Blog Archives
My interview with Mike Bobbitt!
Mike Bobbitt is arguably one of the funniest, if not the funniest comedian working in Detroit. In his eight years in the business he’s already performed in numerous comedy festivals and worked with some of the biggest names in the business.
The remarkable thing about Mike Bobbitt is that he’s able to walk the fine line between speaking to a very specific crowd while maintaining a level of accessibility to the masses.
Mike currently wrapped production on the television show that he and his wife wrote. I had a chance to talk to him while he was in Madison, Wisconsin.
Mike, let me start by saying you look really handsome.
Thank you!
You manage to be both cute and cuddly and ruggedly handsome at the same time. That’s quite a feat.
I appreciate that, but this is already starting off a little weird.
Mark Ridley: King of the Comedy Castle
Here’s my first interaction with Mark Ridley. My tenth show was the open mic at the Comedy Castle in March of the year I started. I didn’t get back on stage again there until eight months later. For months and months I was convinced I did something to upset Mark and that was why I wasn’t invited back. Finally in November I built up the courage to talk to him face to face. I told him my concern. He laughed and showed me the humongous list of people who call in every week to go on stage. He assured me that I was fine and then he put me on stage again that following week. From day one for me, Mark Ridley has been a class act!
Over the years he’s done so many things for me. He let me and photographer Trever Long shoot my most recent headshots inside the Castle. My Desperate Houseguys performed there a handful of times for special events. Last month we shot the opening sequence of Deadpan there with a full cast and crew along with thirty extras! Most importantly, he’s been a friend and a mentor. Mark is a straight shooter. It was a pleasure sitting down with him and talk about the business and the Laugh Detroit Comedy Festival which kicks off tomorrow with David Alan Grier.
Hey Kids…Twitter!
Kobe here. Let’s cut right to the chase: I love Twitter. I was a dyed-in-wool, take-no-prisoners Twitter basher for a long time (I don’t need to know what Johnny Tweetdeck is doing every second of the day) but I’ve since become an ardent convert. Turns out it isn’t a relentless onslaught of ZOMG JUSTIN BIEBER hysteria; there are plenty of interesting and entertaining people on there, I just needed to look. I wouldn’t be surprised if we all follow a lot of the same comedians and entertainers: Paul F. Tompkins, Louis CK, Sarah Silverman and so on; the big boppers. But I’m always on the look out for the hidden gems. I’ll share some of mine and you can share some of yours. In no particular order…
@beatonna.In no particular order except for this one, I should say, as Kate Beaton’s Twitter is by far my favorite. She’s the cartoonist responsible for Hark, A Vagrant! an absolutely terrific webcomic. Her Twitter is one-part humorous observations and one-part cartoon strip, as she regularly posts impromptu single-panel comics to it.
@jenny_wade. Jenny Wade is best known (possibly only known) for her role as District Attorney Liz Traynor on the short-lived TV show The Good Guys. This is the textbook definition of a hidden gem, as I would never in a million years have thought to follow her, but a retweet of something she wrote got me to mosey over and check out her twitter, which is one of the funniest out there.
@neiltyson. Another retweet revelation. I’d seen Neil deGrasse Tyson as a guest on the Colbert Report a couple of times and thought he was amusing, and now enjoy his tweets. He’s an astrophysicist and tweets mostly to point out scientific inaccuracies in news reporting or to put scientific theory and factoids in layman’s terms. Funny plus I learn shit.
@Marylandmudflap. I have no idea who the fellow behind MarylandMudFlap is, but I do know he’s hilarious. Receive it!
And of course Michael Lynn Bobbitt can be found @offthemike.
Have a follow suggestion? Some fount of hilarity and entertainment that not enough people know about? Post it in the comments below!
Bill Bushart
Every comedian in Michigan knows who Bill Bushart is. He is the Godfather of our comedy scene. He’s mentored either officially or unofficially just about every one of us at one point in time or another. Not only is he a phenomenal comedian who takes charge of a room like no other, he’s also the Marketing Director at Joey’s Comedy Club in Livonia. There are two vastly different sides to Bill’s persona. There’s the on stage Pitbull who owns a comedy show and then there’s the St. Bernard who will make sure you are safe on your journey.
