Ron Ferguson headlines 405 Lounge Wednesday July 25 at 830

With Laffs Comedy Club closing down a few years ago, not many nationally touring comics have stopped through the Duke City. But this week, we are lucky enough to have one of my favorite comics and good friend, Ron Ferguson in town. He will be headlining at the 405 Lounge downtown at 830 on Wednesday night, tickets are only 5 bucks at the door. Part of the proceeds will go to children who lost their parent or parents in the Aurora shooting this past weekend, which is where Ron is from.

Ron is a regular at the world famous Comedy Works in Denver, and has shared the stage with such heavyweights as Bill Burr, Dave Chappelle and Chelsea Handler. He currently tours with Pablo Francisco, but is taking a week off to come hang out in Albuquerque. Check out Ron's website also, you can catch a video or two of his on youtube if you want, but live comedy is the way to go, so get your asses to the show.

Also joining Ferguson on stage will be local comics Ariel Holmes, Sarah Mowrey, Rusty Rutherford, and Curt Fletcher (me!)

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!

Being on the road

Since starting school in January, I haven't really hit the road much this year. The only times I've been out are for the Laughing Skull Festival in Hollywood and Atlanta. Last week was my first week on the road for 2012, I was in Little Rock, Arkansas, at the Loony Bin. I hadn't been there in about four years, and actually kind of struggled when I emceed there. It was a pretty slow week because of the local Riverfest going on, but the crowds were great, had a lot of fun. A lot better than when I was an opener there. Our opener for the week was Steven Baucom from Tulsa, really funny kid, has some great writing. I think he's gonna do pretty well in the business. The headliner was Skip Clark, who I had never met before. He's only been doing stand up for seven years and already headlining, pretty solid! Both guys were super cool to work with. This week I've been in Tulsa, which is one of my favorite places to be. Got to hang out with my good buddy, Jason Brown, and play some strat-o-matic baseball, or as Dave Ashley calls it, nerd baseball. I played strato growing up, and thought it was cool that Jason did, too. So, every time we get together we draft some teams and play a series or two, it's a blast! The shows in Tulsa have been a lot of fun so far, too. Dave Testroet, is the headliner, he's a great guy, I've worked with him a ton. The opener is a local guy, Dan Fritschie, very funny guy! Friday morning we did a radio interview on 106.9, the dj's were super cool, had a fun time there making fun of Dave. It's good to get back on the road, I miss the shit out of it! Tomorrow I'm doing a show at the Route 66 Casino in Albuquerque with Steven Michael Quezada, should be a lot of fun. R.I.P. Johnny Tapia

Rise Against Show/My Upcoming Shows

I haven't been to many concerts in the last couple of years, I used to go quite a bit when I was younger. I guess I have other stuff to spend money on, and I'd rather be on stage if I can be. Last Monday, my step dad hooked me and Caitlin up with free tickets to see Rise Against at the Santa Ana Star Center in Rio Rancho. We got out of our math class early and headed down there. We got to sit up in one of the suites, which was pretty cool, had a nice view of the stage. The first band was Title Fight, never heard of them, we caught a few of their last songs, they weren't bad. Second, was A Day to Remember. I had just heard them on the radio earlier that day, and they sounded pretty decent. I was pretty impressed with their live show, it's amazing how creative a band can get when they've got a little bit of money. They put on a really good show, I don't know if I'd go out and buy their album, but it was a lot of fun to watch. Rise Against headlined the show, and they put on an amazing live show. Had really cool lighting and some awesome videos playing on stage. Singer, Tim McIlrath, also did a few acoustic songs, those were the first Rise Against songs I had ever heard, so that was pretty cool! It was a lot of fun. On Saturday the 28th I did a show at Hotel Andaluz for 93.3 KOB FM to raise money for YDI. This is one the best shows I've seen here in Albuquerque for awhile, we had Todd Badolato, Sarah Kennedy, Dan Rascon, Matt Peterson, Rusty Rutherford and me. They packed a lot of people into the room, the lighting was great, too. Everybody killed it, very successful night! Here are some of my upcoming shows May 5: Albuquerque, NM-Reptilian Lounge 10:30 pm This show is put on by Tricklock Theatre Co May 23-26: Little Rock, AR-Loony Bin May 30-June 2: Tulsa, OK-Loony Bin June 3: Albuquerque, NM-Route 66 Casino w/Steven Michael Quezada

