in the first round. I remember getting ready to go out on stage and just deciding to wing it and riff with the crowd even though everyone in that situation should know that the last thing a judge wants to see is how well you do crowd work. Yeah? Well, my crowd work is right up there with the masters like Pardo and Iott. Mike…you idiot! I got off stage and Eric Yoder from Funny Business just gave me a look like, “What the hell was that?” Technically, I was doing my Bear Calendar joke, which isn’t really crowd work. It’s my magic trick. It’s a slight of hand. It looks like crowd work, but it’s mostly scripted….or at the very least flow charted.
So, I was in Vegas after having crapped out in the first round of The World Series of Comedy and I still had a couple nights left until my return flight. Earlier that month I worked with Carl LaBove in Grand Rapids at Dr. Grin’s. Words can not explain how great I think Carl is. He’s like Yoda and the Dude from Big Lebowski rolled up into one. He’s wise and care free. He’s a master story teller…and what’s great about his stories is that after you’ve enjoyed them and you’ve had time to reflect, you see that his story that he picked to tell you at that moment was serving a point.
Early the second morning of the World Series of Comedy, I was sitting in the hotel lobby trying to decide if I wanted to walk to the casino where Carl and I were to meet for lunch or if I wanted to take a cab. I was trying to use Google map on my phone, but Vegas is deceptively large. Comedian Brad Tassell stopped in and we started talking. We worked together years and years ago and his comedy group Hoosier Daddy was kind of the inspiration for me forming the Desperate Houseguys. Brad had a rental car and offered to drive me to the Riviera for my lunch appointment.
I called Carl when I got there to let him know I was downstairs. Minutes later he burst out of the elevator as upbeat and cheerful as ever. We took off for lunch, and without giving any details in where or how he did it, Carl managed to scam both of us free meals.
If you’re not a huge comedy nerd, then you may not know that along with Sam Kinison, was one of the founding members of the Outlaws of Comedy. Carl was Sam’s best friend and they worked together through Sam’s entire, albeit short lived, career. Carl has seen it all. He was there in Los Angeles during the comedy boom. This morning, the wild man who partied with rock stars and porn legends was working a grift to get us breaded fish and mac & cheese! For dessert, stolen ice cream!
During lunch I brought Carl up to speed on where I was personally. It always seems like when things are going well professionally, they’re hurting personally. When they’re going well personally, professionally they’re suffering. This was one of those times where both personally and professionally things weren’t going well at all. I was down and I needed my happy sage to pick me up.
We went back up to his hotel room before his show and he opened his iTunes. He started playing me song after song and telling me the story of how he found the song and what it meant to him. Those songs spoke to me at that moment and speak to me now as the best memory of have of Las Vegas. Here are a couple of them.
I sat there listening to the lyrics of about a half a dozen songs and felt like they were written just for me. I knew I was experiencing a profound and beautiful moment that would last with me for the rest of my life and I had the foresight to know and appreciate that. It was a perfect moment. I tried to fight back the tears. Carl took a break from getting ready for his show and sat down next to me smiling and seemingly pleased that this moment he orchestrated didn’t fall on deaf ears.
We jumped on Youtube and he showed me a couple things he was working on. We talked about great guitar players and shared our love of music. He shared with me some of his guitar playing. This is a song he wrote about his life. I love it a lot. I hope he records it…or someone helps me lift the audio from this so I can put it on my iPod. Even through the turbulent moments of this song, I feel a peaceful and soothing rhythm. The song has momentum and makes me feel like things are going to move forward no matter what you do about it. Check out Carl’s playing.
I’m in Vegas now. I’m not having any profound moments, but things are moving forward no matter what I do about it. And that’s okay.
Tales From the Script: Part 3 (Tools of the Trade)
The first few things I wrote years ago were done with a regular old word processor. It was a pain in the ass. Every time I went to do a new draft, I’d have to manual go in and change the “continued” and all that stuff. Setting the tabs was awful. Making sure everything was formatted correctly caused me so much panic.
I was never able to full jump into just the creative part of screenwriting because the mechanics were always in the back of my mind. Well, truthfully, they were front and center.
A year or so ago I got Final Draft. It’s the industry standard for screenwriting and I totally see why. It’s basically a word processor program specifically designed to write scripts. I don’t have to think about anything other than the story when I use it. When you hit Enter to go on to a next section, it asks you if you want this to start with a character, dialogue, scene header, whatever. With a click, you can be back on track. It becomes second nature and it makes the whole process so much quicker and easier.