Photo by Trever Long
Off stage, Bill is the person I try to model myself after. When a newer guy comments that I’m considered one of the nicer people in the scene, I merely tell them that I’m just returning the favor that Bill did for me. And honestly, I wasn’t always this nice. I’d shit on newer guys and Bill would call me on it reminding me that he remembers when I sucked. Bill not only is a great comedian, but also a great human.
I sat down with Bill before one of the shows at Joey’s Comedy Club. If you only know him from his act, this look into the man behind “Uncle Billy” may surprise you. Now go pick up your hair.
WWLD: What Would Lynne Do?
Saturday night I performed at the beautiful Pix Theatre in Lapeer with my friend Lynne Koplitz. I’ve worked with Lynne a couple of times at the Ann Arbor Comedy Showcase and she’s always completely fantastic. The last time we were together in Ann Arbor, the people from the Pix asked her if she’d come back and do a show there. Craig, who runs the Pix, has a philosophy. Just because they’re in a small town, doesn’t mean the people should be deprived from great entertainment. You only have to look back as far as last month and you’ll see they were bringing in icons like Leon Redbone. It’s a nice theatre!
Quick Question…What Was Your First Time On Stage?
I popped a question to a bunch of my comedian friends. What was your first time on stage? We’ll start with mine. Mine was Club Bart in Ferndale, Michigan at an open mic show on February 6th, 2003. My comedy class graduation show was on the 18th at Joey’s Comedy Club in Livonia and I was so sick with the flu that I puked repeatedly on the way there and immediately after.
Sexy Picture!
Thank you Garri Madera for sneaking this picture last night at Joey’s.
Backstage at Joey's with Jeff Dwoskin.
Too Tsunami?
Gilbert Gottfried got fired by Aflac for jokes he made about Japan on his Twitter. How do you weigh in on this?
My personal feeling is that Gilbert is famous for controversial comedy, not just for doing cartoon voices. Aflac had to have known the risks in hiring him. While I think the timing for the jokes is poor, I think firing him may be overreacting.
Why Computers Can’t Make It as Stand-Up Comics
Check out this article from Live Science that was forwarded to me from my friend Laura. Turns out our messy and inconsistent minds make us better comedians. I’m glad my broken brain does something right!
Laura and I both worked in radio together and I’m sure at one point we both thought computers couldn’t take our DJing jobs. We were wrong!
This probably goes back to my snobby article, but I suppose a computer could analyze the biorhythms of an audience and regurgitate a “best of” act of other comedians’ acts. Maybe they could call it the MenC.A. 2000.
Can Heckling Be a Two Way Street?
My buddy posed a question to me yesterday morning. At first it sounded to me like he was asking why it was okay for a comedian to talk to someone in the audience, but it wasn’t okay for a person in the audience to talk to the comedian. My knee jerk response was that people pay to hear the comedian speak, the comedian never pays to listen to the audience member speak.
Mike Stanley
Mike and I take a walk down memory lane and discuss how things were different when we started and how things are currently in the open mic scene in Chicago. I think there’s a lot of really good information here particularly to the newer guys doing comedy. So I hope you enjoy and pick up something useful.
Without any huge credits, Mike Stanley has managed to become an “event” comic. When he comes to town, his loyal fan base often times sells out shows. I’ve been friends with Mike since his start in comedy and one thing he had from the very beginning was a ridiculously strong work ethic. He was always constantly writing and perfecting his craft. Years later, Mike’s work ethic has carried over to the business side of things. He’s a master of self promotion and is still continuously working on new creative endeavors in addition to his rock solid stand up.
Mike and I sat down at the Comedy Castle and talked about his work ethic, the differences between Chicago and Detroit comedy as well as the hardships of the business.
Shooting the Shit with Filmmaker John Anton
I’ve been friends with filmmaker John Anton since I was in high school. Back then he wasn’t the movie guy, he was the owner of the legendary punk rock/heavy metal club Blondies. I’ve stayed friends with John for over twenty years and one thing has always been consistent, he’s a class act. Over the past ten or so years he’s been working hard on the ambitious film Guns, Drugs and Dirty Money. It’s a movie that features a cast of well over 100 parts and action sequence after action sequence that rivals the stuff you see in big blockbuster movies like Stallone’s Expendables.
