I had a great experience tonight. I did a set at The Set, which is a variety show that is produced out of La Poisson Rouse in the West Village. Such a cool club, with weird art exhibits surrounding a chill, hip bar. The stage is situated at the far end. We had a few singers as well as a ton of comedians perform. I had the benefit of coming up after the intermission. So, the room had just went out for a smoke break, or a bathroom break, and took some time off after seeing an hour or so of comedy. My set lasted ten minutes, and I tell you this, I killed. I did mainly old material: The Porn Office, Ridley Scott's Monopoly, and the fat kid story. But this got the best laughs I've gotten in a while. Even a couple of applause breaks. I've achieved the right pace for my character. I'm not slow, filled with energy, yet easily followed. I need to develop when I bomb at a joke, since I will lose my energy level. I need to tell a bad joke and then just move on. Fortunately, tonight, I didn't have that problem.
I hope to be able to do this show again. I had a blast. A guy was impressed with my set, he's blogging about it. I forgot to ask his blog name, which was a huge mistake on my part. I wish I had cards to distribute. But alas, marketing is something I need to improve upon.
I think I do better when it's not a bunch of comics in the room. And I love the fact that audiences respond well to my set. But the all comic audience is a solid place to practice. You can play with styles and speeds, and you can get your jokes spoken, which tends to be different from written.
With my headshots finished, I now have all the elements in place for my cards. So, let's get those out this week. That's my goal for the week.
Stay tuned.
Monday, July 6, 2009
Monday, June 29, 2009
Headshots
Well, John took my picture today. And here's what I've learned about me. I'm handsome, at least when I've got the right backlight.
We had a great time today, Andrea joined me. She's my stylist (she helped me keep the wrinkles out of my shirt) and also served as a PA for John. She held a bounce board to get some reflection upon my Adonis-like face.
I showed up late, around 3:45 for a 3:30 appointment. I spent a lot of time at my apartment with my stylist (Andrea) ironing my wrinkled shirts. By the time we arrived at the studio (which is located in an apartment in this gorgeous old building on the upper west side). John, with his assistant Steve, had a warm, inviting personality, which helped since they would stare at me for hours (felt like hours, really just minutes) with judgemental faces. I need to get used to that, since I will be spending time at auditions where I get on stage alone in a room with one or two critical people. I'm pumped for this stuff.
I wore three to four different shirts, and John proceeded to take different types of pictures. Pics for stand up, pics for commercials, and pics for corporate work. He would get me to say a response, like he would say "I'm from Brooklyn" and I would respond, "That's nice!" which would make me face happier, caring. Then he would say, "My wife died out on safari" and I would reply "How are you doing?" giving me a concerned face.
I took about 65 pics, and he's emailing me fifteen of the best where I will choose the three I think will be my headshots. Then, by Wednesday, I'll have headshots.
Then I'll be famous.
Well, I'm a little closer anyway.
We had a great time today, Andrea joined me. She's my stylist (she helped me keep the wrinkles out of my shirt) and also served as a PA for John. She held a bounce board to get some reflection upon my Adonis-like face.
I showed up late, around 3:45 for a 3:30 appointment. I spent a lot of time at my apartment with my stylist (Andrea) ironing my wrinkled shirts. By the time we arrived at the studio (which is located in an apartment in this gorgeous old building on the upper west side). John, with his assistant Steve, had a warm, inviting personality, which helped since they would stare at me for hours (felt like hours, really just minutes) with judgemental faces. I need to get used to that, since I will be spending time at auditions where I get on stage alone in a room with one or two critical people. I'm pumped for this stuff.
I wore three to four different shirts, and John proceeded to take different types of pictures. Pics for stand up, pics for commercials, and pics for corporate work. He would get me to say a response, like he would say "I'm from Brooklyn" and I would respond, "That's nice!" which would make me face happier, caring. Then he would say, "My wife died out on safari" and I would reply "How are you doing?" giving me a concerned face.
I took about 65 pics, and he's emailing me fifteen of the best where I will choose the three I think will be my headshots. Then, by Wednesday, I'll have headshots.
