"A Taste of Texas"

I was happy to donate a performance for my good friend and fellow department brother, Jim Dexter at his campaign kick off this past September 9th. He is running for the Baldwin Park City Council.  The event was held at Nick's "A Taste of Texas" restaurant in Covina.  As usual, the first thing I do, is scope the room for the amount of people, and how the room is set up.  It's a very large room, with a nice stage, and great lighting.  For a restaurant bar, this place a big emphasis on their stage and lighting.  It looked like the place could hold about 500 people.  Their was about 40 or so people, all eating, with young kids.  Uh Oh !,, So with a cavernous room, air hockey in the back, and quite a few young kids, already we are not in good circumstances for a comedy show.  Jeff Keller was the Headliner.  He was a great guy, who played a short stint with the NFL.  He currently hosts a radio show, and has toured with Paul Mooney.   Jeff was great to meet, obviously a class act.  He was friendly, had no ego or attitude.  We both were there to support Jim, and do the best we could for him, regardless of anything else.  AS we were waiting to start the show, everyone was spread out, and eating, and the lights were bright, and the place was very noisy.  When Jim took the mic from the stage, people moved in closer,  the music went off, the house lights went down, the stage lights went on, and hey, all of a sudden, it looked like a pretty nice show room.  I did twenty minutes of clean material, well not squeaky clean, but clean.  I was happy enough with my performance.  I could only stay for a few minutes of Jeff's performance, but as soon as he took the stage, I knew he was a pro.

He came on strong, and i was enjoying his show.  But, as it goes with being cop and comic, I was off to work.  Sometimes it's comic by evening,  cop by late night.  

Iris Cirque Du Soleil

We went to the "Iris, Cirque du Soleil" show at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood.  Wow what a show, I have to say it is spectacular.  It is a must see.  We hadn't been to the Kodak in a few years.  A lot of changes to the whole area.  Four levels of restaurants and shops.  It was nice to walk around before the show.  They announce before the show, how the show spent several million dollars to renovate the theatre, cutting the capacity down by over a thousand, to make the theatre and experience more intimate.  They reconfigured the stage, and sound system, to enhance the experience.  I thought that so unorthodox for a show to sacrifice the number of seats, therefore revenue per performance, in an effort to enhance the experience to the theatre goer.  I think it's the right thing to do in the long run, and it looks like the show plans on being there for a while.  The word of mouth will keep the shows at full capacity.  And by the billboards throughout the city, and the tv ads, they have gone to great expense for advertisement.  The feats and stunts in the show, are sometimes hard to believe as possible.  The music combined with the performance was awesome.  And the humor injected in the show was just right.  I say go see it !

Laughlin with Mike Marino

Had a great weekend with Mike Marino in Laughlin Nevada at the Edgewater Casino.  All three shows were fantastic.  Usually the Friday crowd is a little lighter and not quite as responsive.  Friday, Saturday and Sunday were all packed crowds.  I have to say I was very happy with all three of my performances.  I'm a ashamed to say, that in all the years I have been doing comedy, the past few performances, have been the first time I have been so rehearsed.  And what a difference.  Usually I am going over my set selection, and actually rehearsing up to the time I leave the room to go to the showroom.    This past weekend, I was so well rehearsed, it allowed me to really enjoy the weekend. I was able to really take in all the experiences of the trip and where we were.  We rented jetskis, explored Laughlin, and had a great time.  You have a different swagger when you take the stage, knowing your stuff, front to back, and it gives you the freedom to play with it, and be in the moment.  Trying to perform, while concerned and making effort to remember you routine, is picked up by the audience, and can only hurt your performance.  It definately makes you speed up, and you end up talking to fast, which only adds to the detriment of your show.  It was really interesting to spend the day with Mike, and then see what he did with those experiences as he did his show that night.  The showroom is really great, and the staff is very friendly.  I had some new stuff that I slipped in the show, and it all went great!,,  