Here’s something else I just found out about Final Draft. Okay, I mentioned before that Lesley and I are going to start on a spec script to show that we can write television as well. I Googled Modern Family scripts and found a link to a template that plugs right into Final Draft! There are plug ins for pretty much every popular show out there. And if you’re writing a spec script, the best idea is to do it for a popular show. As much as I loved The Middleman, writing a script for that would make little to no sense!
Yes, the software is a little expensive, but if you’re serious about writing, I can not recommend it enough. Here’s a link if you want more information.
Tales From the Script: Part 2 (Storytime)
In our last episode, after a few attempts at screenwriting, I found a great writing partner in Lesley Braden.
Lesley’s idea (and the script is already registered with the WGA so just try and steal it, buster) was about a woman in her mid to late 30s who was tired of people either harassing her or taking advantage of her time because she was single. She creates a fake guy on Facebook and puts herself in a relationship with said guy. It’s Bridesmaids meets The Social Network. Both movies just came out. Both movies were successful. Kristen Wiig changed Hollywood overnight and showed the women can open a comedy and make a ton of money. Lesley’s idea was original, fun and hugely marketable. I was hooked!
Initially we started writing it with the two of us in mind to play the lead character and her slacker roommate. I have friends who have production companies in Michigan, so it seemed like something we could potentially try to raise money and make. As it went on, we realized how this script would be a really great calling card for us if we wanted to try to get writing jobs. So we stopped limiting ourselves with set pieces that we could possibly pull off if we were to raise enough money through a Kickstarter campaign of whatever and we decided to shoot for the stars.
When we cracked the story, we didn’t do a traditional outline. We knew key comedy moments that we wanted to happen and then from there we figured out how to get there. Using a basic three act structure, we knew too when certain beats had to happen. As we fleshed out the secondary characters more, our secondary story lines and conflicts started to become clearer too. We were both on the same page that we didn’t want this to necessarily be a joke based comedy. We wanted the humor to come from the characters. We both do comedy though, so naturally the jokes found their way into it.
The crazy thing was that every idea either of us had, the other either found a way to build on it or tweak it into something different. We never pitched a story element to have the other one say, “That’s the dumbest thing I ever heard”. I think that’s the key to a strong writing partnership. You can’t shoot down someone else’s idea without anything of your own to add. I’m sure it helps that from the beginning we were both really on the same page.
Okay, I’m going to jump ahead in time to the present day. We’re going to start working on a spec script for a television show. It’s an idea that I had rattling in my brain for awhile. I bounced it off of Lesley the other night and instead of shooting down my idea, she said, “That’s great, we could do that or maybe make it this slightly different thing too.” Okay, that’s not technically a quote, but you know what I mean. While her idea was slightly different than mine, it also opened itself up for a neat spin on the ideas I already had. I think the most exciting part of writing a story is not knowing what’s going to happen next. Changing a small detail, or even a large one, can definitely do that! I’m looking forward to cracking another story with her.
Tales from the Script: Part 1 (Partnering Up)
I’m at a pivotal point in the screenwriting process. I thought for my own piece of mind I’d share the journey it took to get here. I don’t know where this story will end. I certainly hope it has a happy ending. Let’s start from the beginning.
I’ve written a lot of screenplays. Most of them were through my twenties. I burned all my bridges in radio and television, moved back to Michigan and had the first “real” job of my life working in a Toys R Us. Over the next few years I went through my Kevin Smith phase. I first wrote my “Clerks” about a guy who was working in a big box toy store cleverly called We B Toys.
Next when I was in an unhappy relationship and feeling like I was hundreds of miles from where I wanted to be, I wrote my “Dogma” about a couple in an unhappy relationship who die and get stuck in Purgatory…which happens to be a small town in the middle of nowhere.
After that, the unhappy relationship ended so I wrote my “Chasing Amy” about a guy who ends his unhappy relationship and starts a non-romantic relationship. I guess it was also my “When Harry Met Sally”. The main character in that one was a struggling stand up comedian. At the time, I hadn’t stepped foot on the comedy stage yet, so it was just a way for me to get out the material I wrote without having to actually perform it. Coincidentally, the arc of that character kind of mirrored what I ended up doing creatively in real life years later.