Then I'll be famous.
Well, I'm a little closer anyway.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Arthur's Week of Open Mics.
This week, I went to three mics, and definitely honed some new jokes a bit. It started at the Treehouse where I met up with Roman and Corbett, two friends from college who got to experience the magic that is an open mic. It was a pretty good night there actually. A lot of energy, and a ton of hilarity. I went up third to last, and really took the energy of the room and used it to create a high octane set that worked. I'm rewriting and developing my Ninja Cheerleaders bit. It's something I may use for the Comic Strip Live audition.
Then, I did the Village Lantern on Wednesday, which also went well. Did a similar set from Tuesday night at the Treehouse. It went well, but I had the option of going first, which really helped me. Sometimes, this mic tends to get down, and the energy of the room dies quickly, so I don't know how I would've done had I went up later. It's a great test though, since one of the things I do well is get a momentum going, building up and filled with energy. Unfortunately, I need the energy of the other performers and the room for this to work. I have trouble getting upbeat when the room doesn't already have that energy. I need to learn and practice at getting a dead room going and supporting me.
That didn't happen tonight at the Tagine open mic. Tagine is a Moroccan restaurant with quite the Moroccan basement. Couches as opposed to chairs, bathrooms hidden behind Arabian curtains. And there were a whopping 8 comics and one audience member. They were all guys and things started decent, until jokes about choking girlfriends and racism really brought the mood down. I got up at the end, and since, other than one person, nobody had seen me, I started with the popular porn office bit, one that always does well. Here, it didn't. And then I lost the energy, and couldn't really get it back. I can't blame the room, I can only blame myself. I abandoned the joke quickly, moved in to a few bits from my set on Tuesday and Wednesday, but I couldn't do it. But I'll get there. Came home early since I've got a client coming in early tomorrow.
Next week, I get my headshots. Next, I need to get business cards finished. My goal is to have those put in to get built by next Friday. Also, have to work on my resume, which I will ask my good friend and fellow comic, Sue Funke, to build.
I need to get more mics next week, though with 4th of July weekend coming up, it may be a bit tough.
Then, I did the Village Lantern on Wednesday, which also went well. Did a similar set from Tuesday night at the Treehouse. It went well, but I had the option of going first, which really helped me. Sometimes, this mic tends to get down, and the energy of the room dies quickly, so I don't know how I would've done had I went up later. It's a great test though, since one of the things I do well is get a momentum going, building up and filled with energy. Unfortunately, I need the energy of the other performers and the room for this to work. I have trouble getting upbeat when the room doesn't already have that energy. I need to learn and practice at getting a dead room going and supporting me.
That didn't happen tonight at the Tagine open mic. Tagine is a Moroccan restaurant with quite the Moroccan basement. Couches as opposed to chairs, bathrooms hidden behind Arabian curtains. And there were a whopping 8 comics and one audience member. They were all guys and things started decent, until jokes about choking girlfriends and racism really brought the mood down. I got up at the end, and since, other than one person, nobody had seen me, I started with the popular porn office bit, one that always does well. Here, it didn't. And then I lost the energy, and couldn't really get it back. I can't blame the room, I can only blame myself. I abandoned the joke quickly, moved in to a few bits from my set on Tuesday and Wednesday, but I couldn't do it. But I'll get there. Came home early since I've got a client coming in early tomorrow.
Next week, I get my headshots. Next, I need to get business cards finished. My goal is to have those put in to get built by next Friday. Also, have to work on my resume, which I will ask my good friend and fellow comic, Sue Funke, to build.
I need to get more mics next week, though with 4th of July weekend coming up, it may be a bit tough.
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Monday, June 15, 2009
Where Have You Been?
Well, blog entry title, you sound like you've been concerned about me not being around. I owe you an explanation.
Last week was tough, a nightmare. Not really a nightmare, like if I was dreaming about last week I wouldn't wake up in a cold sweat, scared, only to have the point where I wake up turn out to be another nightmare forcing me to wake up again in a cold sweat. But was this the dream? And why had I eaten my pillow?
