Dallas/Ft. Worth Shows

I hadn't been to Hyenas in Dallas or Ft. Worth since I started school, so I decided to take a trip out there after the Fall semester this year. (I got all A's in five classes, just to brag a little bit!) Both Hyena's clubs are among my favorites that I've worked at, crowds are always great, and I love the cities. And I always get to hang out with Jason Russell while I'm out there, he's a good buddy of mine that I met back in 2002 when I did a guest set while he headlined at Laffs here in Albuquerque. (RIP) Jason was also headlining the first time I ever emceed a week at Laffs.

I was excited to work with Ben Creed again, I have done shows with him in Tucson and Colorado Springs, he's one of my favorite headliners to work with, super cool guy and hilarious. My buddy, James Morrow and I drove in to Fort Worth on Thursday to catch the open mic at the club. I hadn't been to the new location, so it was a little different than I was expecting. We got there just in time to sign up, there weren't many comics there. I did run into Kyle Reade, who I've known for years, he just moved to Dallas from Tucson. They're treating him like a new guy out there which kind of sucks, Kyle's been doing it for quite awhile and he's good. Hopefully he'll catch a break and get some solid stage time at the clubs. I wasn't too impressed with the open mic, but it was cool for James to get some stage time out of town.

The new club was a lot different than the previous one, it is located in the Lonestar club downtown. It was a great location, but just didn't have the feel of the old club. The first night's shows weren't too bad, I had to shake some rust off, I hadn't featured at a club in several months. The opening act was Clint Werth, a local guy who's been doing stand-up a couple of years. He had some great stuff and got the crowd going right away which was nice. My best shows of the week were definitely the Saturday shows though. Late show Saturday there was a man in the front row who looked like the Gorton's Fisherman, minus the raincoat. I made fun of him quite a bit in my set and he loved it. It was fun watching Ben, he destroyed every show!

The following weekend I was in Dallas performing with headliner Aaron Aryanpur. I had never heard of him, but I had heard that he just won the Funniest Comic in Texas competition at the Improv, which is pretty big. The opening act for the weekend was Chris Corlea, who's also pretty new to stand-up, but he has some solid material. I think he's going to be really good when he gets more comfortable on stage and writes more. I wasn't sure what to expect of Aaron since I had never seen him or heard of him, but he did just win that competition, so I knew he had to be pretty solid, and he was. A lot of jokes about his family and marriage, he's a little older than me, and has been doing stand-up for about as long as well. He was great to work with, very humble, very friendly and funny. I think he'll do some great things in comedy. Very likable. On Friday and Saturday Paul Varghese did guest sets, I'm not gonna lie, I was a little nervous to follow him, even though I had never seen him before. I had heard of him, and I am friends with him on Facebook. Every time I'm in Dallas I hear his name from the local comics, a lot of guys look up to him, and I can see why now that I got to see him perform. He was great, I would love to see him do a full headlining set. Very cleverly written material, crowd loved it. And he was super cool as well, he told me he does mostly college gigs which is great way to make money in this business. The crowds were good all weekend long, a little strange at times and kind of had trouble with some of the more clever material. But, overall, I was happy with my performances. It was nice to get out on the road for a couple of weeks during Christmas break.

I have a weekend coming in Tucson and after that nothing until Spring semester is over, I'll be in Colorado for three weeks in May! Looking forward to that. Until then, I'm going to keep writing and hopefully be able to come up with some great material. Happy New Year everyone!

What's Been Going On and Shit

Well, since the new semester started in August I haven't been on the road much. I feature at Loonees Comedy Corner in Colorado Springs the week before school started with Adam Cayton-Holland, if you haven't seen him, check him out, very funny dude from Denver. And he's a huge baseball fan, which makes him cooler. Had a pretty fun week, shows weren't packed or anything, but always a good time.

In October, I opened at Laffs Comedy Club in Tucson. The feature was my former roommate, Jake Sharon, and the headliner was Steven Michael Quezada. Steven wanted to work with me, so I decided I would take an mc week and go have fun for a weekend in Tucson. The shows were great! It was awesome seeing Jake again, too. Steven took a lot pics with fans after the shows, that was cool. He's had a lot of success being on "Breaking Bad!"

November 3 we had a really cool show in Albuquerque at The Box. Five comics each did ten minutes, the first five minutes were the first five minutes they had ever written and the final five were their newest five. It went pretty well. I hadn't told those jokes in years, it was kind of find to tell those shitty jokes in front of an audience again.

My wife, Caitlin, had her first comedy gig November 10th at The Box as the guest comic for Comedy?'s Variety show! She was so nervous, but she did great, and she did it with no notes! She also got to do a little improv with them, which was really cool. They let me do an improv game with them when I performed for them in September, but I did horrible. Caitlin has an improv show on the 30th at Tech Love, which I'm excited about!

