Comedy Notes

Random Comedy Notes From Beantown

2007-03-11T08:54:00.000-07:00

Things are going good so far. I've got some upcoming dates at the Comedy Studio, I recently performed two shows at Jimmy Tingle's Off Broadway Theater (Thanks to fellow comic Myq Kaplan for helping me get those and thanks to Jimmy Tingle for letting me perform) and I've been invited to participate in a local documentary about aspiring stand-up comics. Elsa and I've been getting out and seeing a lot of Boston. Next month we'll be back in St. Louis for a few days. We're really looking forward to seeing everybody again.

Congratulations to local Boston comics Shane Mauss and Dan Boulger for their strong showings at the Aspen Comedy Festival, especially Shane who won best stand-up.

Boston's a great comedy scene. There are open mics every night of the week. It's nice to be able to perform on the weekends even when you're not booked to perform at a regular show.

Yes I'm falling into the typical Boston sterotype. I've found myself completely addicted to Dunkin' Doughnuts coffee. I can't live without it.

The last five months I've been doing a lot of writing. I've got notebooks filled with ideas, mostly crap. Occassionally something decent will come along. Since I've been here, I've come up with 7 minutes of good solid material and another 7 minutes of what I'd call "B" material. That might not seem like a lot, but it's difficult to come up with material that's consistent everywhere you perform. For me I've been performing at clubs, bars and even an ice cream shop. It's great, everytime you get to a punchline, the blender goes off. One thing I'm trying to be is realistic with my material. Just cause a joke gets laughs once, doesn't mean it's going to get laughs all the time. That's why it's very important to me to get a realistic guage of how much material I have. I've also been writing with a couple of other comics and it's good to have other comedians to bounce ideas off of.

Next to the Comedy Studio, my favorite place to perform here in Boston is the Emerald Isle. Rich Gustus runs the best open mic in the city. All the comics are real supportive, it's a great place to try new material and hey there's free pizza.

Happy St. Patricks Day everyone. Thanks for reading.

JG

Who The Heck is John Harrison?

2007-01-21T08:44:00.000-08:00

It's been almost four months now since Elsa and I made the move to Boston, and so far so good. The new job's going ok. We're finally getting settled in here and so far we really like Boston. Now don't get me wrong, we still miss St. Louis very much. We were out there for the holidays and got to see everyone and had a great time.

As far as the comedy scene out here, I really like it. There's a lot of stagetime. I've been hitting as many open mics as I can, and have been invited by other comics to perform in shows. Last Friday I had my first paying gig here which was great. I also got a chance to perform at the Comedy Studio.

For those that don't know, the Comedy Studio is one of the best clubs around. It's been a great training ground for Boston comics. The producer of the Conan O'Brien show called it the "greatest comedy club on earth". It's one of the reasons why Elsa and I moved out here. So when I got booked to perform there, I wanted to make the most of it.

When I got to the club, I noticed they had my last name wrong. Instead of Garrison, they had Harrison. Now I could've said something, but my feeling was this, did it really matter what my last name was? I mean if I bomb, who cares if I bombed as John Garrison or John Harrison. Besides if I did bomb, I can always claim it wasn't me, it was that John Harrison guy. Man he's so unfunny, he should just give up.

So I went up on stage being introduced as John Harrison. My set went really well. I had a great time and the audience seemed to really like me. One thing about the Studio that I like is it brings in smart crowds. Afterwards I left the stage and the host said "Give it up one more time for John Harrison". Feeling confident afterwards, I went up to the owner of the club and said my last name was Garrison, not Harrison. He apologized and noted the correction. It was no big deal and I just thanked him for the opportunity to perform there. I did find it funny that my best set so far in Boston was as John Harrison not John Garrison.

I've been booked to perform at the Studio again. I just hope I do as well as John Harrison. That guy's pretty funny.

Riding the T

2006-10-15T08:41:00.000-07:00

I'm still trying to figure out this MySpace thing out. For some reason my blog is set to private. Not sure why, not like anybody's going out of their way to read this thing. Hell I have only two friends and I'm going out on a limb and say Tom's not checking out my site.

I've only been in Boston for a week but I got to tell you, riding the T's pretty entertaining. My wife and I live in Dorchester and you see some interesting characters at the station we go to. So far we've seen a grown woman stop and take a piss in public, and today I had to listen to a guy with Terrets growl and scream the word "F*ck" over and over again. After a while he started doing it in harmony. I started tapping my feet, it was better than most songs I've heard. This is s**t I never saw in St. Louis.

Now for making fun of the poor guy, watch me get stricken down by God with a bad case of Terrets. "F*ck me!"

Grettings From Boston

2006-10-08T09:34:00.000-07:00

Well I did it, I'm finally in Boston. After several years of talking about it, my wife and I made the plunge last weekend. So far so good. We're getting settled in, it's going to take a while to get used to everything but I think we're going to like it.

I also have a new MySpace page up. Don't have any friends yet but that's typical for me. I'm a loser even on the Internet.

I'm trying to get immersed in the Boston comedy scene, it's going to take time I know. Tonight I'll be at the Comedy Vault. Should be fun. I'm also looking into taking a writing workshop here in town and there's a stand-up workshop in NY I want to take but it probably won't be until early next year when I can take that. I have been doing a lot of writing and I'm feeling pretty inspired so that's a start.

We'll see what happens and hey so what if I end up failing at this, it's only my life. What's the big deal?

JG

Story of My Life

2006-09-26T16:47:00.000-07:00

So here I am, sitting on the floor, drinking a bud light, typing away at my laptop and staring at the empty surroundings I used to call home. Yeah nothing like staring at an empty house to make you suddenly realize you're about to make a life altering move. This Saturday, Elsa and I head out to Boston. The last few weeks have been real busy for us. We've been going around saying our goodbyes, hitting some of our favorite St. Louis places, and oh yeah there's that little thing about selling our house. Since this will be my last blog entry before I officially become a Bostonian, I wanted to share a few thoughts. I also wanted to talk about the "Real Men of Comedy" contest I was in last week at the Funny Bone.

