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sobdasha · 5 years ago

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"I definitely updated my list of books I was reading on tumblr so it's all good" -me, a lying liar, right before spending several months finishing my reread of All The Discworld Books I Own But In Chronological Order For The First Time Ever Which In Fact Makes A Difference.

(and then I did it again after the libraries closed)

The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin Hm, so. I definitely read this. At some point. It was not really for me, not bad, but not really for me. This particular edition had various notes before and after the text, all of which I read, which made it an experience I got more out of. It's important for me to know that the author is aware that the protagonist is a raging misogynist who's stupid, and yes this was on purpose so you'd realize how really incredibly stupid he is and thus maybe be tricked into changing your mind yourself. It is a legit tactic, but one I tend not to enjoy, so if I hadn't been forewarned I'd have been UUUUGGGGGHHHH MAKE HIM SHUT UP ALREADY and probably rage-quit. As it was, I was able to better appreciate what Le Guin was doing here, even if this book didn't win a place in my heart and I probably won't reread. I definitely preferred Ancillary Justice's take, with the feminine pronouns. For my brain, masculine pronouns = they might as well all be men = business as usual = I didn't really get any gender queering from it. I can't really remember much else now. Oh, it was also part "survival in the wilderness" story, which they're big on making you read in school (which I find very suspicious), and which I tolerated and read a few classic ones on my own until they kept assigning these kinds of stories for us to read and now I get nothing from them and mindlessly hate them. Anyway, as I said, not bad at all but not really for me.

Lavinia, Ursula K. Le Guin This one's a reread--I picked it up from the library during college because we were doing Titus Andronicus in class and it didn't occur to me that there might be more than one Lavinia???? But hey it worked out because later in college we did the Aeneid and then I had Background for rereading Lavinia. This is the book that is lyrical and beautiful and pulls me in and makes me care deeply about the world and the characters. This is the book of Le Guin's that makes me feel the way everyone else feels about Earthsea and The Left Hand of Darkness and etc. I would like to find more of Le Guin's work that makes me feel the same way, because as I've said you can really tell from her other stuff that she's a solid writer who knows her stuff. I just…don't enjoy any of the other things. Anyway I recommend. I always forget about this book, and then when I reread I'm like "wow why don't I read this more often?????"

How Long 'Til Black Future Month?, N. K. Jemisin I liked every story in this short story collection. I should just reread it and try writing this up again tbh but also tbh I'll probably do the rereading and then just not write anything up again. Just read Jemisin's stuff I love her writing so much okay. ETA: that’s exactly what I did, I reread this during my covid rereads and said “I should do a proper write-up this time” and lo and behold where is it

Tehanu, Ursula K. Le Guin Okay, this last Earthsea book treated me much better than the others. It's probably not for everyone else, which might be why it's for me. It's much more domestic, much less "plot" happening, full of introspection, and centered on women rather than men. This novel acknowledges and confronts the rampant internalized misogyny in the previous three books, engages it in a way that the misandrist in me finds satisfying even though it never comes to a good solution for the problem. This book is more like a reflection. Earthsea has never been about "light is always good, dark is always bad; be a hero, fight evil" etc. But this one I think shifts the tone a little farther; it's less about balance, and more...I guess I'd put it as, "actions have consequences." It's not concerned with right or wrong, it's concerned with people getting hurt. It's pretty somber and serious, without any humor to balance it out, tons of bad things happen to people, lots of PTSD...but this time I really cared about the characters, and I feel like it was all handled really well? In addition to critiquing internalized misogyny, it also critiqued victim blaming. Seemed like it handled disability pretty well too--was honest about how people are jerks about it in reality, while still being optimistic and treating Therru as valuable; made occasional mentions of considering work-arounds for having only one fully-functional hand, while mostly just having Therru go about living and doing chores and being capable and assuming she did find those work-arounds without having to draw attention to it; and Therru's terrible scars didn't get magically healed at the end, the whole book makes a point all the way through that her physical scars will always be with her the same way her emotional scars will be, and she's simply learned how to go on living with them. Tehanu: a book full of trauma happening to people, where what would normally be the plot in a fantasy novel ended up not even getting started to be resolved, but Le Guin's writing and handling of the subject matter helped heal my jaded soul.

Ninefox Gambit, Yoon Ha Lee A quick summary of my experience: Chapter 1 - ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh what is going on what even Chapter 2 - no, no this is just, this is what sci fi is like, right? Just give it a few chapters and then by the end of the book everything will probably make sense. I'm sure that's how it works. Remember how even in Ancillary Justice I ended up with two separate Battles of Valskay, but now everything is fine??? It's. Fine. Chapter 4 - (ohhhhhhh I still don't know what's going on) Several Chapters Later - still no clue what's going on, but hit my stride with the terminology, my foreign language instinct kicked in where words stopped sounding weird and while I could not for the life of me define any terms for you, I had a vague comprehension of how the words operated In Context. Sort of. And by then I had, without realizing it, begun page-turning and binging, so I guess I liked the book lol! Another serious-but-not-funny one, but with an extra dose of War Memoir and all the gruesomeness that entails (but probably, like any good War Memoir, probably not actually gratuitous and actually in fact the necessary amount of gruesome). Jedao was turned into a woobie at the last minute and, well, damn, guy knows the way to my heart. The novel apparently gripped me enough that I don't even mind that it only came into play at the very end of the game. And hey, there's two more novels to deal with that revelation, which I have picked up from the library to read immediately! Yay! Current personal theory: based on the heavy math references that made me want to cry at the start, but the almost entire absence of actual numbers, and a reference to "there's no way actual physics works like that, it was obviously a calendrical effect" or something…I'm going to throw out a wild guess that the calendar stuff (and all the social structuring that goes with it) is so that they can break and reinvent math. So they can effect a universe where 2+2=5 and therefore a bunch of people standing in this exact position makes a force field or bullets of rose thorns or whatever and some other dude can make himself immortal. This sounded like a pretty terrible theory already and it sounds even worse now I've typed it up but oh well.

Raven Stratagems, Yoon Ha Lee Guess who didn't write this up back when she read it!!! Also, I returned Ninefox Gambit to the library right before the libraries shut down for covid. So, I had Raven and Revenant on hand for months but I didn't have Ninefox on hand to do an immediate reread to see if that made the sci fi make more sense. (It probably wouldn't have, but I would have liked to do a rereading while the ending was still fresh.) By this time there is a lesser degree of visceral viscera. Lee is brutal, however, about continuing to be honest about what war costs and whether war is worth that cost (which depends, really, on whose lives you think matter. Very relevant for these times. Very much prepared me to shut up and not whine about the inconveniences of protests and their fallout. There is no pretty and clean way to have a revolution, since it involves destroying a particular [terrible] way of life, so we're all just gonna have to sacrifice together). Also I think by this point all the character development from the first novel paid off in the form of character dynamics being hilarious now despite, y’know, the gruesome shadow of war.

Revenant Gun, Yoon Ha Lee Continues to discuss the honest price of war and the messiness of fallout. Shuos "The risks I took were calculated, but boy am I bad at math" Jedao. Oh I think this is also the one where every so often one of the characters thinks, "Okay so this person is a tyrannical murderous dictator but he is ensuring that there will never again be food shortages and no one in the space empire ever goes hungry." And then Lee turns around and is like, "Haha but don't forget this same person invented a form of vital infrastructural technology (and also immortality) that is optionally based off ritual human torture sacrifice. Like he didn't have to do that to make it work. He just decided to anyway. And that's always bad :) " (Also useful in our current climate of "Okay but we should consider the other person's circumstances and point of view" and also "Yeah but that doesn't apply if they're literally Nazis tho.")

Hexarchate Stories, Yoon Ha Lee A collection of short stories set in the universe of those three books. There's one story at the end that does satisfy the "But I wanted another sequel!!!" urge. And there's a bit of backstory for Jedao and Cheris. But by and large what you should be in the mood to read is flash fiction snippets that simply happen to be set in the same universe but have no bearing on the plot. Which is pretty cool and interesting if you are in the proper mindset! Even better, Lee includes author's notes at the end of each story to talk about the story, or the influences, or the context of his life at the time, etc etc. That is always my absolute favorite part of a short story collection. Also these notes told me everything I needed to know about why I liked certain things about his writing. "I wanted to write my own AUs," "If I get stuck I go on TV Tropes," "My only regret is that I had to cut the scene where Jedao goes to ~Halloween~ dressed as himself and trolls people" ahhhh that's also a regret I share.

