Wits End NYE

I am very excited for New Years week this year, as I am every year. It's a great week for comics, the pay is a little higher, and it's a lot of fun. The only thing that sucks is not ringing in the new year with my wife. She was able to go with me to Tucson a couple years ago.

I've been lucky enough to perform on NYE the last four years, Laffs in Albuquerque, Laffs in Tucson, Hyena's in Dallas, and this year Wits End in Westminster, CO! I'll be performing with a guy named Spanky, aka the Laff Guru. I've never seen Spanky, but I've heard great things about him. Should be a lot of fun, he seems like a really nice guy.

I really miss Denver a lot. We lived up there for a year and a half, and met a lot of cool people. They have a great comedy scene up there, one of the best in the country. I wouldn't mind living there again at some point.

I've been doing mostly local shows lately, haven't been on the road since October. There's a new open mic at Allure Nightclub, it's fairly new, but last week we had about 20 comics there! Not bad since there's another open mic the same night at a different spot. The scene keeps getting bigger and better in Albuquerque, it's fun to be a part of it. I checked out my first improv show at the Box Theater a couple weeks ago, that was a blast! One of the funnest shows I've been to in a long time. I've only done improv once at Laffs during X-Mas week and I was awful.

Wednesday night was the one year anniversary show for AnarKomedy at Low Spirits. They had a lot of talent on that night, but the show lasted forever. I didn't hit the stage until 12:45. Got some laughs, but I was exhausted, and the next day at work sucked! Vertigo Venus kicked a lot of ass though, check them out. For some reason the link button isn't on my blog right now, www.vertigovenus.com

August 5, 2001

Earlier today, my wife, Caitlin, told me to read Jay Wendell Walker's blog about how he started comedy over 50 years ago. Here's a link to the blog he wrote, Jay's blog.

I've worked with Jay before at Laffs in Albuquerque, and even did a show with him in Mescalero, New Mexico, at the Inn of the Mountain Gods. He flew into Albuquerque, so we picked him up and drove him down to Mescalero for the show. The show was kind of a wreck, they didn't have anyone to run the show, so Jay did the off stage announcements and brought me up. Show wasn't the greatest, but we had fun. We had a show the next couple nights in the Albuquerque area. Jay's one of the nicest guys in the business. His wife traveled with him to Laffs one time and was very sweet. She even helped the waitstaff clean the tables in between shows.

In Jay's blog he mentioned how he parked Billy Tipton's car six nights a week and asked Billy how to get into comedy. I decided to google Billy's name, because I had never heard of "him." Billy was actually born a woman, but decided to live life as a man to be a musician.

It was a lot easier for a man than a woman back then. A turning point in Billy's life came in 1958. He had his own trio and a growing reputation, and a new hotel in Reno wanted to hire his group as its house band. He seemed on the verge of, if not the big time, at least a fairly high-profile career. But Billy declined. Instead he took a job as a booking agent in Spokane, Washington, playing music on the side. Middlebrook thinks he feared fame would lead to discovery and decided he'd gone as far as he dared.

I guess if Billy had went on to Reno, maybe Jay would have never started comedy. But, I'm glad he did!

Here's the story on how I started stand-up comedy. At a young age, I used to always sneak out of my bedroom and go into the living room where my mom would be watching tv. Some nights she would be watching comedy on HBO, her favorites were George Carlin and Eddie Murphy. I would stand behind the couch, she had no idea that I was there. I had no idea what the jokes meant, but I loved watching my mom laugh. There was something about watching her laugh that made me want to be a comedian. My mom always tells a story about me, as a four-year-old, with my little Beaver Cleaver style jacket and ball cap and a little suitcase leaving the house. When she heard the door open she ran in and saw me walking out the door. She asked, "where do you think you're going?" I said, "I'm going to New York to be a comedian and live with George Carlin." And you know how parents are, they never let you do anything, so I was stuck in Goldfield, Iowa.

Fast forward to 2001. I was living in Albuquerque, New Mexico, I finally got to move out on my own! I was living with two buddies of mine, Larry Campbell and Nate Guyre. I met Larry working at Pizza Hut, and I met Nate through Larry, I think they worked together at a pizza place. In April 2001, we were all working at different pizza places. I was working at Pizza Hut, Larry was at Papa John's and Nate was at Poppi's Pizza, a local pizza place that I ended up working at a few years later. Our house was always stocked with pizza, sodas, napkins, and other random stuff you could find at those pizza places.

The day that Nate moved in we had a pretty wicked party. We estimated about 75 people there, and we only knew maybe 25 of the people. Our friends, AnesthesiA, came by to play a set. They didn't get too far into their set before the cops showed up. I do remember them playing an awesome Pantera medley, they combined three or four Pantera songs into one! When the cops arrived I was standing right by the door holding a beer. I also had a Denver Broncos beanie on and a giant Garfield clock around my neck. I was "Fletcha Flave!"

I invited the cops in, and even offered them drinks. Pretty stupid. The cops booted everyone out and AnesthesiA had to pull the plug. None of us got in any trouble though, which was awesome, and all of the people we didn't know ended up leaving. About half an hour all of our friends were back. AnesthesiA had all of their equipment still set up but we all decided it would be a bad idea if they started jamming again. I had been telling eveyone that I was going to start doing stand up, so they decided to throw me the mic. I hadn't really written any jokes at that point, but I was drunk so I decided to fuck around and make fun of some people. I think I did that for about 10 minutes, got some laughs, then went back to drinking.

The next day I couldn't stop thinking about doing stand up. I decided to get a hold of one of my best friends from back in Iowa, Matt Evans. Matt is one of the funniest guys I know to do this day, and I was always trying to make him laugh when I was younger. He was six years older than me, he was like an older brother to me. He told me he would help me work on some material for my first open mic. I decided to look up info on the local comedy club, Laffs Comedy Club. They had open mic on the first Sunday of the month. I decided August 5th would be my date to perform. That gave me a few months to get together a five minute set. I started working on my own material, and Matt had written a few things as well. I was writing shorter jokes and Matt was writing bits. I took his bits and narrowed them down, because I didn't feel comfortable telling longer bits, they were harder to memorize.

As the day drew closer I was getting really nervous, but I had invited tons of friends. I probably would have bailed if I hadn't invited so many people. There was no way I could un-invite that many people. I noticed that M.O.D. was playing at the Launchpad that same night and I really wanted to see them! But, I decided, if I'm ever going to stand up comedy, I couldn't turn back.