First, I wanted to say thanks to all the comics here in St. Louis who I've met over the last couple of years. Alot of the guys have helped me get work, offered encouragement and have just been real supportive. I really appreciate it. One regret I do have, is I haven't been very sociable off-stage. Comics have made more of an effort to talk to me than I have with them. Problem is I'm a very shy person off-stage and this is something I've got to work on when I get to Boston. There are a lot of good young comics here in St. Louis. Come to a Tuesday open mic at the Westport Funny Bone and you'll see.

Secondly, I plan on having a new MySpace page up soon. I deleted my old one because that was the only way I could figure how I could set up a page in the MySpace Comedy section. I'm also working on re-doing my website. I know I've talked about in the past but with the whole Boston move, it's time for me to take it seriously.

Now about the RMOC contest last Tuesday, it went great. On Friday I got a call from Matt Komen who let me know I made the finals. I met Matt at the Judy Carter Conference last year and he told me about the contest. I got to the club with Jammer Bicks and hung out before the show. I met the other finalists which were Brett Clawson, John Doelling, Joe Lehnig and another comic who was from KC (I had not met him before and his name escapes me). Matt filled us in on what the order would be, how much time we'd be doing, etc. Dan Chopin hosted the show and did a great job warming up the crowd. Joe was the first contestant and he had a great set. I've seen Joe several times recently and he's really gotten strong as a comic. I was up next. I stood in back waiting to go on. Now let me say this, my goal that night was to have a really good set. If I won, great, but what was more important to me was just having a good show. The week before at the open mic, I didn't like my set. My energy was off and I felt like I just "went through the motions" when I performed. So I wanted to have a better showing especially since this would be the last time I perform at Westport for a while. I felt relaxed, confident and decided I was just going to have fun and see what happens. My set went really well. Afterwards I had several people come up and tell me how much they enjoyed it. I got some good compliments from the other comics including Greg Warren who was the headliner that night.

In the end Brett won and John Doelling got 2nd. Didn't bother me, they're two of my favorite comics and they both had great sets. After the show Jammer and I hung out at the Blues bar next door. I got some more compliments and then a really cool thing happened. Dave Carlow, who runs the Funny Bone, went out of his way to come over and tell me how much he enjoyed my set. He was really nice and we talked about the contest, etc. He then said he'd like for me to start working at the Funny Bone.

For over two years I've been trying to get noticed there and now when it finally happens, I'm moving halfway across the country. I just had to chuckle and think to myself...

Story of my life.

JG

RMOC Finals

2006-09-15T19:42:00.000-07:00

Hey everybody, I wanted to pass along a quick note. I will be in the finals for the "Real Men of Comedy Contest" at the Westport Funny Bone, Tuesday the 19th. This may be the last time I perform in St. Louis for a while, so for all those people who keep bugging me about when's the next time I'm performing in St. Louis, well, here you go.

Show starts at 8pm. Call the club and reserve tickets now (314-469-6692).

Hope to see everybody there.

JG

Off to Beantown

2006-09-10T17:18:00.000-07:00

Well so far I've had two people ask me to update my blog. Since that constitutes 50% of my loyal fan base, I figured I had no choice but to do so. I wish I could say I've been busy with comedy, but that'd be a big fat lie. Instead I've been busy getting ready for our big move. Yes it's official, Elsa and I will be moving to Boston at the end of the month. As some of you know, this has been in the works for a while but I didn't want to say anything until it became official.

As far as comedy is concerned, Boston is a good move for me. It's one of the best cities to develop as a comedian. A lot of great comics got their start there. There's a lot more clubs, a lot more open mics than St. Louis, etc. Also NY is only three and a half hours away.

(Disclaimer: The next paragraph was written by the over dramatic/whiny part of me)

The thing is this, I'm very proud of what I've accomplished comedy wise in the last three years. However I still have a ways to go. I need more stage time. I need to develop more. I need to define who I want to be as a comic (God I'm being really overdramatic about this.) This is a not a knock on St. Louis. It's a nice town to develop but the reality is there's one main club. If you get in with them then it's a lot easier to build a career here. If you can't, it's awfully difficult to get consistent stagetime. Any success I've had with comedy has been in spite of me living in Saint Louis. I've had to go outside the city to have the success I want. I'm on the outside here and it's time for me to make a fresh start somewhere else. I need to go somewhere where I can get more stagetime. Case in point, take three of the comics I peformed with in the "New Comics" competition at the 2004 NYUCF. One has performed on "Premium Blend", one has performed on "Live at Gotham" and the other was just at the Montreal Comedy Festival. Now don't get me wrong they're all very funny comics and they deserve the success they're getting, but I also know that one of the main reasons to why they've had the success they've had, is they are performing a lot more than I am. They're performing almost every night of the week. I'm lucky if I'm performing four times a month.

This is one of the main reasons for the move. Yes it'll be hard and I don't expect things to come easy. I'm going to have to prove myself just to get consistent stagetime, etc. But my feeling is this, I got to try and see if I can do it. If I don't, then I'll have this big "What If?" and then I'll be unhappy and then I'll be a whiny little bitch and then that'll irriate Elsa and.... You can see where this is headed. So I need to just go out and give it a chance. If I go out to Boston for 2-3 years and don't develop the way I envision, then it's because of one of two reasons:
1) I didn't work hard enough at it.
2) I just wasn't as good as I thought.
I could handle the second reason but the first one would kill me.

Thanks for reading.

John

Random Thoughts

2006-07-23T08:32:00.000-07:00

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

2006-07-02T22:18:00.000-07:00

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.

California Dreamin'

2006-06-02T09:31:00.000-07:00

Well I'm back in good ol' St. Louis and what can I say? It's rainy and hot. I haven't cut our lawn in almost two weeks and with all the rain, Elsa and I have a nice stretch of Everglades in our back yard. I had to hurdle an aligator when I took the trash out this morning. Other than that, things have been real good. Elsa and I are getting ready for the big deal which will occur this summer. More about that later in a future blog. That's right my 4 bored and lonely readers, there's more to come. Just like the "Sopranos", I might even have a season blog finale, I'm just that warped. (Unrelated Note: the season finale for the Sopranos is this Sunday and I can't wait. I love the show, everytime I watch it, hours later I'll be saying to Elsa "Why are you busting my balls?" It really pisses her off. Ah good times.)