Dragon Pearl, Yoon Ha Lee This one is YA! There is a lot less gore although I guess there was still genocide! Read this when you are in the mood for something that doesn't attempt to hide the fact that the plot is completely, conveniently contrived to give you fast-paced action and fun. Min sure has a lot of coincidental meetings that should stretch my disbelief but I don't care. Also, I am enjoying reading books with girls as protagonists that do what I'm tired of being told to love about boy protagonists--just keep barreling along with complete self-assurance that you are right and, if you run into trouble, you can egotistically figure your way out.

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, N. K. Jemisin Gods and mortal ruling family's messy soap opera sexcapades is not exactly my favorite genre, but luckily it is handled by Jemisin so it's all good. Lots of Souma Family Values. I'm really appreciating how Jemisin considers choice of narrator very carefully and uses it to brilliant effect in this trilogy. Stories are things told by a narrator to an audience; why should we rely on the artifice of an "impartial" "reliable" "omniscient" 3rd person narrator writing into the void? This trilogy was Jemisin's first, I believe, so it's a little awkward coming back to them now, only because Jemisin is such a powerful writer that the themes she's begun working with here have only gotten stronger with each successive work.

The Broken Kingdoms, N. K. Jemisin This one I rated as I read for Protagonist Is Blind based on the scale of a sighted person going "but some of my best friends are blind!" In that regard, I think the book does really well! Blindness doesn't define Oree's life and value; Oree doesn't get magical powers that make her a blind person who isn't really blind; Oree moves away from home and gets a job and lives on her own which seems very accurate to me based on my knowledge of one (1) person who is blind; instead of being ~cured~, Oree actually gets more blind at the end of the story and this is considered a Good Ending. Also personal bonus points are awarded for references to her stick being handy for hitting people with. Some stuff was stereotypical, but Jemisin's intent was not. A+, will read again, please support including way more characters who are blind in media. Anyway I enjoyed this one.

The Kingdom of Gods, N. K. Jemisin First off, Jemisin directly up front critiques the narration choices she made in the first two books and then pays it off like a boss at the end. Like holy crap. I admit by now I was getting a bit bored of the genre, but the book was still very engaging because Jemisin is a master. It may also have been affected by how much increasing pain I've been in lately.

The Awakened Kingdom, N. K. Jemisin I'm dead. This one was way more my speed and you need the other three books to understand this novella but ohhhh my god it's perfect. I read a lot of choice passages of this aloud to my roommate because how could you resist. It's still heavy but it's hilarious. Bless Shill.

#sobdasha booking

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likeshipsonthesea · 5 years ago

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15 - 25 - 30 Nurseydex for the sensory prompt.

hey okay so this is approximately a million years late and i didn’t even fill it right, but i wrote this part like a week after i got this prompt and i’ve been stalled on writing the other bits, so I’ve decided to just post as-is because i like what i’ve written and it kind of fulfills the prompt so here we go

i’ve only done one of the prompts, from this sensory prompt list, and it’s 25. The smell of ozone during a storm. it’s not nurseydex, more nursey-centric and emotional things, but i think y’all will like it.

it was originally supposed to be like a 5+1 fic but with 3 parts and no change, but now i guess it’s just The First Time Nursey Felt at Home. enjoy :)

Theday it first happens, Nursey wakes up late to a screaming alarm and a headachehe can’t explain. Due to the lateness, he then has to sprint across campus tohis comp lit class, only to find out once he gets there that the prof is visiblyhungover showing a movie from the supplemental materials list thatNursey—the little overachiever that he is—already watched.

That wake up seemsto set the tone for the subsequent day. The new barista at Annie’s makes hiscoffee weirdly and he guiltily drops it in the trash after only a few sips, thewrongness making his tongue all fuzzy. He pops a couple Advil to null theheadache, but the pain just spreads to his hands in this dizzy swirl he can’tshake. Knowing that his second class of the day won’t be happening—facultyconference– he decides to take advantage of the warm spring weather, try tocheer himself up a bit, and spread out on the Quad with a book and some tunes.

It helps, at leastfor a little while. With his headphones in, he doesn’t hear the rumblingthunder, and the shadowing sky goes unnoticed as his focus tangles intenselyaround the novel in his hands. The only apparent clue is his itching nose,which he swipes at between pages, distracted. The cloying cleanness steadilyburns, the sensation building and building until it concentrates the pain inhis head into a line above his eyebrows, and finally, he pulls his eyes fromhis book long enough to take stock of the situation. But it is already toolate.

Between one breathand the next, the sky unzips. Deserted, now, on the Quad, as everyone else heededthe warnings before, Nursey drowns beneath the onslaught. His paperback bookbleeds, the shuddering air muffling the sound from his headphones. His clothesslap, cold and clinging, against his skin as he hurries to find cover. Thegrowing puddles soak his socks as he sprints beneath the raindrops in thedirection of the Haus, closer than his dorm room is and the first place hethinks of to run.

Gasping, chestheaving like a panic attack so much so that his brain begins to think it isone, Nursey tumbles through the front door of the Haus and trips, collapsing ina wet, shivering heap on the floor of the entryway.

“Dude.” Holster’sdeep, rumbling voice makes Nursey shudder, suddenly—strangely—warm. “I would not get that close to the floor if Iwere you.”

“Yeah, man.” Theaccompaniment of Ransom’s voice is expected, anticipated. Nursey didn’t thinkhe’d been here long enough to recognize these kinds of patterns, let aloneglean comfort from them, as the softening of his racing heartbeat seems tosuggest. “Who knows the last time it saw the business end of a mop?”

Even with his cheekpressed into the splintering floorboard, vision obscured, Nursey can pictureHolster’s sage, slow nod. “Bits tried to vacuum it once and the vacuum broke.”

“Nah, bro,” andNursey can see the shaking-head, eyes-wide expression on Ransom’s face, “Ithink it was a mop and it just, like, disintegrated when it touched the wood.”

Scrunched-eyes,wrinkled brow, evident in the uptick in the beginning of the sentence— “Are yousure it wasn’t a broom and it like legit burst into flames?”

Pursed lips, in thesolidity of the no— “No, that was that other thing.”

Lips in an ‘o’,slow lean back, elongated like the sound— “Ohhh, yeah.”

Nursey’s shouldersbegin to shake again, this time with a manic, unfathomable laughter thatshutters around his chest like a butterfly on speed or a handful of pop-rockswho just quit their job and have nothing to lose. It’s—god, it’s ridiculous. He’s lying on the floor of a frat house,probably getting splinters in his nose, wet hair collapsed against hisforehead, every inch of his skin chilled with rainwater, his book ruined, hisday shit and—

And fuck if he isn’tridiculously, uncontrollably happy in this moment.

Bitty stumbles intothe room, then, from the kitchen, and instantly begins fretting in that softSouthern way of his, pushing Nursey towards the bathroom to “wring some of thatrain out ‘a your bones!” He returns, a minute later, with all the fluffy towelshe could presumably find, foisting them on Nursey with mutterings that, “I’mgonna go start you a pie, hun,” and “these weather apps get worse and worseevery day,” and when he finally leaves Nursey alone in the bathroom, arms fullof towels and a raindrop itching down the bridge of his nose, Nursey stares inthe mirror and sees he’s still grinning, unrestrained.

Fuck, he thinks, a bit dumbstruck, I’m home.

*~*~*

Dizzy, half fromthe cold, half from the revelation, Nursey strips his soaked clothes from hisskin and turns on the shower, handle pushed all the way to hot it can go. Hesways, bare, freezing in the drafty room, and marvels at the warm, settledemotion in his chest.

The mostdisorienting thing is that it is such a wholly unfamiliar concept. To feelsettled. To feel home. All his life, it’s been—tricky, untamable. At theleast, beyond his ability to put into words.