So, after those first few attempts at screenwriting I started doing stand up and seemed to have a knack for it. Most of my creative juices flowed into that outlet. Friends asked me if I wanted to partner up with them on scripts, but for one reason or another it never really worked out.
Last year a fellow performer named Lesley Braden and I met with some other performers about starting a sketch comedy group. That didn’t work out, but Lesley and I found that we worked really well together. She pitched me her idea for the story we ended up writing and I loved it. It’s like what they say about love. You find it when you’re not looking for it. I wasn’t looking for the perfect screenwriting partner, I just happened upon her!
Next time, I’ll talk about the story.
Tips For Comedians: Connected Comedy
There’s an old saying about how the reason BUSINESS is eight letter and SHOW is only four is because two third of SHOW BUSINESS is BUSINESS. I recently signed up for a thing called Connected Comedy. A few times a week I get emails from Josh Spector giving comedians tips on the business side of comedy. It’s hugely helpful to me since that’s an area I’ve always been lacking. I save those e-mails as new and when I have a little bit of free time I look at some of the tips to see what I can incorporate into what I’m already doing. It’s an incredibly valuable resource that I urge all comedians to sign up for. I wanted to know more about how it began, so I shot Josh some questions. Here’s what he had to say. I hope you enjoy.
What made you decide to start Connected Comedy?
Besides being passionate about comedy, marketing, business, and technology, there’s really two main reasons why I started Connected Comedy.
First, I felt like I had accumulated a good amount of knowledge about the comedy business and in particular how to promote comedy content and grow a fanbase using digital tools. I looked around and while I saw tons of resources for comedians to learn how to perform stand up, sketch, or improv, I didn’t really see any that were teach comedians how to build a fanbase and grow their career. I thought that was something I could do.
The second reason I started Connected Comedy was because I saw it as an opportunity to try out much of what I thought I had learned and see if I could implement these same strategies to grow my own fanbase and launch a business. While I’m not (and never have been) a comedian, I think that most of what you do to attract an audience and then eventually monetize that audience by providing value is the same no matter what specifically you’re trying to pursue. Connected Comedy has given me (and continues to give me) a great opportunity to learn hands-on what works and what doesn’t when it comes to using social media to build a business.
Have there been tips from other artists that made you slap yourself on the forehead and say, “Why didn’t I think of that?”
There’s been lots of little things I’ve seen people do that I recognize as good ideas, but the truly big stuff that has influenced me typically has come more from marketing and business experts. Specifically, author Seth Godin has been a huge influence on me and in particular his book “Tribes,” which I recommend every comedian read at some point.
What’s the one thing you notice comedians not doing that they really should be doing?
I think there’s two things that comedians should be doing more of. First, the vast majority of comedians still don’t seem to understand that the future of their career is really now in their own hands. I see way too much waiting around for a break, to get discovered, or for somebody else to give them permission to have a career.
Comedians obsession with bookers, clubs, agents/managers, and festivals are all ways to avoid facing the fact that you can now create your own opportunities. Not enough comedians realize that.
The second thing I don’t see enough comedians doing is really pouring a lot of time and effort into creating content online. Whether that’s videos, a podcast, a blog, or something else, comedians now have the opportunity to reach the entire world at virtually no cost yet most of them can’t even get it together to build a respectable website (which doesn’t even have to cost any money!). Comics will obsess over getting more stage time in front of 20 people, yet will ignore the millions they could be reaching online. I don’t get it.
Patton Oswalt spoke at the Just For Laughs Festival in Montreal about how we, as artists, don’t necessarily need “gate keepers” anymore to open doors for ourselves because we have the technology to reach everyone. How do you see the future of comedy and the arts?
I agree with everything Patton said and it’s been really interesting in just the past couple years since I started Connected Comedy to see how big name comics are starting to capitalize on the opportunities I’ve been trying to preach since I started. I’m certainly not taking credit for it, but hopefully as more people like Patton and Louis CK are out there talking about how the business has changed and showing younger comics what is possible, the message will start to be better understood.
I don’t think that Hollywood is going away any time soon and there will always be clubs, festivals, and a comedy “industry.” However, the balance of power is about to shift dramatically to the individual comedians and away from the gatekeepers. And the comedians who understand how to work in that new world order are the ones that will succeed.
