Catching up & Shows # 36, 37, 38, & 39

Wassup everybody! Yes, I have been neglecting this little missive of mine for a while now. But I've sort of got a lot going on right now. And I should probably take the time now to admit that I realize I'm not gonna be able to really even get close to 100 this summer. And considering I'm really not going to be able to doing much standup at all once the school year starts, I think it's gonna be best if I just say this is going to be the summer of as many shows I can do, and I'll still do more than most. Admittedly, I won't even be trying to grind it out quite at the level I was. I', gonna have to take a lot of evenings actually to get my first draft done of Alice. But I'll still tell you guys about every show, get video of as much as I can, and continue to have an amazing summer along the way. Sound good? Great!
After I got back from San Diego is was a few days before I was able to make it back out to some shows, do Wednesday night was my first show back.
Show # 36: Pepperbelly's, Fairfield, CA. The first spot was open, of course, so I took it. And I tried a pretty new set. With some new stuff mixed in with some old stuff. Got a pretty good response, I felt. Hung out for a few minutes after my set. But got back in the car pretty quick to get to...
Show # 37: McGrath's Pub, Alameda, CA. Yeah, this is definitely one of my favorite rooms right now. It seems pretty consistantly full with regulars and a good bunch of comics. I don't remember exactly when I went up. 3rd, 4th, 5th? Something like that. But I had a pretty good set. People were laughing. And OJ was hosting. That guy brings so much energy to a room when he's hosting it can't help but be a good night. By the end of the night, everybody was so chill, we ordered some food from La Pinata, Rick closed down the bar and we all hung out for a while. It was a pretty bad ass night, actually. Long, but bad ass.
Show # 38: Purple Onion, San Francisco, CA. Thursday was a different story altogether. I was really excited to be back at the Onion but, to be honest, it was a little disappointing. Not that the night wasn't good and I not that I didn't have a good time and not that I didn't give those 5 minutes my all, and I got a pretty good response from the audience that was there. It just wasn't quite the high of last time. The one really cool thing, my friend Elizabeth, a friend of mine from school, came along to support which I greatly appreciated.
Show # 39: Impala Lounge, San Francisco, CA. Friday night was frickin' awesome. Impala is a really cool room. My buddy and soon to be room mate, Mackie guy, came with. "Bears!" We knew it was going to be a fun night when right before the show started, some off duty day shift strippers walked in and started being really loud. Obviously, they were about to get messed with all night. I went up third and they were still there, so I started doing my fat stuff and waited for them to get loud, then, since we had a cordless mike, I went out and starting messing with them. They were talking to these guys in business suits by the bar, so I mentioned that they were probably looking for a sugar daddy type situation, or at least trying to work some money from these guys and asked if they were aware of the seduction technique known as Whispering. Then I demonstrated the close up, breast graze whisper technique on one of the guys. That shut'em up for a few minutes, but I had to yell at them one more time before my set was up. They left after my set. So Mackie and I hung out the rest of the night. A bunch of the Pepperbelly's comics were there, so it was cool to hang out with those guys in the city for once. So now you guys are all caught up.

Show # 35

Show # 35: Brainwash, San Francisco, CA.  Last night was awesome!  For no other reason than when I got off work, and checked my phone, my friends Kristin and Matt had left me a message saying they wanted to meet me in the city and see a show.  Yay!  So we met at the Brainwash, and as per usual, settled in for the night.  The Brainwash itself was pretty uneventful, though.  I got up about half way through the night, like 9:30ish, and my set went pretty well.  Got a lot of laughs.  Forgot to try out a few tags I'd wanted to throw in(thats why you should always write everything down people) but there will be more shows.  Then, I felt a little bad leaving pretty quick after I went up.  I usually try and hang out for most of the night.  But the prospect of getting home and in bed was just too appealing.  Plus I had to get up early this morning and do some packing and run somme errands and whatnot before I flew out tonight to San Diego for some QT with the fam.  So that means nothing going this weekend, show wise, for me.  But I'll be back at on Monday.  Later.

Favorite line of the night:  "Yeah, I know what ya' mean, man.  My weekend girlfriend sounds like Cleveland from the Family Guy." - Tony Sparks

Shows # 33 & 34

So the Comedy Ride Along was in full effect last night. My friends Cammie and her boyfriend Juan came along. We went and had a little Chinese before and that was delicious. Then we hit the road for...

Show # 33: Pepperbelly's, Fairfield, CA. I was fortunate to get up early again this week. Second to be exact. Although, it was at that point that I realized I forgot my camera, though, so that sortta sucked. Especially cause I was trying new material. And it worked really well. But C'est La Vie. So we all hopped in the car and got on the way to Alameda for...