It isn’t that hehasn’t had a home before. The brownstone in New York, where his parentslive, where he lived for the first fourteen years of his life, it was a home,sort of. Home in the sense of comfort, home in the sense that Dad was there inthe kitchen with warm, spicy foods, Mama there to shove books in his hands andtake listen to him tell her what his favorite parts were when he finished, Momthere to hug him close and soothe the ache of the outside worlds—real andfictional—and keep him from having to deal with it, at least for a while. Thebrownstone—his parents—were home in the sense of a respite. There, he wasprotected, but he also wasn’t really him. It’s hard to be a person,Nursey thinks, when no one wants to worry you with the question of who you are.

The heat from thesteaming shower starts to fog up the mirror. Nursey shakes his head and turns,steps inside the tub. Cold feet press against warm tile. His whole body sighsas he sways towards the water, only to tighten up in expletives as the burningwater scalds his softened skin.

A lurking burnmuffled by the promise of comfort is a good way to characterize Andover, Nurseythinks, as he pushes the handle back towards cold. If Andover was a sort ofhome, it would only be so in the way a word can be used ironically, tohighlight a difference. To make a point.

It was not theplace where he was asked who he was. It was the place where he was toldwhatever he was was not good enough and given the tools to become better. Hewas not him; he was not anyone’s. At Andover, his life was not his own,the same way his seat would become another anxious freshman’s, the same way hissuccesses would give way to another’s. At Andover, Nursey was erasable when hewas perfect, and disposable when anything less. If Andover was a home, Nurseywas the furniture—there to perform a function and never question why.

Nursey stills histwitching fingers and plucks a body wash—probably Bitty’s—from the showercaddy, squirting some into his palm to give his hands something to do. Thatpart of him, the anxious part—the part that twitched fingers and tapped toesand had his chest restricting at the strangest moments like his heart forgothow to breathe, or stopped wanting to—if any part of Nursey can call Andoverhome, it is the anxious part. Andover was the warm, welcoming environment for abacterium—a virus—like anxiety to grow. The cracks left in his loved, smotheredheart—ignored simply because he’d never had to notice them, before—split widerunder the strain of perfection. They stretched and yawned and opened theirmouths to consume until the empty spaces outgrew the solid ones and Nursey’sbrittle body snapped, easily, quietly, as if by design. And even then, he wastold to keep going. Keep trying. If he ever wanted to be anything more than apile of pieces, he would get up and do it all again. And oh how he wanted, ohhow he was taught to want, how he learned to love the approval onlybought with bits of bloodied bone. This is success, Nursey remembersthinking, the day he got his acceptance letter, this makes it all worth it.

Nursey’s stillshaking hands spread the bubbled lather over his own shoulders, down hisbiceps, cup his elbows. He takes a deep breath and it smells like—Bitty. Liketeam breakfasts at the Haus kitchen table, Bitty’s drawling morning voice andHolster’s booming laughter and way too much of Shitty’s blindingly pale skin ondisplay, pancakes piled high and dripping in “the real maple syrup,” andJack smiling—infrequent but earth-shatteringly easy to earn approval—andChowder beaming—much easier to earn approval—and even Poindexter,ducking his head to hide a smirk—the strangest, most rewarding kind of approvalNursey didn’t even know he needed.

Swallowing, tight, Nursey laughsunder the spray of the showerhead, sardonic but also—sweet. He was right theday he got his acceptance letter. Samwell did make it all worth it, butnot in the way Andover had convinced him it was. Samwell is not the grandeur ofAndover. It is not the prestige, not the mark of better, he was told itwould be. The classes are hard, and interesting, and getting a degree from thisinstitution will definitely make his life easier later on, but Samwell is notits reputation, not the old brick buildings and 12.4% acceptance rate.

Samwell is acrooked frat house, filthy to the point of horror and probably more flammablethan science thinks possible. It is the coziness of a gross green couch,squished between two thick, sweaty teenage boys yelling at a hockey gameinvolving two teams they don’t even like. It is a kitchen, cracked and ancient,full of the smell of flaking pastry dough and filled with the sound ofsatisfied bellies.

Samwell, at least for Nursey, isthe Haus. It is the first place he thinks to run, whether he’s escaping a flockof geese or a torrential downpour or just simply a bad day. Here, he issafe—safe to worry, safe to wonder. Safe to figure out who he is, because thepeople around him will accept—and question—any outcome, not to make sure he isthe best, but to make sure he is happy with the answer.

As the sputtering, vaguely warmwater of the guest bathroom shower fizzles across his back, Nursey closes hiseyes and smiles. This is the kind of moment literary people delight in, hethinks. The moment when a word and a definition coalesce, when you understandit well enough to use it yourself, when the language, insufficient and finickyas it can be, finally expresses the incomprehensible mess wriggling around inyour chest in a way that seems… right.

The Haus—the peopleit contains—is home.

Wow, Nursey thinks, with a damp laugh. Who could’ve seen that coming?

#nursey #derek nurse #check please #nursey centric #my writing #sort of fic #ficlet #i think this is going to show up in the nurseydex tag bc it's in the prompt #sorry :I #it's still fun though #read it if you'd like!

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winstonhcomedy · 5 years ago

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“Dope A-F” - 8/29 - 9/16 - “Headlining in Roanoke/Fairfax, and a 9/11 show ”

Well I am officially tired of doing this blog. I am fatigued. Keeping up with my new schedule is almost impossible. Three blog posts a week coupled with new videos, new material, shows, and my day job is proving to be too much. So I am going to do this blog until I am not going to do it. It has been almost a year since I started keeping track and I think I have grown so much as a comedian since then, but it is just becoming super hard.

So without further ado let’s hop right into it and check out what’s been going on the last few weeks with #cutecomedy. Come on LAYDEES!

8/29

I headed up to Roanoke to close out a show at Blue 5. Chaz Blevins was putting on the show and he had a pretty solid lineup. Johnny Camacho was hosting, and the openers were Chaz, this dude Zack White, and Melissa Douty. So I knew I was going to have to bring my A game.

I got up there a little early to set up my camera. The room is amazing. It is downstairs at the restaurant. It is like a cool tucked away speakeasy. After setting up my camera I went upstairs to grab a bite to eat. I had some egg rolls stuffed with bar b q and Mac and cheese. It was delicious.

When I went back downstairs people had really started to fill in the show. It was going to be a super fun night. We started about 15 minutes late to give people a chance to get seated and get drinks. Then Johnny got on with it.

Johnny had a solid set warming up the crowd. He got some pretty big laughs, and had the audience as ease before he brought up Chaz. Chaz then did well. The crowd was super supportive, and he basically started his set shitting on Johnny which was funny. Then I told Johnny I was waiting for the callback shitting on him. Then 5 minutes later Chaz did it and Johnny and I busted up laughing. He went on to have a solid set.

Then Zack White went up. I had never seen this dude before and he was definitely funny. He was definitely alt and weird, but it really worked with this crowd. He threw a baseball into the audience and then faked an injury and laid on the ground.

Then Melissa Douty went up and she absolutely destroyed. I mean tore the roof off of the place. Everybody loved her. She did about 20 and it laugh after laugh. She was going to be incredibly hard to follow. She is from the area, and definitely was able to relate to the audience and get them on board. So after she slaughters it is my turn.

I go up and realize I know have to reset the room. So I use the first 5 minutes of my set to kind of ease people into what they are about to see. I do some crowd work, and try to get them on my wave length. This starts to go well and I am building up momentum.

I talk to a few audience members and get some pretty big reactions. I then weave in some material and it is killing even harder. I think talk to a few more audience members including a girl I found out later was Chaz’ daughter. I was really having a lot of fun. I was only supposed to do 30 but I went well over that. I was able to do a bunch of new at the end and get a good response and actually work some stuff out which felt nice. I’d totally give this set an A-. I felt good being able to follow Melissa after how hard she killed.

After the show I talked to a few people and then went over to a bar to hang with Johnny, and a few others. After hanging I hopped into my car and headed home.

8/30

The next night we had The After Show. Which is our political comedy roundtable show. This time Chris wanted to focus this one on sexuality. So I booked Jason Kusterer (White Cis/Het comic), Katherine Malone (black trans female comic) , Samantha Padgett (white female trans comic), and Sammy Major (black/gay/Non-binary) to be on the show.

I got to the show early and tried to set everything up. I put the furniture on the stage with Kat. I then ordered a grilled cheese, and set up my camera. I had a really fun time catching up with Kat. I hadn’t seen her in a super long time.

Then Samantha showed up. We all went to the green room and got situated. We tried not to talk about the topics for the show too much, but we did come up with some interesting things to cover in the show.