Just look at the music industry – the same thing has happened there as the labels don’t have anywhere near the power they once had and the only new artists that can succeed are the ones that understand how to build their own fanbase.
Thank you so much for Josh for taking the time to answer those. Please check out Connected Comedy where you can sign up for the newsletter, read a ton of helpful articles, listen to the podcast and even sign up for classes.
Way to go, Clubs!
In the past nine and a half years I’ve performed in a lot of clubs and a bunch of them stand out for one reason or another because they do something so incredibly right. I just wanted to point a few of them out and apologize preemptively for any of the ones I forgot. When I write these, I type as I think and don’t even really go back to proof them unless a word gets underline in red! These are my thoughts as I have them. I guess what I’m saying is please book me again even if you slipped my mind this morning. Please…
The Skyline in Appleton, Wisconsin doesn’t do a check drop. If you’re not a comedian you might not know what that means. If you are a comedian you haven’t closed a show yet, you might not even know what this is a big deal. The check drop is when the waitstaff drops the bills off at the tables. In a restaurant it’s not a big deal because everyone comes and goes at different times. Being a wait person at a comedy club seems like one of the most difficult jobs in the world. Every single person is arriving at almost the same time and every single person is leaving at the exact same time! When you’re on stage, you go from being the focus of everyone in the room to losing everyone in the room at the exact same moment. At each table someone is fiddling for money. It can be very distracting. A lot of clubs do it really well. The club that does is the best is The Skyline because they don’t do it at all. I’m not exactly sure what they do, but it has something to do with table numbers. When the audience leaves, they tell the cashier on the way out which table they were at and then the settle their bill then. It’s fast and efficient. While they have their money in their hands and are in spending mode, they next walk past the comedians selling their merchandise.
During slow times a lot of clubs will “paper the room”. What that means is they give out free passes to get butts in seats. Clubs make most of their money off of drink sales, so it’s not usually a huge deal. Sometimes it sucks for the performer because if people haven’t invested anything financially into a show, they sometimes forget to invest their attention. The two clubs that stand out for me with papering are Lansing Connxtions and Dr. Grin’s. Lansing runs silly contests on their Facebook page. A lot of times the contests will coincide with the comedians that are there. The week I was headlining, the theme for the contests was nerdy movie trivia. This is great for a couple reasons. First is I’m getting to perform in front of people who share my interests. That’s going to make for a better experience both for me and them. My first show that week there was a woman front and center with a Futurama t-shirt on. I couldn’t have been happier! She’s going to have friends who she’s going to tell about the show and next time I’m there, maybe she’s back with an even larger group. I win and so does the club! The second reason is because people still feel like they “earned” a show even if they didn’t invest money in it. I think it makes the audience more engaged.
When I started, Dr. Grin’s in Grand Rapids had a house emcee who used the moniker Dr. Billy Grin. Billy kept a stack of free passes with him everywhere he went and he passed them out to beautiful women all around town. When people asked where all the hot chicks in Grand Rapids hung out, people would tell them, “Dr. Grin’s.” They were packed almost all the time! And Grin’s is the perfect experience for this because it’s in The B.O.B. with a bunch of other bars. It was one stop mating game…or whatever the kids call it.
Some clubs have staffs that honestly seem like they hate comedy. The Ann Arbor Comedy Showcase is just the opposite. They love comedy there! This is great for both Roger who runs the place and the comedians. Roger has a fleet of people recommending people for him to bring in. It’s great for us too because if you can make that staff laugh, particularly Jay behind the bar, then you know you’re doing something right. It’s a great way to test material on something other than your cats…who will never laugh because that’s physically impossible for cats to do. If you look at the line up at any time on the calendar at that club you’re going to see people who are on the verge of breaking big or are currently the secret gem that only people in the know know about. Roger was booking Lynne Koplitz way before she was doing television with Joan Rivers. Roger was booking Jackie Kashian years before everyone in LA had a podcast and found a way to mention that Jackie is one of the best out there. You can see the best of the best at Ann Arbor and be like the cool kid who can say the comedy equivalent of, “I saw Green Day at St. Andrews.” By the way, I did see Green Day at St. Andrews.