Show # 34: McGrath's Pub, Alameda, CA. Again, I'm quickly falling in love with McGrath's. The bar was full of people again. All laughing. All the comics there were having fun. Josef Anolin was hosting and he is friggin' hilarious. I tried the same material again, with similar response. A lot of laughs is what I'm saying. Anyways, Cammie and Juan were obviously getting a little tired. I mean it was only almost 1am. Just kidding, I was pretty tired myself. So we took off and headed home, content with 2 shows well performed, listening to Mike Birbiglia. Later.

Favorite line of the night: "Everybody wonders if Gary Coleman died of natural causes, and I am here to answer that question. Gary Coleman died of different strokes. The first was small, but the second was massive." - Josef Anolin

Shows # 30, 31 & 32

So the highlight of the night last night, was that my friend Doris Tetz, whom I always love spending time with, came with on the comedy ride-a-long.  I'm not sure if she realized exactly how long a night it was going to be at the beginning, but she ground it out like pro.  So we met at her hotel in Vallejo and hit the road to...

Show # 30: Tommy T's, Pleasanton, CA.  When we got to Tommy T's, only the 2nd and the 29th spot were still open.  So I, of course, took the 2nd slot.  And I thought my set went alright.  I always feel like I have to bring a lot of energy when I'm early in a show, or when the audience doesn't have much energy, both of which were the case this time.  So, basically I was really loud my whole set.  I did The Perfect Entrance and Billy Mays, which are both a lot of, let's not call it screaming, but loud talking to be sure.  Then we only hung out for one more comic before we were out the door.

Show # 31: Nick's Crispy Tacos, San Francisco, CA.  Got to Nick's and just hung out for a while, got some food, fought a little crime, almost got in a fight.  I had my camera set up, ready to record, and this table in front of Doris and I thought I was taping them and they got all angry.  Then the guy seemed to get angrier when I couldn't stop laughing at the situation.  Fortunately, his wife informed him that it was a funny situation, and he moved on. Again, once Travis got there, my cleanliness got me an early spot.  Also, after I watched the video back I realized that when I was talking about this summer both at Nick's and later at Churchward's, I shorted myself one show.  And there didn't seem to be as many comics at Nick's last night.  Maybe they all came after I left, but definitely a lot of the usuals weren't there.  I did my Bathroom Graffiti set which seemed to get a pretty good response, although I realized after I'd forgotten a whole bit in the middle.  No wonder I came up done with like 2 minutes of time left.  Anyways, again, didn't hang out too long.  We had to get to...

Show # 32: Churchward's Pub, Alameda, CA.  Churchward's started out to be a bit of disaster last night.  We got there, and there were only 3 comics there.  Justin had run out of gas on the way there and Nina had gone to go get him, so Josef Anolin was hosting.  And there was a drunk girl birthday party there, that wasn't happy at all that a comedy show had broken out in the middle of their celebration.  So Josef and the other guy and I each did our thing for a little while.  Not really getting any laughs, and talking over the party in the back.  So then we took a break and waited for Justin and Nina to get there.  Once they got there, Josef went ahead and started the show again.  Then the night turned to a decent night.  I thought I might be able to get up again and count a 4th show, but it started getting pretty late and the bar had to close.  Plus, Big Al and Greg Asdourian showed up, so they ended up closing out the night.  Anyways, tonight, I'm gonna go check out Andrew Moore's improv room, try and get a little improv into this summer.  Later.

Favorite line of the night: "Don't laugh at things that aren't jokes." - Doris Tetz

Shows # 28 & 29

I had a great time tonight!  I started the night with a plan, or more like the hope of a plan, I should say.  The plan was, 1.) Napa Valley Roasting Co. open mike at 6p.  2.) Monkey Club at 8p.  3.)  Hope I could get into Pirate Cat at 10p.  4.) Finally, I thought I heard there was going to be a late night open mike after the show at Il Pirata, at midnight.  Didn't exactly work out that way.  What did happen was...

Show # 28: Napa Valley Coffee Roasting Co., Napa, CA.  I love coming here!  And I felt bad sort of hitting and running there last night, but ya' gotta do what ya' gotta do.  They are always so supportive and ready to laugh there, and I get to put a little spoken word into my summer when I go there.  Plus, who doesn't love being laughed at by hipster high school kids and their parents.  It's like I'm back at summer camp, with caffeine.  I accidently dropped the F bomb at the end of my spoken word piece.  It doesn't really matter a whole lot(and it got a cheer from the hipster high school girls), but there were a few young kids there, and I'd meant to take it out.  Anyways...