Next month will be fun, I get to perform at Hyenas in Dallas and Fort Worth with one of my favorite comics, Ben Creed! I haven't been out there in over a year, so I'm pretty excited to get out there. It'll be a nice little break from school, too. And as far as school goes, so far I have 4 A's and a B right now, so hopefully I can keep that up until the end of the semester.

Ron Ferguson headlines 405 Lounge Wednesday July 25 at 830

With Laffs Comedy Club closing down a few years ago, not many nationally touring comics have stopped through the Duke City. But this week, we are lucky enough to have one of my favorite comics and good friend, Ron Ferguson in town. He will be headlining at the 405 Lounge downtown at 830 on Wednesday night, tickets are only 5 bucks at the door. Part of the proceeds will go to children who lost their parent or parents in the Aurora shooting this past weekend, which is where Ron is from.

Ron is a regular at the world famous Comedy Works in Denver, and has shared the stage with such heavyweights as Bill Burr, Dave Chappelle and Chelsea Handler. He currently tours with Pablo Francisco, but is taking a week off to come hang out in Albuquerque. Check out Ron's website also, you can catch a video or two of his on youtube if you want, but live comedy is the way to go, so get your asses to the show.

Also joining Ferguson on stage will be local comics Ariel Holmes, Sarah Mowrey, Rusty Rutherford, and Curt Fletcher (me!)

Walt White and the dead body

Sunday afternoon I flew back into town after a great two weeks at the Loony Bins in Little Rock and Tulsa, respectively. Like I mentioned in my last post, I worked with some great comics, and had some pretty solid crowds. Made a lot of new fans in Tulsa, especially, love that place!

I had a few hours to unpack and everything before my show at Route 66 Casino's Envy Nightclub with Steven Michael Quezada, who plays Gomez on "Breaking Bad." Ever heard of it? He's also the host of a local tv talk show, "The After After Party" which he's invited me to do three times! It's been great exposure, and it's always a blast. The crew, and The James Douglas Show are all amazing!

I got to the venue around 7:45, talked to the mc, Nikki Mangin, and talked to Steven briefly before the show started. It was a nice turn out for a Sunday night, not to mention they were having the service for Johnny Tapia at the Pit, too. I was pretty happy with the turn out. About 15 minutes before I was going to hit the stage, I was standing over near the stage entrance and decided I needed some more water. I looked over at the bar and saw a well dressed bald man standing and taking pictures with people, even though his back was turned I knew it was Bryan Cranston.

Having been in the business for ten plus years, I rarely get nervous before a show, but seeing Walt fucking White at the show, I got pretty damn nervous. Luckily, I had just done two straight weeks(and one gay, hahaha) on the road and had my set down pretty solid. I took the stage and did a pretty solid job, not a big crowd for laughter, but everyone was enjoying themselves. There was one guy that was laughing every time I looked at him, and that was Bryan Cranston! I thought that was pretty damn cool!

Nikki and Steven both rocked as usual, too. I also met Double J, from 106.3 in the mornings, and he invited me to go on his show Monday morning. I almost declined because it was so early, but couldn't turn down the exposure!

So, after the show at the casino, I was walking out of the building and there were some cops and an ambulance or two, I don't really remember. There was a little fenced off area with some sheets wrapped around, but it was kind of windy and I happened to glance over and saw a body laying on the ground with a sheet trying to cover it up. Not sure what the hell happened, but it kinda freaked me the fuck out. So, a pretty solid night, Bryan Cranston laughed at my jokes, and I saw a dead body. And Nikki and Steven were bad ass, always fun working with them!

Now, I get to relax and hang with the wifey for a few days! She's starting her new improv class this Saturday, she's super excited!! I'll make sure to post when her next show is.

And I am starting my new open mic show tonight at the 405 Lounge on Central! Never ran my own show before, pretty excited to have comedy downtown!

Being on the road

Since starting school in January, I haven't really hit the road much this year. The only times I've been out are for the Laughing Skull Festival in Hollywood and Atlanta. Last week was my first week on the road for 2012, I was in Little Rock, Arkansas, at the Loony Bin. I hadn't been there in about four years, and actually kind of struggled when I emceed there. It was a pretty slow week because of the local Riverfest going on, but the crowds were great, had a lot of fun. A lot better than when I was an opener there. Our opener for the week was Steven Baucom from Tulsa, really funny kid, has some great writing. I think he's gonna do pretty well in the business. The headliner was Skip Clark, who I had never met before. He's only been doing stand up for seven years and already headlining, pretty solid! Both guys were super cool to work with. This week I've been in Tulsa, which is one of my favorite places to be. Got to hang out with my good buddy, Jason Brown, and play some strat-o-matic baseball, or as Dave Ashley calls it, nerd baseball. I played strato growing up, and thought it was cool that Jason did, too. So, every time we get together we draft some teams and play a series or two, it's a blast! The shows in Tulsa have been a lot of fun so far, too. Dave Testroet, is the headliner, he's a great guy, I've worked with him a ton. The opener is a local guy, Dan Fritschie, very funny guy! Friday morning we did a radio interview on 106.9, the dj's were super cool, had a fun time there making fun of Dave. It's good to get back on the road, I miss the shit out of it! Tomorrow I'm doing a show at the Route 66 Casino in Albuquerque with Steven Michael Quezada, should be a lot of fun. R.I.P. Johnny Tapia