Laughing Skull Festival and new cd recording

I haven't had much time to blog, or really do anything since I got home from Atlanta. Finishing up my first semester at Central New Mexico Community College, my last day is Monday! So relieved to have this first semester out of the way. Well, the Laughing Skull Festival in Atlanta was quite an experience. I was amazed at the amount of talent in the competition. There were a lot of great headliners in the competition. I knew I had no chance of winning up against some of these guys, but it was an honor to be a part of it. I got to hang out with a lot of my favorite comics that I hadn't seen in awhile, too, like Gabe Rutledge, Mark Poolos, and Johnny Beehner. I shared a hotel with three guys from LA, Alex Hooper, Grant Lyon, and Mark Agee. I had only met them all once, but they were all cool guys. And as a comic I always live with people I've never met before, so it's not a huge deal at all, we had a good time. Those guys are extremely funny, too! My portion of the competition was the first show of the week at the Laughing Skull Lounge. I didn't get a chance to catch everyone's set from backstage, but listened to pretty much everyone, definitely a lot of talent. I had a pretty solid set, but didn't advance. My feelings weren't hurt though, any of the comics could have advanced from that show. My buddy, Justin Clutter, who's been one of my best friends since 4th grade was at the show. He lives a couple hours north of Atlanta, so he came down to the show. The last time I saw him was a week after the Colts beat the Bears in the Super Bowl and we hung out with Dallas Clark's dad, Doug. Funny dude! Thursday night I got to perform a couple shows at the Hotel Midtown which is where we stayed. The shows were pretty fun, got to try some stuff that I didn't do in the competition round. We went to the Clermont Lounge afterwards, holy shit! I kind of had a feeling of what we were getting in to, but the first thing I saw when I walked in was Blondie, nasty chick with nasty boobs. She wasn't even the nastiest one either, there was a 65-year-old stripper! Finally, there was one decent looking stripper, I was thinking, "how the hell did she end up here?" Then she lit her nipples on fire. Pretty interesting night. Friday, I had the night off, so I decided to chill at the hotel, watched the shows there then hung out with Mark Poolos. And I ate almost an entire pizza by myself. I felt good. Saturday was the night of the semifinals and finals in the competition. I watched part of the semifinals at the hotel, then grabbed a cab over to the Relapse Theater to see if I could get on stage since some of the comics made the finals. I was able to get a 5 minute set, which was awesome! The Relapse is a really cool improv theater in the basement of an old church. I got to see Sean Kent perform, too, I hadn't seen him in a few years since he was at Laffs. Dude is fuckin hilarious! I had a pretty solid set at the Relapse, it was fun. I met a lot of cool people in Atlanta, lots of great comics and industry people. I definitely want to try to get in the festival again next year, Steve Hofstetter and Marshall Chiles were both super cool! It was a good motivation for me being out there with all of that talent. I've been kind of lazy with the comedy the last year or so. Not good. When I got back from Albuquerque, I had a gig at Malarkey's. Had a kick ass headline set, had a lot of fun there. Felt good about my set, wasn't sure how I'd do after traveling all day. On April 20th, I decided to record for my live cd, "Fletcher in the Rye" (take that jd salinger) Had a fun night at the Guild Theater in Albuquerque, very kick ass lineup! We've got a lot of great comics here in Albuquerque. Tonight is gonna be an awesome show at Hotel Andaluz, doing a show to help raise money for YDI. Looking forward to the show.

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.

Open Letter to Stephen HA(ck) HA(ck) Hunt

Here's the letter which will explain why my name will be slandered all over town starting as soon as Stephen reads this.
I received a couple of text messages from Stephen Hunt today that read:
-So ur doing a show sat for 7 bucks with Todd douchbag alatoe? That kind of kills my ability to sell tickets to see u on a thur for ten bucks doesn't it?
-Funny every time I have asked about a sat show u have to close. Have fun with the fags.


Stephen,

First of all I want to let you know that I am doing YOU a favor by doing your show. I am a professional and I do not have to put up with harassment from a booker. Yes, I am doing a show for Todd Badolato; I trust that he advertised for his show and put together a professional production unlike your garden variety shows. The only reasons I take your gigs is because a.) I want stage time in Albuquerque, and b.) I feel sorry for you. As a booker, if that’s what you want to call yourself, it isn’t a very good idea to defame comics. I saw what you said about Todd for him merely improvising a little bit. It was wrong and I’m not going to get caught up in your nonsense. I don’t really care about your ability to sell tickets. Not my problem. You are asking too much anyway, who do you think you are? The comedy club didn’t even charge that much. Yes I do have to close Saturday nights pretty frequently. My schedule doesn’t revolve around your shows; it is more like if I happen to be off I will do it. I have to make a living, and it’s not going to be doing mediocre shows for ten people.

It is an abomination that you teach a comedy class. Maybe you should write a few punch lines for your hack premises. Maybe lose the dumb hats and the 2x4. You should be arrested for fraud, for teaching innocent people how to perform stand-up. Are you trying to scam people out of their money? And you have the nerve to criticize your own students. What is really sad, Stephen is some of your students on their first try were funnier than you are after doing it how long? Maybe your class really does work. And you have the nerve to talk shit about every comedian. You probably even talk about me behind my back. Maybe if you were a decent person some of the best talent in town would work for you. Instead you think you are better than everyone, when in reality you know nothing about the business. I am proud to say there is such camaraderie in the Albuquerque comedy scene; you are the only dividing factor. I am boycotting your shows and negativity. You give comedy in this town a bad name. Well I guess you get the idea, I will not be performing tomorrow night, I’m done. I don't work for you, I work for myself. Lose my number and contact info, you won't be needing it.

Curt Fletcher