August 5th finally arrived, I went through my jokes one more time, then watched "Man on the Moon." I grabbed my beanie and Garfield clock and headed down to Laffs. I had never even been to a comedy show in my life, so I had no idea what to expect. I was one of the first people to arrive. My friend, Charlie Cuaron, decided to sign me up on the list as Curtis E. Fletcher. I waited nervously for about an hour before the show. There were about 15-20 comics on the list for the night. I was on about the mid point through the show. I had about 35 of my friends show up, I was shocked how many came to support me, it was awesome. I watched the comics while going over my set over and over in my head, so I don't remember if any of them were funny at all. I do remember some of the comics, Oscar Solis, went up for the first time that night. We became really good friends after that. His brother, Erik, also went up, he was friends with my buddies from AnesthesiA. Freddy Charles, who was a veteran comic who had a few tv credits went up to try some new material.

The emcee, Tuck O'Lay, finally called my name. I tried to pretend to be super confident, shaking some hands on the way to the stage. I bet I looked ridiculous in that beanie and the giant Garfield clock. I don't even remember what jokes I did that night, but I got some big laughs! I was shocked. I was also thinking that they were just laughing because most of them were my friends, but I saw people that I didn't know laughing at me, and that was a feeling that's hard to describe. After my set, which was probably closer to three minutes than five, I went and set with a few buddies. A lot of the comics came up and said nice things to me, even Freddy Charles said I was funny. That was huge to me!

After the show I was chatting with some friends and a long haired older guy came up to me and asked, "how long have you been doing stand up?" I said, "about three minutes." He was surprised that it was my first time performing. He said to keep it up and to lose the clock, I didn't need it, I was funny without it. The guy was Darryl Rhoades, he was the headliner at Laffs that night at the professional show after the open mic. Darryl's been doing stand up for a long time, he's a good guy, I've got to know him pretty well over the years.

As I was leaving the club a guy approached me and handed me a business card, he said, "give me a call Thursday." He shook my hand and walked off. As I walking out to the parking lot I read the business card, it read, RUSS RIVAS, CHIEF EXECUTIVE BROOM OPERATOR. Russ was the owner of Laffs, and he thought I was funny, that was huge! I called him Thursday and he asked me to come down for a guest set that night or Sunday, I told him I'd come down Sunday, just so I would have more time to prepare. I had no idea what a guest set was. That next Sunday I did the same set and bombed. I thought I was finished after that and tried to avoid Russ after the show. He came up to me as I was leaving the club and said, "come back next Sunday, do the same set." Two of my first three shows were guest sets at the professional shows at Laffs. I got to perform with Danny Villalpando and Brian Bradley. I felt pretty good about myself after that, especially after bombing twice in a row.

Maybe I'll never make it big, or get to do it full time again, but I've performed in over 20 states! I've performed in some weird places, like a campground in Northern Wisconsin, a barn in South Dakota, and on a homemade trailer at a winery in Angel Fire, New Mexico. A lot has happened in the last 10 years, I hope to be doing comedy as long as Jay Wendell Walker.

Laffs Tucson

This past weekend I performed at Laffs Comedy Club in Tucson, AZ, with Tom Sims from Phoenix and Laurie Kilmartin from LA. Both were very funny and a pleasure to work with. Had some pretty crazy crowds, which is something I'm used to in Tucson. Usually I like to just go up and do my set though. In Tucson there were quite a few hecklers, but none of them messed up any of my punchlines or anything like that, so at least the hecklers had good timing. I always love to going to Tucson, there's always a few of the local comics that come out and say hi or do guest spots. My wife got to go with me on this trip, which was awesome. Last time she met some of my friends, Jacob and Jessica, and they got along really well, so we got to hang out with them again. Jacob is a funny up and coming comic in Tucson. And he looks like a grown up version of Ernie from "Billy Madison." And he pees his pants.

The owner of Laffs, Gary Bynum, is always super cool to me. I always look forward to talking with him while I'm there. His wife and son were at the club as well. His son Casey is the manager of the club, he actually graduated from Eldorado High School in Albuquerque a year before I did. I didn't know him then though, because I moved to Albuquerque half way through my senior year. Or in Albuquerque, my senor year, with that cool thing over the n.

Overall, the shows were great though! The weather was perfect, too. The trip went by way too fast. Me, the Mrs, Jacob and Jessica had dinner at Mama's Hawaiin (sp?) Barbeque. If you ever get a chance to try it, it's on Speedway and Park. I tried the Kalua Pork, they give you a huge plate full of pork, two huge scoops of rice and macaroni salad. I barely even touched the sides, and couldn't finish all of the pork. The wife and I could have definitely shared a plate. It was awesome. (And on a side note, I just learned how to spell the word definitely. All these years I spelled it definately. But, at least I'm not one of those people that say, "your dumb." It's "you're dumb." Dummy.)

Thursday night we had a show at the Guild Theater in Albuquerque. Also on the bill were Roger Peterson, Sarah Kennedy, A.J. Martinez, and Matt Peterson. The Guild is the coolest theater in Albuquerque. They show a lot of great movies, and it's just a cool place. The guys working there were awesome, too. I think the owner's name was Keith, super cool, and Chris was there that night as well. They treated us all great. We had a pretty decent turnout for Albuquerque on a Thursday night. And I got to see my good buddy, Marc Shuter. Marc and I used to write all the time together. I miss that son of a bitch. And he told my wife he reads my blogs, even the boring sports ones. So, I hope you're reading right now, Marc. I miss hanging out with ya buddy!

So, the show went great, had a lot of fun performing at the Guild. I actually filmed part of "Mismatch.com" there back in 2005. We had one short scene we filmed there and they were cool enough to let us film. We also had a screening there for part of the Sin Fronteras Film Festival, which was wonderful! It was weird seeing myself on the big screen, but it was fun.

Next up is a show at UNM at the Rodey Theater on December 2nd! Should be a lot of fun, it's a nice big stage. Then I'll be doing Wits End in Westminster, CO, for NYE w/Spanky. Then January 4th at the M Bar in Los Angeles for part of the Laughing Skull Festival! Then I start school January 9th at CNM. We got our classes registered today, I'm gonna get my learns on.


Me on stage

Me on stage again

Jacob, Jessica, Caitlin, and me

Me, Kyle Reade, and Jacob

Upcoming Shows

The last two shows I've done were corporate gigs where I had to do pretty clean material. Not the most fun for me. If you've seen my act, you'd know I'm funnier with some adult humor. I usually don't go over the line, but get pretty close sometimes.

This week I have two shows, one at the Launchpad, and one at Tourettes Without Regrets. Both shows will be dirty for sure, it'll be nice to tell some of my favorite jokes that I haven't gotten to in awhile. Both shows have a variety of different performers, comics, bands, burlesque and poetry!

Next month I get to go to Laffs in Tucson! I love going there, one of my favorite clubs to work. I'll be starting school in Januray hopefully some online classes.

I also found out I got into the first round of the Laughing Skull Festival! I'll be in Los Angeles January 4th at the M-Bar!