As far as my week in Irvine, I've been thinking about how I want to talk about it. Do I just want to give a quick one paragraph synopsis for the whole week or do I want to be a huge tool and give a synopsis for every day? I decided to go for the overkill and give the day to day synopsis. My apologies in advance.

Wed - I flew into LAX early and got to my hotel. I had heard horror stories about the traffic but it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought. I hung out at the hotel, worked on my set and watched some tv. Got a small taste for what it's like to be on the road. Later on I headed down to the club, I left real early because I was worried about rush hour traffic, but again it wasn't too bad. The club's located in the Irvine Spectrum, which is this huge outdoor mall. It's really nice. For people here in St. Louis, the Spectrum is like a much larger and nicer Westport Plaza. When I got to the club, I checked in with the sound guy and met some of the other staff. The club's really nice. When you walk in, the walls are filled with large pictures of some of the great comics who have performed there. People like Dave Chappelle, Jerry Seinfeld and Chris Rock. I met both Kristian Vallee (he was the feature act.) and Daniel Tosh. Both guys were real nice. I went up and did my time and felt I had a real good solid set and defintely held my own. Of course both Kristian and Daniel did great. I'd never seen either one live and watching them, I defintely learned a lot. A couple of co-workers of Elsa's came out to see me. Afterwards the show we went to a bar across from the club and had a few drinks.

Thurs - I got up and hit a local restaurant for breakfast. Afterwards I hung around the hotel and worked on my set. I got down to the club early and walked around the plaza. Tell you what, I know I'm married and trust me Elsa doesn't have to worry, but I don't remember seeing an ugly woman in Irvine. Not just an ugly woman, but any ugly person for that matter. I started thinking about how much I stood out and how I was surprised nobody asked what I was doing there, like they'd want to see my papers or something. The show was fun. My set went really well and I tried a couple of new things out that seemed to work. Afterwards I had several people come up to me and tell me how much they enjoyed my set ask if I was based in Los Angeles and where I was going to be performing next, etc. That meant a lot.

Fri - Elsa flew in to LAX and got to the hotel right before I left for the club. We met up with a friend of ours who was in town shooting the Ducks/Oilers playoff game before the show and had dinner. Both shows went great. Elsa stayed and watched the late show from the VIP table in the back. The club was packed for both shows. I felt I did a very good job and again several people came up afterwards and complimented me.

Sat - Elsa and I woke up and met with one of my mom's cousins, who lives in Annaheim. We had lunch together and had a great time. We got to the Spectrum early and had dinner before the show. When I got to the club, I found out that the 11pm show had been changed. Instead of it being Daniel Tosh, it was going to be a new show with three different comics (Brad Williams, Eric Schwartz and Kyle Cease). To make up for it, there'd now be two Sunday shows. I double checked with the sound guy and made sure I wasn't supposed to host the 11 o'clock show. Turns out I wasn't, so my night was shorter than expected. Instead of three shows, I'd only be doing two.
The feature for the two shows was Danny Bevins. I remember when Danny was at Westport earlier in the year. I wanted to go see him but was unable to. So when I found out he was featuring, I was looking forward to seeing his act. He did an incredible job and there's no question that both he and Kristian are two comics who are on the verge of breaking through to that next level. Elsa and I hung out with Danny and his wife during the show. Both were very nice.
As far as how I did, I'm not trying to brag but I felt I did great both sets. The audiences were really good and I felt those two sets were the best sets I've had in a while. What was nice was I added on some new stuff to my marriage material and it got a really good response. Danny and his wife gave me some nice compliments afterwards. After the 9pm show, Elsa and I left the club and met up with some co-workers of her's at a local bar. It was a lot of fun.

Sun - We got up and took a tour of Annaheim. Since everything's spread out in LA, we really didn't have too much time to go see a lot of things. Also I wanted to make sure I didn't get too tired before the show. I really wanted to make a good impression with the club. So we just walked around Irvine. God walking around there, I felt like I was in an OC episode. I'm telling you, there are no ugly people there. It's apparently illegal. Again we went to the Spectrum before the show and had dinner. I wasn't sure what to expect. The thing is, with Sunday shows you can never tell how it's going to go. Most of the time you have small crowds because everybody has to work the next day. However this was Memorial Day weekend, so who knows. When I got to the club, I saw that Kristian was featuring again. We ended up having two big crowds and both shows went well. I felt I did a nice job ending the week. Afterwards I got paid and ended up breaking even on the trip, which isn't too bad since I paid for the rental car and the airplane ticket. I talked to the staff before we left, and they had some very nice things to say and they told me they hoped to see me back. So we'll see. Elsa and I said goodbye to Kristian and Daniel who were great to work with. On the way back to the hotel, we stopped at "In and Out Burger". No way I was going to leave LA without going to one.

Mon - Elsa and I flew back to St. Louis where our little part of the Everglades was waiting for us along with all the things we need to do to get ready for the summer. More on that later.

Comedy Update

2006-05-18T10:53:00.000-07:00

Hey to everyone who gets bored and read this, it's been a while since I've blogged. I wanted to give everyone a quick update on what's happening with my comedy career. Absolutely nothing. No really I can't say that. Next week is my gig at the Irvine Improv. I'm really looking forward to it. I'll be opening up for Daniel Tosh, one of my favorite comics. It should be a fun time and defintely a learning experience.

Other than that, I really haven't been up to much the last couple of weeks. I haven't hit the open mics like I once did. Reason being is I've been busy working on the house. That's taken up a lot of my time. I've been doing a lot of painting, etc. Ah the joys of home ownership.

I was at the Westport Funny Bone for their last two open mics. Two weeks ago when I performed, my set was brutal. The audience hated me from the get go and it didn't stop until I was done. Normally I let that stuff bother me, but that night I chalked it up to the fact that it just wasn't my crowd. I did material I know works and they weren't buying it, so f___ them. Normally I don't like to blame the audience but sooner or later I need to start developing the confidence I'm good at this or I'll never get anywhere. Last Tuesday I didn't get on but stayed to watch the show. Tell you what, there are some really good young comics here in St. Louis, guys who have a really good chance of breaking through, like John Doelling, Andy Fassen and Mike Stranze. Lump them in with more established acts like Greg Warren, Tommy Johnagin, Andi Smith, Jeremy Essig, Arvin Mitchell, Jammer Bicks and Mark Morfey and St. Louis is truely a hot bed for comedy.