Rise Against Show/My Upcoming Shows

I haven't been to many concerts in the last couple of years, I used to go quite a bit when I was younger. I guess I have other stuff to spend money on, and I'd rather be on stage if I can be. Last Monday, my step dad hooked me and Caitlin up with free tickets to see Rise Against at the Santa Ana Star Center in Rio Rancho. We got out of our math class early and headed down there. We got to sit up in one of the suites, which was pretty cool, had a nice view of the stage. The first band was Title Fight, never heard of them, we caught a few of their last songs, they weren't bad. Second, was A Day to Remember. I had just heard them on the radio earlier that day, and they sounded pretty decent. I was pretty impressed with their live show, it's amazing how creative a band can get when they've got a little bit of money. They put on a really good show, I don't know if I'd go out and buy their album, but it was a lot of fun to watch. Rise Against headlined the show, and they put on an amazing live show. Had really cool lighting and some awesome videos playing on stage. Singer, Tim McIlrath, also did a few acoustic songs, those were the first Rise Against songs I had ever heard, so that was pretty cool! It was a lot of fun. On Saturday the 28th I did a show at Hotel Andaluz for 93.3 KOB FM to raise money for YDI. This is one the best shows I've seen here in Albuquerque for awhile, we had Todd Badolato, Sarah Kennedy, Dan Rascon, Matt Peterson, Rusty Rutherford and me. They packed a lot of people into the room, the lighting was great, too. Everybody killed it, very successful night! Here are some of my upcoming shows May 5: Albuquerque, NM-Reptilian Lounge 10:30 pm This show is put on by Tricklock Theatre Co May 23-26: Little Rock, AR-Loony Bin May 30-June 2: Tulsa, OK-Loony Bin June 3: Albuquerque, NM-Route 66 Casino w/Steven Michael Quezada

Laughing Skull Festival and new cd recording

I haven't had much time to blog, or really do anything since I got home from Atlanta. Finishing up my first semester at Central New Mexico Community College, my last day is Monday! So relieved to have this first semester out of the way. Well, the Laughing Skull Festival in Atlanta was quite an experience. I was amazed at the amount of talent in the competition. There were a lot of great headliners in the competition. I knew I had no chance of winning up against some of these guys, but it was an honor to be a part of it. I got to hang out with a lot of my favorite comics that I hadn't seen in awhile, too, like Gabe Rutledge, Mark Poolos, and Johnny Beehner. I shared a hotel with three guys from LA, Alex Hooper, Grant Lyon, and Mark Agee. I had only met them all once, but they were all cool guys. And as a comic I always live with people I've never met before, so it's not a huge deal at all, we had a good time. Those guys are extremely funny, too! My portion of the competition was the first show of the week at the Laughing Skull Lounge. I didn't get a chance to catch everyone's set from backstage, but listened to pretty much everyone, definitely a lot of talent. I had a pretty solid set, but didn't advance. My feelings weren't hurt though, any of the comics could have advanced from that show. My buddy, Justin Clutter, who's been one of my best friends since 4th grade was at the show. He lives a couple hours north of Atlanta, so he came down to the show. The last time I saw him was a week after the Colts beat the Bears in the Super Bowl and we hung out with Dallas Clark's dad, Doug. Funny dude! Thursday night I got to perform a couple shows at the Hotel Midtown which is where we stayed. The shows were pretty fun, got to try some stuff that I didn't do in the competition round. We went to the Clermont Lounge afterwards, holy shit! I kind of had a feeling of what we were getting in to, but the first thing I saw when I walked in was Blondie, nasty chick with nasty boobs. She wasn't even the nastiest one either, there was a 65-year-old stripper! Finally, there was one decent looking stripper, I was thinking, "how the hell did she end up here?" Then she lit her nipples on fire. Pretty interesting night. Friday, I had the night off, so I decided to chill at the hotel, watched the shows there then hung out with Mark Poolos. And I ate almost an entire pizza by myself. I felt good. Saturday was the night of the semifinals and finals in the competition. I watched part of the semifinals at the hotel, then grabbed a cab over to the Relapse Theater to see if I could get on stage since some of the comics made the finals. I was able to get a 5 minute set, which was awesome! The Relapse is a really cool improv theater in the basement of an old church. I got to see Sean Kent perform, too, I hadn't seen him in a few years since he was at Laffs. Dude is fuckin hilarious! I had a pretty solid set at the Relapse, it was fun. I met a lot of cool people in Atlanta, lots of great comics and industry people. I definitely want to try to get in the festival again next year, Steve Hofstetter and Marshall Chiles were both super cool! It was a good motivation for me being out there with all of that talent. I've been kind of lazy with the comedy the last year or so. Not good. When I got back from Albuquerque, I had a gig at Malarkey's. Had a kick ass headline set, had a lot of fun there. Felt good about my set, wasn't sure how I'd do after traveling all day. On April 20th, I decided to record for my live cd, "Fletcher in the Rye" (take that jd salinger) Had a fun night at the Guild Theater in Albuquerque, very kick ass lineup! We've got a lot of great comics here in Albuquerque. Tonight is gonna be an awesome show at Hotel Andaluz, doing a show to help raise money for YDI. Looking forward to the show.

