Great Shows at the Ventura Comedy Club

Had a great weekend of shows at the Ventura Harbor Comedy Club.  Can't thank Mike Marino enough for hiring me as his feature act.  We had a great show on Friday night, and two great shows on Saturday Night. Now one of the shows, had a a drunk female, who was obnoxious loud out of control heckler of everyone. I didn't really deal with her too much, I kind of just bowled over her noise, and continued on, and it went great, but the audience was aware and distracted by her.  As the feature act I have to be conscious of my interaction with the audience, and leave the energy as high as I possibly can for my headliner.  I knew Mike would take care of that table in short order, and ofcourse he did, and thats the way he likes to do it.  They actually got escorted out of the club.  But the crowd and Mike Marino were on the same page, and that is an art form to be able to do what he did, and still deliver the best entertainment he can for the paying customers, who came to be entertained and laugh, and have a good time.  Mike is very conscious of this and gives the best show possible, wherever he is, and however many people are in the crowd, from 10 to 10,000.  He always delivers.  There can't be a better school for working the crowd and dealing with drunks or hecklers, than watching Mike Marino do it live.  The Ventura Harbor Comedy Club is a class act !,, Thanks to Randy Lubis, the co owner and MC, a national headliner in his own right, did a fantastic job, and treated all of us in the show with great respect.  He was outstanding.  The staff is great, and very attentive to the patrons, as well as the comedians.  Roger the door manager was fantastic, I can't thank him enough for taking the time to tape our sets and getting the DVD's to Marco Assante and myself.  

This weeks podcast

In this weeks podcast I talk about my performance at the Laugh Factory in Long Beach. I was able to perform with MIke Marino, and spent some time talking with John Diresta.  I also talked about the upcoming shows in Ventura. Just click on the podcast date to the right side of the page.

The Laugh Factory

Had a great time performing at the Laugh Factory in Long Beach last night. It was a great charity event for the special olympics. By chance, I ended up on the line up with Mike Marino, The Cop and the Con back again. I've had it in my mind, how I would get an opportunity to perform at the Laugh Factory, and somehow the universe cooperated with my subconscious and it came together. I really enjoyed sharing a booth at the back of the showroom with my wife, Mike Marino, and John Diresta. Tweaked some of my material, polished it, and threw in some new stuff, and it all went well. All in all I was happy with the performance, ofcourse, I am never quite happy with it. Stand by the for the weekly podcast today.

Writing Comedy for new DVD taping

I'm getting in the wood shed daily, writing for the next DVD taping. I've had to tune up my comedy writing basics. It has to be truthful, Phyllis Diller, told one of her writers, Gene Perret, if it's not true, don't send it. The writing of comedy, starts with truth, and involves the ability to analyze and prepare. There are two basic thought processes to writing a joke. First the rapid, almost unnoticeable, rolling of thoughts and ideas through your brain, and instantaneously analyzing these for a relevant connection with another thought. Generally joke writing is made up of taking two ideas and combining them into one. What I have to do is tie two ideas together in a funny way. A big part of the funny in a joke, is the funny, which comes as a surprise. The punch line has to be hidden while presenting the set up. The audience can't see it coming. A comedy writer has to take advantage of the way people process thoughts, so they can be led in a direction, and be hit in the head with the surprise. I'm trying my best to take experiences in my police job, and turn them into material, all the while, making sure these ideas and premises our relatable to a vast audience, as opposed to a niche group. This can be the difficult part, but it is what gives me a niche, in that, I'm one of the few actual cops, who is also a comedian. Ok, I'm back to the writing table, writing my next killer comedy routine.

10/05/2010

Hi Everybody,

I actually figured out how to post a podcast to the blog. You can see it to the right of the page, just click on it, and then you click on the podcast button on the top, and it starts playing !,, it works,, so I will be posting podcasts on a regular basis now that I know that I can do it. Thank god for you tube video tutorials. Yes!

I have decided to start the process of filming my next DVD. This DVD will be a full hour of new stuff. I am going to title this show and DVD, "Once Before I Go", because this will be the last DVD, /concert, I will do as working Sheriff's Sergeant. I am down to 23 months before I retire, just enough time, to get the new material, work it out, rent the theatre or club, get the film crew, and get it done. I guess it will be kind of a retirement party also. Maybe the DVD release party will be the retirement celebration. Thats the plan, and everyone can have a DVD of the party. I'm off to work on it now. I'll keep you posted on the details.