I'll post about my week in Irvine when I get back. Thanks for reading.

Palm Trees and Reflection (Yeah I know it sounds gay)

2006-05-04T19:37:00.000-07:00

Well where do I start? It's been a while since I've blogged. During that time I've had several "comedy related" happenings.

First, as some of you might've figured out by now, I did not win the contest at the Forum. If I had, my insecure ego would've been bragging about it right after I won. Hell I'd probably bring my computer to the show and start blogging right after they called my name. Well it wasn't meant to be. It's ok, I'm over the hurt. Actually my set, though solid, wasn't as strong as it was in the semifinals. The three comics who placed all had strong sets and deserved to advance, so I wasn't too disappointed. Elsa came out with a bunch of our friends, so it was nice to have the support. It sounded like they all had a good time and that's what's important.

Last week I was in Tampa, hosting a week at the Improv. I had a great time. The headliner was John Heffron and the feature was Tracy Ashley. Both were very nice and they absolutely killed all week. While I was down there, I got to see my best friend Greg and his wife. They came out to a couple of my shows with some friends. I also got a chance to see a couple of friends of mine from Saint Louis who now live in Ft. Lauderdale. They came all the way out to see me perform which meant a lot.

I learned a lot last week. I felt I did a real nice job. I held my own and defintely came out of the week a stronger comic. When I asked Greg how he thought I did, he said "You honestly made me laugh, I didn't even have to fake it." Ladies and gentlemen, enough said. It's obvious based on that comment, I'm destined to get my own show. No really, I was very happy with the job I did. That's saying a lot because I'm never happy with the way I perform. I taped the last show and am hoping to get some clips out on my site real soon.

One thing I had to finally deal with, is my insane habit of comparing myself to comics who've been doing this a hell of a lot longer than I have. Case in point, if I'm on the bill with a 10-15 year headliner and a feature who's been doing comedy for 7-8 years, I still feel like I need to have the best set out of all of us. Which my friends is just plain nuts. I've only been doing this seriously for two and half years. I need to compare myself to comics who are on the same level and not ones who have three to five times more experience. It takes time to develop as a comic and while I'm doing it, I need to enjoy the ride. This past week I took a break from watching one of the comics, looked around the club, and soaked in the fact that I was actually getting paid to work the Improv. I dreamt about performing there and made it a reality. If I don't appreciate that, then why the hell am I doing this in the first place?

The reality is I've been very fortunate as a young comic. My first paying gig at a comedy club was at Gotham in NYC. My first week on the road was at the Tampa Improv. In less than a year after pursuing comedy seriously, I got in the "New Comics" competition at the NY Underground Comedy Festival. In all instances, I've had opportunities to perform at some of the best clubs in the country and share the same bill with some terrific comics who've been doing this a lot longer than I have. In return I've really gotten stronger as a comic. I need to appreciate how far I've come in such little time, rather than beat myself up because I'm not at the same level as a headliner who's been doing this for 10-15 years.

God I feel like Stuart Smalley right now. This is so f____n' pathetic.

Give Me My Damn Pulitzer!

2006-04-12T20:44:00.000-07:00

So right now I'm taking a break from writing. I'm been using this fancy notebook Elsa got me in Italy. It's really nice. It has a shiny leather cover and everything. Apparently it's the same type of notebook Ernest Hemingway and other famous writers used. Which of course totally explains why I'm using it. Hemingway used this notebook to write "The Old Man and the Sea". I'm using it to write the world's most intelligent dick joke. Yeah I see the similarities.

Last night I performed at Westport. My set was ok, not great. It was one of those nights where I had fun, but the audience didn't. It reminded me of the first time I had sex. During it, I'm smiling and having a great time. Meanwhile the girl I was with had that expression of "Why won't my old boyfriend call me back?" Tonight I performed at the Comedy Forum. There were six people in the audience. Enough said.

About my recent Boston trip, Elsa and I had a blast. While she was shooting the Women's Final Four, I checked out the Comedy Vault and Comedy Connection. Both are really nice clubs. Every comic I saw did smart, funny stuff. It renewed my faith in stand-up. The highlight of the trip was the media party on Saturday. It was held at Fenway Park. It was great. Elsa and I hung out in the dugout, walked along the Green Monster and got to go in the batting cages. If that wasn't cool enough, there was free beer. Enough said.

Next Thursday is the finals at the Forum. After that, it's off to Tampa where I'll be working a week at the Improv. I'll be opening up for John Heffron.

Now I got to go. I just had a breakthrough with my dick joke. It involves a midget. Beat that Ernest! Who my bitch?!

Me Like Contests

2006-04-06T22:21:00.000-07:00

Well tonight I was going to blog about my recent trip to Boston. I'll get to it, but before I do, I need to talk about what happened earlier this evening.

Tonight was the semifinals for the stand-up contest at the Comedy Forum. The top four finalists from tonight advance to the finals where they'll compete against the four finalists from last week's semifinals. As I mentioned before, I don't like contests. I have a hard enough time not treating stand-up like a competition. The last thing I need is some sort of designated event like a contest to make me even more competitive. Besides contests are subjective and what's funny to some people isn't funny to others, etc. Of course if I win a contest, none of what I just wrote matters and contests are the best thing ever created. With that said, I had a lot of fun tonight. I felt I had a good set overall. In the end, yours truely placed 2nd. That's good enough to get me in the finals on April 20th.

What really made me happy was the selection of the other three finalists. All three (Carmen Barton, Mike Stranze and Kevin Patterson) did a great job and deserved to make the finals. Kevin ended up winning the whole thing and I couldn't be happier for him. He's a real nice guy and a hell of a comic. He defintely deserved it. After the show, I got some real good compliments from some of the other comics and audience members and that was good to hear. Anything to help faciliate my delusionment is appreciated.

Soon I'll be posting a blog about my recent Boston trip. I'm sure the three people who actually read this crap are dying from anticipation.