Corporate Gig

Last night I took a corporate gig through a booking agency. At first I turned the gig down because they wanted 50-60 minutes clean, then the booker told me I could get another comic to open then I could cover the rest. It worked with my work schedule, so I decided to do it. I asked local comic, Sarah Kennedy to open the show. She's clean and very funny!

When we get to the hotel the people are having dinner and waiting for dessert to be served. We were told it would be 15-20 minutes, no big deal. These people had probably never hired a comic before, but at least they didn't make us perdorm while they were eating dinner. The lady in charge finally went up and said, "hey the comics are here." Not exact words, but not much of intro. I told Sarah I would bring her up though so it wasn't too awkward. So I took the podium, yeah there was a podium, and I introduced Sarah. She did a solid 20 minutes and did great! The crowd was a little chatty while she was on "stage." I sat in the back and watched, she had a few jokes I hadn't heard her do before, funny as always. I think she's got a great career ahead of her. She's only been at it for a couple years.

Sarah brought me up and I started by making fun of the company and got some huge laughs. I did some crowd work before I got into my prepared material. Seemed like a really fun crowd and I was having a great time. Until my third joke. I was asking a few guys in the crowd if they had names for their genitals, it was a PG-13 show. So I couldn't say penis. A big guy wearing a cowboy hat and cowboy boots walked in and I asked if he named his junk. He wasn't playing along so I just went back to my joke. After the first punchline he stood up and said something, I don't remember what it was. I just thought he was being a dick to make his co-workers laugh. Then he walked towards me and I wasn't really sure what he was going to do. He pulled out a pocket knife and said he was gonna cut off my balls, so I said "Git R Done." Well, at that point I realized he wasn't joking around. He grabbed my crotch, for some reason my balls were missing in action, so he actually didn't grab any of the good stuff. But he held on with one hand while he had the pocket knife in the other. I kept backing away from him with the mic from the podium still in my hand. He finally let go and walked off and I went back to the podium. I had a bunch of thoughts in my head at the time, I have never been attacked on stage like that. I kept thinking that someone should have done something about it, but noone did so I just kept my mouth shut about it. I did a few jokes about it when it seemed like he wasn't listening, but its pretty fucking hard to get back into funny mode after being threatened like that. I should have just walked out, but I wanted to be a pro and stick around. And, of course, get paid. Had I walked out I am guessing I wouldn't have gotten paid for the gig.

Any other comics been through anything like that? I think I am going to email the booker and manager of the company.

Alien Warrior Comedian

I first heard about the Alien Warrior Comedian a few years ago when I was working at Laffs in Tucson. At the time I thought it sounded funny, so I googled him and watched a video on youtube. It was pretty impressive. Well, a few years went by and I had totally forgot about it. In May this year I was featuring for my buddy, Dante, at Wits End Comedy Club in Westminster, Colorado. (I'll be there New Years Eve, too, tickets are on sale soon.)

On Friday one of the managers informs us that we have a guest set, the Alien Warrior Comic! I was excited to see his act until I realized I had to follow him. I've followed low energy comics, high energy comics, guitar acts, but never a different species. I normally don't get nervous before going on stage, but when he walked in he was exremely intimidating. I'm only 5'9" and he seemed at least a foot taller than me. I wasn't sure if he was really that tall or if it was part of the costume. He took the stage at the early show and did really well, had very clever written jokes and was great handling hecklers. I was pretty impressed, he had a really solid set. Following him wasn't bad either, he got the crowd into it and they were having a great time, just made my work a lot easier.

After my set, the Alien Warrior and his buddy, Rolan, both told me they enjoyed my set. Both gave me great compliments which was nice. And the Alien Warrior was WAY less intimidating at that point. He ended up doing a guest set at the late show as well, so I got to see him perform again!

I was in Vegas for the World Series of Comedy this past week at the Alexis Park Hotel. I was one of 101 comics competiting in the competition, including Alien Warrior Comedian, who's real name is Mark Weitz. I didn't make it to his show Tuesday night, but heard that he advanced to the semifinals. I finally ran into him the following day out of costume. Definately not as intimidating without the costume. I saw him at a couple of the seminars and the booker meet and greet. His name even came up when we were hanging out with Screech (Dustin Diamond) at the Orleans.

I'm hoping to catch more of Alien Warriors act, other than just seeing a short guest set. If you wanna check him out go .com.aliencomedian.com

World Series of Comedy set

Well, my set finally came and went just a few minutes ago. I'm not too happy with my performance, but I didn't bomb. My first joke didn't get a big laugh like normally, in fact they hardly laughed at all. That kinda threw me off, but I still went ahead with my set. I told a joke that I wasn't planning on telling, its usually just a filler joke. Then I missed the light so I didn't close strong either. Pretty disappointed. I haven't got a chance to do much here either, I woke up Wednesday not feeling very well. Oh well, got to see some great comics and catch up with some old friends! Hope to come check it out next year, too.

Nick 13 show

My wife, Caitlin, invited me to a concert with her a little over a week ago, to see Nick 13, the front man for Tiger Army. I'll admit I was a little hesitant at first, because she said he was doing his new country style. She bought the new album and I listened to it a few times, and at first I wasn't that excited. But, I couldn't turn down a date with my honey, so I agreed to go. I've always enjoyed the Launchpad, my favorite place to see a show. Very intimate and easy to meet the bands. I've seen some great bands there: Dog Fashion Disco, Voodoo Glow Skulls, Reel Big Fish, Suburban Legends, Six Feet Under. I've even performed there with my buddies, Anesthesia.

As the show got closer I got more excited. I was interested to see what the live show would be like. We got downtown around 630 and walked around a bit before heading back to the Launchpad. We went up to the upper level and sat and waited for the show to begin. It was scheduled to start at 8, but it was after 830 when it started. I had never heard of the opening act, Brett Detar, of Juliana Theory. We went downstairs to check him out. He looked the villain from my asthma workbooks I got as a child. The small crowd was pretty receptive of Brett. He seemed like a pretty sad man, like Steven Wright with a guitar. I dug his style though, he played acoustic and banjo on a few tunes. Watching him made me wan to see Dax Riggs live. Dax has been doing solo stuff lately. Brett was giving away his cd for free after the show, he should sell zoloft. I think he was a great opening act for Nick 13, a nice change of pace. It always sucks when you go to a show and every act sounds the same. That's one thing I love about comedy, I rarely get booked with similar acts.