Reach out to the community. Joey’s Comedy Club is open more days a week than most comedy clubs in the world. That’s largely due to the fact that Bill Bushart who runs the place does Comedy For A Cause better than anyone I’ve ever met. Being a comedian himself, Bill knows how much better it is to perform for a full house. Since I’ve known him he’s been working at Joey’s doing promotions. Probably a week doesn’t go by where there isn’t some sort of fundraiser going on at Joey’s. Those fundraisers fill the place. It’s great too because then it becomes someone else’s job to fill the seats and not the clubs. If there’s a group that wants to do a fundraiser first show Saturday, then the club is now freed up to focus on second show Saturday. Both shows benefit! When the fundraisers go well, there’s invariably someone in the audience that thinks, “damn, this was a fun way to raise money. I should do one of these too.” They get in touch with Bill and another one is booked. Comedy For a Cause is so successful at Joey’s that many times they end up having to do a third show on Saturdays! I’ve been to clubs where they’ve had to cancel a second show on a Saturday because of lack of audience. Joey’s is open six days a week and has at least eight shows every week.
Posters, posters, posters. The Comedy Club on State in Madison, Wisconsin has a great graphic artist who makes posters for every show. The posters are beautiful and are hung prominently on the street in a great location. The Comedy Castle in Royal Oak has great posters inside as well that are also works of art. I was just at Laugh Comedy Club in Bloomington. It’s a smaller club on a limited budget. Adam that runs the place is hyper aware of how much of a difference a good poster can make. The person that was designing them used a text heavy design. Adam told him that he really wanted logos of the credits each comedian had. Now you get great posters there that really stand out. Bloomington, like Madison has a lot of foot traffic and those posters hang right on the street where people passing by can see them. They jump out at you too and generate buzz. A good poster can make a huge difference.
A nice green room is heaven! The Ice House in Pasadena has nice comfortable seating in there. We had a tray of cheese and crackers. If my memory is correct, there were beverages too. The Comedy Castle has a little fridge that always has water for the comedians. The lighting in there is perfect. There’s a television in both clubs where you can watch the show. The Castle even has it where you can tape yourself right from the green room via a ceiling mounted camera pointed at the stage!
And finally, say, “Thank You”. I absolutely love The Comedy Club on State in Madison, Wisconsin and always will because my last memory of the place every time I leave is an amazing one. When they pay you, they pay you in an envelope with a Thank You card. I still have my cards from every time I’ve been there. They write you a note and the management staff all signs it. It’s a small gesture, but it’s one that makes me happy every time I think about it. When a club makes an effort like that to show that they appreciate you, it makes you want to do everything you can to let them know you appreciate them as well. Whenever I’m on stage I want to do my best, but when I’m on stage in Madison I want to do better than my best.
So thank you to these, and all the clubs that have been keeping me steadily employed all these years!
Remembering Angel
Friday I lost someone very dear to me.
Things have changed drastically lately. Through divorce I lost half my family. My former sister-in-law Angel was the only person I really kept in contact with.
Angel was always a huge supporter of comedy. She moved to Chicago a long time ago to pursue an art career and fell in love with the Chicago comedy scene. She was there during a time when all the cool Chicago comics who comedy nerds know so well were just starting off and finding their voices. Angel was an amazing illustrator who had a keen knack for capturing the energy and buzz of a setting in a static image. Of all her work my favorites were always those of live performances of open mic shows where you could just feel the excitement in the room of people trying and seeing new things for the first time.
My favorite art has always been the kind that was deeply personal. Angel had Lupus and wrote and illustrated a graphic novel depicting her double hip and double knee replacement surgeries and how liberating it was afterwards when she was finally able to ride a bike again and do other things people her age were able to do. Mind you, these surgeries all took place while she was just in her twenties.
For a person who dealt daily with an immobilizing disease Angel made the most of her unfortunately short life.
I have many favorite memories of her. She really was like a little sister to me. She ended up moving back to Michigan for various reasons. While it’s feasible not to know how to drive in Chicago, that’s really not an option in the metro Detroit area where everything is so spread out. I took her to take her driving test and get her license. Notoriously a person who refused to smile in pictures, I managed to make her crack while they took her driver’s license picture. It was my proudest moment with her. That moment replaced my earlier proudest moment when her best friend Kristy let it slip that Angel liked my comedy. Like a typical big brother/little sister relationship, we’d torment each other constantly! The highest compliment we’d pay to each other’s face would be something along the lines of, “you don’t smell too bad today.”