What, No Freebird???

2006-03-26T07:34:00.000-08:00

As a comic, writing for me can be very therapeutic. Everytime I sit down to write, I try to think about all my weird idiosynchrisies, my viewpoints on life and all the other s**t about me that just doesn't make sense. Like how I absolutely despise Rednecks, but love the song "Seet Home Alabama". Everytime I hear it, I want to slam back a few Hamms and go two-step on a bar.

So lately I've been doing a lot of writing. My whole focus right now is to continue to build a strong act. Some of the new stuff I've done has worked, some hasn't. At least I've been trying new stuff out, even if it's one or two jokes a set. My feeling is, once I've built my act to where it can be, the rest will take care of itself. I don't want to be one of these young comics who says they can do the time when they obviously can't. Yeah they might be able to talk for 45 minutes but that's it. There's a reason why guys who've been doing this for 10-15 years are just now starting to headline. It takes time to build a strong consistent act.

This week I'll be at Westport on Tuesday, the Forum on Wed and Laughs on Thursday. After that, it's off to Beantown as I'll be out there for five days. Really looking forward to it.

Now for Godsakes somebody please pass the Hamms and let's get this party started. Sing it Ronnie!

Tonight

2006-03-08T20:25:00.000-08:00

Yeah I know the title for this blog entry sucks. I can't think of anything clever right now.

So far this week has been a good one. Last night I was at *Westport. I had a solid set. I tried out a bunch of new stuff and discovered a couple of my new premises have potential. Tonight I was at the Comedy Forum. It was my best set there in a long time. What made it so good you ask? Well tonight I received what is known in the BIZ as "laughter". Boy does it make a world of difference. After one of my jokes, I heard a guy in the audience laugh and say "That was f****n' sick." I felt a wonderful sense of pride.

I also decided to enter the Forum's comedy contest which happens later on this month. Initially I wasn't going to. I don't like contests, unless I happen to win them. However I heard what the prizes are and reconsidered. So we'll see what happens.

* When I say Westport, I'm talking about Westport in St. Louis (where the Funny Bone is located) and not Westport Plaza in Kansas City. There was confusion among some of my Kansas City friends, who thought in my last blog entry I was talking about their Westport. They were mad at me because they thought I was performing in the area without telling them. Trust me, if I'm ever out there, I'll defintely let you know. You can all come out, watch me and pretend to laugh. It'll be precious.

Just Venting

2006-02-28T21:24:00.000-08:00

Tonight I was at Westport. I went up first as usual. Once again I had to go up in front of a cold crowd. I should be used to it by now, but it'd be nice to have a few comics go up before me. Hey it's stagetime and I'm grateful for it. My set was hit and miss. The audience for the most part didn't buy what I was doing. I don't want to be one of those comics who if they have a bad set, blames the audience. I figure you either do your job or you don't. Tonight I didn't get it done plain and simple.

Anytime I have a bad set, I start to whine and soul search, ask myself, should I be doing this, etc? I'll talk about quitting to Elsa and she just slaps me in the back of the head. I've quit in the past, after my father died. But two years ago with Elsa's encouragment, I got back into it. I promised her I would never quit again. She believes in me, God only knows why, but that may be just the strength I need to get through the rough times.

Olympics

2006-02-19T15:40:00.000-08:00

Elsa's still in Italy which means as I'm writing this, I'm sitting at home by myself, with no food in the house and my laundry situation has officially hit DEFCON one. I'm starting to loathe my own laziness.

My comedy career is kicking a__. Ok I'm being sarcastic. Actually I've gotten out and hit some of the open mics around town, experiencing both success and failure, all the while trying to get ready for my Improv dates. Last week I was at the Comedy Forum and how did my set go? Lets' just say I ate s**t, and since I just started Weight Watchers, I got to figure out how many points that is. In my defense, the crowd was real lethargic and not one comic had a real good set. I've never done well at the Forum on open mic so I wasn't the least suprised. The night before at the Funny Bone, I had a solid set, trying out some new stuff. I was at Laughs on the Landing this past Wed and my set was solid. Once again I tried new stuff out. On Thursday I went to the Double D Lounge where Nick Cusamano was hosting a show. Due to not enough people, the show was cancelled. Hopefully there will be more people next week, we'll see. This week I will be at Westport, Laughs and there's a new comedy show starting at BlueBerry Hill I'm going to check out. Should be fun.

I'm also redoing my website and hope to unveil it soon. I know I've said that before but this time I'm actually working on it. I heard there's this new thing called "color". I might try and work that in the site. I'm so hip.

Valentine's Day

2006-02-14T21:30:00.000-08:00

Well tonight Elsa and I were going to celebrate our first Valentine's day together as newlyweds, but she bailed on me cause she had more important things to do, like go to Italy and photograph some event called the "Olympics". Well Lah-dee-fricken-dah!!!

So I celebrated tonight, by myself. I drank beer, ate Hot Pockets and played Madden o6. It's nice to know that even when I'm married, I'm still a loser on Valentine's day. Some things never change.

I'll be over at Laughs on the Landing tomorrow. Come on out.

Note: I was just kidding with the sarcastic Olympics comment. I'm incredibly excited Elsa's shooting the Winter Olympics. I know how much this means to her and I couldn't be happier for her. Also I'm well aware that sometimes she reads my blog and I don't want to dig a hole for myself. I'm not an idiot.

Irvine

2006-02-06T17:43:00.000-08:00

Got an email from the booker of the Irvine Improv. I'll be opening up for Daniel Tosh May 24th-28th. I'm really excited about it. Daniel Tosh is one of my favorite comics. It should be a lot of fun.

I Sure Do Like Pumpkins, Cotton

2006-02-01T22:11:00.000-08:00

This marks my second post in three days. Wow I'm on a roll. I'd like to say the reason for my frequent blogging is so I can entertain the one person who actually reads this crap, but the truth is I can't sleep right now and there's nothing good on HBO. I've already seen "Anacondas, Hunt for the Blood Orchid" 54 times. Enough's enough. But I digress.