After Brett finished we stood around waiting for Nick 13. Caitlin kept talking about how handsome he was and how it seemed like he was singing to you. She's funny, she has a huge crush on him. I've listened to Tiger Army before and I really dig their style. Great song writing, too. Finally, the band, sans Nick took the stage. The drummer was an older guy, looked to be in his 50's. Looked like a cool old man. I noticed he had a wedding band, too, probably had a cute old lady at home. The guy on stand up bass was from England, you could feel the sound on every song. The guy on steel guitar seemed like a pretty old fella as well. The steel guitar sounds awesome! Guitar player was Dave Gleason, I only remember his name because it was on his guitar strap. He was a pretty impressive player. At times he had a Chuck Berry sound. Nick 13 took the stage a few minutes later with his acoustic, the least impressive of the instruments that night, but very solid. I could almost hear Caitlin's pants getting moist when he took the stage. She wasn't lying, he is a pretty handsome sumbitch, and very charasmatic. I recognized most of the songs that they played from the new album, and a few Tiger Army songs as well. People kept shouting out Tiger Army songs. Most singers probably would have been a little pissed about it, but Nick just smiled and said he'd play them next time Tiger Army was in town. He was very appreciative of the crowd, I can't imagine how difficult that transition is going from Tiger Army to Americana. But the fans seemed to enjoy it and even sang along. Can't wait to seee him next time through Albuquerque!

Loonees

This weekend I performed at Loonees Comedy Corner in Colorado Springs, the first club I ever worked on the road in 2003. I had the pleasure of working with Charlie Weiner from Cleveland. I worked him back in May in Wichita. Charlie is a great guy, been in the business a long time. He had a lot of nice things to say about my act.

The crowds for the weekend were pretty small, I think we cracked 100 barely on the early show Friday. At the late shows I decided to do my "star search" set and it went pretty well even though the people didn't get most of the references. My buddy, Don Morgan emceed Thursday night and did a nice job. He started doing stand up this year and he has come a long way already. Friday night Chris Charpentier came down to emcee and locked his keys in the car. I invited him to come down because he is one of my favorite comics in Denver. And he's a professional, always does the things he needs to do. And he ended up getting a feature week out of it! Saturday we had a newbie emcee, Chris Meeks. I think he had been on stage less than five times prior to Saturday. He brought a lot of people and did a pretty solid job for how new he is. Had some funny material.

The crowds were cheap all week, they didn't buy any cd's at all! Bastards. I need to record a new one anyway. If I win the World Series of Comedy I get recording deal, so who knows? I'm excited about going to Vegas for that and meeting all the bookers. Should be a neat trip! And I won't make any money. But its gonna be a lot of fun.

Friday night I was on tv in New Mexico on "The After After Party." I didn't get a chance to see it yet. I felt good about my set though!

I got to watch a lot of football yesterday, too! I found out the Iowa-Iowa State game was actually on tv so I got to see the ending. Helluva game, too bad the Cyclones won. Iowa's defense looked awful against their no huddle offense. It might be a long year, they have to face some pretty mobile QB's this year. The Michigan-Notre Dame game was another great finish, I hate both of them, but one of them had to win. I hope Michigan State beats Notre Dame and knocks them down to 0-3! There were some great games yesterday, South Carolina-Georgia, USC-Utah, Cal-Colorado and Auburn-Mississippi State were all great finishes. Should be a fun year.

The Brewers for some reason can't seem to beat the Phillies. They struggled with the Yankees and Red Sox this year, too. I could see them winning a first round playoff matchup, but they won't get past Philadelphia. Hopefully they can sign Fielder and have a solid team next year.

new top 25

1-LSU
2-Alabama
3-Oklahoma
4-Boise St
5-Stanford
6-Wisconsin
7-Nebraska
8-Florida State
9-Virginia Tech
10-Oklahoma State
11-Ohio State
12-Texas A&M
13-S. Carolina
14-Arkansas
15-Michigan State
16-Oregon
17-Baylor
18-Florida
19-USF
20-Miss State
21-West Virginia
22-Iowa
23-Houston
24-Arizona State
25-Penn State

Top 10 Games of the Week
Arizona @Ok State should be a high scoring game, two solid QBs and two of the best wideouts in the nation I got Arizona pulling the upset
Missouri @Arizona St Missouri didn't look too good in their opener and might struggle heading out west. ASU wins
TCU @Air Force TCU coming off a loss to Baylor in an exciting game, should be ready for this one. TCU should win.
Alabama @Penn State JoePa better have his team ready for this one, Alabama is one of the best in the country. I think the Nittany Kittens lose, they'll keep it close for a half though.
Miss St @Auburn Auburn looked awful against Utah State, needing a miracle in the last 2 minutes they got it. Miss State has a decent team and they're way better than Utah State. Auburn loses.
BYU @Texas This could be a fun game, BYU's first year as an independent. Texas is coming off a horrible season, and don't look much better this year. I think they'll win though.
SCarolina @Georgia I really thought Georgia would beat Boise, but Boise looked great. Carolina got off to a slow start against E Carolina. Big game for both teams, I think Carolina wins.
Notre Dame @Michigan Will the Irish start off 0-2? Yes, overrated once again. Michigan will be a tough team this year.
Utah @USC Utah's first Pac 12 game! Should be a tough battle at USC, but the Trojans struggled with Minnesota. Utah pulls the upset.
Iowa @Iowa State Iowa by 24

College Football!

College football is by far my favorite sport! Growing up in Iowa I've always been a huge Iowa Hawkeye fan. I started watching when I was five, 1985, they went to the Rose Bowl and has an awesome year! Its amazing that I can remember that far back. I remember in 3rd grade spending the night at my friends house and I snuck out of bed to watch the replay of Iowa game on tv. They have an easy game Saturday against Tennessee Tech. Tech returns 21 starters from last year, which is pretty amazing. Iowa had 13 players from last year end up on NFL rosters this summer. It might be a tough season with a new quarterback, but I think James Vandenberg will be one of the best in the conference this year. They also return sophomore running back, Marcus Coker and senior receiver, Marvin McNutt. The offense should be solid. The defense lost a lot of great players and won't have a lot of depth, but Norm Parker is one of the best defensive coordinators in the country, he'll have everything figured out. Well, preseason polls are worthless, but I'm excited for the season to start so I made a top 25.

1-Alabama
2-Stanford
3-Oklahoma
4-Oregon
5-LSU
6-Wisconsin
7-Nebraska
8-South Carolina
9-Ohio State
10-Florida State
11-Boise St
12-Oklahoma St
13-Texas A&M
14-Virginia Tech
15-Arkansas
16-Michigan State
17-TCU
18-Georgia
19-Auburn
20-West Virginia
21-Notre Dame
22-Florida
23-Mississippi State
24-USC
25-Iowa

Other teams to watch: San Diego State, Houston, Arizona and Baylor.

