2012

Well 2012 is over, went by pretty fast. A lot of stuff happened in 2012, I'm looking forward to 2013. I'll be getting my Associates Degree in Computer Information Systems in December, which is exciting! 2012 was pretty eventful, had some great shows, worked with some great comics. A lot of venues came and went, I even ran my own show for a couple of months at 405 Lounge downtown. Didn't go so well haha. I'll stick to performing and writing. I was voted as a finalist for Best Comedian in Albuquerque in the Weekly Alibi and Albuquerque the Magazine, too! I'll break down my year by month.

JANUARY
4 Hollywood, CA-M Bar This was a preliminary show for the Laughing Skull Festival, I didn't advance from this show, but found out a few weeks later that I made it from my submission tape! This was a great show, so many funny comics. Chris Mata and Tom Clark performed, they weren't part of the competition. Jason Keyes, Mark Agee, Alex Hooper, Ali Breen, Jen Murphy and some other awesome comics were on that night!

20-21 Angelfire, NM Performed three shows in Angelfire with Russ Rivas. Big Benny and Erika Viking from 102.5 were there hanging out, too.

Started school again at CNM, so not many road gigs this year.

FEBRUARY
4 Taos, NM-Casa De Las Cordovas Headlined this show with Anthony "Animal" Garcia, Eddie Tafoya and Joe Quesada. This was an amazing crowd! Even Eddie had a killer set.

MARCH
6 Albuquerque, NM-The After After Party Taping Did my third taping for the show, had a lot of fun, met some great people, Jeramy Reynolds from Joy Junction, Rebilt was on the show, too, cool local band!

14 Towaoc, CO-Ute Mountain Casino Headlined with Matt Peterson as my feature, had less than 20 people at the show, but we had a blast.

24 Durango, CO-Strater Theater Worked with Dave Testroet, kind of a small crowd, but it was a lot of fun. Snuck our puppy into the hotel, too. Take that Strater Hotel!

28-31 Atlanta, GA-Laughing Skull Festival This week was a blast! Shared a room with Mark Agee, Alex Hooper and Grant Lyon, a lot of talent in one room. I got to perform at the Laughing Skull Lounge, Midtown Hotel and Relapse Theater. I didn't advance in the competition, but with that much talent, I was honored just to be part of it. Also, got to hang out with my old friend, Justin Clutter, which was super cool! Also hung out with some of my favorite comics, Gabe Rutledge, Mark Poolos and Johnny Beehner. Went to the nastiest strip club I've ever seen in my life, too.

APRIL
28 Albuquerque, NM-Hotel Andaluz This show was put together my 93.3 KOB-FM, awesome crowd. This one of the better crowds in Albuquerque all year for comedy and a great lineup.

MAY
5 Albuquerque, NM-Reptilian Lounge Got to perform at the Reptilian Lounge! I don't think the theatre people enjoyed my set much, but I had a blast.

6 Albuquerque, NM-The Box Joe Quesada Roast Had a roast for Joe Quesada who moved to LA, then months later moved back. Got to talk shit about a lot of comics!

23-26 Little Rock, AR-Loony Bin Worked with Skip Clark, kind of light crowds at the club that week. That's always a tough week to bring people in, but it wasn't bad. Had fun hanging with Skip and the mc, Steven Baucom.

30-June 2 Tulsa, OK-Loony Bin Worked with Testroet again and Dan Fritschie, had a great week! I love the Tulsa club, the people there are a lot of fun.

JUNE
3 Albuquerque, NM-Route 66 Casino Bryan Cranston was at the show! Steven Michael Quezada headlined, Niki Mangin was the host and mc and did a great job! Check my earlier blog for the story about the dead body.

11 Pinetop, AZ-Hondah Casino Headlined at the Hondah Casino, not much to report.

29-30 Tucson, AZ-Laffs Comedy Club Worked with Sean Kent, who I got to hang with a little in Atlanta. Had a great weekend, I love Tucson!

JULY
6 Las Vegas, NM-New Mexico Highlands Performed again with SMQ, had a fun show at New Mexico Highlands. It was a beautiful stage, crowd was pretty good.

14 Albuquerque, NM-Filling Station This was a lot of fun, great crowd at the Filling Station, sofacats!

26 Albuquerque, NM-405 Lounge Had Ron Ferguson come down from Denver to perform at the venue I was booking. Had a rough turn-out, which was disappointing, but it was cool working with Ron again. He's touring a lot with Pablo Francisco.

AUGUST
16-18 Colorado Springs, CO-Loonees Comedy Corner Worked with Adam Cayton-Holland, if you haven't seen him check him out, very funny! And a big baseball fan, which makes him even cooler. Had a fun weekend.

SEPTEMBER
21 Albuquerque, NM-Tech Love Black Lab Got to perform at Blackout Theater's Black Lab, which was super cool! Lots of improv and music, fun night.

OCTOBER
13 Albuquerque, NM-Moose Lodge Family Center This was an amazing show with SMQ! I did over an hour at the show as the feature act, I forgot my watch, so I felt kind of bad, but the promoter was super cool about it. We had about 200 people there!

19-20 Tucson, AZ-Laffs Comedy Club Emceed at a club for the first time in quite awhile, but I wanted to work with Jake Sharon and SMQ. Had a blast that weekend!

22 Pinetop, AZ-Hondah Casino Cruised up to the casino with Jake and opened the show for him and Keith Breckenridge.

27 TV The After After Party I was on TV!

NOVEMBER
3 Albuquerque, NM-The Box Comedian Origins, one of the coolest shows I've done. We did our first five minutes of material we every performed and our most recent five!