Angel’s services and funeral are this week. I don’t know if I’m going to go. It’s not entirely even because I don’t think her family wants me there. I feel like I already had my goodbye and I don’t want to lose that memory.
Last Monday, five days before Angel passed was my birthday. She sent me a text saying that she really missed comedy a lot and wanted to come out to the open mic I was doing. I told her she should. She was worried about making people uncomfortable and I assured her that it didn’t matter and I’d like to see her again. She came out, we watched the show and jokes back and forth. Maybe it was nothing other than the joy of being around a thing she enjoyed so much that overwhelmed her, but when we parted ways that night she gave me a hug. The only physical interaction we ever really had before that was secretly giving each other the middle finger when no one was looking. She gave me a hug though and said, “Ooh, I hugged you.” I told her it was okay because she didn’t smell too bad. Then we went out separate ways. That’s the goodbye I want to remember forever. I loved that girl.
Angel, Kristy and me at the Royal Oak Music Theatre during the Laugh Detroit Comedy Festival.
9th Anniversary and my thoughts on comedy classes
Nine years ago today I had my graduation show at Joey’s Comedy Club. Since then I’ve done over 1480 shows.
Some comedians argue about the benefits of comedy classes. I like them, but with an asterisk.
I don’t believe you can teach someone to be funny. I think it’s like playing a musical instrument. You either have an ear for music or you don’t. It’s the same way with comedy. Either you have an ear for what a joke sounds like or you don’t. Yeah, like with music, you can teach the mechanics, but some people just are never going to get it. They don’t have that natural ability.
Believe me, I wanted to play bass so badly. Practically all my friends when I was a teenager and in my early twenties were great musicians. A lot of my friends to this day are still great musicians. I just don’t have a natural affinity towards music. I practiced and practiced my bass until I was passable in a punk band where I wrote most of the songs so I knew I didn’t throw anything out there that was beyond my ability. My first passion is music. If I could do that, I would. I hate that I can’t. I took guitar lessons and tried, but at the end of the day someone else with a natural ability was going to have a much easier time and go a lot further.
It’s the same way with comedy classes. Some people take the classes with no ability, but they want to be a comedian so bad. They’ll never really figure it out. Some people have that ability and just need little pushes in the right direction. Some people may be amazing writers and just want to conquer their fear of public speaking. For that matter, some people may have no interest in comedy at all and only want to conquer their fear of public speaking.
I believe comedy classes are a good thing…as long as their being taught by a comedian. There was, for a time, a stand up class being taught by a local actor. I guess that class was for students who wanted to learn how to act like a comedian.
Bill Bushart taught my class. Bill himself is a great comedian, but what makes him an even better teacher is his ability to almost immediately tap into a student’s sensibility and punch up the material in their voice. Bill is a master of tagging jokes and in my opinion the best teacher out there. I don’t know how things would’ve been different for me had he not been my instructor.
I’m glad I took comedy classes and started this pursuit of this craft. I’ve never worked hard for anything in my life before this. Everything I did, I did because it came easy to me. I’ve sacrificed more for comedy than anything else or anyone else in my life. I don’t know that I’ve made the right decisions always. At times I’m almost certain I’ve made the exact wrong decisions. Comedy has given to me and it’s taken from me. I’m so deep in it now that I don’t see a life without it. I love comedy like a junky loves their fix. At moments of lucidity I see comedy as the Symbiote that at first helped Peter Paker and then later tried to destroy him. But when I’m on stage, I’m high and I like it there.
Looking back, if I were to give anyone advice starting out, it would be to set boundaries. Look at the things that make you happy now and never let comedy step on those things or take those things away from you. When you sit down with a note book to write new bits, write yourself reminders about where you are and what’s important. My personal experience is it’s hard to balance the life of a comedian with the real world. I think the people who have are the people whose real world really started once they reached a certain level of success. I don’t know.
All I’ve learned in the past nine years is that I’ve amassed a lot of opinions about things and an ability to spew them without having any real knowledge of anything at all. And that’s what comedy is really…when you break it down. One person in the spotlight spreading their thoughts to a somewhat captive audience.
Well…this return to the website took a weird twist, eh? Welcome back.
Week in Review: Nerding Out!