Then everyone else showed up. It was a good hang going on. We didn’t have a huge crowd. Honestly it was one of our lighter attended shows. I’d say there was about 25 to 30 people there. I also took a few polaroid “Eddie Pooks” pictures that turned out great.

After about another 20 minute wait we started the show. I went out there and brought everyone else out. Then we went right into it.

I am always torn because of this show. I think it is important and interesting, but it isn’t always the funniest show. The audience is tight because these are hot button issues, but when you do get a laugh it feels so damn amazing. I had some pretty good lines, and really it was kind of an amazing show. I think we learned a lot, and laughed quite a bit, but I don’t always feel good during or after this show. This is one of those shows where I need people to tell me it was good. I’d give this one a C. Good jokes, great subject matter, but not a ton of laughs.

After the show I hung out with some friends and caught up. Got a few drinks and then went to Waffle House. Where I met a drunk rapper who was surprised to find out I was a comedian. He kept trying to brag and put me down. He was like if you're a comedian why aren’t you at The FunnyBone. It felt so good to be like I am there in two weeks. He was wasted. After this I headed home and got a good night’s sleep.

9/1

I headed up to Fairfax with Paige the next day. I had asked Taylor O’Sullivan to come do a guest spot, but he didn’t respond in time. Paige and I listened to a horrific true crime podcast, and just talked about comedy. I had also asked my buddy Dom Grayer to drop by and do a spot on the show, and I extended a guest spot to a Pittsburgh Comic named Joe Esch.

John Coulter had booked me to headline his room at Blue Iguana. I had asked for the night even though we were going to have a poor attendance due to the holiday.

We get there and we get a nice hang going. There is only like 8 or 9 people there, but honestly I am just excited to do around 30 minutes. I love longer sets. I set the lineup after I find out Joe and Dom can’t stay after their sets. So I set it up as a piggyback show with Joe, Dom, Paige, and then I'd close out. I also tell them to work a little cleaner up top. The only reason I said this was at the behest of Coulter. He said it is a little older crowd, and they're conservative (not in their politics, but just keep it cleaner).

Joe said he could do it, and then he went up and didn’t work clean. It was some pretty sexual material, and honestly it didn’t seem like he wanted to be doing the show. This might just be his energy, but legit it was like why did I give this dude a spot? I get it. It’s not a huge crowd, but I offered you time because you were looking for time. He did fine, but John made me light him early just due to the subject matter. He then brought up Dom Grayer to the wrong name, and I legit was like well shit.

Dom went up and cracked them though. He had some solid pops, and he had a good set. He was followed by Paige who did well as well. Nobody did terribly. It was just a light show.

Then it was my turn. I went up and did a lot of crowd work up top. I’d say 10 minutes or so before going into my material. It was all working really well. I was able to connect with these people and understand that even though there was only a few of them they wanted to laugh. I got everyone involved and a few more people walked in.

All of my stuff was working. The jokes, and the crowd work was dope. I tried a few new things, and then got off stage. After this Coulter asked me to do an encore because 6 other people had just walked in at the end of my set. So the audience cheered and I went up and did 25 more minutes of crowd work, and new jokes. This was awesome I got some huge pops, and I got them sit in the front row. it was truly a special night. I’d give this set an A-.

After this Paige and I headed back to RVA. I hit up Taylor again and he met us at Denny’s for a late night meal. Then we all headed our separate ways.

9/4

After a few days off there was a new mic in town. I went over to Isley Brewing to do their mic after work. I got a beer and did some writing before the mic. It was a fun night because I got to see and hang with a bunch of my friends. Buhe was hosting, and we had Paige, Taylor, Adam Chiodini, David Luzader, Samantha Padgett, Jake Snyder, Carlton K, and a bunch I know I am forgetting.

Buhse shows up and gets the list ready. He tells me I am up first. There is an ok crowd, but the setup is weird. It is really bright in there because it starts at 7 and it definitely seemed like these people were surprised comedy was happening.

After his set he brought me up and I think I did as well as I could have. I had a lot of new stuff, and it all did pretty well. I tried one thing for the very first time and I am so happy that it worked. I wasn’t killing and I stumbled in a few spots. There was a giant Jenga game on stage so after every joke that bombed I’d take a brick out and drop it on the floor. This got a couple laughs, but I mostly did it for me. I give this set a C.

I watched a few more sets and then Paige and I headed over to Home Sweet Home. I got some writing done, and ordered a delicious dinner. I got to see some other friends like Patrick Nowaczyk, Taylor Baldwin, and Jason Kusterer. Jason had me going up like 5th which I was excited about.

There actually was a tiny little crowd there. The best part was they were into the show. They were having a fun time. After a few comics did ok it was my turn. Kusterer gave me a funny intro and I just tried a bunch of new stuff. I did some of the earlier stuff, but changed the inflection and tried adding some tags. it worked ok. I enjoyed my set. I’d give it a C+.

I went downstairs and talked to my friends a little bit more, including Beswick. It was a dope night. I then packed up, said goodbye, and headed home.

9/6

On Friday I had a spot on Wabi Sabi. I hit up a few people to ride with my but only Taylor could go. We headed up and had a good time. He was actually able to grab a guest spot.

The lineup was going to be Klingman, Liz Carr, Taylor, Torrey, me, Luray and then Wingle. It was supposed to be a packed show. So we knew it was going to be fun.

The show starts, and they're a rowdy crowd. Klingman has a pretty good set. So does Liz. Taylor only did about 90 seconds he had freaked himself out so much, but he didn’t bomb. Then Torrey had a pretty hot one. By the time he got off stage the audience was wasted. They were loud, and wanted to interrupt the show.

I go up and legit don’t get a single joke out. I am in a battle with the audience for 15 minutes. I am battling drunks and hecklers. I am shitting all over them and being mean. It is killing. The audience loves it. Which is frustrating to me. This goes on and I get some huge laughs, but I am not having fun. I was glad I overcame the adversity, but hated that I had to. I'd give this set an A-.

Then Luray and Wingle went up. I didn’t watch their sets because I was so freaking upset about mine. I got to decompress and then I got ready for ‘Sex With Me Is Like”.

We all got back on stage after (except for Liz and Luray who didn’t want to). Jaye Toler got on stage, but hadn’t done a set earlier. it was a super fun game this time. I had some huge laughs and only one joke didn’t work. Every time they said something about me I had something about them. I got Taylor involved and I had the last joke. I made fun of Jaye and it destroyed.

After the show I drove Taylor back and then headed home to pass out.

9/7

The next night I was one of the headliners on Castleburg. I had been ‘banned” the previous month by Mike Engle because I had bailed on it the previous two to do paid gigs. Which wasn’t a big deal at all, and made sense. I was so excited to be tasked with being a part of the two year anniversary show.

Mu Cuzzo and I were the headliners. I had invited a few coworkers and told myself I was only going to do new stuff. There was a pretty good sized list of comics.

I was stoked to see my coworkers, and super stoked to see some comic friends to hang with like Mike, Anthony, Adam Chiodini, Jack Parker, Ben Oliver, Heather Joyce, Danny Dunlea, Jake Snyder and plenty others I am sure I am forgetting. I set up my video camera and told people if they wanted their sets I could get them for them. I had a few people take me up on the offer.

I love the bartenders here. They are so nice, and so much fun to talk to. They look forward to and enjoy the show. Definitely a dope venue with killer staff, and good beer.

There was a pretty good crowd, and since I knew I wanted to have the freedom to do new stuff I asked to be the first headliner to go up. I knew that Mu would be doing his best stuff, and really bringing it so even if my new stuff failed at least he could pick up the slack and it wouldn’t be a shit show.

The crowd was pretty good. They were into it from the beginning of the show. Mike had a good set and so did the comics in the first round. The winner of that was Heather Joyce. Then it was my turn to go up,

I had a dope set. Almost all of my new stuff worked. I was able to work on wording, and got some solid laughs. I was super happy to do 12 of my 15 minute set as new. It feels like I am progressing and becoming a better comic. I didn’t murder, but I had some jokes get really good pops, and I felt like I broke the crowd open a bit. I'd give this set a B.

The rest of the show went well. Mu had a really good set. His material was clicking and he used his energy to his advantage. It was cool to see him pull that set together and put something tight together.