Top 5 Heisman Candidates
Andrew Luck QB Stanford
Marcus Lattimore RB South Carolina
Landry Jones QB Oklahoma
Justin Blackmon WR Oklahoma State
Kellen Moore QB Boise State

My picks for conference champions
SEC: Alabama (LSU and S. Carolina will be up there too)
Big East: West Virginia (Pittsburgh has a shot, but I think WV will win it)
ACC: Florida State (Va Tech could go undefeated during the regular season, pretty weak schedule)
Big 10: Iowa (of course I picked Iowa, fairly easy schedule and they will beat Wisconsin in the title game)
Big 12: Oklahoma (Ok State and A&M will be in the race)
Pac 12: Stanford (Oregon will lose to Stanford on the road)

BCS Bowl Games
Champ Game: Alabama v Stanford (Alabama has too much talent, Stanford lost some solid players from last year Alabama 35 Stanford 24)
Rose: Iowa v Oregon (This could be a high scoring game, Iowa wins of course Iowa 38 Oregon 35)
Fiesta: Oklahoma v Wisconsin (Two former Hawkeyes going head to head Stoops vs Bielema, gotta go for Stoops. Oklahoma 24 Wisconsin 14)
Sugar: LSU v Virginia Tech (LSU has a great team this year, Va Tech isn't bad, but nearly as talented as LSU. LSU 31 Va Tech 21)
Orange: Florida State v West Virginia (The two worst BCS conferences champions go at it, noone will care. Florida State 35 West Virginia 17)

world series of comedy

Monday while I was at work I got a text from a buddy of mine that said "congrats!" Wasn't sure what he was talking about then he said he saw my name on the list of comics selected for this years World Series of Comedy in Vegas! I wasn't expecting to get in, so it was a nice suprise! Its been a good week comedy wise for me. And my new site is up www.funnyfletcher.com so check it out.

Last night was an awesome show at Low Spirits, I always have a blast doing that show. And Vertigo Venus played which is always awesome!

8 more days until college football! Anyone wanna go to Spectators and watch Iowa whip Tennessee Tech?

10 years of comedy

I've now been doing comedy for 10 years, its been pretty amazing so far. This month, however, has been one of the worst comedy-wise. Had a couple gigs cancel on me. Did a show in Santa Fe, one of the weirdest experiences I've had in comedy, but had fun watching Mike Long. Dude is crazy!

My buddy, Marc Shuter, wrote and starred in a movie "The Bigfoot Election" which has been selected for some big festivals! Its a great movie, lots of great jokes. Marc is a talented sumbitch. It was part of the Albuquerque Film Festival at the Kimo Theatre, they had a great turnout. It was cool to see my buddies on the big screen. Matt Peterson starts in it as well and has a very funny character.

I did a show last night at the bar inside Silva Lanes, it was pretty awesome. I had a lot of fun with the crowd and I saw some people I hadn't seen in years.

Tomorrow I find out if I get selected for the World Series of Comedy in Las Vegas, I'm really hoping I get selected! If not I have to go to my wifes uncles fourth wedding. If it was in Vegas I could've done both.

College football starts in a couple of weeks! Pretty excited about that. I think Iowa will have a decent season this year, hopefully beat up on the shit talking Huskers. And the Brewers are kicking some ass which is awesome, too! They never win, I keep waiting for them to start a big losing streak but they keep winning!

cancelled gigs

One thing I hate about the comedy business is the cancellation of gigs. Its always disappointing. I was really looking forward to the next two weeks, but this morning I had my show at the Kimo Theatre and my co-headline dates at Wits End cancel. Nothing I can do about it, but it does suck being out that money and I was looking forward to the gigs, too. Good things will happen soon though I hope. And I will have a new website up soon!

dallas/ft worth

I recently did two weeks at two of my favorite clubs Hyenas in Dallas and Ft Worth. I always feel like a rock star when I perform there, crowds are always great and they always have great headliners. In Dallas I worked with Chris Porter, one of my favorite touring comics right now, very funny. Follow him on twitter @iamchrisporter All the shows were great, met some really cool local comics, too, including Ryan Perrio who emceed both weeks. Funny opener, he got better every show, too. The first show in Dallas a little rough, I had been on the bus all night, I was exhausted by the time I hit the stage. My eyes started to water as soon as I got on stage. I stole some guys nachos in the front row, they were pretty good, so I gave the basket to someone else. Not sure why I did it but it got laughs. One of the nights a lady laughed hard at one of my jokes, harder than everyone because she got it right away, I said, "wow usually people don't get that right away." She said, "I'm a librarian," so I said, "well then shut the fuck up! How's it feel to be on the other end of that?"

In Ft Worth I thought I was going to lose the crowd within the first two minutes. A week earlier a guy at the Rangers baseball game fell onto the concrete and smashed his head and died in front of his son while reaching for a ball. Well, midway into my first joke someone fell out of their chair and I said, "is there a Rangers game going on over there?" Right when I said it I was thinking, "I shouldn't have said that." But I went on and did some of my best jokes and I think they forgot about it. Ended up being a really solid week. Hanging with the staff and some buddies out there was great. The headliner was Claude Stuart, super cool guy, very high energy. I love going to Hyenas, the pay isn't the greatest, but I still love it. And Randy Butler is one of the coolest guys in the business. And he just hooked me up with a sweet gig at the Kimo Theatre in Albuquerque August 5th opening for Anjelah Johnson from MadTV! My 10 year anniversary show in comedy. Can't believe its been 10 years!

Yesterday I got to perform at the Medical Marijuana Expo at the Convention Center with Jessica Osbourne, Matt Peterson and Rusty Rutherford, that was a blast! High people are a good audience!

Working on a new website, too, should be up by the end of the week!

should've taken greyhound

So it was my first week working for Funny Business which I was pretty excited about. They book a lot of shows all over the country. I knew I wasn't going to make any money on this particular trip. Albuquerque to Denver to Sioux Falls to Denver to Albuquerque is about 36 hours, that's over 300 bucks in gas. My pay for the week was 250. But I took the gig anyway to get in with a new booker. I didn't want to make the drive in one day, so my buddy, Don Morgan, said I could crash at his place in Frederick, Colorado, Thursday night!

Wednesday I bought new tires for the car, I was ready to go! Normally I take Greyhound, but it would have been 56 hours on the bus. Thursday I took off fairly early so I could stop in Colorado Springs and pick up some t-shirts to make some extra money in Sioux Falls. (Paid 78 for 12 shirts, sold two at 20 each, -38!) I was getting into Denver a little before 5 pm, just in time for rush hour (not the shitty Jackie Chan movie.) As I was driving I ran something over, didn't think it was a big deal until I heard a weird noise coming from the car. The check engine light didn't come on but the car was shaking, so I got off the freeway and noticed the steering was a little jacked up. I pulled into a parking lot off of University to check things out. There were fluids everywhere, I had no idea what was wrong though. Don showed up and noticed the power steering unit was messed up (160 dollar part, hooray!) At that point I didn't know what to do I could hop on a Greyhound which was 288 bucks round trip, or cancel the gig and ruin my chances of getting booked with Funny Business again. Don offered to let me use his jeep to Sioux Falls for the weekend and he would work on my car when I got back. Worse gas mileage, but no labor fee on my car! Finally a plus on the trip. Went and checked out the show at Comedy Works downtown, too, which was awesome. Dov Davidoff was pretty funny.