No, I got horribly ill. Exhausted if you will. Not sure why that was. I guess doing a show, going to tons of shows and mics and trying to edit a movie on top of my general work can be daunting. But there is some comedy to tell.
I started going to various threads online and getting involved in discussions, using my name or the name of my podcast, including links to my podcast. The one that fascinated me most was this thread about the Sarah Palin - David Letterman feud. I side with David Letterman, though I think both are wrong. The thing I found interesting was when one commenter said that I was perfect and must be great that no one dares makes jokes about me in public. (This was said sarcastically) The irony is that I am a comic and I WANT people to make jokes about me in public. This was followed by a barrage of people calling me unfunny. People that have never seen my set, only knew me from what I wrote on the thread. Serious stuff, nothing funny. Upset, I wrote back that just because I'm a comic doesn't mean that I'm always funny. If I was a doctor, would that mean that I have to have medical footnotes in every comment? I put this up on the thread and got no response back. So, I wonder if that means I should avoid telling people I'm a comic if I want to be taken seriously. Of course, that would be counter productive to what I want to happen.
I went to an open mic tonight as a bit of a surprise to me. My meeting tonight got canceled so I took that opportunity to hit the Ochi's mic run by John Morrison and Blaine Perry. Got to go on stand by but since it was pouring rain that tends to keep people away, so I got on without a problem. It's a great show, and it is here that I found that my joke about lighting and porn is a keeper. If you want to hear it, check out a show. Can't give you all my gold right now.
Oh, and I'm meeting the head shot guy this Wednesday to talk about what we can do as a deal for getting these pics. That's a great step forward. Will keep you posted.
And I will continue to post every day this week. If I miss a day, you can have me killed. Or have my ears seriously flicked repeatedly.
Stay tuned.
Last week was tough, a nightmare. Not really a nightmare, like if I was dreaming about last week I wouldn't wake up in a cold sweat, scared, only to have the point where I wake up turn out to be another nightmare forcing me to wake up again in a cold sweat. But was this the dream? And why had I eaten my pillow?
No, I got horribly ill. Exhausted if you will. Not sure why that was. I guess doing a show, going to tons of shows and mics and trying to edit a movie on top of my general work can be daunting. But there is some comedy to tell.
I started going to various threads online and getting involved in discussions, using my name or the name of my podcast, including links to my podcast. The one that fascinated me most was this thread about the Sarah Palin - David Letterman feud. I side with David Letterman, though I think both are wrong. The thing I found interesting was when one commenter said that I was perfect and must be great that no one dares makes jokes about me in public. (This was said sarcastically) The irony is that I am a comic and I WANT people to make jokes about me in public. This was followed by a barrage of people calling me unfunny. People that have never seen my set, only knew me from what I wrote on the thread. Serious stuff, nothing funny. Upset, I wrote back that just because I'm a comic doesn't mean that I'm always funny. If I was a doctor, would that mean that I have to have medical footnotes in every comment? I put this up on the thread and got no response back. So, I wonder if that means I should avoid telling people I'm a comic if I want to be taken seriously. Of course, that would be counter productive to what I want to happen.
I went to an open mic tonight as a bit of a surprise to me. My meeting tonight got canceled so I took that opportunity to hit the Ochi's mic run by John Morrison and Blaine Perry. Got to go on stand by but since it was pouring rain that tends to keep people away, so I got on without a problem. It's a great show, and it is here that I found that my joke about lighting and porn is a keeper. If you want to hear it, check out a show. Can't give you all my gold right now.
Oh, and I'm meeting the head shot guy this Wednesday to talk about what we can do as a deal for getting these pics. That's a great step forward. Will keep you posted.
And I will continue to post every day this week. If I miss a day, you can have me killed. Or have my ears seriously flicked repeatedly.
Stay tuned.
Monday, June 8, 2009
Catch Up
So, let's play a little game of catch up, shall we? Where have I been, what have I been doing.