The rest of the show was fun. Anthony had a hot set, and Jake Snyder ripped a mic stand in half and just held half of it on stage. It was hilarious. All in all a super fun show.

Afterwards I hung out with some comics, and talked shop. I got to sit and hang with my coworkers a bit to which was really dope. I had such a wonderful night. It all ended with Jake, Danny Dunlea, and I going to Denny’s to have a super late meal. Afterwards I headed home to pass out.

9/8

The next day I went to Busch Gardens and had an absolutely wonderful time. Legit just a great experience. I haven’t been all year and can’t wait to go back in October. Afterwards I had time to go do some time at the competition at Hof Garden.

This show is hosted by Mu, Jameson, and Kate Carroll. Everyone does five minutes and they grade your set like American Idol at the end of the show they have the last month’s winner close it out, and then they go announce the winner from this month.

I was definitely the most experienced comic at this show. I should have just done a set and not put myself in for the contest, but one of the things you win is a spot on a live podcast that has a pretty good following and I could use that.

I was up 3rd or fourth and there was a nice intimate crowd there. I asked Ryan Mather to record my set and he obliged. The first few comics did ok. They got some good pops, but the crowd was ready to laugh. I told myself I was going to only do new material. I didn’t want to do my best polished shit because that doesn't accomplish anything, and this way even if I lose I can be stoked that I worked out material.

I went up and had a super fun set. I didn’t kill, but all of the jokes worked. I riffed some good stuff, and added on to some bits. This was an extremely fun, and productive sets. I wish all open mic sets felt like this.

After I got off stage I went and hung out in the back. I didn’t feel like watching a ton of sets. I got to hang with Brian Mann (who had a really good set), Ryan Mather, Melissa Harris, Ben Oliver, Bryan Williams, Taylor Baldwin, and a few others including a comic I hadn’t seen in a long time. He came to hang and not perform, and support his buddy who was closing it out.

I had a female comic ask why I didn’t give notes and I had to explain I don’t give them usually to female comedians. I don’t want to come across as “mansplaining” comedy, and I've had female comics ask for notes and then I watched them throw them in the trash. It is just easier for me, and better business to not really do that. Last thing I need is someone who doesn’t know me saying they saw me telling a woman how to do comedy.

After everyone had gone up they went to add up the scores. Brock then went up and he had a solid set. He did a new song thing, and people seemed to dig it a lot.

After this they brought, myself, Beth Tucker, and Brian Mann on the stage. They all said really nice things about us, and then announced the winner. It was me. I was super stoked. Afterwards I hung out with a bit, but headed out pretty quickly because I had work in the morning.

9/9

The next day I headed up to The Southern after work. I got some flyers from Jeyon for our show we have in October at Holly’s. I set everything up and got ready for the show. I was pretty stoked because I had a friend from college that I haven't seen in like 9 years say they were coming. When they showed up it was super fun to finally catch up

We had a pretty good crowd show up actually. They were into it from the beginning. I got to see a bunch of my friends go up. Like Brandon Beswick, Alex, Paige, JR, Chris, and plenty of others. Everybody does pretty well.

It is finally my turn. I go up and thoroughly enjoy my set. I am getting in a good rhythm of trying new stuff, and keeping what works. The new really hit pretty hard tonight. I didn’t destroy, but the jokes are getting better. The progress is amazing to feel. I’d give this set a B-.

After the show I headed home because I was exhausted. I said goodbye to my friend and dipped out.

9/11

Tonight I had a 9/11 benefit show put on my Nick Deez to do in Newport News at Cozzys. I was co-headlining and was excited for it. I headed down right after work.

I met Nick, Ian Nightengale, and Torrey Huggins for dinner. We talked shop and ate some pizza before headed next door to Cozzy’s to record my podcast before the show. The episode turned out great. I had Ian and Nick go up against Rock and Torrey. Super funny episode and I cannot wait to release it.

We then get ready for the show to start. The lineup is Torrey, Ian, Rock, Nick, Tim Macklin, AC Smith, Brent Schreiber, myself, and Fred McKinnon.

We were worried about a crowd, but honestly we got about 25 people in there. Which is super dope for an off night. The show got started and it was dope.

They were a little tight for Torrey’s set, but he woke them up. Then Ian had a really strong set as well. This just kept building. AC had a hot one, then Brent, then Rock had a super offensive set. Nick did some newer stuff during his set. Then Tim went up before me and it just didn’t stop.

I went up and went straight into crowd work. We were running a little behind, and I didn’t want them to get tired. So I just addressed the crowd for about 10 minutes, and it was working really well. Like I was killing with the crowd work, and then at the last ten minutes I did a bunch of newer stuff that hit really hard too. I got off feeling really good about how it went. I’d give it an A-.

After my set I packed my stuff up and hung out until the show ended. Fred had a good set, and I got to go outside and talk shop with the guys. We talked about some comedic frustration and limitations that we have to put up with. Sometimes it is good to just vent a bit, and then you feel way better. Afterwards I got in my car and drove back to try to make McCormacks in time.

I luckily did. I got there with only one comic left so I got to squeeze in before him. The crowd was dead. Like two people paying attention, but I did brand new stuff. I just needed to say into a microphone to work on it. I bombed super hard, but a couple ideas got a few laughs so I know where to start. I’d give this set a D-.

As soon as I was done I headed home to pass out. I had a long day the next day.

9/12

I drove up to DC to host for my buddy Dan Lamorte at DC Comedy Loft. I got there a little before showtime, and got to meet the other comics. Which included Maggie Crane, Michael Terry (who I had met with Dan in Richmond last year) and Trevor Wallace (IG comic) who was headlining downstairs but popped up for a guest spot.

It was a light crowd, but they all were fans of Dan’s so they were into it. Dan was doing a guest spot downstairs as well so there were a lot of moving parts. I went up and had a good hosting set. They liked me and I didn’t have to do any crowd work. I just did some newer and older jokes. They all worked, and I had the crowd warmed up. I’d give this set a C.

Next up was Trevor. It was obvious that standup wasn’t his first love. He got huge on IG and he had a great stage presence and was extremely likable on stage. It just didn't seem tight at all. it looked like a dude doing what he thought standup was supposed to be. He is huge, and selling out rooms. I respect he is working on the craft, but he is definitely an internet guy that jumped over to standup because it was another avenue to make some money.

After his set I brought up Maggie Crane. Michael Terry told me that I would need to do some time in-between comics because Dan might not be back from his set downstairs. So after her set I went up and did a few more jokes. They also went well. I was just worried that if he wasn’t back when Michael got off stage then I’d have to stall again.

Michael went up and had a solid set too, and right before he got off Dan showed up. I brought Dan up and sprinted over to Big Hunt to try to get another set in before my night was over.

I got to go up pretty quickly after I got there and I felt pretty good doing newer material. The crowd was weird, and they didn’t dig everything and I went too hard no anti-vaxxers apparently. I’d give this set a C.

I then sprinted back to Comedy Loft and caught the end of the set. I got to hang and chill for a bit before packing up and heading home. I was stoked because this was the earliest I'd gotten to leave DC in a while.

9/13

I was so excited because this weekend I got to feature at the Richmond Funny Bone. This was going to be my second weekend featuring there. I was so ready for it to be better than the last. I was extremely nervous, but knew it was going to be fun because my friend Anthony Thompson was hosting. I was also worried because the last time I featured there my dad was at the show. So this was bringing up all kinds of memories.

The early show was Vicki Barbolak (America’s Got Talent) headlining. It was an ok sized crowd. Nothing crazy, but definitely close to full. It was the whitest I have ever seen a crowd there. I am used to this club being more of an urban club. I knew I was going to have to adjust my material, and was worried this might end up being a long weekend.

The show starts and Anthony goes up to warm them up. Then I go up. I do ok. I could not get in a good rhythm. I was scared and I felt like all of my stuff wasn’t working. I powered through and did my time, but I was not happy with this set. I’d give it a C-.

Afterwards I watched some of Vicki’s set, but mostly got a bite to eat and tried to decompress before the second show. After the show ended I didn’t even really talk to the people coming out. I was too ashamed. I didn’t kill, and I didn’t feel like I deserved to be there. I did here from several people that I did better than I felt, but that doesn’t mean much.