Friday I got up really early, hit the road at 530. 11 hour boring ass drive thru Eastern Colorado, Nebraska and South Dakota. I got to Sioux Falls around 5. The club (Fat Daddys Comedy Club) and condo are right downtown, which is pretty awesome. Got to the club and met the owner, Bethany, very cool lady, and has a cool accent. Got to the condo, met Mike Smith the headliner from KC, funny guy and super nice. Show was at 730, small crowd, maybe 20 people. Jesse Ross showed up, he's a huge fan of my friends band, AnesthesiA! We both had AnesthesiA shirts on. The show went pretty well for the crowd size. Gin Blossoms were in town, we can't compete with them. Hey jealousy! Jesse wanted to hang out after, but I told them we had another show to do. After he left I realized, we didn't have another show. I should have paid to attention to that, only three shows instead of five.

Saturday we had a bigger crowd, probably 40 and there were two bachelorette parties. Usually those are hell to deal with, but they were really cool. The opener was very funny, Justun Sangster. Warmed up the crowd very nicely. The guy on Friday did a great job, too, Joe (forgot his last name.) I went up and had a pretty solid set that I was happy with! After the show I walked around to check out downtown Sioux Falls. There were quite a few people out and saw a few bands playing outside, they were no Gin Blossoms though.

Sunday night I got to see an old co-worker buddy of mine, John Hult. He was always one of my favorite co-workers at Laffs, never a pain in the ass like most servers. It was cool to see him, I even jammed a cd that he made me on the way to Sioux Falls. He brought a couple guys from his band to the show. We had 15 in the crowd and no mc, so I had to go first. Kinda sucks going on without a warmup, but definately not the worst situation I've been in. Show went well, got laughs. So that wrapped up the week, three shows, 75 people, sold two shirts and zero cd's! Watched the last seconds of the Mavs-Heat game 3 with Mike and hung out a bit at the bar.

Monday I hit the road at 930, got some sleep, pretty uneventful drive until I hit Sterling, Colorado. Power steering messed up a bit and almost hit a curb. I checked to see if the fluid was good and it was full, then the cap fell so I waited til the engine cooled down so I could grab it. Ended up running into three different Iowa Hawkeye fans while I was there. Ended up at Dons place around 8. We went and hit up some open mic nights. Did a set at Lions Lair, I did my material I had written for my character, 80s guy, but said it was my set I did on Star Search at age 11, pretty funny. Did that set at Benders right after, also tossed in some newer jokes. It was fun, it was good seeing some of the comics again. Went to Pete's Kitchen with Don and Ron Ferguson afterwards.

Tuesday spent all day working on the car, I'm really hating this Suzuki Forenza! I hate comedy, I hate going on the road, I just wanna be home! LA next week for the dvd taping then not on the road for a few weeks! Next year I'm gonna take a break and only do a few gigs.

the after after party

Last night I filmed my second episode of "The After After Party" a local talk show with Steven Michael Quezada, a local comic/actor. They told me I'm the second comedian to come back, the other being Kenny King. Vince Gilligan, Anna Gunn, and Bob Odenkirk were all supposed to be guests, but all had to cancel for different reasons. RJ Mitte, who plays Walt Jr on "Breaking Bad" came in and did the episode I filmed. Not sure when it will air yet. RJ was really cool, I got to chat with him a bit before the taping he was really nice. Took a lot of photos with the audience and stuff like that. He said he watched the first two episodes of season 4 and they're insane. Can't wait to see the new season!

I felt a lot more comfortable this time doing the show, it was much easier and I had a great set! The crew at the show is awesome! I don't know how Steven comes up with all the material plus filming, that's gotta be pretty hard to do. If you get a chance to see a live taping its a blast! They do it every other Tuesday at the Wool Warehouse.

I'm excited to get a new website done this month, also got new headshots done last night by the photographer of the show, Paul Lopez. I'll have them later this week! Well, I'm off for Sioux Falls, SD, tomorrow I'm gonna stop in Denver and find somewhere to do a set.

amarillo

Did a show at the Holiday Inn in Amarillo on Thursday night with Spencer James. I had met him once at the Comedy Works in Denver, but had never seen him perform. The Holiday Inn packed the place, I think she said 129 people, not bad for a Thursday in Amarillo. I had a pretty solid set, but they didn't get a few of the jokes, which always makes me laugh. They sit and look at me like I'm an idiot, you're the one who didn't get the joke. I've done enough of these shows to know I should "dumb it down" for the audience, but I really don't want to. I think that's why I prefer clubs, people at clubs usually get the jokes, there are some that I do that take some people awhile though. Oh well, I'm not gonna change my act, I like what I do. If I didn't, it would be boring.

The people at the Holiday Inn were some of the nicest I've ever met. Very friendly! Spencer was really cool, too. He even bought me dinner! Free dinner is always great!

Tuesday night I'm getting new headshots done, and I'm filming another set for "The After After Party" with Steven Michael Quezada. Should be a fun night! Then it is off to Sioux Falls, SD for the weekend!

Also, I will be re doing the website finally! I'll keep everyone posted.

wichita

Well, the week is over in Wichita, rapture never happened and we didn't have much for crowds. Late show Saturday was best of the week though, so I ended on a good note. Worked with Charlie Weiner, great guy and a huge baseball fan! Watched a lot of games with him.

Doing comedy during graduation week is always tough, but at least it was fun and I didn't bomb which is nice haha. Local attorney, Danny Seville took us to Pig In Pig Out a local bbq joint and fed us for free pretty much the entire week! Holy shit it was awesome, great brisket! Yum!

The mc had some funny stuff, Dillon Narcisi, he's a young dude with a jew fro. He was excited when he got paid, he didn't know he was getting paid, it was adorable. I guess the original mc didn't show up.

I'm about to head to the Greyhound station, there's probably going to be more people on the bus than there were at our shows.

Oh, and check out www.myebar.net its Charlie Weiner's website with listings of great restaurants, clubs and bars, its really cool!

Heading back to Albuquerque, gonna do a set at Hallenbrick on Monday night and off to Amarillo Thursday for a show at the Holiday Inn with Spencer James.

I was sad to hear about Macho Man's death. I guess God was craving Slim Jims.

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!

Albuquerque, El Paso April 28-30

Sitting at the Greyhound station in El Paso about to head back home. I hate people who always have to talk, its like they get freaked out if its quiet for two seconds. Shut the fuck up lady. And there's a poster it says, "When the Globetrotters travel, they go Greyhound." Its probably because they all work there. And that explains why they only play one game a week, takes a few days just to get to the next city. I think they call it Greyhound because their time is like dog time.