Well, it started on Thursday, where I saw a pair of great shows. One was run by my good friend and sketch partner, Sue Funke. It's called Convergence, hosted by the View's warmup comic, Thomas J. Kelly. Fun show, that was followed by a jaunt over to Kabin to see Chesley Calloway's and Sean Patton's fun Comedy as a Second Language show. A cool part of this trip was a chance to get to know Kevin Tor, a funny comic who mainly does sketch comedy and has put together some hilarious video parodies, including a spoof of Lady Gaga's PokerFace (called Butterface) which got a write up in Rolling Stone. Overall, really like Kevin, and he's been married for five years and still very much in love. Makes me feel great about my future nuptials.
Friday, I headed out to the mixer, Tex in the City, run by Kambri Crews. That was highly successful, met a few sketch comics and some cool comics. Gave my card out quite a bit. Then, saw a show that was essentially a "gay" show downstairs in Ochi's Lounge. A great show with a huge audience. The headliner was someone who sings into her webcam and posts it on YouTube. And that's pretty much it. She has a ton of views, over 300,000 on a few of them, and apparently has a cult following that fills a room. Something that appears shot and posted same day. Whereas I spent days with the Ultimate Experts, writing, shooting, and editing short films that get around 400 views. Work and talent don't seem to mean as much as it used to. Okay, that sounded bitter, but I don't mean for it. I just wish I could figure out how to get over 100,000 views with little effort. Okay, no more bitter. Now, back to the positive.
The Check Spot, my podcast I co-host with Dan Cartwright and Dave Greek, was a big success. We had two great comics, Helen Hong and Sean Patton, who were awesome guests. I recommend checking that out at thecheckspot.com
Then came the big night, the Ultimate Experts show that went amazing. I don't think I could've imagined a better show. It's funny when you constantly rehearse over and over again, you get jaded and lose touch with what is funny about the sketch. Then, you hear the response and you remember that it was hilarious. The comics were terrific, all female, hitting some huge laughs. And we continually show how great we are working together. We are truly a family as well as friends, and I go out there knowing that these three are going to be awesome, and aren't going to let me down. I never lose confidence in them, and I hope they don't lose confidence in me. I will not let them down and I know they won't let me down. I love working with Sue, Dan, and Raquel.
Okay, I rested on Sunday. Oh, and I may have bed bugs. Actually, a strong chance I have bed bugs, but I'm still hoping I don't. I won't be hitting the open mics or shows I normally would on Tuesday because I will be cleaning for the exterminator and get ready for treatments. Damn you, bugs. It does mean I will have to step it up on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday to find mics to go to. I hope to hit a few with my friends, Dan Cartwright and Dave Greek.
My monthly trivia show at the Gutter in Williamsburg was a score as well. I was feeling bummed over the work I'm behind, the unfortunate bed bug problem, and the fact I am no closer to head shots than I was last week. But I felt great being on the mike, and had a strong energy and kept the small crowd applauding, laughing, and having a genuine good time. Plus I got some great trivia questions. Want to hear about them, well, come out the next second Monday of the month (July 13) to see them. Check out the Gutter
So, this week I need to hit a minimum of three mics. I need to get my head shots scheduled. I need to send my cards out to friends with some graphic design skills. Then, well, let's get some bookings. That sounds awesome.
More coming at you.
Well, it started on Thursday, where I saw a pair of great shows. One was run by my good friend and sketch partner, Sue Funke. It's called Convergence, hosted by the View's warmup comic, Thomas J. Kelly. Fun show, that was followed by a jaunt over to Kabin to see Chesley Calloway's and Sean Patton's fun Comedy as a Second Language show. A cool part of this trip was a chance to get to know Kevin Tor, a funny comic who mainly does sketch comedy and has put together some hilarious video parodies, including a spoof of Lady Gaga's PokerFace (called Butterface) which got a write up in Rolling Stone. Overall, really like Kevin, and he's been married for five years and still very much in love. Makes me feel great about my future nuptials.
