Random Thoughts

Real original title John. My next blog entry will be called "This is a Blog Entry."

1) First, congratulations to my friend and fellow comic Mark Morfey (www.markmorfey.com) for his appearence on "The Bob and Tom Show" last Thursday. Mark's a great guy who's helped me get a lot of work and I couldn't be happier for him. Getting on that show is a huge deal for a comic and hopefully it'll open up more opportunities for him.

2) Because they know I do comedy, I've had several people at work ask me how I feel about the show "Last Comic Standing". Here's my take on it for what it's worth. If you're a comic looking to break through, getting on that show is huge. It can really open up doors for you. My only problem with it, is the way the show is getting billed. I've heard the network say several times that "these are the best comics in the country". Well first thing, comedy is very subjective. Secondly and it's not like this is a big secret, many of the comics that are picked to be on that show aren't necessarily strong stand-ups but rather comics who NBC feels they can build a sitcom around. Which is great, NBC is in the business of making money and what comic doesn't dream about having their own show. If you can get on LCS and it opens up doors for you, more power to you. I just think the way the show is being billed, is a disservice to many of the terrific hard working comics today who are paying their dues in clubs all over the country. Now with that said, there have been some terrific stand-ups who have been on LCS and these are comics who've paid their dues like Chris Porter, who's a great comic and future star. I worked with John Heffron a couple of months ago in Tampa and he killed every night he peformed. I was very impressed and defintely learned a lot just by watching him. I'm also a big fan of Rich Vos, Dave Mordal and Rob Cantrell.

So what Im getting at is this, don't bill the show as "Here are the best stand-up comics in America", but rather, "Here are a group of comics who have some kind of back story that we can feel we can build a show around, and oh yeah btw many of them are really good stand-up comics who have paid their dues". (Damn that'd be a long ass title for a show). Because that's what the show is ultimately about, and there's nothing wrong with that. I'd love to have my own show but know I'm not carismatic enough for people to watch, except for my mom. And she'd only watch if Law and Order wasn't on. Damn you Sam Wasterson.
(Note: I will be at next year's LCS auditions and if I get voted in, I'll proclaim it to be the greatest show ever, because deep down inside I'm a hypocrite.)

3) Got to meet Don King a few weeks ago. He was very nice and I got to have my picture taken with him. So now the list of famous people I've met include: Don King, Cheryl Ladd and Flavor Flav. Here's hoping I run into Corey Haim.

4) The finals for the "Best of Saint Louis" contest is at the Westport Funny Bone this Tuesday. Go on over and check it out. My money's on Bill Davis.

Bloomington

It's late and I've been procrastinating with my blogging. In my last entry, I promised my four incredibly bored readers I'd talk more about the "big deal" which will occur later this summer. Sadly this is not it. More on that later. This entry is to talk about the past couple of weeks, in particular last Thursday which was a very important milestone in my brief and insignificant comedy career.

First, before I get into what happened on Thursday, I performed at the Westport FunnyBone for their last two open mic nights. Both sets were real solid. I tried some new stuff out and there are a couple of jokes which have promise. After last Tuesday's set, Greg Warren, a very talented comic out of Saint Louis came up to me and called one of my premises "F___kin' brillaint." He told me I need to explore the premise more and there's a lot more there. I totally agree and it was really nice of him to give me the advice. He didn't have to and that meant a lot.

Now about Thursday. That night I featured at the Bloomington, IL. Funny Bone. It was the first time I'd ever featured in a real comedy club. Mark Morfey helped me get the gig. Mark's been great to me. He's helped me get a lot of work over the last couple of years and hopefully there'll be a day when I can return the favor. I met up with him in Collinsville and we headed to Bloomington. When we got there, we were both suprised to see our names on the marquee outside the club. Not only that, but there were posters and flyers all over the club with our pictures on them. I learned later that our pictures were on the Bloomington website.

Before the show, I met the two owners. Both were very nice. It was "College and Industry" night, so we ended up having over two hundred drunk college students. At first I was worried my act wouldn't go over too well because I talk alot about being married, etc. I wasn't sure how the audience would react. However once I got on stage, my fear quickly died down. My set went great. I even did some new stuff and it got a good response. Mark told me later that my "bike bit" got a ten second applause break. After my set, the owners came up and congratulated me. They told me they defintely want me to come back. I also had several audience members come up and tell me how much they enjoyed my set. When several attractive college women came up to me and told me how much they enjoyed my set, I couldn't help but think about what Elsa said one night in Irvine after an attractive girl came up and told me how much she liked my set. Elsa said "Ah you have groupies, how cute." Yes she has a way of keeping everything in perspective. The whole night was a blast. Mark absolutely killed, so did Greg Larson who opened the show. Before we left, Mark and I grabbed some posters and flyers. The show was professionally videotaped, so I should have a good tape to send out after this. We'll see.

Well that's it for me. I'm too tired to write anything clever. That's what happens when you spend thirteen hours painting a f___n' basement to get ready for the "big deal" which will happen later this summer. See that's how you do it, you end this entry with a reference to a future blog entry, thus creating a cliffhanger effect and getting the reader to want read more and...

Oh who am I kidding, nobody gives a rat's ass about what I'm doing.

Happy Fourth of July everyone.