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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.
Juggling with Lushes LaMoan
I’m fascinated by all branches of performing arts. Stand up comedy and burlesque share a lot of the same roots in show business, both starting back in the vaudeville circuit nearly a century ago. A few years ago I did a Halloween show with my friends the Detroit Rockabilly band Graveside Manner. Also on the bill was the burlesque troupe Detroit Dizzy Dames led by the wonderful Lushes LaMoan. We became Facebook friends and I couldn’t help to notice how incredibly busy she constantly is.
For me, the hardest part about being a performer is figuring out how to juggle so many different schedules. We’re all essentially small business owners trying to sell a product, and that product is ourselves. Somehow Lushes manages to not only juggle the business of Lushes LaMoan, but is additionally teaching burlesque and serving as the Branch Director of the Detroit chapter of Dr. Sketchy which is an “anti-art school” featuring local models and burlesque performers, and she manages to juggle it all very well! She’s one of the hardest working performers in the city and has already made a name with herself with noteworthy accomplishments like being featured on the cover of the 2010 Metro Times Lust issue.
I think I may have figured out how she does it all when I had a chance to catch up with her at a recent Dr. Sketchy event at the Scarab Club downtown. She multi-tasks incredibly well! We talked while she arranged snacks for all the attendees, delegated chairs being set up for the artists, and fielded questions from a long line of people.
The first I remember meeting you was that Halloween show a few years back.
Yes. I started managing the Detroit Dizzy Dames when SPAG went on hiatus. It started with myself and a few of the girls not wanting to stop doing burlesque. We carried on what we do and did it a little differently. So we started the Detroit Dizzy Dames and that show was the Halloween Hootenanny and that was actually our very first gig.
Jeff Scheen is Weird
I wasn’t born a slave. I become one after the great robot wars that started September 1st, 2011. The human race was either obliterated or taken aboard the giant robot space ships and sent to work as gardeners on the third moon of Flab Quarv 7. My former life as a comedian who rocked the socks off of audiences all across the United States and parts of Canada were behind me. Now, I was trimming hedges and pulling weeds for the gluttonous Flab Quarvians.
The days were long. One Flab Quarv 7 day is equal to 3 ½ Earth days. Oh, how I miss the Earth. The nights were longer. Sure, they were only a standard Earth night long, but they felt longer because I was a slave gardener and only had a hoe to fend off the vicious nocturnal Jagerbeasts.
I’ll never forget the night when a little bit of home came rushing back to me in the form of a friendly bearded face. At first I didn’t recognize the bearded man, although his intense glare was eerily familiar. It wasn’t until he took off his fake beard, which he wore at night because Jagerbeasts are afraid of facial hair, that I realized it was my old friend the great Mike O’Keefe! I was excited to see him. Mike was always like a little brother to me. Before we could greet each other a space rake violently crashed into his skull killing him instantly.
Behind him, stood Jeff Scheen. He had blood in his eyes. After he wiped his eyes clean he recognized me and asked where Mike O’Keefe went. Fearful for my life and not wanting to be the bearer of bad news, I changed the subject and asked Jeff to tell me his tale. Still clutching his bloodied space rake, Jeff sat down beside me and we began to talk. The other slaves were fascinated and joined in the questioning. Here is a transcript of Jeff’s final words to our ragtag group.
I remember back on Earth you told me once that you slept in your parents’ room until you were 12. Is that where all your fucked up material came from?
I guess. I destroyed their sex life. Killed it. Because as soon as I was out of there they had a kid. My sister is 12 years younger than me. I was the only child for 12 years.
How did you rebel?
I always wanted a sister.
Guess the Pedestrian
I spend a lot of time driving for work, and as anyone who does knows, you need to do something to alleviate the boredom of the road. That’s why I came up with the game Guess the Pedestrian.
It’s a simple game, and you can play it alone or with friends.
In my experience, unless you live downtown in a big city, there are only a few kinds of pedestrians out and about:
- People too poor to afford a car
- People with DUI’s
- Kids
People exercising don’t count as pedestrians – they’re doing something else all together.
The fun is trying to guess which type each pedestrian you see is. The girl in a Sepultura T-shirt and pajama pants pushing a baby stroller and smoking a cigarette? No car. The 40-something guy carrying a 12-pack and a bag of groceries down the street? DUI. Keep tabs on how many of each you see, or with a buddy, each pick a type, and see who gets to 10 first. It’s fun for everyone! Except, of course, those poor pedestrians.