9 Albuquerque, NM-Uptown Sports Bar and Grill Great show, got to raise money for the New Mexico Wolfpack so they could go play in a bowl game!

DECEMBER
7 Rio Rancho, NM-The Damn Bar Got to perform on a show with my wife, Caitlin! She had such a great set, took command of the stage and rocked it. She was so happy. I didn't do that well, but felt great for her.

14-15 Ft. Worth, TX-Hyenas James Morrow and I took a road trip out to Texas and had a blast. Ben Creed was the headliner for the weekend, he's one of the best. I hadn't worked with him in years! Still funny as hell. New club was fun.

20-22 Dallas, TX-Hyenas Had a fun time working with Aaron Aryanpur, who had just won the Funniest Comic in Texas contest. Paul Varghese came in for guest sets, too, great lineups.

31 Albuquerque, NM-Artbar This was the first year I wasn't booked for a NYE gig since like 2007. I was at the show hanging out enjoying the entertainment and one of the comics couldn't make it, so I filled in. I was pretty wasted, and it wasn't the best set up for stand-up comedy, but it was fun. The Red Light Cameras were awesome, too!

Performing at Laughing Skull Festival

Cait and I at Lisa Frank factory

Niki, Me, SMQ and a couple peeps from Route 66

Performing at UNM

Hammered at the ArtBar

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.

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!

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.

Texas Trip

I just spent about a week and a half in Texas, it was 100 degrees every day! No rain or anything.

First week, I was at Hyenas in Fort Worth, working with Billy D. Washington, the opener was Shaun A, I'm not gonna try to spell his last name. Shows were great all weekend, Shaun was an awesome opener, really got the crowd into it! Billy D rocked, I'd never seen him before. He remembered me from the Comedy Works back in 2005 when I did a set for the contest. The staff was super cool, Jerod, the manager was awesome. Can't wait to go back for sure! They also have a couple of Dimebags guitars hanging on the wall, which is really neat.

Monday I went to San Antonio with Kris Shaw, we had a couple gigs in S. Texas, so we left on Monday. We went and hung out at River Center Comedy Club downtown and watched their open mic showcase. It was a nice club, got to see an old friend, Todd Larsen, and met some other cool comics. Tuesday we had lunch with David Beck, who was in town featuring, I met him once when I worked at Wits End, really nice guy. We went to lunch at some Italian place, I wish I could remember the name, it was awesome!

Tuesday night's show was in Weslaco at the Paradise Roadhouse. The crowd was pretty decent size, but not great laughers. I didn't have a very good set. But, it was fun. And the opener was Dat Nigga Tre. That's fun to say.

The next night was a lot better. We performed in McAllen at the Cine El Rey Theater, which is an amazing venue! Very good size crowd, kinda slow on some of the jokes, but I had a great time!

Thursday I headed back to Dallas to perform at Hyenas with Dante! I love working with Dante. The opener was Casey Coleman, it was his first time opening and he did a great job. Kind of reminded me of me when I was just starting out. Which sucks for him. Lol, jk. Well, Thursday night was pretty weird. Pretty small crowd and they didn't like to laugh at all, so it felt like a bad show. Everyone after the show seemed to enjoy it though and that's all that matters I guess. The weekend was awesome, had 4 sold out shows!! Billy, the manager, was great, too.

Met a lot of cool people on the trip, all the people at the clubs were awesome. Definately looking forward to going back to these clubs!

Excited for College Football to Start!

September 4th is Iowa's first game! Should be a blow out against E. Illinois. The following week is the big in state rivalry with Iowa State. I'll actually be up in Iowa, which will be pretty cool!

I lined up a gig at Little Willies in Clarion for that night! Did a show there back in April, it was a lot of fun. First time performing back in my hometown. Can't wait to do it again. Got some other gigs lined up that week in Wisconsin and possibly Minnesota as well! Check my schedule, I'll update it when I get the info. I'm typing like people actually read this.

Tonight I am doing a set at the downtown Comedy Works! I love performing there, the crowd was response is always amazing.

Thursday I'm bussing down to Dallas, I'm performing at Hyenas in Fort Worth Friday and Saturday, then I've got a couple one night gigs in S. Texas in Weslaco and McAllen on the 10th and 11th with Kris Shaw. Then back to Hyenas in Dallas for the 12th-14th with Dante! I worked with Dante a few months ago for the first time and had a blast.

I won't have much computer access while I'm out there, so no blogs probably.

Today I am going to a job fair at the airport. I'm really hoping to get a job there, it would be a nice part time job when I'm not on the road. And cheap flights!

Got in with a new booker today, too, Eric Yoder. Pretty excited about that!

And with college football about to start I'll make my top 25 list, I always like to do that before the season. I'm a huge nerd.

Leela's

Last night I closed the show at Leela's European Cafe, for Sam and Roger's Night of Hilarious Fun. The crowd was pretty noisy, but the people who were listening were great. Had some great comics on the lineup: Roger Norquist, Sam Tallent, Matt Baca, Steven AJ, Jason Keyes, and Josh Nelson.

I'm doing a set at the downtown Comedy Works on Tuesday!

This weekend I will be performing at Hyenas in Fort Worth, TX! It'll be my first time performing there. I'm excited to see my buddy, Jason Russell. I'm working with Billy D. Washington.