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

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!

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!

My television debut

I filmed for a 5 minute set for a show called "Duke City Comedy League" back in June of this year and it is airing Saturday night in New Mexico and southern Colorado on my50 TV at midnight! It sounds like the show has been doing pretty well! I'm excited to see how it turned out. Also on the show are Mary Byrd and Matt Peterson! So, check it out or tivo it or whatever it is you crazy kids are doing these days.

I'm hoping to line up another show in Albuquerque sometime this year, or early next year. I don't have much on the books for the rest of the year. I did submit for the Laughing Skull Festival though, and I'll know if I made it on November 1! I'm pretty excited, it's the first festival I've tried out for. If I do make it, I'll either get to perform in Austin on Nov 16, LA Nov 16 or Denver Nov 17 for the first round!