Curt Fletcher Update

I haven't blogged in over a month, been super busy, but it's spring break and I've had a couple days off!! Very excited about that. Here's a run down on some shows I've done and some other stuff that's been going on and what's going to go on!

February 4-Taos, NM-Casa de los Cordovas

I headlined a show in Taos for my buddy, Anthony "Animal" Garcia. The show was at his uncle's restaurant, who also happens to be the mayor of Taos. The place was packed! Anthony kicked off the show, followed by Joe Quesada, Eddie Tafoya and myself. Everybody kicked ass, the crowd was amazing. I have never done a show in a restaurant that had a crowd like that, it had a comedy club feel to it, it was great. I wish you could have been there, but you weren't, so get over it. Fun night!

February 25-Albuquerque, NM-The Press Room

Headlined a show at the Press Room, which used to be Jokers Pub. We used to have an open mic at Jokers several years ago. It was a pretty trashy biker bar back then. When I walked in I was pretty shocked at the transformation. They had knocked down the walls and made it one big room. They also got rid of the pool tables, which can ruin a comedy show. The place was standing room only for the UFC fights, but we had probably about 50 stick around for the comedy show. The fights ran pretty long, so it was a long night. I hit the stage at about 1 am, which is fine with me as long as people are still having a good time, and they were! Todd Badolato put the show together and hosted, he did a great job! I got to see a new comic I hadn't seen yet, Smitty, he was very funny. I think he's got a lot of potential. Also got to see Ann Gora, Andrew Harms and Keith Breckenridge tear it up! It was a fun night.

March 3-Albuquerque, NM-The Box

Headlined a show at The Box downtown, one of favorite spots in town. We went to the improv show before the comedy show. Lots of talented people in that show, it was fun to watch. I've been getting into improv a lot lately since my wife if taking a class through Blackout Theatre. She has her first show March 23 at Tech Love, be there! The comedy show at the Box was fun, got to perform with the Sarahs, (Mowery and Kennedy), John Cuellar, and Patrick Gozur, who was also in the improv show, funny kid! I didn't have the best set, I was fighting a cold and didn't have any energy, but I did the best I could and had fun!

March 5-Albuquerque, NM-Talking Fountain

My buddies from Denver,Sam Tallent, Chris Charpentier, Nathan Lund, and Bobby Crane, were passing through town on their 2 week tour and invited me to do a set at the Talking Fountain. Once again, I wasn't feeling well, so I just popped in and did a quick 5 minute set. Sam, Chris, Nathan and Bobby were always fun to watch when I lived in Denver. It was fun to see them performing here in Albuquerque. Those are some talented fellas. After the show we went to Mike Long's place and hung out. When everyone decided to pass out we went over to Rusty Rutherford's place. We were planning on just taking a quick shot and heading out, but that's not what happened. We hung out and joked around quite a bit. Joe Quesada ended up lighting himself on fire about four times and Rusty decided to shave his head at 230 in the morning, not the best idea since he lives above the Holocaust museum. I asked him if he had ever shaved his head with a razor, so we did that. Pretty funny times.

March 6-Albuquerque, NM-Wool Warehouse "The After After Party" taping

I was invited back for my third performance on "The After After Party" with Steven Michael Quezada. I was a little nervous because I had used a bulk of my best material on the first two performances, but I put together some clean jokes that I liked and went out and did my set. Got a pretty nice response, even had a few people say that was my best performance on the show thus far, which was pretty cool. I also got to meet some really cool people! The band Music is the Enemy was super cool and rocked when they were on the show. I had never heard of them before, can't wait to check out a show! On my episode was the band, Reblit, who I had actually seen before, and if anyone's ever been to the Sunshine Theatre they have probably seen their drummer there. Those guys were really cool, too, really down to earth. The band on the third episode of the night was Gonzalo. I only caught a bit of their set, but Gonzalo was super cool and pretty humorous. I just heard today that the AAP was picked up by NBC here in New Mexico and will air on Saturday nights after SNL, which is awesome!! They're also going to be worldwide on www.askmilton.tv And like always, The James Douglas Show kicked a ton of ass, if you haven't seen them yet, do yourself a favor and see a show!

