• Always very cool to see my peers accomplish major career milestones. This week it was incredibly legit to see Adam Sokol show up in the New York Times. Sokol's piece about his time professionally moderating comments online is a really fantastic writing debut for, you know, the world’s most esteemed publication. If you missed the article, I highly recommend reading. It’s fast, it’s entertaining, it’s funny, it’s here: https://www.nytimes.com/.../right-wing-site-comments.html
• A short film I made back in October 2017 called “#1 Haircut” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yX_hS2ILn34) slowly but surely keeps getting into film festivals (Wow, this is an irritating brag). It’s really dumb and I shot it in like two-three hours one morning but now it’s been in three festivals. The most recent one is the Rhino Comedy Festival on March 28 this month out in Jersey. I won’t be able to attend but it is cool that this little project of mine keeps living on.
• Finally got to perform at the Grisly Pear last Wednesday (the headshots they have promoting local comedians is such a nice touch). It was everything I hoped it would be and more. I’ll be honest; Anna E. Paone and I showed up late (it was my fault but it’s never a cool move and I feel bad about it) but Kenny Warren and Co. were totally gracious about it. I took a seat near the front and soaked it in. I’m the weird comic that sits with the audience instead of hanging in the back. Happy to report that the crowd was great, receptive and stayed for the entirety of the show. Had a fun set too. Props to Stephen Mclonghair Bolles and Meno Fernandez for getting a crowd in there as well on that cold night too.
• My weekly show at V-Spot last week was wild. First off, major props are due to Jack Finnegan and Harrison Tweed who barked in a ton of people at the last minute to make a great show happen. They also both had money sets; book both of these dudes if you aren’t already. Rufat Agayev held down the fort hosting the show which went off the rails at one point. A man sitting near the front was lightly interrupting the show with unintelligible comments. I took it upon myself to gently remove him. I couldn’t believe I was the one who did it (I’m usually not very confrontational) but I took his phone and he followed me out. It worked! Can’t say I’d be able to duplicate this but this was a comedy first for me.
• Consumed quite a bit of great comedy content this week. First up, was the 2018 movie “Tyrel.” It flew under the radar a bit and movies like this is the reason I haven’t released my top 10 movies of the year yet (this currently sits at #3 for me); wouldn’t be fair to not give these underseen flicks their due. Anyway, please seek this movie out. It’s a more grounded “Get Out” and is maybe the best representation of what it’s like to just hang out with dudes/microaggressions I’ve ever seen. It’s short (less than 90 minutes), it’s on Amazon Prime (you have to rent it, unfortunately for like $4.99) but something that shouldn’t be missed. Also, I downed two books that really connected with me. The first was Nell Scovell’s “Only the Funny Parts” which is a great chronicle of what writing for TV is like with important social commentary about the patriarchy (yes, I know that’s me). There’s some really nice inside baseball stories about writing an early episode of “The Simpsons” and what it was like being around Letterman in the early 90s. However, my favorite thing I consumed this week was Todd Barry’s book “Thank You For Coming To Hattiesburg.” If you’re a standup, read this book. It’s a very mundane, wry account of what life is like on the road. There’s a lot of valuable information about what different clubs across America are like and I stayed up until 3 AM a few different nights because I couldn’t put it down. Matt Storrs recommended the audiobook.
• Had a nice week doing comedy work as well. Helped showrun Teresa Sheffield’s very fun, very professional show MinXX that was packed. She gave everyone in the crowd glow sticks which was genius for a dimly lit comedy room and booked major headliners like Aparna, Carmen Lynch, Liza Treyger and Kerry Codett. It was a tight show and nice to see the pros at work. On a much smaller scale, I hosted two open mics this week and had a spectacular time at both. Sunday, I guest-ran Karma for Jay Welch and we angled the seats to the side of the stage when the lights wouldn’t turn on out of necessity. Made for a fun mic- it’s a tough room but this made it friendlier. Sometimes, it’s as simple as moving chairs to make a show better. A large percentage of comedy is feng shui. Tuesday, I hosted Sam Zelitch’s mic at Pete’s Candy Store and I got to see a lot of great comedians I’d never seen or heard of before. New York City, full of surprises. Also, R. Beecher Taylor IV did a great Brody Stevens impression.
• Got a nice week ahead. Doing a 10 PM spot at the Grisly Pear this evening, producing a great lineup tomorrow at V-Spot with Tristan Smith for our weekly, taping for the super funny Jordan Kleine Friday evening in Bushwick and doing Teresa’s very cool midnight Twitter War show on Saturday as Daylight’s Savings goes into effect.
Au revoir for this week, folks