Friday, I headed out to the mixer, Tex in the City, run by Kambri Crews. That was highly successful, met a few sketch comics and some cool comics. Gave my card out quite a bit. Then, saw a show that was essentially a "gay" show downstairs in Ochi's Lounge. A great show with a huge audience. The headliner was someone who sings into her webcam and posts it on YouTube. And that's pretty much it. She has a ton of views, over 300,000 on a few of them, and apparently has a cult following that fills a room. Something that appears shot and posted same day. Whereas I spent days with the Ultimate Experts, writing, shooting, and editing short films that get around 400 views. Work and talent don't seem to mean as much as it used to. Okay, that sounded bitter, but I don't mean for it. I just wish I could figure out how to get over 100,000 views with little effort. Okay, no more bitter. Now, back to the positive.
The Check Spot, my podcast I co-host with Dan Cartwright and Dave Greek, was a big success. We had two great comics, Helen Hong and Sean Patton, who were awesome guests. I recommend checking that out at thecheckspot.com
Then came the big night, the Ultimate Experts show that went amazing. I don't think I could've imagined a better show. It's funny when you constantly rehearse over and over again, you get jaded and lose touch with what is funny about the sketch. Then, you hear the response and you remember that it was hilarious. The comics were terrific, all female, hitting some huge laughs. And we continually show how great we are working together. We are truly a family as well as friends, and I go out there knowing that these three are going to be awesome, and aren't going to let me down. I never lose confidence in them, and I hope they don't lose confidence in me. I will not let them down and I know they won't let me down. I love working with Sue, Dan, and Raquel.
Okay, I rested on Sunday. Oh, and I may have bed bugs. Actually, a strong chance I have bed bugs, but I'm still hoping I don't. I won't be hitting the open mics or shows I normally would on Tuesday because I will be cleaning for the exterminator and get ready for treatments. Damn you, bugs. It does mean I will have to step it up on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday to find mics to go to. I hope to hit a few with my friends, Dan Cartwright and Dave Greek.
My monthly trivia show at the Gutter in Williamsburg was a score as well. I was feeling bummed over the work I'm behind, the unfortunate bed bug problem, and the fact I am no closer to head shots than I was last week. But I felt great being on the mike, and had a strong energy and kept the small crowd applauding, laughing, and having a genuine good time. Plus I got some great trivia questions. Want to hear about them, well, come out the next second Monday of the month (July 13) to see them. Check out the Gutter
So, this week I need to hit a minimum of three mics. I need to get my head shots scheduled. I need to send my cards out to friends with some graphic design skills. Then, well, let's get some bookings. That sounds awesome.
More coming at you.
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Wednesday with Joe
It's always great seeing Joe. He's come along way since his accident. Tonight, when we got in there, he was eating an actual meal complete with chicken nuggets, corn and toast. We also sat back and watched Planet Earth with him for a few hours. It was a fun time, and Joe certainly likes having his friends there. He was clearly tired from a day of therapy, so I'm sure he enjoyed just watching TV with Raquel cracking jokes about the animals and such on the documentary. (My favorite was a "wouldn't it be awesome if the blind salamander had a smaller little seeing eye dog") I can't remember what the joke was, but Raquel said something that had Joe laughing so hard he was crying.
I got home around 10, which was cool because I got some Andrea (my awesome fiance) time. We probably won't see much of each other over the next couple of months as I work to make something of myself. So, these times before bed or in the morning are going to become more special to us. Any time I get to spend with her is wonderful. She's very supportive, even going so far as being the only follower of this blog.
No word yet from the head shot guy. Tonight, I'm seeing a couple of shows and hanging out at the New York Alt Comics usual Thursday night hang out, Kabin. It's good to get my face out there for people to see. Stay tuned.
I got home around 10, which was cool because I got some Andrea (my awesome fiance) time. We probably won't see much of each other over the next couple of months as I work to make something of myself. So, these times before bed or in the morning are going to become more special to us. Any time I get to spend with her is wonderful. She's very supportive, even going so far as being the only follower of this blog.
No word yet from the head shot guy. Tonight, I'm seeing a couple of shows and hanging out at the New York Alt Comics usual Thursday night hang out, Kabin. It's good to get my face out there for people to see. Stay tuned.
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