Random Evening

So I went out last night with the intention of doing on open-mic. I was tired and just figured I owed it to standup to make an effort at something for the evening, but when I got to the place, I realized I was going to be waiting all night to do 5 minutes in front of a crowd that was only half watching, and I lost interest. Two young comics I know come up and say they're heading to the Cringe Humor show at the Laugh Factory and do I wanna go? I'm not really a Cringe Humor guy - dick/racist jokes that are supposed to be edgy and push boundaries of intollerance to bad racist jokes, but I was bored and looking for an excuse to leave.

We go. Rich Vos is hosting. Man. Not a fan. Maybe a little more time in the tanning booth will make you feel 21 again Rich. It's what I expect for the most part, and I sit through it patiently. God knows why. Juvenile, pedantic shit. "Ain't no reason to hate people for the color of their skin. [insert racist joke] It's just jokes folks." Fucking kill me. As I'm leaving I run into Katie Lazerus (sp?) and Dan Allen who are just leaving the "World's Funniest Reporter" show, which Katie has won. I've met Katie a few times and saw her set at Carolines "New Class Clowns" (which I am finally booked on March 14th), where she was brilliant, and an audience nurtured on Larry the Cable Guy and Jessica Simpson didn't quite follow . She is a brainiac and so is Dan Allen. They invite me to join them for a drink, and we end up at a bar in the Westin, where I'm feeling underdressed in ripped jeans and a hoodie. We're sitting with the reporters from News Day or some equally yellow publication and the Pentagon correspondent for CNN, Jamie McIntyre (Pictured). Now, he should be interesting, but he, along with his wife, is a pompous ass. At one point she (wife) goads him to tell us why Rumsfeld likes her. At another they ask the waiter where he is from (Serbia). Our high level Pentagon reporter says "Didn't we bomb you guys?" "Yes, it was terrible thing." "Hey, no hard feelings." Wife: "We did it for the right reasons. You forgive us right?" All this with a jokey, smarmy tone. I wanted to eat broken glass. I really wanted the waiter to blow his top. This and these fucking journalists (not Katie, who writes some stuff for the NY Times, but is really a standup comic), are doling out observations about standup comedy. I'll let Katie blog her own story, but man, she has a good one. One night boring the living shit out of an audience of friends and co-workers, and they know what the standup life is all about.

Anyway, I got a ride to Union Square from Dan and called it a night, but Dan pointed out that the way my evening was going, if I accepted one more randam invitation I would probable end up on the 105th floor of a building in a penthouse with a dead body and a pile of cocaine, going "Man, I should have called it a night."

P.S. I would like to add that my observations about the people involved in this evening are my own and nobody elses. Also, there was on guy from Boston, an entertainment reporter I think, who was a decent guy and had actually done some standup in the past. I would also like to add that I was a journalism major in college and worked as a reporter and editor for a few years before falling into comedy. Do not check this piece for style or spelling.

Rollin' along....

Did the opening set at the Bowery Poetry Club's O'Debra Twins "Show and Tell" last night. Fifteen minutes of the kind of comedy I can't get away with doing most places. I actually stayed until closing and now know how the show ends. Won't reveal here. Those girls have incredible patience though - sitting in the front for most of the show and watching every act. Not every act is that watchable, but they stick it out.

I think I'm going to call the Bowery my home.