2015 - Leaving Albuquerque

One month of 2015 is already almost in the books and I have only a couple of short weeks left in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Albuquerque will always hold a special place in my heart as it's the city that I truly "grew up" in (even though I'm still not fully grown up). I have a million memories here, I have family here, and some of the best friends I will ever know. If it weren't for some of my friends, I probably would have been to scared to ever step foot on stage at Laffs Comedy Club in 2001. Here's a blog about my first show.

So many great people in Albuquerque made a big impact on my life. My buddies from AnesthesiA were a huge influence and they offered me a lot of stage time early on in my comedy career. I would often tell jokes as they set up their equipment. Those guys have really come a long way since I first met them, they went from playing shows in my den, to opening for several of the top metal bands that came through town. They even snagged a record deal with Suburban Noize Records and their new cd will be released February 28th, so go to the show! Unfortunately, I will be out of town and won't be able to catch it. I got to perform at their first cd release party and their ten-year anniversary show.

In 2002, I met a new comic in Albuquerque, Marc Shuter. He was just 16 when he started coming to Laffs and doing stand-up. He had some really clever one liners, but he used a Steven Wright joke and I didn't like him at first. And a lot of jokes were about pooping and farting, so I wasn't a fan right away. He grew on me after awhile and we started hanging out and becoming writing partners. Marc was featuring in comedy clubs by the time he was 21 and his cd was being played on XM radio. He decided to quit doing stand-up, but got involved in screen writing. He wrote and starred in his first film, "The Bigfoot Election," which won best local feature at the Albuquerque Film Festival. It was also selected for the Hollywood Film Festival. You can watch it on iTunes or Amazon, it's super funny and well written! Marc and I teamed up to write, "The Consequences of a Feeble Mind," which took us just over a year with re-writes. We are hoping to film this year, we are both pretty excited about it. I think Marc has a great writing career ahead of him, and I have no problem riding his coattails. Just kidding.

It would probably take an entire month and a box of tissues (crying, not masturbating, perverts) to mention everyone in Albuquerque that has had an impact on my life in one way or another, so I just want to thank everyone for all the kind words, the stage time, and the advice. I'll do my best to make Albuquerque proud! Thank you everyone for being a huge part of my life.

And I suppose I will miss my family, too. My mom, Kyle, Chad, Amy and Dylan, Hunter, and Phoenix, the craziest nephews ever! I love you guys!

Thanks Albuquerque.

What's Been Going On

I haven't blogged since the 48 Hour Film Festival, so I thought I would fill my five followers in on what's going on in my life, even though, you probably already know, or you really don't give a shit. My buddy, Marc Shuter, and I, finished up our feature length script that we titled, "The Consequences of a Feeble Mind," Marc actually came up with the title. We started writing on March 24th and finished the first draft in early June. A couple weekends ago we finished the re-writes! It's definitely something that we are pretty proud of and can't wait to get it made. The script was entered in to the Creative World Awards' Screenwriting Competition with the first draft we made it to the preliminary round, not bad. We will find out soon if we make the quarterfinals of the Final Draft Big Break Contest!

On a side note, Marc's pilot for a sitcom he wrote for "Law Show," is kicking some major ass! Not only did he make the top 10 in the Script Pipeline Contest, he also made the semifinals of the CWA TV writing contest, and the NexTV Writing and Pitch contest. He's such a great writer, he's going to big things, and I'm honored to be writing with him. We are starting our next project soon.

As far as comedy goes, I haven't been doing much, I went to El Paso for a week at The Comic Strip with Billy D. Washington, had a great time working with him. I have done some other local stuff here and there, but really focusing on school right now. I do have some great gigs coming up though. I will be headlining the Speakeasy Comedy Lounge in Scottsdale in October, which should be super fun!

This past Sunday I had the pleasure of taping my fourth episode of "The After After Party" with Steven Michael Quezada, who you might recognize as Gomez from "Breaking Bad." (R.I.P. Gomie) I love the crew at TAAP, everyone is super friendly and they work their butts off to put on a great show! And they just announced that they signed a deal with DirecTV, which means the show is going national! So every single person that's been on there and will be on there could be seen by up to 50 million viewers! Not a bad deal, congrats to the cast and crew! You guys deserve it.