The other day there was a bit of a ruckus in Albuquerque with the traffic. The main roads were all blocked off which made it a tough day for people to get to work on time, it didn't have an effect on me at all. A few people had told me that someone had stolen a school bus and I didn't think much of it, what a crazy lunatic right? I was sitting in my kitchen and my sister came in and gave me an update on the stolen bus, she said the guy's name was Nathaniel Shipman. As soon as I heard the name I kind of freaked out a bit. About ten years ago I worked with Nate Shipman at Pizza Hut and Papa John's, he was just a young high school kid back then. He was a good kid, just trying to fit in. He would always come over to our house parties and shit, I always liked him. Apparently, the past few years have been pretty rough on him, he's been homeless, been on drugs and he's lost a lot of weight. I didn't even recognize his picture from the news, didn't even look like the old Nate that I knew. Maybe some time in jail will straighten the dude out, I always liked him, but shit happens. His mom was on the news feeling bad for people who could have potentially harmed, but she might be a little to blame on this one. I guess I don't really know their situation, but Nate was always a good kid, and she kind of abandoned him when she got re-married.

In a couple of weeks, I get to go to Atlanta to perform at the Laughing Skull Festival. I'm pretty excited, I haven't spent much time in Atlanta, just at the airport. And in those brief minutes I did meet Doug Stanhope, kind of. I was running late for a flight and I saw him so I ran up to him and yelled, "Hey! Doug Stanhope!" Then I shook his hand and ran off, missed my flight, but there was another one heading to Denver not long after that, so I eventually got home. Fun story. And for some reason my links button isn't working on here, so that kind of sucks.

Open Letter to Stephen HA(ck) HA(ck) Hunt

Here's the letter which will explain why my name will be slandered all over town starting as soon as Stephen reads this.
I received a couple of text messages from Stephen Hunt today that read:
-So ur doing a show sat for 7 bucks with Todd douchbag alatoe? That kind of kills my ability to sell tickets to see u on a thur for ten bucks doesn't it?
-Funny every time I have asked about a sat show u have to close. Have fun with the fags.


Stephen,

First of all I want to let you know that I am doing YOU a favor by doing your show. I am a professional and I do not have to put up with harassment from a booker. Yes, I am doing a show for Todd Badolato; I trust that he advertised for his show and put together a professional production unlike your garden variety shows. The only reasons I take your gigs is because a.) I want stage time in Albuquerque, and b.) I feel sorry for you. As a booker, if that’s what you want to call yourself, it isn’t a very good idea to defame comics. I saw what you said about Todd for him merely improvising a little bit. It was wrong and I’m not going to get caught up in your nonsense. I don’t really care about your ability to sell tickets. Not my problem. You are asking too much anyway, who do you think you are? The comedy club didn’t even charge that much. Yes I do have to close Saturday nights pretty frequently. My schedule doesn’t revolve around your shows; it is more like if I happen to be off I will do it. I have to make a living, and it’s not going to be doing mediocre shows for ten people.

It is an abomination that you teach a comedy class. Maybe you should write a few punch lines for your hack premises. Maybe lose the dumb hats and the 2x4. You should be arrested for fraud, for teaching innocent people how to perform stand-up. Are you trying to scam people out of their money? And you have the nerve to criticize your own students. What is really sad, Stephen is some of your students on their first try were funnier than you are after doing it how long? Maybe your class really does work. And you have the nerve to talk shit about every comedian. You probably even talk about me behind my back. Maybe if you were a decent person some of the best talent in town would work for you. Instead you think you are better than everyone, when in reality you know nothing about the business. I am proud to say there is such camaraderie in the Albuquerque comedy scene; you are the only dividing factor. I am boycotting your shows and negativity. You give comedy in this town a bad name. Well I guess you get the idea, I will not be performing tomorrow night, I’m done. I don't work for you, I work for myself. Lose my number and contact info, you won't be needing it.

Curt Fletcher

Vagtastic Weekend in Angelfire, NM

This past weekend I was in Angelfire, New Mexico, a nice little ski town in Northern New Mexico. Russ Rivas asked me if I would open for him for a few shows at the resort up there for the weekend. I had performed in Angelfire twice before, actually in Black Lake, at the Ritchie-Slater Winery. My good friend, Marc Shuter grew up there and set up some shows there. I'll get back to him in a minute.