All the proofs for my new CD “Full Frontal Nerdity” were finalized this week and the order is being processed. I’m super excited for it. Roger from the Ann Arbor Comedy Showcase has been gracious enough to host my CD release party on September 22nd. He even let me put together a super awesome line up that I handpicked. The show will open with Jeff Conolly who was part of my birthday show where we recorded the CD. Comedian/Derby Girl/Cool Chick Amy Probst, who I’m a big fan of, will be next, followed by the super awesome Allyson Hood. Allyson has a guest appearance on my CD. Mike O’Keefe, who also makes an appearance on my CD is next and then finally it’s me. I’ll have free passes for this show too. I really can’t wait for the 22nd!
I also had a meeting with the Red Cross this week. On October 25th a bunch of us will be roasting Dracula to benefit the Red Cross. So lots of great things up ahead.
Thursday I did a set at the Painted Lady. I’ve been going through a lot of stress and well…went on stage with a lot of baggage. It was cringe worth, but therapeutic. Trevor Smith had two new bits that were so awesome that it made me want to quit comedy for a minute. He and I will be hitting the road together in a couple weeks to head to Goonie’s in Rochester, Minnesota.
After the Painted Lady a lot of us headed over to Go Comedy. I did an interview for an internet project. It was fun and silly. I love the camaraderie of hanging out with comedians. In spite of my little melt down, it was a great night.
On Saturday I headed up to The Bull Ring in Goodrich, Michigan. Vicky, who runs the place, likes to make sure her customers have regular comedy, so this show was sort of a lead in to the start of their normal season. I didn’t know it was only a one person show, so I was glad that Allyson Hood came out for a guest set. She ended up opening the show and really set the stage for me. That show ended up being great!
Sunday I met up with one of my oldest friends, Jeff Sanguis to work on a project with him for his website Nerding Out. Jeff was the lead singer of Detroit ska legends Telegraph. We’ve been buddies since we were teenagers and stayed close because of our mutual dorkiness. Jeff and I both bought Bonnie Burton’s Star Wars crafting book, so we ended up rolling tape while we each picked a project to make. It was great catching up with him again, especially while dorking out!
“Lost” Photos from LA (monumental Maron/CK shot!)
I was googling Louis CK to find photos to run with my Louie recaps and I found one from LA comedy scene photographer Leizl Estipona. Well, I e-mailed her to see if she had any others that had more than just my arm in it and she managed to find two more!
Here’s the story behind the first one. Jonah Ray was hosting the Comedy Bang Bang show at the UCB Theatre in Los Angeles. He introduced me by saying that I open for Marc Maron all the time. I was worried because I think I said that he and I have only worked together once…well…twice if you count this night. I didn’t want Marc to freak. So this picture is in the middle of me telling Jonah on stage, “I didn’t say all the time!” Sure enough, Jonah went backstage and Marc corrected him. Jonah laughed and told Marc that I told him that was going to happen. When I went backstage, I mentioned it to Marc too who told me that he and Jonah already discussed it! Ah….the silliness the ensues in the green room!
This next picture is a pretty momentous occasion for comedy nerds. Maron and CK used to be like best friends. As things in comedy go, that relationship changed over years. This night at UCB may have been the first time they’ve seen each other socially in years. Louis did Maron’s WTF podcast, but this could very well be their first time bumping into each other in a club setting. Marc seemed so excited when it walked into the green room and Louis was sitting there. It was really exciting to experience first hand!
So there you go! Thank you Leizl for finding those for me. She does incredibly great and rare photography of the LA scene. She gets access to areas most of us dream about. Check out more of her simply amazing work on her site!
My arm is more famous than the rest of me…
…and it was covered in the 5 Hour Energy Drink commercial!
I was googling pictures of Louis CK because I’m going to start writing recaps of his show…and well…I stumbled across this picture on Liezl Estipona’s website!
Recognize that arm and that Picasso tattoo? Liezl takes a lot of great pictures of the LA comedy scene. Check out more of her work on her site!
Dennis’s Guide to Public Restrooms
When you’re on the road all day it’s inevitable – it’s going to come up. You’re going to need to use a public restroom. Quite possibly for #2*. I have spent the last several years at a job that requires me to drive all over Michigan and Ohio, and I have spent plenty of time in public bathrooms. So I give to you Dennis’s guide to public restrooms!