The second show the headliner was James Lawson. It was definitely a black crowd, and I was ready to show what I can do. Anthony went up and we could tell this crowd was going to be better.

Then I went up and definitely had a better set. I wasn’t killing but I had some pretty good pops. Nothing completely bombed, and that was a relief. I did some fun crowd work and got off on a pretty big laugh! I’d give it a C.

After this I hung out for a bit. I got some food, and just chilled. After James set I got to talk to a few people and actually got to give out some #cutecomedy stickers. After everyone left I headed home to prepare for the rest of the weekend.

9/14

The next day I relaxed at home, did some cleaning, and watched the Virginia Tech football game. It has been really difficult to do it without dad, but I have to. After hanging out for a while I headed into town ready to have two great sets.

I get there and Vicki is doing an interview with a lady who wrote a book. She is getting like a recommendation from Vicki so she can post it online. She says she is too christian and can’t really watch the show, but she wanted to sit for a while. So her and her husband take the comics table which means I have to take down my camera. Which straight up is annoying as shit. Especially since she wasn’t going to stay for the whole show. There were other tables that had open seats. She could have sat there, but nope. Had to move the camera.

The show starts and it is almost full. Anthony had a solid hosting set. I went up and had a really strong feature set. I was super proud of it. I didn’t do any crowd work. Just 20+ minutes of my material and they really enjoyed it. I did a new opener and put my old opener after it. Which kept it fresh and gave me two big pops up top. I closed pretty strong too. I’d give this set a B+

Afterwards I went and ate and did video editing in the green room. After the show I went outside and met with people. I had a good buddy from high school who has come to a few shows show up. He gave me some strong compliments and he said he loved that I didn’t do crowd work. He said it was all material, and it was awesome. That means a lot to hear since I worry my crowd work is way better than my jokes.

The second show starts and they are rowdier than the first crowd. Anthony did well, and addressed a table of hecklers. I went up and had a hot one. The jokes worked, but where I really got them was the crowd work. There were two tables doing ladies night, and I was able to pick on them. One was wasted and the others were classier. There was a dude and his wife in the front who were super into the show. Super handsome dude, and gorgeous lady so I was able to bring them into the fold. Such a super fun set. I’d give this one a B+/A-.

After my set I headed over to meet up with my buddy Kenn for a bit. We chilled and talked and I told him I had to go back to hand out stickers. I had people say I was better than the headliner which is bull shit, but still nice to hear. I handed out a bunch of stickers and got a good number of people to follow me on social media.

After all of this Kenn and I went to grab a bite to eat and catch up. Then I headed home.

9/15

This was a super chill day. I got Pho and hung out with some friends. I also went to Coco and Hazel which is a dope milkshake place in town. They have ginormous shakes with cake and cookies on top of them.

I then headed over for the last show. It was pretty full for a Sunday. I got to talk to Vicki a bit and she was super sweet. She had some kind words for me and said she’d be in touch.

Anthony had a good set, and then I felt really good about mine. I did a good mix of material and crowd work. They really dug what I was doing. I got some huge pops, and felt the confidence to try a new joke(it didn’t work). The audience was one of the best Sunday audiences I have ever seen. I’d give this a B.

After my set I got my check and dipped out. I wasn’t feeling great, and I was just ready to kind of unwind and relax and go to bed.

9/16

After work I headed to a pretty productive therapy session. After this I headed up to The Southern.

When I got there I set everything up. I moved the tables, and set up the PA. I had it looking really good. Unfortunately Monday Night Football kind of kills comedy in this area. We didn’t have a huge crowd.

We did have a lot of my friends come out though. Mu, Bryan, Adam Chiodini, Paige, Heather, JR, Chris, Shane Hill, Sam Wood, Samantha Padgett, and plenty of others.

The show was actually pretty fun. Everybody did ok, or if they didn’t it was good for them. I went up and had a solid set. I did mostly new stuff. I had two brand new bits, and new tags for bits I did last week. So it was incredibly productive for me. I’d give it a C.

After my set I packed up and headed home. I was exhausted. I ended up not sleeping well. My dad has been weighing very heavy on my mind lately. I doesn’t seem to be getting easier. It definitely feels like it is getting worse.

I DID IT! Caught up again. I’ll be back Thursday with tomorrow’s shows. I love you laydees and baybees very much. I don’t know if anyone reads this, but if you do thank you! Thanks for supporting #cutecomedy !!! xoxo see you soon.

#comedy #bomb #standup #feature #hilarious #jokes #improv #funnybone #podcast

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placetobenation · 6 years ago

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As many of you are aware, WWE Network is pretty packed with all sorts of content. And as you may also know, we here at Place to Be Nation love long term, in depth projects. So, as part of this initiative, members of the PTBN Staff are choosing programs that coincide with this week in history and after watching each program, they will share their thoughts, notes and recommendations with our readers. So, settle in and enjoy this epic ride through wrestling history!

Show: Smoky Mountain Wrestling – 4/30/94 & 5/7/94

Best Segment:

Dave Hall: As seen with both shows, it was clear that these pre-taped interviews were the best segments on the show. Both men had a charisma and polish that no one else on either show had, and they really sold the matches they were building up. Their interviews made me wish I could actually get a video of the May 20 event they were promoting; they were that good. I could not separate them.

Calum McDougall: There was a lot of segments in both of these shows, especially the second episode, but I have to say that the Jake Roberts promo in the April 30th show was great. I like it when guys don’t ignore past achievements in other companies, which is admittedly easier in smaller promotions like SMW, but it was a good promo hyping the big show.

Jacob Williams: I’m going with the campy Thrillseekers music video/montage, and not just for funny ironic reasons. I loved how earnest it was. Seeing a couple of Canadian boys pounding brewkis in Tennessee bars and Econo Lodges was entertaining stuff. It built them up as goofy party boys that were still legit athletes, and it was a nice contrast to all of the serious promos. It made me really want to root for the Seekers.

Brian Bayless: I’ll go with the Jake Roberts promo on the Dirty White Boy from the 5/7/94 show. Jake did a fine job of running him down, like saying he was right ten years ago when first meeting the DWB and thinking he’d never make it, and making fun of his eye injury to hype up their title match in a couple of weeks.

Michael Cook: I was originally going to go with the Jake interview, but after watching the second one, I could not get over that stupid little mic thing they had to hold, plus I think the second part ruined the first part of it for me. So, I will be going with what will be the common thread for me and say the Thrill seekers video mainly because of Jericho.

Steve Riddle: Jake Roberts’ promo was classic stuff and he looked like he seemed to be back on track after being out of the spotlight for a couple years.

Chad Campbell: Both of these episodes were really segment heavy and we had some strong promo work by especially heels but I am giving the nod to Jake Roberts’ promo on the 5/7/94 episode. Jake is at his old man pervert creepiness down to the windsuit and sneakers he is sporting. He delivers a very cerebral promo against Tony Anthony and shows no sympathy for his injured eye. Jake was a bit of a desperado in 1994 traveling from territory to territory and participating in big programs at each stop. With promos like this and the 4/29/94 one, it is easy to see why.

Best Match:

Dave Hall: Thrillseekers vs. Well Dunn was the only decent match on the two shows, and it was all thanks to Chris Jericho. Jericho bumped around like a madman for Well Dunn, and sold their offense really well before mounting his comeback. Lance Storm looked really green in the ring, but Jericho looked very polished for someone so young in his career. Well Dunn were a little sloppy at times, and one of them nearly dropped Jericho on his head when he performed the springboard moonsault, but in the end it was an acceptable television main event for the time.

Calum McDougall: In amongst all of the promos and pre-tapes there were actually some matches, but these were low in terms of quality. Out of them all I’ll go for Thrillseekers vs Well Dunn because it has Storm and Jericho and it was decent enough.

Jacob Williams:Not a very high bar on these two shows, as there really weren’t a ton of matches, and most were squashes. Thrillseekers vs Well Dunn was a solid, energetic tag match. Jericho had some nice selling as the face in peril, and Storm led a nice comeback. Even Well Dunn brought the energy and played their role well. The Seekers’ double roll up was a pretty slick finish, too, and though you could tell they were still rookies, you could also see what Cornette saw in Jericho and Storm.

