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!
