Live DVD taping at the Box!

I have nailed down a venue for my live dvd taping, it will be Friday May 24th at 10:30 p.m. at the Box in downtown Albuquerque! Tickets are only $10 and they will go on sale next week. Get tickets soon though, it's a small venue. Since the show is 100 days away from tomorrow, I am going to countdown my favorite 100 comics starting tomorrow until the day of the show. So everyday on my little bloggy I will post a different comic.

Heard some sad news yesterday, one of my favorite clubs, Wits End, in Westminster, CO, will be closing down this weekend. I was scheduled to perform there in May, but sadly won't get to now. I do have a few dates lined up in Colorado though, but I will miss that place. I worked there doing telemarketing when I lived a couple blocks from the club. John, the owner, is a super cool guy, wish it could have worked out better for him, but he did all that he could.

Curt Fletcher Live DVD Taping
May 24, 2013 10:30 p.m.
$10 tickets
www.funnyfletcher.com

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!

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!

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.

Albuquerque

Went down to Albuquerque with Jake Sharon to do some shows. Friday the 20th was at the Lotus Night Club. I did a 12 minute headline set, yeah 12 minute headline set! It was fun though. Kind of a shitty place though. Got to hang with my friends, N8 and Ashley after though which was nice.

Saturday did 2 shows at the County Line. Small crowds, but had a great time. Lots of cool people showed up which was nice. Pay was crap, but I got to see some family and friends.

Also I advanced to the semifinals in the New Faces Contest at Comedy Works which is bad ass!