Brian Bayless: The Thrillseekers vs. Well Dunn match was the only thing close to decent on this show and it was still nothing special. Well Dunn looked slower here than they did several months prior when they made their WWF debut. Jericho sold well and Storm had good fire off of the hot tag. The finish was attack by Well Dunn afterwards sets up for a rematch too.

Michael Cook: If anyone else picks something different I will have 1000 questions. There really is only one match to pick, and to be honest I would say it is only by default: Thrillseekers vs. Well Dunn. Unlike most of my counterparts in PTBN I do not really notice little things like calling spots, botches, or other small things. However, with this match (and everything else on these two shows) you could not help to notice everything. The match was not really that good, but it was what it was. It furthered a story line, and on a positive note you could see a young Chris Jericho and see that he had it from the beginning. Also, I did like how the show ended with a cliff hanger so to speak.

Steve Riddle: There wasn’t much to choose from since each show was only an hour and each one had just three matches which was pretty normal for the time, but the easy choice for me would be the Thrillseekers and Well Dunn. Even at this point in 1994, you could see that Jericho and Storm were going to be something special whether as a team or as singles stars, and despite the fact they were booked like bums, Well Dunn were a solid team and worked well together. It was clear this match was just to really begin a feud between the teams as they barely get six minutes and the Thrillseekers get the clean win, but Well Dunn attack them afterward which means they were being set up for a rematch down the line and you hoped they would get some solid time to put on a really good match.

Chad Campbell: Real slim pickings for this honor as all but two matches were squashes. I am going to give the nod to Tracy Smothers vs Bruiser Bedlam as I thought it did a decent job of pushing Bedlam as a monster. He kicked out of Smothers’ finisher with the back elbow and was getting a monster push and needing credibility. Smothers was an established stalwart in the promotion that didn’t take many easy loses so him losing here on tv in eight minutes was a shock.

Most Cringeworthy Moment:

Dave Hall: I know that hindsight is 20/20, but I really struggled with Tony Anthony’s racist comments regarding Kendo the Samurai. I was very surprised that WWE network kept such comments in the show, and also surprised they did not have their disclaimer before the telecast.

Calum McDougall: The obvious answer to this one is Dirty White Boy’s pretty damn racist promo against Kendo the Samurai, however I’d like to give a mention to Kendo’s, ahem, “Martial Arts”. That was awful for different reasons.

Jacob Williams: A dude named Dirty White Boy (who is the face here) throwing a bunch of racist names at a samurai wrestler takes this by a pretty big wide margin.

Brian Bayless: Even considering the era and where the promotion was based from it was still in extremely poor taste having babyface champion Dirty White Boy use the type of racial slurs he did against Kendo the Samurai.

Michael Cook:This happened early on, it was when Anthony Michaels came off the top rope against Well Dunn and the way his head hit that mat, I am shocked that he ever got up, then to add insult the finish was concussion worthy.

Steve Riddle: Lance Storm may be one of the best wrestlers in the world even in 1994, but he clearly needed work on promos as he nearly called SMW “Rocky Mountain Wrestling”.

Chad Campbell: Different time and place and all that, but Dirty White Boy calling Kendo a “slant eyed, sock wearing Jap” was jarring and the cringe that Bob Caudle gives should have been the response of any sensible person back in 1994.

Funniest Line/Moment:

Dave Hall: Once again Chris Jericho showed that he was ahead of the rest of the talent despite his young age. During their “Personality Profile” with Les Thatcher, after they were interrupted by Well Dunn, Jericho turned to Well Dunn and asked them “which one is Beavis and which one is Butthead. Seeming as this was at a time when there were no scriptwriters, I thought it was a very good one liner from one of the best talkers ever in the business.

Calum McDougall: I found Daryl Van Horne’s line about how Kendo the Samurai has “the speed of a cat” unintentionally funny since it had followed a match where he was going so slow that time may actually have stood still.

Jacob Williams: In the scene of him working out, Bruiser Bedlam, after showing off his amazing strength, gave this gem: “What is this? Girl weight?!”

Brian Bayless: The Thrillseekers music video was amusing enough with Jericho as the partier of the group while Storm was the straight-laced guy as part of a heartthrob gimmick team.

Michael Cook: Nothing funny about anything in these episodes in the traditional sense. I did find it funny how bad it was. But if I must go with a moment, I guess I would say the music video, had one or two funny parts, and that really is stretching it.

Steve Riddle: We got the usual taste of mid-90s causal racism as Dirty White Boy calls Kendo the Samurai everything in the book while also calling Daryl Van Horn a “closet queen”. An honorable mention is Daryl Van Horn calling Dirty White Boy “Dolly Parton without her wig on”.

Chad Campbell: Probably a bit of this was unintentional comedy but the Thrillseekers video was pretty hilarious just from the cheesy vibe that it gives off. Jericho is certainly hamming it up and enjoying the role and Lance knows his role as the curmudgeon.

Highlights:

Dave Hall: There was very little highlights in these two shows. Apart from the Thrillseekers vs Well Dunn match, the only other good stuff were the interviews by Jake the Snake and Macho Man, and any comments made by Jim Cornette.

Calum McDougall: Despite me feeling quite negative about these shows I do have some highlights. Firstly, Mark Curtis’s outfit complete with braces/suspenders is a look that really needs to come back. I did like the surprise of seeing THE YETAY Lite in one of the many promo videos and the Dark Secret’s hometown of Anyone’s Guess is amazing – the inventive hometown also needs to come back.

Jacob Williams: The entire presentation was very reminiscent of old NWA shows, along with some shockingly high video quality for the main bits of the show. I always enjoy Cornette’s promo delivery. He talks a mile-a-minute so naturally, and it never seems like he has to stop and think about what to say next. I loved him and his tracksuit in the Bruiser Bedlam package. Jake Roberts cutting his usual great menacing promo in what looked like a funeral home was only amplified by the grainy footage. Bullet Bob threw some pretty sick punches. Despite a few rough spots, The Thrillseekers came off as a nice young team , especially Jericho, who showed a few hints at his star quality in and out of the ring. Tracy Smothers seemed to really fit the entire feel of SMW well and shined as a workhorse guy against Bedlam. It was a little surreal (in a good way) to see Macho Man cutting promos here, and you are quickly reminded of much of a pro he was when juxtaposed against some of the more indie aspects of SMW.

Brian Bayless: There was some good promo work on this show, primarily by the managers. Daryl Van Horne (the future James Mitchell) did some good mic work on the behalf of Kendo the Samurai as did Tammy Sytch during the clips we saw from the Tag Team Title switch. I also liked Tracy Smothers passionate promo after he saved Bob Armstrong from Bruiser Bedlam’s deadly stomach claw in which he talked about Bob being like a second father and how he teamed with his son Steve. And Jericho’s charisma was noticeable and had the ability to connect with the crowd.

Michael Cook: Chris Jericho. It was nice to see Savage, but it was just a canned local interview, nothing we haven’t seen every Superstar or Challenge. Also, Anyone’s Guess for a hometown for Dark Secret was the best hometown since Sid’s Anywhere He Damn Well Pleases.

Steve Riddle:It was clear they were setting up a potential feud between the Thrillseekers and Well Dunn; The Dirty White Boy was actually a pretty solid promo guy and he was definitely one of the most over guys in the company; Before he was the Sinister Minister and James Vandenberg, he was Daryl Van Horn with a weird hat, though let’s make it clear that he is a fairly underrated manager in the history of wrestling; In one of the great ironic twists, Jericho blasts Well Dunn over their list though he would end up making “The List” a part of his gimmick nearly 22 years later; Really cool seeing Randy Savage make appearances with SMW since he was not wrestling as much and doing commentary with the WWF; The Cornette/Armstrong feud was fairly underrated and pretty much carried SMW for most of its run; Give credit to them because even though they were past their prime, the Rock and Roll Express were still very over with the crowd; Armstrong still looks pretty good despite being older and he was clearly still over with the Southern crowds; Interesting spot in that they announced that the Suicide Blondes won the tag titles from the Express at a house show, but it made the house show feel special even though the house show took place on 4/23 and it wasn’t announced until the 5/7 TV show; Really cool seeing Tammy Fytch in her pre-Sunny days and she was a great manager as she goaded the Express into defending the titles; It was always interesting when certain moves were banned which in this case was the piledriver though it made it seem more devastating when it was used; The Thrillseekers’ music video was about as mid-90s as you could get; It’s amazing that even in 1994, you could immediately tell that Jericho was going to be something special as he had great charisma and screen presence; They clearly saw something in Bruiser Bedlam if they were going so far as to bring Randy Savage into SMW to work with him; Jim Cornette is still one of the greatest managers of all time as he can make anyone seem credible and he goes all out in promos and being at ringside; It would be interesting to see a list at some point of everyone that applied for the SMW wrestling school and who would end up making it in the business; It is pretty cool hearing the announcers talk about the rankings and how everyone needs to step up if they want to move up and eventually challenge for titles.