I had a chance to sit down with John in his office at the Token Lounge while we were filming my television show Deadpan. Always the generous friend, John was letting us film a large chunk of our show in his club without asking for anything in return. He’s a guy I’m proud to call my friend. I’m equally proud of him because Guns, Drugs and Dirty Money has finally come out and has already generated a lot of buzz.
Mikey Mason “She Don’t Like Firefly”
Here’s the final version of the video for Mikey Mason’s “She Don’t Like Firefly”.
Mikey and I worked together last year in Fort Wayne and I knew pretty instantly that he and I were going to be friends for a long, long time! He’s pretty cool….in a totally dorky way!
If he’s ever in your area, do yourself a favor and go see him live. The show he puts on is one part comedy show, one part rock concert. It’s a very fun night out! You can find out when and where he’s playing at www.mikeymason.com!
What else is cool is that Morena Baccarin has already plugged Mikey’s video on her twitter and sent it to Nathan Fillion and Jewel Staite. I really hope this is the thing that breaks Mikey into the big time! At the very least, Joss Whedon should like Mikey do the theme song to his next project! Ooh, I wonder if he’d cover the Firefly theme for me next time we play together!
Oh yeah, and don’t think for a second I haven’t noticed that Mikey bears a striking resemblance to my friend Casey Orr, bassist for Rigor Mortis, Burden Brothers, Blohole and of course Gwar!
Mikey on the left, Casey on the right
Remembering Mike Destefano
Mike DeStefano died Sunday night. I never met him, but I wish I had. I first heard him on The Moth storytelling podcast. Mike had a couple stories on there that I remember. He had one that really stuck with me. It was about how he was visiting his wife in hospice. They were both HIV positive, but hers turned into full blown AIDS and she was dying. He ended up buying a motorcycle and took her for one last ride. It was such an inspiring story about living life to its fullest all the way up to the end. It was a story about love. It was a story about saying goodbye. It was a story that touched me. At the end of the stories on the Moth, the host Dan Kennedy comes on and gives a little bio about the speaker. He said that Mike DeStefano was a comedian living in New York. I had a feeling he would be the kind of comedian that I respected and strived to be more like. I had a feeling his comedy was raw, original and honest.
It wasn’t until about a year later when Marc Maron interviewed Mike on the WTF Podcast that I really sought out his work. I was glad that the same story touched Marc like it touched me. It’s a powerful story that even paraphrasing it for Christine one night brought tears to her eyes. In the interview, Mike explained how he became a comedian. He was giving AIDS awareness lectures. When people would ask silly questions, he’d give silly answers. “Can I get AIDS from my dentist?” “Only if your dentist is fucking you in the ass.” I found out Mike had been on Last Comic Standing. To me, that didn’t bring legitimacy to Mike. Mike brought legitimacy to what is essentially a game show. Mike DeStefano was the real deal.
This time I wrote a note reminding myself that I wanted to research Mike’s work and see what I could find. I ended up downloading his CD “OK Karma” off iTunes. Much like the performer himself, the CD is raw and rough around the edges. He has moments where he rants and it doesn’t really hit strong with the audience. He wraps up that rant with announcing that what the audience is just heard is going on the CD. It’s a real moment. A polished CD from a punk rock comic would sound…wrong.
Coincidentally, Saturday morning I was driving with a local punk rock spoken word artist Jimmy Doom. The night before Jimmy was talking about wanting to take a stab at comedy. His spoken word CD is raw and witty and I’m sure he’ll do great. I wanted to introduce Jimmy to DeStefano’s work because I knew they shared a similar sensibility. It always brings me joy when I can make someone laugh, whether it is from something I said or something I played for someone. Jimmy cracked up.
After the Maron interview, I found Mike on Facebook, friended him and sent him a message thanking him for sharing his story and being inspiring. He never wrote back and that’s okay. I know I’m not the only person he touched. I wish I would’ve gotten the chance to work with him. I wish I would’ve gotten the chance to share a stage with him. And I wish I would’ve gotten the chance to say thank you. We all overcome adversity in our lives. Mike overcame losing his soul mate, battling a life ending disease and drug addiction and he did it all with a smirk and a middle finger in the air. It kind of makes a lot of my problems seem small by comparison. If there is a heaven, I hope the first thing Mike said to God was, “Fuck you, I beat HIV! I win! Now where’s my old lady, mother fucker?”
Off the Mike 