14 Years of Comedy

So today marks my 14th year of doing stand-up comedy! The dream started in 1984, when I was just four and I've always enjoyed making people laugh. I still remember making Katy Malloy spit milk out of her nose in kindergarten. When I was 21, that's when I decided to give it a shot. I was working at Pizza Hut on the westside of Albuquerque, where I met a lot of my closest friends. Nate Tramontina was the one who really pushed me into doing it. He was probably only 18 at the time and he said something like, "quit talking about it and actually do it." The night that I really got serious about it was when we had a big party at our house. I was living with Nate Guyre and Larry Campbell. Nate Tramontina's band, AnesthesiA, was playing and we had probably about 75 people at the house. It was pretty noisy, and the cops ended up showing up. Luckily no one got in trouble, but the band had to quit playing. Everyone ended up leaving, but about half hour later all of our closest friends ended up back at the house. Someone convinced me to hop up on the microphone and start telling some jokes.

I hadn't really started writing any material up to that point, and I was probably too hammered to remember it anyway, so I got up on the microphone and just started talking some shit. I don't remember anything I said, but I remember just roasting everyone basically and getting a lot of laughs. That's when I knew that I could give it a try. I did some research on the local comedy club, Laffs. They held their open mic the first Sunday of every month, so I picked August. I gave myself about four months to prepare five minutes of material. I talked to my good friend from Iowa, Matt Evans. Matt was and is one of the funniest people I've ever met in my life. I asked him if he had any ideas for jokes, I had no idea how to write a joke. So, Matt would send me joke ideas and some bits that he came up with. Most of them were kind of long, and I wasn't comfortable telling longer bits. When I wrote my own stuff it ended up being a lot of one-liners and shorter jokes. I did try some of Matt's jokes out, they were funny, but didn't really fit with the style that I wanted to do. I ended up using some of the funny lines and just shortening the bits. Matt finally got to see me perform a few years ago in Fort Dodge, Iowa. If it wasn't for him I would have had a really difficult time getting started.

My good friend, Dennis Verrall, was very helpful, too. He gave me some jokes that he had written, when I was first kinda starting out, too. I'm such a hack! I finally talked Dennis into doing stand up several years later. He only did a handful of shows, but I got him gigs in Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and South Dakota. Not bad for someone who probably only performed like 10-15 times. I think if he really tried he would be really good at it. He's a talented sumbitch.

I started to become a regular at Laffs pretty quickly. The owner of Laffs, Russ Rivas, was very helpful and took a lot of time working with me and helping me get better. As I got to know him more when I worked at the club, I realized that he never did that, so I appreciated it years later. I know there are a lot of people who don't like Russ, but he really took me under his wing and made me into the comedian that I am today, and I am very grateful.

Don Morgan was another guy who helped me out a lot. I met him in Denver just shortly before I moved back to Albuquerque a few years back. We kept in touch and I ended up living with him in Denver for a few months after my divorce. He was very helpful, he's a good friend. And he's super funny, I love traveling with him. We got to spend a few days in Iowa performing and hanging out with my family and had a blast! My family really enjoyed him, too. Especially since he made fun of uncle Melvin! I think Don will do some great things in comedy, too, he's very sharp and likable.

My good buddy and writing partner, Marc Shuter, has always been a huge inspiration throughout my career as well. I was pretty bummed when he quit doing stand up, he was always one of my favorites to watch. We started writing a script a couple of years ago and we're pretty happy with it right now, can't wait for everyone to see it! Marc's a talented fella and I think he has a bright future in writing.

The past 14 years have had so many ups and downs, but I really love the lifestyle. I have met so many people and I've had an opportunity to travel all over the country and see some really beautiful things. I have performed in 24 different states, in December I'm performing in Utah, that will put me at 25! I have done over 1,300 shows and I've performed at some of the best venues in the country. I've even got to share the stage with Jim Norton, Brian Poshen, Josh Blue, John Caponera, T.J. Miller, Theo Von, Dante, Jackie Kashian, Harland Williams, Dan Soder, Ben Kronberg, Steven Michael Quezada, Michael Malone, Robert Hawkins, Carl LaBove, Troy Baxley and Chad Daniels. I've made so many great friends in this business, too.

Unfortunately, I've lost some good friends along the way, too. My good friend, Dave Ashley, died earlier this year and that broke my heart. I find myself thinking about him a lot, he was a great guy. We hit it off right away when I met him in Tulsa. I feel so awful for his wife, Beth, who was one of the nicest comedy club managers I've ever met. Dave always wanted me to go visit them in Jacksonville and I never got the opportunity. Some other great comedian friends who have passed: Lori Callahan, Jimmy Wiggins, Scott Kennedy and Kelly Moran. I know there are definitely others, but those are the ones who came to mind right away. It's definitely a tough lifestyle being out on the road away from family, but it's what we do.

My first week as a professional comedian at Laffs in Albuquerque with Lonnie Bruhn and Jason Russell.

Marquee in McAllen, Texas - Cine El Rey Theater.

Me and Jack Bullard outside of Loonees in Colorado Springs.