Thursday night was my last time performing at Howies in Albuquerque. Its been a great venue the last couple years and I never had a bad show there. Thursday we had a great lineup-Roger Peterson, Brett Hiker, Joe Quesada, Sarah Kennedy, me and Matt Peterson. Show was great! Everyone of the comics rocked, Brett and Joe have really come a long way since we used to do shows at The Tavern. Only flaw of the night was the heckling. I've been doing comedy almost ten years and I've dealt with hundreds of hecklers, they don't bother me, unless the hecklers are other comics. There was also a guy who is looking to start up a weekly comedy show in town at a venue I'm not going to promote here, but I am gonna guess he's not going to get any of the good local comics on the lineup, good luck buddy. He was on his phone for the first part of the show, and heckled a little bit during as well. Like I said the heckling doesn't bother me, but if you're looking to do a local comedy show, don't piss off the comics. They finally left during Matt's set and he did some pretty funny rants about the trio of douches. Matt should rant more often, it was hilarious! And by the end of his set his hair looked like Bill Murrays at the end of "Kingpin."

Friday I headlined the Federal Courthouse Bar in El Paso. Had a solid lineup of comics, Tim Schultz from Nashville featured, he was great! Him and I rode down together with Dave Graham, a very funny comic from El Paso who happened to be in Albuquerque the night before. It was my first time following a guitar act, it was fun. Sam and Alex(I forgot his last name, its on the flyer though) both did great. I worked with Alex last year, he's improved a lot. Patrick Candelaria stopped in to check out the show, too, it was great to see him. I did a midwest run with him last year.

Last night the show was at House of Rock, a music venue. Good size venue, it would be cool to catch a concert there. Sam was the host again, but I missed his set. The opener was a magician, he was pretty entertaining, not a big fan of magic, but it was good for the show, had a lot of different styles of comedy. Aleks with a K featured, he's always funny. I had a fun set, didn't get to do a full headline set, they had a band booked after our show, so I had to get off stage at 10. I always like coming to El Paso, crowds are always great. They don't buy merchandise though, maybe I need to record a cd in Spanish.

This week I am back at Wits End featuring! Working with my good buddy Dante and his lady, Rebekah Kochan. Looking forward to it!

cheyenne, albuquerque

Saturday April 23 I headlined a show in Cheyenne, Wyoming, at DTs Tusker Bar with my buddy, Ariel Holmes. We hit the road at about 630 am, we were both pretty tired. Most comics are night people. We stopped in Santa Fe to visit with Ariel's mom, then we hit the road again. I had never driven a standard before, but learned pretty quickly. Between Las Vegas and Raton is one of the most boring drives, it was to have someone there to talk to.

A day earlier I noticed Slade Ham was in Colorado Springs performing at Loonees, so I hit him up on Twitter so we could stop in and say hi. Hadn't seen him in quite awhile, once at Laffs in Albuquerque, and when I worked with him at Loonees in 2006. Slade had his buddy, Sam Demaris with him, too, it was my first time meeting him. We stopped in at the condo for about an hour telling some funny stories. When I worked with Slade, I was emceeing at the time, Slade and Gary Bell were co-headlining. One night we had a guest set from Tommy Johnagin (probably spelled wrong, but not gonna look it up). He showed up late and I had no idea we had a guest set, Loren, the club manager at the time brought a napkin to me on stage telling me to introduce the guest set. The way he had spelled it out I messed up the pronunciation and when he got on stage he corrected me, as I was telling him sorry he made a smart ass remark to me telling me to get off stage. Kind of rubbed me the wrong way, he was late, then acted like that, but whatever, he got second on Last Comic Standing and makes way more than I ever will. And I've heard from some comics that he is actually a really cool guy.

Slade and I both remembered the shows from that week, especially the Saturday late show that Gary headlined. Gary ate a huge bag of shit on stage, felt really bad for the guy, but made fun of him for the next 24 hours. At the Sunday show when he was out of the showroom I told the crowd how horrible he did the night before and told them to give him a standing ovation, it was awesome!

The show in Cheyenne wasn't too bad, there was a guy who kept talking during the show, but he was kind of fun to mess with. Ariel does a bit about Paul Harvey reading erotic novels, one of my favorite jokes ever haha.

Monday night was open mic at Hallenbrick in Albuquerque and I finally got a chance to get down there! What an awesome little open mic, with some of the best comics in town. It was great to see so much talent perform at one place. I love the comedy scene here everybody is so supportive. My wifey, Caitlin, also did a set, her 4th time on stage and she rocked. I was so proud of her. She was so happy to get big laughs.

Thursday night is the last show at Howies, which I'm pretty sad about. Its gonna be a great show though! Always have fun there.

El Paso

Ok, I'm going to start blogging more about my road gigs and whatnot. I've been on the road a bit the last couple weeks. This weekend I was in El Paso, Texas, headlining at Maki Sushi Bar, where they have a side room for a small comedy club. The people from suncitycomedy.com but the shows together, they're awesome!

Thursday and Fridays crowds were a little slow, didn't really get all the clever stuff. It always makes me laugh watching a crowd when they don't get jokes. One or two people get the joke and have to splain (el paso talk for explain) the joke to everyone else. Saturday nights show was awesome though, people got most of the jokes and weren't afraid to laugh. And a group of gay guys left during my set right before I got to my gay jokes. And when they left they didn't push their stools in.

Worked with some great comics, Sam Butler was the mc, he's pretty new to the scene, but he does a great job and actually enjoys emceeing. Manny Vigil and Sean Scarbrough were the other opening acts, I've performed with both of them before, very entertaining guys.

Saturday afternoon, Gibran and Mando came by the hotel room and we recorded the Border Geek podcast which will be up on Wednesday.

Went downtown last night and a couple guys stopped me and said, "hey, its Fletcher from Colorado." They were at my show last time I was in El Paso. They remembered picking on this idiot from Alabama. Fun times. Had a nice weekend in El Paso and they've got me coming back in two weeks for a couple other venues. Take That Sun City

January 2011

1-Got a co-headline night at Hyenas in Dallas with my former roommate, Jake Sharon (www.jakeisfantastic.com). Jake headlined the first show I think I did 30 minutes before him, but I had a decent set. Jake had a really good set. I was planning on dressing nicer on stage, but I didn't feel comfortable. The second show I headlined and decided to just stick with my t-shirt and jeans, I felt way more comfortable. One of my good friends from my hometown, Melissa Evans was at the show, she's one of the coolest people ever. And she didn't tell me to say that. So the second show was great Jake rocked it and I felt I had a pretty killer set, too. Did a lot of crowd work. After the show we hung out with Melissa, went to IHOP. Fun times!

