Trying My Hand at Stand-up Comedy

To celebrate my 40th birthday I stepped on stage to do something I’d spent hours and hours thinking about but struggled to find the confidence to do earlier: stand up comedy.

For a little under two years, I’ve been performing improv comedy with The Sacramento Comedy Spot's Wednesday night training team so one would think I would have worked out all my jitters. But as anyone in the comedy world can tell you, the disciplines are different. Improv (within a structure) you make up the entire show.

Telling people you do improv comedy is a lot like telling someone the Midwest you’re a Vegan not a Vegetarian.

People are much more familiar with and less forgiving with stand up. It’s simple you stand on stage and be funny. I’ve always thought of myself as a funny guy and been told as such. Over the years, I perfected my comedic timing for training sessions, classes, and such. I’m the king of witty quips, but could I be funny on demand?

For about as long as I’ve been doing improv I’m been eyeing the stand up guys. They’re nerds, just the same as the improv performers, but few people did both. I figured my brain was under enough stress learning one, why may its worse doing both. So between my film projects, work and other obligations I never got around to taking the Comedy spot's class on stand up, but I was tucking away bits I thought were funny.

So rather than wait my turn at open mics like all starting comics do, I invited everyone I know to come see me and a few other people perform during a comedy spot “Test Kitchen” slot.

Here is my second time on stage doing stand-up:

Do it now, do it hard

A few weeks ago a cohort at The Sacramento Press Club sent me a message suggesting we do a silly video to promote a survey the club is doing to consider how it might broaden our appeal to journalists who don't cover the Capitol.
After an evening stirring the idea, this is what we came up with. Sure we were late on the Gangnam Style phenomenon compared to the web-savvy, but we hit it early enough to consider ourselves marginally with it.
Big props to my fellow performers Allen Young and Judy Lin, who committed to the idea in all its silliness. Also thanks to Angela Gentry our camera person and director.
I also have to say that I'm very pleased that we didn't put of doing it with the cast we hard rather than delaying waiting for the perfect date. With everyone's busy lives sometimes you just have to roll with the crew you have and do it the best you can. Keep Burning. Ever Forward.


Here is the survey if you're so inclined:

My night with the biker gang

Oddly, this is exactly what the modern Boozefighters 

look like. Gotta love their motto, "A drinking club with a 

motorcycle problem."  

I've always had a somewhat cavalier attitude when it comes to protecting my life, which sometimes results in accepting invitations to places that those concerned with their safety would never go.
Two experiences come to mind. My visit to a biker clubhouse and my more recent visit to a Cinco de Mayo Party in Pollack Pines.
I know what you're thinking, "They celebrate Mexican drunk fest in hill country?" I'll get to that but first, yes I voluntarily went to a biker clubhouse.
It all started with a visit to my local pub the Tallac Lounge. I was there with a platonic female friend and we had made two lady friends. The four of us had also been chatting with three or four biker dudes wearing leather "Boozefighters" jackets. They seemed cool enough. No one seemed to be on meth and no meth was offered for sale. So at 1 a.m. when the bar closed (they have to close early because of the shooting) the Boozefighters invite the girls to come back to their clubhouse. After some considerable contemplation I agree to drive.
I've done stupid things before and how often do you get invited back to a biker clubhouse. We follow the directions to a warehouse off a Power Inn and approach gate with a large tattooed man with a black leather jacket standing at the entrance. This must be that place.
I lower the window and tell him who invited us.
"The Boozefighters are the next gate," says the man in the Hells Angles jacket. Apparently this is the biker gang/club district. You probably could have found it by using the Bee's crime mapper and searched for reported rapes in industrial zones. 
Inside the clubhouse is a long bar with a stripper pole mounted on it, a small office and bathroom and a large open area where they apparently work on bikes or other project like holiday displays. The stereo played much more hip hop and rap than I expected. It operates just like a fraternity, I suppose. New guys ran the bar and did the bitch work. I was on edge the entire night. I didn't want to get with any of these women, but I felt responsible for their safety.
The night ended harmlessly, but there was an "oh shit" moment when one of the men pulled a bully club from behind the bar and walked swiftly to the front door. There was no blood on it when he returned, apparently the neighbors wanted to barrow some sugar.

Three religions

TITAF (Things I think are funny)

Here is what I found in the desk drawer of our hotel room in Osaka