Tuesday I was at the Funny Bone. My set was alright, tried some new stuff out. A couple of new bits have potential, but they still need work. Tonight I went downtown to Laughs on the Landing. I hadn't been to Laughs in several months. I heard there had been some changes so I was eager to check it out. It was a good show. They had a good crowd there and all the comics did well. Stevie P did great. He came up drunk, angry, non apologetic and spoke his mind and it was funny as hell. I also enjoyed Clayton Champagne's set. Clayton's got a real funny style and everytime I see him, he's always trying something new. One thing I like about Laughs is, it's a good place to try new stuff out and to just rant and see what works and what doesn't.

Tonight I had a weird experience. After my set, a fellow comic I know came up and expressed concern that a bit he does is similar to one of my bits. He wanted to get my permission to do his joke. He told me his bit and the only smiliar thing to the joke I do, is the wording in the setup. Now let me say this, I like this person, he's a hell of a nice guy, and I really appreciate him coming up to me and expressing his concern. A lot of comics wouldn't have done that.

But here's the deal and I know this wasn't his intention, but by asking for my permission to tell his joke, the situation became awkward for me. Unless a comic is doing my exact joke, word for word, I feel funny telling someone what they can or cannot say on stage. There's an unwritten rule in comedy that you don't steal other people's material, and that if you do, hopefully it comes back to bite you in the ass. Also there's a feeling among comics that if you come up with a joke that is already similar to another comic's joke, you stop telling your joke. Case in point, I had a joke I used to do about owning a jeep and how silly the "jeep wave" was. After I started doing it, I realized there was already a comic here in St. Louis who does a similar bit. Once I heard his joke, I stopped telling mine. Besides his joke is much funnier.

With all that said, I know this comic tonight wasn't trying to steal anything. He was being really nice in asking for my permission and I appreciate it. I asked if he could change the wording in his setup and he seemed fine with that. So hopefully all is well.

Now I got to go, "DodgeBall" just came on HBO. I love that flick.

Hot Pockets

2006-01-30T17:50:00.000-08:00

Found out I'll be performing at the Tampa Improv in April. I'll be opening up for Christian Finnegan the 27th-30th. Christian's a very funny guy. He's had his own Comedy Central half-hour special and can be seen on VH1 and the Chappelle Show. I'm really looking forward to it. My best friend and his wife live in Tampa so I'm going to visit them while I'm down there. It'll be a fun trip.

Last night I watched one of my favorite comics, Jim Gaffigan, perform. If anybody's looking to hear smart, funny material, defintely check out his hour long special on Comedy Central. He's got this bit about Hot Pockets which was incredible. I'm addicted to those things so the entire bit hit real close to home. While we were watching it, Elsa asked "Why don't you come up with jokes like that?" Thanks Elsa. Yeah I'll get right on that. Let me just pull this brilliant bit out of my a___.

I can't believe I didn't think about that before.

I Have A Dream

2006-01-18T21:56:00.000-08:00

So last night I'm performing and it's clear from the beginning the audience doesn't like me. Which is cool cause I don't like me either, so we had a nice bonding moment. Tried some new stuff out and it went about as well as expected.

So I'm tracking the bird flu now. I'm obsessing about this thing and it didn't help that "The Stand" was on tv the other night. I'm telling you this is all I can think about right now, well that, global warming and the fact that my office is having a pool on how soon I knock up Elsa. Can I get in on that action? I need the bread.

Back to the bird flu, it's now in Turkey? I'm envisioning a bad Leno joke coming up. I'm imagining hundreds of hack comics coming up with the brilliant notion of how ironic the bird flu would strike a country named after a bird. They would sandwich their outrageous "Turkey/Bird Flu" bits between their "Viagra" and "BrokeBack Mountain" bits (BTW - not sure if you've heard, but apparently that movie has some homosexual overtones). Throw in some midget jokes and what a comedy Nirvana that would be. Like MLK, I can only dream.

Can't Sleep

2006-01-10T22:30:00.000-08:00

I really should be sleeping right now. I got to get up for my day job at 6AM and I'm not thrilled at the prospect of only getting five hours of sleep. I'm sure a shot of NyQuil will do the trick. Whoever invented NyQuil, you the man. I'm forever indebited to you.

Tonight I was at the Funny Bone. It was fun. Arvin Mitchell hosted and did a great job warming up the crowd. Some of my favorite comics here in town performed, Andi Smith, Jeremy Essig and John Doelling. John had a great set tonight. His materal and delivery are so sharp. I urge everybody to go out and see him perform. You won't be disappointed.

My set went well. I tried a new bit tonight that did ok and my other stuff seemed to go over well. After the show one of the comics told me "Great job, I don't know what you did differently." Wow thanks for the back handed compliment. That's really sweet of you. Next time just say, "Hey you normally suck, how the hell did you pull that set out of your ass?" Stop it, you're making me blush.

I'll be at the Comedy Forum in St. Peters tomorrow night. Come on out if you got nothing better to do.

I'm Just So Delusional

2006-01-04T19:26:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year to the three people who are reading this. It's been a while since I've blogged. Couple reasons for my inactivity:

1) I've been sick, I still can't shake this nasty cough.
2) The holidays. I've been getting fat on gooey butter cookies. Damn you Elsa for baking them.

As far as the comedy thing, lately I feel I've been more consistent with my stand-up. The last two weeks at the Funny Bone, I feel I've had solid sets. Last week I performed at a place called T Billy Buffets. Fellow comedian Chelle hosts the show and she was nice enough to invite me to perform. I wasn't sure what to expect at first. TBilly's is a bar and whenever you perform at a bar, you're not sure how the audience is going to react. They may shut up and listen or throw beer bottles at you cause you're blocking the game. It was a fun show. Chelle did a nice job setting it up. There was a good size audience there and everyone for the most part paid attention, even the guys sitting at the bar watching the game. Chelle's been hosting the show for the last couple of months and I hope it can continue. It's always nice to have another room here in St. Louis where comics can develop. From first hand experience I know how tough it is to keep a room going, so I wish her nothing but the best. Come on out and support it. The show is every Wed at 9pm at T Billys and it's free.