Are you a public restroom novice? Don’t know which ones to use and which to avoid? There is an easy rule of thumb. When stopping for a much-needed potty break, refer to this scale:
#1. – Retail stores – usually the cleanest – most major retailers have a policy about cleaning them at least daily, and the employees themselves have to use them.
#2. – Restaurants – Usually pretty gross. With the constant flow of people in and out, the staff is too busy to keep them clean. Especially at fast food places, those are the worst. Try to avoid.
#3. – Gas Stations – Almost always Gross. I have seen things in gas station bathrooms that would horrify some.
#4. – Rest Stops – Last resort. Gross, rarely cleaned, and if rumors are to be believed, havens for illicit behavior (dirty sex stuff).
Retail bathrooms are the best, but some are better than others. My top 4 by chain:
#4. – K-mart – Not terrible, it’ll do in a pinch. The toilet paper at K-mart is pretty weak, though.
#3. – Target – Usually decently clean, but fairly busy bathrooms. Not for the shy.
#2. – Toys R Us – Surprisingly clean and usually empty in my experience.
#1. – Wal-mart – Surprising, right? It seems, though, that they have a several times a day cleaning policy there. Rarely do I ever see a dirty bathroom at a Wal-mart. Also, they usually have two sets of restrooms in a store, one in front, and another in the back by layaway or site-to store pickup. The one in back is usually less busy, mostly used by employees. Also, if you have no shame, they often have a family bathroom in the back, which affords you a totally private experience.
Of course, your results may vary. Get out there, don’t be afraid to poop in public! Remember, everybody poops!
* (#2 is code for poop.)
More Misadventures: Feeling Grumpy in Bowling Green
I don’t understand how people can cancel gigs last minute. I found out that I can’t do my show the first week in August earlier in this week, so I called to take care of that. I not only called to notify Roger Feeney, but I also offered some possible solutions. There was no way I’d call him on the morning of the show to let him know that I wasn’t going to be there that night. That’s ridiculous. I truly believe how you conduct your business off stage is just as important as how you conduct yourself on stage.
Steve Sabo had a last minute cancellation last Tuesday at Grumpy Dave’s in Bowling Green, Ohio so I offered to pick it up. I love that show. In all the years I’ve been doing it, I think I only had one bad show and that was actually the previous time that I was there! And that was because of me. It was my first time headlining for Sabo IN FRONT of Sabo and I let my nerves get to me. Plus, I followed some guy who did a song parody about stinky vaginas or something equally as absurd.
When I got to Grumpy Dave’s Tuesday night a bunch of the local comedians were working around a table helping each other out with new bits and whatnot. I can’t express how much I love that! I am so optimistic about the future of comedy. It’s fun to see these really talented people working as a team to bring up the overall quality of the art. That happens here at Laff Tracks too I guess.
The Bowling Green/Toledo comedians are really good and a lot of fun…and the audience is super as well. I had a fun night. I always feel like what I do onstage is a little bit of Pardo and a pinch of Maron served over a bed of Kashian. That night I flavored with a little extra Pardo and had a lot of fun. It’s nice when going to the crowd works because they know that I’m never going to get too mean….unless it’s to the other comedians, but then I spend 30 minutes apologizing and making sure we’re still cool!
This week the only thing I have scheduled is a set at the Painted Lady on Thursday night. I’m planning on doing a bunch of new stuff! I hope to see you there.
Remembering Club Bart
On stage at Bart's years and years ago.
I just scrapped about two pages worth of feelings about the closing of Club Bart.
Club Bart was a great place for food and music. Bart who owned the place loves both and that showed. Many years ago PJ Butland brought comedy to Bart’s. Later Joel Fragomeni took it over and turned it into a free comedy show that more often than not was less of a comedy show and more of a freak show. Joel sort of ran the show with his friend Corey Hall who aren’t terribly welcoming to new comedians or anyone else they view as lesser than them. They’re bullies. The comedy show at Bart’s was often times a very negative place.
With all that being said, I’m glad that I did a set there just about every Thursday night my first year as a comedian. I feel like being a Bart’s veteran made me a tougher comedian and prepared for everything I could ever expect to face on the road.
The end of the comedy shows there is like a funeral for an uncle who molested you, you’re glad it’s gone, but you kind of miss it because it was family.
Off the Mike 