What a great show we had on June 9, at Steven's Steakhouse !, Benefitting two East Los Angeles Deputy Sheriff's, who were involved in a gun battle, they survived, killed the suspect, but one deputy lost an eye.  Ticket sales were slow to start, we were a little worried, we paid for excellent talent.  We had KLOS famed DJ, Frazer Smith as our MC, and our Headliner was Mike Marino.  No pay wanted by me, I was honored to perform for my fellow officers, and those who support us.  Slowly as we got closer to the date, we started selling tables.  All of the Sheriff's Department UNIONS came through.  They all wrote donation checks, in support of LA Deputy Sheriff's.  I still was a little concerned because I had told Jim from Steven's I would have 300.  So he reserved the big room, and through in his own DJ.  As usual with these events, we had a big push the last week.  I didn't anticipate a rush at the door of over 75 tickets sold!.  It was a sell out in the end.  We had seating for 340, and ended up with 362.  Standing room only at the back.  What a great night.  Thanks to all who supported, gave, and attended !

God of Carnage

Great show yesterday at the Ahmanson Theatre in downtown Los Angeles. "God of Carnage" starring James Gandolfini, and Jeff Danels.  This show is straight from Broadway, as it has the entire broadway cast.  It's a 90 minute show without intermission, it was just right.  Hilarious! This is a must see show, I know it's a limited engagement show, but if you can, get down to the Ahmanson and see it.  

The Downtown Comedy Club with Garrett Morris and Kevin Garnier

What a great time at the Downtown Comedy Club, in downtown Los Angeles.  Owned and operated by my good friends, Kevin Garnier, and the legend, Original "Saturday Night Live" Cast Member, Garret Morris.  I   received a lot of messages, asking why I didn't tell people I was appearing there.  This really is my laboratory.  Kevin and Garrett allow me to pop in during the open mic sessions of the weekend, and ply my craft.  It's exactly the way I want it to be.  It was a great crowd, and, I knew no one in the audience.  For me working out new material, it's the right ingredient for a reality check, and a real accurate assessment of my material.  No one there has a connection with me, which means, when I get the laughs there not based on any connection or relationship I have with the audience.  So there  I was with a packed house.  As usual Kevin and Garret gave me the VIP treatment, and checked to see if I was working that night, or if there was any special time I needed to go on.  Yep, I was working that night, so they put me on first, another bonus for me.  I will get to work on time, and I get to hit the audience cold, which means if some of the new stuff hits, it is really good.  I set up my flip video, and did my thing, I had it timed for ten minutes, when I finished and checked the flip it was 9:30,, right on schedule.  I felt very comfortable and confident this night and it showed.  I was happy with the reaction to the material.  Some hit good, and other stuff, that I really liked, fell dead.  This is the comedy business, you have to keep working, reworking the old stuff, adding, subtracting based on whats happening now.  Off to work I went, put on the business suit of police work, and i stopped back at the club, to take the above photo of Myself, Kevin Garnier and Garret Morris.  Garrett was looking forward to the airing on Oprah of all the original cast members in a couple days.  The show aired on April 12,  and it was great.  I will be stepping up my secret appearances at the Downtown Comedy club, as we trek our way to the finale show of the documentary I'm filming with Billy Boyd jr.  I'm going to plan a headlining weekend in the fall at the downtown comedy club, and we will film it for the documentary, hopefully,  I can persuade mr Garrett Morris to be a part of it.  

Inside the Mind of a Serial Killer 3/14/2011 - cwyates | Internet Radio | Blog Talk Radio

Inside the Mind of a Serial Killer 3/14/2011 - cwyates | Internet Radio | Blog Talk Radio

Yesterday I put out my second blogtalkradio show with a guest.  The subject was not comedy, it was "Inside the mind of a Serial Killer".  My guest was Victoria Redstall who has been producing documentaries about serial killers for the past 4 years.  She produced a movie documenting the life of Wayne Adam Ford, a serial killer currently on death row, convicted of four murders.  I talked to Victoria about her involvement in the case. From the time she gained access to the high power section of the jail, meeting Ford where she posed as someone else giving Ford a false identity.  During the trial Ford had Victoria put on the stand, where she was forced to give her true identity.  Check out the blogtalkradio segment.