Show # 29: Pirate Cat Radio, San Francisco, CA.  As I was leaving the coffee shop, I checked Juan's profile and his status said Monkey Club was cancelled.  So I tried a few leads on rooms I found on sfstandup.com and on openmike.org, but they both turned out to be rooms that didn't actually exist anymore.  So I headed into the city anyways, and went and checked out Impala Lounge, Eric Murphy's room.  Nicole Turley and Nina G were both doing the showcase and having a dual birthday party, so I wanted to stop by and say Happy Birthday(which is to say I wanted cake, especially considering I lost track of time and had to duck out to get to Pirate Cat and forgot to say anything to either of them).  Plus I'd never been, and I'd like to get in there sometime soon.  And it was a pretty cool room.  Right in the center of North Beach, nice stage, hot girls serving drinks.  Ran into Paul Brumbaugh there, too, and I think I am going to be on his radio show in a few weeks, so that'll be cool.  Then I headed over to Pirate Cat.  I was the first person there, besides Greg and Howard, the hosts.  And Greg immediately let me know I was going to get to go up, which made me happy.  Although, they were having some technical issues, so I went up first but it wasn't until like 10:45 or something.  Which turned out to be a good thing, cause it gave time for people to actually show up.  And my set went pretty good, I thought.  Nobody threw Pringles at me or anything, so it seemed a little uneventful.  But the process of wanting to get into a room, and then actually getting into it is always fulfilling, so that felt good.  When the show finished, I sent a text to Heather to see if that Il Pirata late night thing was happening.  She did the show there last night, with Kaseem Bentley and Jabari.  but she said that had just been a rumor, so I hung out with everyone at Pirate Cat for a while then called it quits and headed home.  Not quite the night I was hoping for.  But still pretty damn good.  Later.

Favorite line of the night:  "Oh, you're a software engineer?!  My Iphone has been a little gltichy recently.  Fix it now.  See?  How do you like it, lady?" - Chris Duncan

Show # 27

Show 27: Brainwash, San Francisco, CA. I had a good time tonight. I'm really starting to enjoy the collegial atmosphere going on in a lot of these rooms. So many good, young, and really interesting comics out there right now. Let's just hope they've got the endurance. Some of my favorites, Nina G is one. She's hilarious, she's got really smart humor and she's gorgeous. I might have a little crush on her, actually. She's grinding it out now too. I see her everywhere. And Jesse Elias might be the funniest guy around right now. I've never not seen that kid kill. And the Brain was as full as ever tonight. Heather and I signed up 34th & 36th, so we settled in for the night. I was really glad I brought my computer and my crime fighting tools tonight cause I had a lot of time to kill. I did see one of my favorite routines. I can never remember her name but this lady does this rant as Colonel Jessup from A Few Good Men, if he were a comic. Finally, Tony put me up about 10:45. I did the future/Billy Mays set, again. And it killed, again.
And I found what I think is going to be a really great Tuesday room. An improv show at the Dark Room, run by Andrew Moore, another ridiculously talented guy at so young its disgusting.
Tomorrow should be interesting too. There's a chance of 4 shows tomorrow night. And then on Saturday I'll be in a coma. Later.

Favorite line of the night: The Colonel Jessup routine.

Shows # 25 & 26

Another 2fer tonight! And Team Jesus was back in full effect! Heather carpooled with me and it was good to catch up. I'd definitely missed her. And she let me drive tonight, which was a big step for us. So I picked her up and we headed to...
Show # 25: Pepperbelly's, Fairfield, CA. Best possible scenario tonight at Pepperbelly's. Heather and I got up 1st and 2nd respectively, and both of us did a damn good job tonight warming up the crowd I think. I've been working on this set about the future and some Billy Mays jokes and it has been killing. Then we got outta there quick. Before we left though, Victor was kind enough to tell me the work has been paying off. I tried real quick to get in the showcase this month but its the weekend i'm in San Diego. Oh, well. There will be more. Anyways, on to...
Show # 26: McGrath's Pub, Alameda, CA. Another badass Justin Harrison room! Although OJ was hosting tonight and he did a damn fine job. He set up balloons and streamers and shit. He was tumbling around. It was a fun vibe. And had a friggin' awesome set. I did my mouthchipping a can of Pringles joke, and out of nowhere, someone at the bar throws a minican of Pringles at me. So I mouthchipped it. It made a hell of a mess, but it was comedy gold! I'm gonna have to plant a Pringles thrower at every show now. I thought at first I'd missed the record button, which was heartbreaking, but I got home and there was the footage. The whole thing just goes to show, if there is a god, he definitely a comic. And big news people. Guess who's going back to The Purple Onion! Aug. 19th! Thursday! Big Al's show. He was there tonight so I talked to him and got a spot. I've been wanting to get into a Big Al show for a while, a: cause he's funny, and b: If there's a food chain of the Bay Area comedy scene, Big Al is pretty close to the top of it. Definitely a man whose radar its good to be on. And on that note. Later.
Favorite line of the night: "Dream come true guys! I'm gonna woodchip this can of Pringles." - Yeah I quoted me. So what?