One thing I've been thinking about recently is my attitude towards stand-up in general. Look I'll be honest, I have an ego when it comes to comedy, always have, which is why I want to do this. You got to understand I've never been egotistical about anything else in my life. My self-esteem is so low, I'm the first guy to admit when I can't do something. In fact I almost take a warped pride in being incompetent at so many things. But stand-up and in particular comedy writing, I've always felt like I can do. I don't know why, I've just always had that feeling. And that scares the shit out of me. Because my biggest fear is being delusional. My biggest fear is I'm not funny and that's what drives me, to prove that fear wrong. Now you're probably asking why am I writing this? What's my point? (To be honest I don't know if I have one. I just started writing and hoped it would all work out magically in the end.) I think my point is I need to stop taking this thing so seriously. I have to realize I'm going to have off nights, that there are going to be other comics who will have better sets and get breaks that I wanted and for me not to treat this thing like a competition. But to instead focus on being the best comic I can be and believe in myself for really the first time in my life. Someone said if you're a perfectionist, comedy will kill you. And they're right. Faith is a scary thing.

Note. The above feel good, chicken soup for the soul bullshit was for my own well being. If anyone got nauseated reading this self centered crap, I'm truely sorry and I promise in the next blog entry, d*ck and midget jokes for everybody! HOORAY!

Bird Flu

2005-12-18T12:56:00.000-08:00

I've had a few people ask about Elsa after reading my Hollywood blog. She's doing a lot better. In fact she's doing so much better she's giving me lists of things to do around the house. Welcome to married life John. We're having the big family xmas dinner at the ole' Garrison household this year, so we've both been busy getting the house ready (putting the tree and lights up). My neice and nephew are coming over and I don't want them to think their Uncle John is a scrooge, even though I kinda am.

I haven't been as productive in comedy the last few weeks as I'd like. On Tuesday I was at the Funny Bone and my set was alright, not great. The audience didn't seem to like any of the comics. The only guy who got consistent laughs was a guy who had a bit about a woman with a giant p***y that smelled like bologna. Which pissed me off because I was working on such a bit and now I have to start over. Such is comedy. Oh and the audience liked Carolers. There were a bunch of old guys who came in and sang xmas songs and they were a hit. So if you either talked about giant p***ies or sang xmas songs, you were in with this crowd. God I sound bitter.

The best part of the night was the ride up to the Funny Bone. Jammer and I were talking about Tookie Williams who was recently executed. Jammer asked me if I felt someone could be totally rehabilitated. It was a good question and required a lot of thought. I told him I thought someone could but that person would have to be an incredibly strong individual. Jammer stays up on current events, I do not. I just have no interest in them. Not that I don't think they're important, I'm just tired of getting depressed everytime I watch the news. I still bug Elsa about the bird flu. Anytime she tells me I need to do something in the future, I say "Hello bird flu, we're not going to be around. What's the point?" That s**t never works no matter how much I try.

On that note, happy holidays everyone.

Week In Review

2005-12-10T14:53:00.000-08:00

On Tuesday I went to the open mic at Westport and was the final comic that peformed. I could tell the crowd was getting tired. Several people started to leave two comics before me, so I decided to keep my set short. My set was alright. I tried a couple of new jokes out, one joke did alright one fell flat. It was good to get the stagetime.

On Wed, I went over to the Comedy Forum to perform in Bill Davis' company xmas party. Bill's a fellow comic from St. Louis. The show was a lot of fun. There were probably atleast 150 people there and they were a really good crowd. Bill mc'd and did about 5 minutes up front. He introduced me and i went up. I felt I had a good solid set throughout and I finished strongly at the end. Mike Stranze came up after me and did very well. Mike is one of my favorite comics here in St. Louis. He's got a very different style, almost Andy Kauffman like. Bill got back up and did about 30 and then Arvin Mitchell closed the show. Arvin rocked the place. He got a standing ovation at the end. It was the first time I'd seen him peform more than 10 minutes straight and man I was impressed. It's only a matter of time before he hits it big. Thanks to Bill for inviting me to peform, I had a great time.

Back in St. Louis

2005-12-07T22:22:00.000-08:00

Alright this is going to be a long ass blog entry, and yes I used the phrase "long ass" because I'm a comedian and I can't think of anything original and witty to say. I'm a hack even when I blog.

About my trip to LA. Elsa and I were staying in downtown Hollywood. Let me preface what I'm about to write by saying this, I've never been to Hollywood before. The first time I ever had any idea what Hollywood was, I was 10 years old and I saw the movie "Vice Squad" on cable. Now for those who haven't seen this gem, the whole movie is about hookers, pimps and drug addicts. Throw in Wings Hauser as a hooker-killing psycho and a cameo by Fred "Rerun" Berry and goddamn if you don't have an all time classic. Still after seeing this when I was 10, I had reservations about going to Hollywood. I just imagined I'd wind up doing tricks on Hollywood Boulevard just to get directions to my hotel. Suffice to say I was pretty nervous.

Well Hollywood was great, atleast where Elsa and I were staying. We got in late Wed night. On Thursday I met with Barb North. She and her husband Steve run a management company called Brook Forest Entertainment. They represent several major comics such as James P.Connolly and Rob Little. Barb was very nice. She looked over my tape and portfolio and gave me some nice compliments and suggestions on how to become a better comic. She said that with my sensibility and jokes, I scream "writer", which I took as a very nice compliment because my major goal is to eventually write for a talk show or variety show. Before I left, she told me to stay in touch and let her know how my career is progressing. I defintely learned a lot from her and came out of our meeting a better comic.

After my meeting with Barb, Elsa and I went and did the dorky tourist thing. We went to the Hollywood Wax Museum, saw Mann's Chinese Theater and walked the Walk of Fame. For lunch we went to "In and Out Burger". If you're ever in LA, go there. Best burger experience I've had in a long time. Can't rave about it enough. Thursday night, we met up with some of Elsa's co-workers and drank at the Lucky Strike in Hollywood. We had a blast.