So we had three shows, two of which were pg and one extreme show that Russ likes to do. I like it, too, I get to be a little dirtier than usual! The pg shows were held at the Legends Grill at the resort, we had standing room only crowds, admission was free. Everyone that worked at the resort was super nice, we got treated like rock stars up there! The crowd, however, did not treat us like rock stars, they treated us like fat Axl Rose. There was a lot of talking and way too much noise in the room. Not the best set up for a comedy show. Friday night show, Erica Viking from Coyote 102.5 brought me up on stage. She forgot my name, but in her defense, I think she had a few drinks and had no idea she was going to be starting the show. She did invite me to come on the morning show with her and Big Benny sometime though, very cool!

Friday after the show we were hanging with some of the people that were at the show. Including this crazy drunk girl, who apparently worked at the hotel. My lady asked her, "we travel the country with Russ and we screen the girls he hangs out with, he pays a yearly salary. The question for the night is, what's the grooming situation downstairs?" And she wasn't shy, "I shave on Tuesday and Wednesday, those are my days off." My lady replies, "that's great, but what's the situation tonight?" I'm sitting there just trying not to laugh, then the girl undoes her pants and pulls them down a little bit, revealing her stubbly vag. I looked around the restaurant, which was still pretty packed, and not one single person was looking! We had a pretty good laugh. We told Erica the story that night, she seemed to enjoy it. My lady was star struck, too, she couldn't believe she met Erica Viking, what a nerd! Haha, jk.

So, on Saturday, we were planning on eating at Willies, a local bbq joint, but on our way in to town on Friday we noticed that Willies wasn't around. I called Shuter to see what the hell happened to Willies! He didn't answer, cuz he's a pretty busy dude. We ate at the Pizza Stop near the resort, the pizza was pretty good. I was impressed. After we ate, I decided I was going to quit drinking soda, or at least cut down to one per week.

After lunch, I called Marc Shuter back on the mobile phone. We chatted for about an hour. He told me that he sold his movie! I'm so fuckin excited for him! I've seen the movie twice and I loved it. Very funny and well written. "The Bigfoot Election," check out the website link, and click here for a youtube clip of the trailer. We talked a little bit about school and stuff and we decided we needed to start writing together soon. We used to meet up all the time and write back in the day when he was still doing stand-up. He's the only other person I've ever been able to write with for some reason.

Saturday night we had two shows, one of the pg variety. The first one was a lot better than Friday night's show, but still had a hard time with the noise and people not paying attention. The extreme show was at 9 pm in a different room that could have easily held 250 people. There were about 70-80 for the show. Big Benny from Coyote got the crowd going with a few minutes of jokes, which was nice, it's always shitty to go up to a cold crowd. Actually, quite a few of the people were at the first show, so I planned an entire different set. It was cool to see Benny again, it had been a few years since I had seen him.

Since it was an extreme show, I decided to start off with some extreme jokes about child rapist, Jerry Sandusky. A lady got up out of her seat and started walking out, apparently she was offended, whoops. I asked her if she realized it was an extreme show, then the crowd started getting on to her about leaving. She then flipped everybody off and yelled, "Fuck you." She was also black, and the only black person at the show, so I all of my racist jokes right then. Had a pretty solid set, felt good about myself. Even got an email from one of the guys in the crowd today, here's some things he told me in the email: "Just letting you know we enjoyed you Saturday night. You were the only saving grace. You, I also youtubed and we found that you were a funny mother fucker still." I chopped it up a bit.

So, overall, it was a great weekend, saw a stubbly vag, Erica Viking, talked to Marc Shuter and offended a black lady on a child rape joke and no racist jokes. And for fun, here's a clip of Shuter on Art's Talk, I found it while getting the link for the movie trailer, enjoy.

It was nice to get away for the weekend, haven't had much free time since starting school. And my boss is a douchey cock smootch who always asks me to come in early just so he can sit on his lazy ass.

Here's a list of upcoming shows
2/2-Albuquerque, NM-Sandia Bowl (Headlining)
2/4-Taos, NM-Casa de los Cordovas (Headlining)
2/25-Albuquerque, NM-The Press Room (Headlining)

institutionalized re write

This is the assignment I'm turning in, song would sound a lot different like this

Institutionalized-Suicidal Tendencies
Sitting and staring at the walls in my domicile thinking about everything and nothing, my mother enters my space. Unbeknownst to me she was there; she startled me when she called my name, “Mike, Mike!” “Yes mother, what is the matter” She replies, “what’s the matter with my son?” “Mother, be assured there is nothing wrong with your son.” “Do not tell me a fallacy; I fear that you are under the influence of an unknown narcotic” “no mother, narcotics? No, I’m just merely pondering. Would you kindly get me a soft drink?” She yells, “No, I fear that you are under the influence of an unknown narcotic! Civilized human beings do not act the way that you are currently presenting yourself.” “mother, please get me a soft drink, all that is wanted right now is a soft drink!” She refused to retrieve my beverage, all I craved was a soft drink, just one soft drink, and she wouldn’t budge, just one soft drink!