Shows # 23 & 24

Okay, so here's the deal. Last Friday, I tried to go and do Monkey Club and Pirate Cat Radio. Neither worked out. Monkey Club had no audience, or comics for that matter. And Pirate Cat, I thought a voucher from Juan would be enough to get me in, but Greg still wanted to see a set first. But in between, Juan The Comedian, Justin "Is Funny" Harrison, Paul Blumberg, and I sat down and started talking comedy, and just crackin' jokes and whatnot. So Juan threw out a voice recorder and we recorded it. Paul and Juan each have radio shows they do and both are going to air the conversation. Juan on Pirate Cat and Paul on FCC Free Radio(or something like that). When I find out all the details I'll let you guys know. But the show was indeed recorded, and will indeed air twice. which means, Show # 23 & 24? Count it. Later.

The Comedy Ride-A-Long!

So hears the idea.  The life of a comic can be a lonely life...Just kidding.  It can be, but thats not what this is about.  This is about you guys.  One of things I didn't really think about when I started this mission, was the fact that when I'm grinding it out like this, it's hard to tell a big group of people to come see me, when most of the time, I'm not hanging out in any one room for very long.  The answer?  The Comedy Ride-a-Long. Come with me.  For one night, come grind it out with me.  I think you'll have a lot of fun. The most that will be asked of you is to perhaps hold my camera.  I go pretty much every night of the week.  Tuesdays are the only iffy night.  So let me know if you wanna come on a Comedy Ride-a-Long!

Shows # 20, 21 & 22

Last night was intense and it felt pretty badass to be honest with you. Got outta work early so hit the road early and got up 2nd for...
Show # 20: Tommy T's Pleasanton, CA. Practiced my set the whole way down there. Last week, Ed made a point of mentioning that I went over time, so I wanted to make sure I had everything down, so I could get to my punchlines quicker, not ramble so much, and still get the laughs. Compressing a set like that, it really forces me to think about the exact wording and phrasing I use. Trying to figure out if its funnier to say "Masturbate" or "Jerk off" type stuff. Did pretty well, I thought, for an early set. I did my "Dying While Masturbating" rant which is pretty high energy, which I feel is always good early in a night. Hung out for a little after, but hit the road quick for...
Show # 21: Nick's Crispy Tacos, San Francisco, CA. Again, the drive was just me running my material. I had am entire new set of material, which I hadn't done in I don't know how long. So the nerves were up a bit. Plus my premise required some precise explanation, so again, I only have five minutes, so I gotta figure out the best phrasing. The smallest amount of words to explain the most. Sidenote: I'm really starting to love the food at Nick's. I had 2 crispy tacos last night, and they were amazing. And, maybe I'm just really starting to be part of the scene or whatever, but the vibe at Nick's is starting to be really cool, too. A lot of really good comics have been showing up. The place clears out of non-comics pretty quick thought. First few comics had to be clean again, so pretty much guaranteed my early spot. Second, to be exact. And the new stuff kinda worked. It wasn't as funny as it could of been, but I had a couple of people in back in stitches the entire time, so that always feels good. Anyways, got done, worked the room a bit, then got on the road for...
Show # 22: Churchward's Pub, Alameda, CA. Just found out about this room last week. It's run by Justin "Is Funny" Harrison(his real middle name, actually). I've seen him around a few places, the Brain, Pirate Cat, Monkey Club. And he is a really funny guy. In fact, towards the end of the night last night, he got up and he pretty much just worked the room for about 30 min. and killed the whole time. I, however, was first up. Did the same set I did at Nick's and, again, got some pretty good laughs. Polished the end a little bit. I did have a moment, right at the end, where for a brief moment, right in the middle of a sort of ranty Billy Mays impersonation, my mind just went absolutely blank. I watched back the tape it wasn't actually that long, but it felt like frickin' forever. Hung out the rest of night, and sort of fell in love with this room pretty quick. I don't know if it's always like that, but the people in the bar where amazingly responsive. Even hung out after and chilled with the comics for a while. Not too long, though. Not gonna lie. I found a new level of exhaustion last night. I haven't fallen asleep as quickly as I did last night in a while. It felt amazing though. Later.

Favorite line of the night: "So that means, if you're gay and you only like white men, that makes you an asian woman." - Josef Anolin