Friday wasn't so much fun. Elsa was sick all morning and finally we had to rush her to the hospital. She was getting numbness and tingliness all over and she couldn't feel most of her body. Very scary shit indeed. We ended up taking a cab to Kaiser Permanente hospital and they took very good care of her. She had food poisioning and was incredibly dehydrated. They ended up shooting her up with two big bags of IV and that did the trick. Everything worked out but I got to admit when she started getting numb and couldn't feel her arms and legs I freaked. I learned one thing that day, I cannot handle a crisis. If I'm going to stay married, I got to do a better job of staying calm in stressful situations. The funniest thing that happened that day was, here's Elsa lying on a hospital bed, a huge IV pumping into her and she's out of it. Out in the hallway we hear two nurses yelling at each other in Spanish. I mean they were going at it. Elsa turns to me and in complete seriousness says "We should learn Spanish". I almost lost it. Yeah lets' learn Spanish so we can hear what cuss words these two women are saying. That'll be fun.

After 5 hours in the hospital, Elsa was finally discharged. She took it easy the rest of the day and we ended up going to the xmas party that night. I didn't drink because she couldn't. It was alright but would've been better if we weren't sober. So we left early.

Saturday night on the flight back, we hit a bunch of turbelence. I'm not crazy about turbelence. The pilot called it "small turbelence", but my feeling is every major plane crash probably started with "small turbelence". So forgive me if I wasn't too crazy about the plane shaking. Once again it goes back to the whole handling a crisis thing. Luckily we survived and made it back to safe and f***ing freezing St. Louis. Atleast if the plane had crashed, I might have been able to warm up in the burning fire afterwards.

When I got home I checked my email and got a message regarding my two weeks at the Improv for winning the showcase. So in retrospect I'm glad I made it back from Hollywood in one piece.

Still it would've been nice to have gotten Wings Hauser's autograph. He was the shit back in 82.

Going to LA

2005-11-29T21:39:00.000-08:00

I've talked to a few comics recently who've said they've read my blog. Great now I got to make this stuff sound interesting. I figured nobody's reading this damn thing and the last thing anyone wants to do is read my whining. I guess I was wrong.

Well today I got a call from Bill Davis about the show on the 7th. He just wanted to confirm that we're still on. I'm looking forward to it and hopefully I can get a good tape out of it. Tonight I was at the Funny Bone. I didn't get on but stayed to watch the show. All the comics did great and I especially enjoyed Jammer's, Andi Smith's and Arvin Mitchell's sets. They're some of my favorite comics. Arvin's having a show at BlueBerry Hill in the loop on Sunday. I'm going to try and check it out.

Tomorrow Elsa and I head out to LA. It's her company's Xmas party this week and we'll be in Hollywood for three days. Should be a blast. I'm hoping we can check out the Comedy Store or the Laugh Factory while we're out there. Apparently we're staying near Mann's Chinese Theater so we'll be doing the dorky tourist thing, checking out the walk of fame, etc.. Also I will be having my career consultation with Barb North. Barb is a manager and I met her at the Judy Carter Comedy Conference. She's going to be giving me some advice and input on how to further my comedy career. I'm really looking forward to it.

This LA trip couldn't come at a better time. Man is it cold here in St. Louis.

Good Week

2005-11-19T05:23:00.001-08:00

On Tuesday I was at the Funny Bone at Westport. My set was alright. I tried a couple of new bits out and they went about as well as I expected. I got some good compliments from some of the other comics, including Arvin Mitchell. Arvin's a hell of a comic. Check out his website (www.arvinmitchell.com).

Wed, I went over to Fairview Heights to do a spotlight. Thanks to Joey and Brett for letting me come out and do some time. Elsa came out to tape me. I was hoping to get a 7 minute spotlight tape that I can send out. My set was ok. Elsa thought my delivery and timing were good. I tried a few new bits out, like my having my own stalker bit and the Hasidic Jew/Beard bit. The only bit that really missed was the Hasidic Jew one. It went over everyone's head. I've tried it twice and it hasn't done very well but I still like it and am not ready to give up on it. The rest of the set went great, so all and all I'm pretty satisified. Jeremy Essig (www.jeremyessig.com) is featuring at Fairview this week. Go and check him out. He's one of the funniest comics around.

That day I got a call from Bill Davis. Bill's a fellow comic and he invited me to perform at his company's Xmas party on Dec 7th at the Comedy Forum. I also got an email from Mark Morfey (www.markmorfey.com). He's trying to set up a comedy show at Laughs on the Landing and asked if I wanted to be a part of it.

So this week, I had two solid sets, maybe got my 7 minute spotlight tape and I got one new gig and possibly a second. Wow for a brief moment, I actually feel like a real comic.

On The Road

2005-11-13T09:10:00.000-08:00

Last night fellow comic Jammer Bicks and I drove up to Cape Girardeau for a one nighter at a place called Jeremiahs. Comedian and booker Jeff Batts set the gig up. I've not met Jeff before. Fellow comic Mark Morfey referred my name to him. Mark's a good guy. He's referred me for other jobs and I really appreciate it. He's one of the true nice guys in this business.

The ride up there was fun. Jammer and I talked comedy, movies, tv shows, etc. Jammer's a good guy and in my opinion the best comic in St. Louis. That's saying a lot because there are a lot of good comics here. Andi Smith, Jeremy Essig, Arvin Mitchell to name a few.

When we got to Jeremiahs, we hung out for a while but it was evident as time wore on there wasn't going to be a show. Either that or we were going to perform in front of 10-15 people which isn't always the best situation. Jeff and his wife got there about 20 minutes after we did. Both were very nice. Around 9:15 the show was called because of not enough people. Jeff was very apologetic which was cool, but like I told him these things happen. He paid us anyways which really nice of him. Some guys wouldn't have done that. He told us about some other shows he was booking in the future. Maybe we'll work again.

The ride back was good. Jammer and I continued to talk comedy which was nice. Alot of times I don't like talking with comics, the reason being is if you get a room full of comics everyone's trying to out do each other like they're trying to prove something. I'm more the quiet type. If I have something to say, I'll say it. But it's just nice to be quiet and listen.

This week I'll be at Westport on Tuesday and be doing a spotlight on Wed at Fairview Heights.

First Note

2005-11-02T19:50:00.000-08:00

Things are great for me now. I'm still excited about winning the showcase at Judy Carter's comedy conference. Waiting to hear when and where I'll be performing in Southern California. As soon as I know, I'll have something posted on my website.