The attire selected is a plain white shirt with long sleeves tied around your back as if you’ve been incarcerated for burglary. You’re induced with narcotics due to the lethargy of the staff. The staff finds it too tiresome to assist the mentally unstable.

First Writing Assignment

So, today in my English class our assignment was to pick a song, take about four stanza's and change the lyrics. We are working on our "Academic Voice." So we are taking the lyrics out, such as I, and you, says, said, saying, etc. So we have to re-write the lyrics, they don't have to rhyme or go with the song at all. I selected a song by the Bloodhound Gang, but there's no way I'm turning it in. Plus, I did use "you" a couple of times, here are the lyrics for "The Ballad of Chasey Lain."

Dear Chasey Lain
I wrote to explain
I'm your biggest fan
I just wanted to ask
Could I eat your ass?
Write back as soon as you can

You've had a lotta dick
Had a lotta dick
I've had a lotta time
Had a lotta time
You've had a lotta dick Chasey
But you ain't had mine

Dear Chasey Lain
I wrote to complain
Ya never wrote me back
How could I ever eat
Your ass when ya treat
Your biggest fan like that?

You've had a lotta dick
Had a lotta dick
I've had a lotta time
Had a lotta time
You've had a lotta dick Chasey
But you ain't had mine

Dear Chasey Lain
I wrote to constrain
This letter is my last
As your biggest fan
I must demand
You let me eat your ass

You've had a lotta dick
Had a lotta dick
I've had a lotta time
Had a lotta time
You've had a lotta dick Chasey
But you ain't had mine

P.S.
Mom and Dad this is Chasey
Chasey this is my mom and dad
Now show 'em them titties
Now show 'em them titties
P.S.
Mom and Dad this is Chasey
Chasey this is my mom and dad
Now show 'em them titties
Now show 'em them titties

Would ya fuck me for blow?

Here's my updated version

Dear Chasey Lain, this letter is from your biggest fan, as a request that you allow me to perform cunnilingus on your anal cavity. Please reply at your earliest convenience.

You've experienced an absurd amount of penis, unfortunately, none of those belonged to me.

Dear Chasey Lain, this letter is a complaint about the treatment of your biggest fan. A reply was never received about the question in which was asked in the first letter.

Dear Chasey Lain, in this letter you will note that I demand that you allow me to perform cunnilingus on your anus; this is your biggest fan.

Is it possible that we could enjoy sexual intercourse in exchange for narcotics?

There it is! The song I'm doing for class is "Institutionalized" by Suicidal Tendencies.

2011 Recap

Now that 2011 is over and 2012 is upon us, I've decided to do a little recap of 2011. My wife and I moved back to Albuquerque in December 2010 and we've been living with my sister and my nephew. We were crammed into an apartment for the first part of the year, but now we're renting a house on the Westside of Albuquerque.

I didn't do as much stand-up as I have done in 2009-2010, I decided to get a job and make some money and get caught with bills and wanted to go back to school. Caitlin and I just started at CNM, our first day was today!! It was crazy getting back in the classroom after ten years.

I performed at some of my favorite comedy clubs Hyenas-Dallas and Fort Worth, Loonees-Colorado Springs, Wits End-Westminster, CO, Laffs Comedy Club-Tucson, and even worked a new club Fat Daddy's Comedy Club in Sioux Falls, SD. I even headlined my first club, MinneHaHa Comedy Club in Shakopee, MN. I co-headlined Hyenas Dallas with Jake Sharon on January 1, too!

It's tough living in Albuquerque since there's no comedy club here and I don't get to see comics that I have known for years anymore. I really miss hanging out after the shows. I met some new comics I had never worked with before; Theo Von, Charlie Weiner, Mike Smith, Bil Dwyer, James P. Connolly, Rocky Whatule, Chris Porter, Claude Stuart and Spanky to name a few.

In May I filmed a set for "The After After Party" a late night talk show filmed here in Albuquerque with host Steven Michael Quezada, from "Breaking Bad." The episode I filmed also starred, The James Douglas Show and R.J. Mitte, also from "Breaking Bad." R.J. was really cool to hang out with before and after the taping, really down to earth.

In June some buddies and I drove out to Hollywood, I was part of a live dvd taping at Jon Lovitz Comedy Club, thanks to my buddy, Dante! He was filming six different shows for dvd's he's putting together called, "Dante Presents." They will be done sometime early this year, can't wait to see them! Had a blast on that trip and Jay Leno was there filming, too.