4-Melissa got us tickets to see the Mavericks and Blazers, it was a lot of fun. Got to see Brian Cardinal play, 0 points and 3 fouls, but he did draw a charge. Pretty solid night Cardinal.

7-8 Featured at Hyenas in Fort Worth working with Matt Golightly. One of the shows I closed with a joke that I shouldn't have and I think I upset some people. People with dark skin. Overall the weekend was awesome though. I love going out there, plus I got to see Jason Russell and his family which is always nice. The staff at the club is awesome, can't wait to go back again. Jerrod, the manager is a really cool guy, even if he does like men.

15-Strater Theater in Durango, CO, this show gets worse everytime I go, but I love the town and the hotel. Took my buddy John Cuellar up to do some time and he ended up getting a week at Wits End out of it! I love helping comics out.

20-Contest night at Terrene Hookah and I won first place. It was a hell of a lineup that night and they packed the place. What a fun room.

22-Went to a screening of "The Bigfoot Election" which my buddy, Marc Shuter wrote. Marc and I used to write together all the time, he's brilliant. I loved the movie, lots of great lines. Matt Peterson starred in the movie with Marc and both did great. Hope it kills at the festivals.

24-Featured at the Hondah Casino in Pinetop, AZ. Took my nephew Hunter with, it was his first time leaving the state, he had a fun time. The show was awesome, too. One of the better sets I've had there. Its a lot easier when you don't have food poisoning.

25-Did a set at Low Spirits and had a great time. Its fun to see all the comics go up, plus Vertigo Venus played which was awesome, they always put on a great show.

26-Cait and I went and saw the Toasters at the Launchpad! It was a fun show, did some skanking.

27-Caits bday I did a show at Cazuelas in Rio Rancho and had a little party for her. The show was put on by the "Duke City Comedy League." Their were kids in the crowd so it was a super clean show. Hunter got on stage with me to tell some jokes, he said "Hi everybody, what's your name?" He killed it. Even called some lady, baby, haha.

28-My episode of "The After After Party" aired on the CW. I thought it went pretty well, I dig the house band, The James Douglas Show.

December 2010

So I haven't blogged much about my shows, but I have a new phone which allows me to do so more often now. You're welcome both followers.

December was my final month in Denver, decided to move back to Albuquerque to be closer to family. I enjoyed my time in Denver, met a lot of great comics and made a lot of new friends.

1-Did open mic at El Charrito, I think it was their second show. I took a cardboard cutout of the most interesting man in the world on stage with me and stood behind it while I told my jokes. I felt bad ass and interesting. It was a fun room.

7-New talent night at Comedy Works was a lot of fun. I always enjoyed the shows there and this one might have been my best one yet. I tried scoring some guest sets there, but Wende never wrote me back so it never happened. Thanks to all the comics who put in a good word though, especially Lori Callahan.

9-I emailed Don at Wits End to see if he needed an mc for the 16-19 because I wanted to squeeze in some more gigs before I left, plus I wanted to work with Ron Ferguson and Russ Rivas. Don said I could do the week, plus gave me this night as well with Talon Saucerman and Todd Johnson. I ran into Todd at Comedy Works the night before he was opening for Joe Larson and Kermet Apio. Kermet is awesome. The night at Wits was fun, kind of a small crowd, but they were fun.

13-My last time at the Lions Lair was a lot of fun. Jill Tasei and I heckled Peter Cohen a bit which was nice. I did some new material that worked pretty well. Caitlin went on stage that night as well and got her best response, she was excited. I'm gonna miss the Lions Lair.

16-19 I got to mc at Wits this week like I mentioned earlier, the shows were great and I got to meet the new owner of Wits, John. He seems like a really cool guy. I'll miss Don, he was always super cool to me. I'll probably never see him again.

28-Filmed a 3 minute set for a tv show "The After After Party" which is a late night talk show hosted by Steven Michael Quezada who plays Gomez on "Breaking Bad." I used to do shows with Steven back in like 04 and 05. It was a fun show to film, there were about 150 people at the Wool Warehouse so it was a good sized crowd. As soon as I filmed my set I ran over to Maloneys to catch the end of the Iowa-Missouri game with my buddy Nate Tramontina. It was cool catching part of an Iowa game with him finally, he was born in Sioux City. He told me he quit Anesthesia he was the lead guitarist. I was pretty bummed about that. They signed a record deal with Sub Noize records. They're bad ass. I'm hoping to hang out with Nate more now that I live in town. I've written a few goofy songs that I want to record with him so I might get that done!

29-Matt Peterson needed rent money so he put together a last minute show at Howies, it was my first show since moving back and it was awesome. I've never had a bad show at Howies. The lineup was great, AJ Martinez and Joe Quesada both went up and rocked, those guys get better every time I see them. I remember seeing them when they first started back when we did shows at the Tavern. Sarah Kennedy was next and tore it up as usual, she's becoming one of my favorite comics to watch. Matt went on before me and tore it up, too. Its cool to see how much he's progressed over the years. We used to work together at Poppis Pizza.

30-I drove all the way to Dallas the next day, left at 430 am. It was quite a drive, but got to the club at about 6. I met Randy Butler the owner of Hyenas for the first time, he was a really nice guy, showed me around a little bit and let me do some time at the show that night. I was only scheduled for Friday and Saturday. The opener was a guy named Larry Campbell who had some great stuff and got the crowd into it. I went after him and had a pretty decent set, could've done way better, but travel days don't give you a lot of time to prepare. Nick Guerra did 30 after me and destroyed. I'm so glad I didn't have to follow him, I would have ate shit pretty bad. His jokes and his improve rocked. I kind of felt bad for the headliner who had to follow, but he tore it up, too. Headliner was Dustin Ybarra, Gary Hood told me about him before so it was cool to see him perform. I think Nick and Dustin will both make it big, it was a fun show.

31-Big New Years Eve show at Hyenas! I was excited to be working with Carl LaBove, one of the Outlaws of Comedy and Sam Kinisons best friend. I just read a story online that said Carl's kid was actually fathered by Sam. Kinda fucked up Carl's life with getting his license and passport taken away, not good for a road comic. Anyway the shows went great, Carl tore it up both shows and did different material. Plus he was super cool. A lot of times you'll work with a headliner and they think they're way better than everyone else and have a shitty attitude and treat the openers like shit, well Carl was the opposite. I didn't get to meet him before the show but right after my set he came up and introduced himself to me and we chatted for a bit after the show. Hope I get to work with him again sometime.

havent blogged in a few months

It's already February 2011 and I haven't blogged since November, haven't been on the computer much. Got a lot of shows to talk about, but I'm gonna do it later, so check back later. Oh and I even filmed for a tv show!