My New Favorite Podcast: Affirmation Nation with Bob Ducca
I have started listening to an excellent new podcast over the past few weeks. Listeners of Comedy Bang Bang will recognize the character Bob Ducca from his frequent appearances on that podcast. Affirmation Nation with Bob Ducca has turned what I thought might have been a one-note character into a 5-day-a-week 3-5 minute dose of awesome. Seth Morris (the man behind Bob Ducca) is a comedy genius as far as I’m concerned.
Every weekday, Bob shares a story, gives us a health tip, responds to listener e-mails, or reviews a health product on the show. Every episode is funny, often in an unexpected way, like when Bob started recording an episode and got kicked out of the recording studio by the person who had booked it, or when his guided meditation turned into 2 minutes of the sounds of him removing all of his medical devices before he could begin.
I laugh out loud at this podcast more often than I do with any of the other comedy podcasts I listen to.
If you’re not listening to Affirmation Nation, check it out on iTunes or at Earwolf.com.
Quick Questions: What’s Your Favorite Movie About Comedy?
I live, breath, eat and sleep comedy. Movies about comedy speak to me. From the flawed Punchline to a classic like Annie Hall, I love movies about comedians. The best movie to capture the essence of comedy in a small town doing a one nighter has got to be The Godfather of Green Bay. But my all time favorite is Funny People. People knocked it, but I love it. My nightmare is that I’ll end up friendless like Adam Sandler’s character. I try really hard to be nice to everyone, but I know sometimes I piss off my friends and that makes me feel terrible. I need my them. Anyway, I asked my peers what their favorite movie about comedy is. Check it out:
Brad Austin: Comedian. (Mike note: An essential documentary for every comedian to watch.)
The third chair…the great Pat Francis: Mr. Saturday Night.
Kristy Rock: When Stand Up Stood Out. Read the rest of this entry
Live From New York…It’s Ben Konstantin!
Ben Konstantin has been my peer from the very start of my time in comedy. Like I said previously regarding my friendship with Bob Phillips and Steve Lind, Ben is a guy who I don’t see me interacting with in any other world outside of comedy. We’re just two very different people. Honestly, he rubbed me the wrong way until I started to get to know him. What I viewed as off putting, was really just focus and determination. I’m glad I managed to overcome my preconceived biases and got to become friends with Ben before he moved to New York. I’m a fan of the guy and I was curious to see how the Big Apple was going to treat him. A handful of Detroit guys have made the jump to New York, but I wasn’t as close with any of them as I am Ben. So now that he’s a couple months into his new residence, I picked his brain.
How is comedy treating you so far out there?
It’s been tough and great at the same time. Recently I had a week where I was on stage seven times in five days and mostly good shows.
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!
George Washington!
My brothers showed me this video, and I thought it was great. As far as I know, it is historically accurate.
Shut Up, Internet! #5
This is the fifth in a series of posts on internet trends or memes I think are just plain stupid. Please be advised that my opinions do not necessarily reflect those of Mike Bobbitt, Off the Mike, any other contributors, Stephen Hawking, the United States Navy, M&M Mars, the Newsboy Legion, my mother, my dog, or my wife.
Taking Comedians Seriously on Twitter
Twitter is a lot of fun, and I really enjoy following my favorite comedians on there. The problem I have lately is the deluge of stupidity coming from other Twitter users. Not a day goes by that one of the comedians I follow doesn’t retweet an idiotic answer to a rhetorical question, someone accusing them of being dumb or offensive because of a joke they made, or explaining something to them like they’re a child because the feigned ignorance for humor.
You are reading posts made by comedians. They are usually trying to be funny. Let’s all just take that for granted. It’s usually pretty obvious when they are being serious, otherwise it’s safe to assume anything they say is for humor. If you’re following your senator, by all means, take him or her seriously all the time and tweet your outrage to them. If a comedian offends you or says something you don’t like, unfollow them, but don’t send them a message about it. They’re just going to retweet it to show the rest of us how stupid you are. Yes, we will all look down on you from our lofty comedy nerd towers.
Why do idiots try to ruin everything for us?
Off the Mike 