In September I participated in the World Series of Comedy in Las Vegas, a huge comedy festival, about 150 comics were there that week. Saw a lot of people I hadn't seen in awhile and met some bookers. Didn't have the best show while I was there, but still had a blast.

In October I found out that I made it into the first round of the Laughing Skull Festival as well. I have been accepting for every festival that I've auditioned for which makes me feel pretty good! I did a corporate gig in October that didn't make me feel very good. I almost got my balls chopped off by a dumb redneck read about it here.

Spent the last couple months getting ready for school and not doing many shows at all. I've been trying to write new material for next year, I really need to make some changes in my comedy if I want to make it to the "next level." I think if I work a little harder I can do it! 2012 I won't be doing as many shows either, but I'm trying to fill my calendar for the summer while I take a few months off of school. So if you know anyone that needs a comic this summer hit me up! My dates are on my website www.funnyfletcher.com

Hope everyone has a great 2012! My resolution is to cut out all the filler from my act and my life and just be solid! I think going to school will really help my stand-up act.

Wits End/Laughing Skull

The last week I was on the road for the first time in months. I was a little rusty, hadn't done a 30 minute set in awhile. I was performing at Wits End in Westminster, CO, for NYE, so I decided to go to Denver a day early and see if I could get stage time somewhere. Chris Charpentier, Nathan Lund, Bobby Crayne and Sam Tallent run a show every Wednesday, and were cool enough to let me headline while I was in town. These four guys are extremely talented young comics and they put together a great show of stand up and sketch comedy. The show was in the upstairs of a building that looked like apartments, not sure if anyone lived there or not, didn't seem like anyone did. The room was really cool, just looked like a big living room. Saw a couple comics I had never seen before, one's name was Morgan I think, she was funny. I didn't catch all of her set, but what I saw was funny. The other comic was Kristen Rand(sp?), she was great. Loved her style. My set didn't go as well as I had hoped, but it was nice to get on stage and do more than a 5 minute set.

At Wits End, the headliner for the week was Steven Kent McFarlin, aka Spanky. I had heard great things about him, so I was really looking forward to working with him. John Crist was the mc, except for Thursday he wasn't able to make it, so my good buddy, Don Morgan opened and did a great job! That was the best I had seen Don do, I was proud of him.

Thursday night we had kind of a light crowd, it took them awhile to warm up, but I got them laughing. Got to see a couple friends that night, too, which was cool. Friday first show was a huge crowd, second show was the smallest of the week, but both shows were fun. NYE crowds were great, it seems like crowds on NYE get offended a little more easy than other crowds. Which is fine, keeps me on my toes. It was a nice time in Colorado, got to see some old friends, I really miss it up there.

Wednesday night before my show, my buddy Ron Ferguson got me free tickets to Comedy Works to see him perform with Steve McGrew! I had never seen Steve live, so that was a nice way to spend some time on a Wednesday. I had met Steve years ago at Laffs in Albuquerque, but didn't see him perform.

I had a couple days off before I had to fly to LA for my first round in the Laughing Skull Festival. Denver comic, Jason Keyes and I shared a hotel in Hollywood, not far from our venue, the M Bar. Jason is a very funny, underrated comic in Denver. I hope he goes far, he's funny, smart, and he's a good guy. He tore it up at the M Bar and he had to go first. The mc for the night was Chris Mata, who I hadn't seen in a couple years. I worked with him in South Dakota and drove him to the airport in Minneapolis. It was nice seeing him again. Met some other great comics on the show that night as well. Met Mark Agee, originally from Dallas, I had heard good things about him before. Alex Hooper had a killer set, I was shocked to not see him in the top 2 for the night. Allison Breen and Jennifer Murphy finished second and first respectively, both were very funny!

The coolest thing about the trip was hanging with Steve Abeyta, an old friend of mine. He goes to school at the Musicians Institute in LA, he's a kick ass drummer! If you don't believe me listen to some AnesthesiA! Steve lived only a few blocks from where I was performing so he met up with me after school. Good times were had! Also met Matt Lewis, another comic in LA. I've talked to him a few times before but never met him. I like the scene out in LA quite a bit, I've only been out there twice for shows and I've met quite a few comics and all of them have been really cool. I'm hoping to plan a trip out there in the summer time to do some showcases.

I was pretty disappointed in myself for not having a better set on Wednesday night at the M Bar, but today I got an email from Steve Hofstetter letting me know that I was selected for the 2012 Laughing Skull Festival in Atlanta! They had a different format this year where they took two people from the live shows that were selected by judges, then an extra comic was also selected, not sure if they went by tape or judges or what. But I got in and I'm very excited about it! I know quite a few comics who have been to the Laughing Skull Festival in the past and they said it's well worth the trip. Can't wait!