Friday November 21st, I performed improv with the
Outliars at their new room Outliars Comedy Club – Awautukee. The Outliars Comedy Club-Awautukee is located
in the Four Points by Sheraton Phoenix South Mountain 10831 S. 51st
St, Phoenix southwest corner of Elliott and I-10 contact the ticket office at
480-784-7258.At most improv shows; I struggle with the start of the show. Tonight was no different, these evenings ‘Things
you shouldn’t say…” with subjects like “to the family at a wake when you were
the mistress” or ”when leaving the opposite sex bathroom to the opposite sex.” As often as I say the wrong thing, you would
think this is a portion of the show that I should excel in. I think the audience enjoyed the short form improv
that I performed with Dave Thurston and Ryan Johnson. Andrew Flynn and Rob Greenspan had good
scenes and a lot of laughs from the opening night crowd. We were getting good
laughs with the improv scenes that we finished @ 87 minutes, just short of our
90 minute objective. No one got a
standup set in, and that was alright though we were all eager to.
Saturday I had the opportunity to appear as a guest on
Skewdcast, it’s a podcast soon to be vodcast.
This was the second show for host Isaac Boda and producer Daniel
Cotterman. It was streamed live @
www.skewd.com; I was excited when I got home to hear that my wife Donna
listened to the show. I enjoyed talking
with Isaac; he grew up in Harrisville, Michigan. I have fished for perch out of Harrisville a
few times. It was within a 100 miles of
where I lived in Michigan. I also attended
college in Michigan at Ferris State University in the late 70s and early 80s,
and I shared a story about college life in Big Rapids. During one short 93 day
period in 1980 I ate acid for 93 days. I
know it sounds wrong, but I really enjoyed the run-- it was nothing but fun. Unfortunately, Isaac believes the Guinness Book of Records record for
eating acid on consecutive days was 94 days.
We were both saddened by this; I think that might have been the summer I
listened to the Grateful Dead frequently.
Sunday Night I was scheduled on Michael Turner’s Showcase @
Stand Up Scottsdale. I enjoy performing
at Stand Up Scottsdale. It’s where I
watched comedy for my first nine months after arriving in Phoenix and where I
decided that I could tell jokes. We each
performed five minute sets; I got the light just as I was starting “The Mick” so
I rushed the joke and didn’t finish strong, but the first four minutes felt
solid. The laughs were there where they should have been. Part
of the attraction to the night is that the showcase is followed by a national touring
headliner finishing off a four day six show stay in Scottsdale. Comedian Joe Matarese who has appeared on
Letterman and was a finalist on Americas Got Talent this past season was finishing
off the show. Apparently he wasn’t happy
with his decision to hold over for a Sunday show. He started off bitching about his accommodations
for the weekend, the lack of a crowd for tonight’s show estimated at forty
people, and the lack of laughter he was receiving. He felt the lack of laughter was because he
was following a bringer show and that the audience wasn’t aware they could
start laughing at all jokes, not just their friend’s efforts. A bringer show is a show where the performers
are required or encouraged to bring an audience in exchange for the stage
time. SUS owner and friend Howard Hughes
doesn’t believe in bringer shows, but this show has all the qualities of one. Call it what you want, but if you had a crowd
with you, you received additional time this evening. After a lull in his performance, Mr. Matarese
threatened the crowd with bringing the shittiest showcase performer back to the
stage. He asked the crowd, “Who sucked
the most?!” Initially, they appeared uncomfortable with the request, but before
he continued with his set, someone yelled “the fat guy!” Hearing that, I thought that there were probably
five guys on stage that night that could exercise more, but, ultimately, I knew
that I was “the fat guy.”
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