Sold out show at The Box in Albuquerque. Maybe I should finish my DVD soon.

My first writing credit! The AVN Awards on Showtime.

TV promo for The After After Party.

The Des Moines Funny Bone with Johnny Beehner and Dwayne Perkins.

Me, Marc Shuter and Matt Peterson in Angelfire, NM.

Me, Theo Von and a fat trucker named, Chris, at the Loony Bin in Oklahoma City.

Brian Posehn show in Albuquerque at the Envy Nightclub!

Me, Robert Hawkins, Carey Cool Tripp, Butch Lord and Josh Blue at Hyenas in Fort Worth.

Me, Josh Blue and Adrian Lara at Hyenas in Dallas.

Me, Mark Poolos and Johnny Beehner in Atlanta.

I'm on TV! The Morning Brew with host Dan "I love to wear scarves" Mayfield.

Envy Nightclub in Albuquerque with Niki Mangin and Steven Michael Quezada.

Sarah Kennedy, me and Jim Norton at the National Hispanic Cultural Center in Albuquerque.

TV again! The Duke City Comedy League.

TV once more! The After After Party with Steven Michael Quezada.

Vinny Oshana, Matt Peterson and me at Loonees in Colorado Springs.

Dante, Jay Dee and me at the Tulsa Loony Bin.

My cousin, Devon Green, Don Morgan and me at Patty's Pub in Fort Dodge, Iowa.

Oklahoma City

Last week I was at the Loony Bin in Oklahoma City. I always seemed to get booked in Oklahoma in May. I was worried we wouldn't have great crowds since the Thunder are in the playoffs, but the crowds weren't bad at all. Wednesday was open mic night before the show. I only caught a couple of the acts and they were pretty funny. Our mc for the week was James Draper who lives in Norman. It was his first time hosting a week, it was cool. He did a nice job and I noticed him gaining more confidence as the week went on and his sets got better. He's got some great material.

Headliner for the week was Theo Von, who I had seen before on "Road Rules" on MTV. Theo was super cool and really funny! I only watched his set the first two nights cuz I couldn't handle the smoke in the showroom. I almost lost my voice, too. Not good! But it held up fine for the shows. Theo has an awesome website www.cranktexts.com its so funny! I was up late reading some of the stuff he put on there, its hilarious.

One of the bouncers at the Loony Bin is from Fort Dodge, Iowa, which is where a lot of my family is from! Small world. The staff at the Loony Bin is awesome, everyone is really friendly. And the crowds were fantastic! Especially Sunday, it was a smaller crowd, but it was my favorite of the week. I sold way more cd's than I expected to and don't have any left for the weekend in Wichita. Sad face! And the Thunder won game 7 on Sunday, which is probably why the crowd was so great.

On Monday night, Jason Brown and I did a show at the Elks Lodge in El Reno, which was set up by my second cousin, Mark, who id never met before. He hasn't even seen my mom since the 70's. It was cool to meet him and the show wasn't that bad either. For a Monday night in El Reno anyway. We did the show and hung out a bit afterwards with Mark and his wife and a couple people from the show. I went with Jason to Tulsa and stayed at his place. Introduced him to the lovely musical stylings of Wesley Willis. Suck a polar bear's funky ass!

Oklahoma was a blast, can't wait to get back, hoping to add Tulsa to my schedule. Made some new friends with week! And you should be on twitter, follow me @funnyfletcher, Theo Von @theovon, and Jason Brown @comicjbrown!

I'm in Wichita this week with Charlie Weiner!

wits end

Once again sitting at a Greyhound station, which is great motivation to get to that headliner spot. Had a great weekend in Westminster, CO, at Wits End Comedy Club. My buddy, Dante(www.comicdante.com), was the headliner, I met him last year, super cool guy. Elliot Woolsey was the mc, he sold his bed last year, neat story.

Thursday night was Cinco de Mayo, so we had kind of a light crowd, but they were great. I think I actually like smaller crowds at Wits a little better. After the show we went to Buffalo Wild Wings with a local Denver comic, Troy Walker, he's a funny dude, check him out.

Friday night Dr Kevin Fitzgerald did a guest set, and channel 31 was there, they interviewed him and the club owner and filmed part of his set. He was great, I had never met him before. Both shows were a lot of fun, especially the late show. Late shows are fun, they usually like my humor a little more. The owner of the club said he is a big fan of mine, which is awesome.

Saturday night was the big 3 show night, that's almost like a real full time job. We had a couple guest sets, including the Alien Warrior Comic! Very cool! He's a guy who dresses as an alien and he's about 6'9", he's huge, check him out on youtube. Shows were all great as usual. It was great working with Elliot and Dante. Elliot had great shows all week. It was fun watching him. And its always fun watching Dante, he always rocks. And he was awesome enough to offer me a gig for a dvd taping in June out in LA! I'm excited about my first comedy trip out there.

I'm heading back to Albuquerque for a couple days then its off on the road for two weeks. Wednesday thru Sunday I will be at the Loony Bin in Oklahoma City with Theo Von from MTV Road Rules, should be a fun week!