Chad Campbell: The Jim Cornette Bruiser Bedlam training video in the second episode was strong in showing off the strengths of Bedlam in his brute power and hiding the weaknesses in his shaky charisma and microphone work. Cornette was a great mouthpiece for him and helped him out as much as he could. The second episode also shows the tag title change and Tammy Fytch was doing some great work getting involved, taking an unsolicited kiss from Ricky Morton and then cheering her charges on to victory. I also really enjoyed seeing Randy Savage in the SMW universe and him being cornered by Bob Armstrong feels like two wrestling personalities with a lot of history individually but not much with each other besides this instance.

Lowlights:

Dave Hall: Pretty well everything else, especially anything involving Bruiser Bedlam. The jobber matches were terrible, but Bruiser Bedlam took it to another level. He was uncoordinated and dangerous. He mucked multiple moves in each match, and I was surprised he did not hurt either of his opponents. His training segment was horribly long, and only Cornette made it interesting. Bob Armstrong was boring, Tracey Smothers just wanted to see “The South rise again”, and Kendo the Samurai was the worst excuse for a martial arts wrestler ever.

Calum McDougall: The one big lowlight for me was how promo heavy the second episode was, if found it became a drag watching them because I had just seen them. It obviously wasn’t like that originally, people obviously had a week between them but it became a bit too much for me as it went on.

Jacob Williams:Obviously the majority of the actual wrestling was lackluster, which is sort of expected on this type of show. The bigger issue was that many of the guys that would being pushed as featured guys (Well Dunn, Dirty White Boy, Bruiser Bedlam) fell mostly flat for me. Well Dunn had a lot of energy, but didn’t show much personality outside of shrieking a lot. Bruiser had a cool strongman heel character, but didn’t really back it up in the ring. I wanted him to really look impressive and brutal in his squashes. As much I enjoyed The Thrillseekers, Storm was pretty awkward, and at one point had a Hogan moment, calling the promotion Rocky Mountain Wrestling.

Brian Bayless: The in-ring action was really bad for these shows. Kendo the Samurai (who was Tim Horner under a mask) had a terrible squash match win over Brian Logan with an awful finisher to boot. And Storm’s promo work on the 4/30/94 show was just dreadful and at one point had to correct himself from calling the promotion “Rocky Mountain Wrestling.” And Dirty White Boy as the babyface champion did not seem to work at all based off of these two shows.

Michael Cook: Can I say everything else? The matches were bad, the interviews just as bad. And WTF is up with the giant shoe tongues? First with Jake then with Lance Storm during the music video. The other question is WTF was Dirty White Boy wrestling when they showed how is eye got hurt? Was Kevin Sullivan watching when he got his idea for the YETI? And people say WWE characters are bad, but a mummy really Anyone else think TL Hopper every time DWB came on screen? And lastly, his interview does not age well, with the typical 70s stereotypes, but this was 1994.

Steve Riddle: Cheesy 80s opening in the mid-90s, I wonder if Bob Armstrong had his entire promo written down on that notepad since he was looking at it every other word; As good as the promo was, Jake’s choice of outfit was not real flattering; Kendo the Samurai looks like a cheap knockoff of the Great Sasuke; So according to Caudle and Thatcher, every interesting kick done by Kendo is a martial arts move even if it’s never used in martial arts; Interesting that Bruiser Bedlam was a champion, but he didn’t have a belt and this wasn’t even mentioned by the announcers unless he was defending that title; I was thinking that Bruiser could’ve been someone big since he had a decent look only to see him basically slip off the top rope when attempting a move, so I stand corrected on that one; In a weird booking move, they had Bruiser kick out of Smothers’ finisher only to have Cornette assist him in the end instead of him beating Smothers clean; Dark Secret was billed from “Anyone’s Guess”, so I assume “Parts Unknown” was overfilled and he needed to be from another place; Apparently Mark Curtis was the only referee in SMW at the time and it is weird seeing a referee wearing suspenders and a bowtie; Chris Hamrick looks like a cheap Ricky Morton knockoff with the long blond hair and the ugly tights; The outfits in 1994 were pretty ugly as Cornette has a bizarre black and yellow track suit while Bedlam has some terrible shorts on, which is not the best workout attire.

Chad Campbell: SMW was going through a lot of transition in this month after the Heavenly Bodies were forced to leave after a lengthy feud with the Rock N Roll Express that carried the promotion since its inception. They also were relying on outside talent coming in for one off programs like Jake and Savage here. With the Bodies gone, the void of heels were weak and we see that with the big pushes for Well Done, Kendo the Samurai and especially Brusier Bedlam. None of these guys panned out and it started to lead to some of the financial hardships that were rapidly approaching the promotion overall. Lance Storm was really wooden and uncomfortable during the Personality Profile interview and corrects himself from saying the Rocky Mountains at one point.

Wild Card Baby!

Dave Hall: Won’t be on MTV anytime soon: Chris Jericho and Lance Storm’s music video was so bad it was funny. It was a true tribute to the 90s in hindsight. Their outfits were so dated, the “story” of the video was lame, and I sat there wondering if they were even old enough to be in a pub. But I couldn’t look away.

Calum McDougall: Worst Medical Team: In my office, I need to go and seek medical advice if I get a paper cut or my coffee is too hot for me to pick up, and yet SMW let Dirty White Boy wrestle whilst blind in one eye?! How did that get past the State Athletic Commission?!

Jacob Williams: The Landy Award: If it exists, we really need to get ahold of footage of the Macho Man vs Bruiser Bedlam match that was hyped. Make it happen, Landy!

Brian Bayless: Best Tidbit: In his shoot interview with RF Video, Lance Storm said he was told by Tracy Smothers that the Rock ‘n’ Roll Express tried to “hold them down” as Cornette wanted the Thrillseekers to use a double missile dropkick finisher, which was flashier than the plain double dropkick the RnR’s had been using for over a decade. Storm also added that the Thrillseekers wrestled in the opening matches during their SMW run.

Michael Cook:Most 80s: Lance Storm’s rat tail. I guess since he showed a personality, maybe he should have had it when he came to the WWE.

Steve Riddle: The Fashion Statement of 1994: The track suits of Jake Roberts and Jim Cornette.

Chad Campbell: Unheralded Worker: I hope to spotlight a worker here on each show that I think history has forgotten too much. Tracy Smothers is my pick for these two episodes. Tracy certainly had a regional act that usually included him waving the stars and bars on his way to ringside, but he prove during this run that he could be at the very least a gatekeeper for the upper mid card and he deserved better than his Freddie Joe Floyd run entails.

Final Thoughts:

Dave Hall: These two shows combined were horrible. I score 1 point for Chris Jericho and 1 point for the interviews with Jake and Macho Man. I had never seen any Smokey Mountain Wrestling before and I was really keen for this watch, but after seeing the episodes I hope I never have to watch one of these shows again. I would never recommend what I saw to anyone, unless you restrict your watching to Chris Jericho only. 2/10

Calum McDougall: These shows weren’t offensively bad unlike the British Bulldogs Coliseum Home Video we watched, but I just found it boring of the most part. There were some bright spots and it was interesting to see some guys before they were famous. As much as it wasn’t my favourite thing we’ve done so far, I could be tempted to watch more Smoky Mountain and I cannot in good conscious rate it less than the Bulldogs tape. 4/10

Jacob Williams: This was a case of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts. There wasn’t a lot of good wrestling on either show, and I didn’t particularly like many of the wrestlers, but still thought the shows were fine watches, if not great or even above average. In the same way that directors like Tarantino make movies as a homage to certain genres, I came away feeling like SMW was Jim Cornette’s homage to classic southern wrestling television, and I appreciated the total package enough to overcome some of the shortcomings. 5/10

Brian Bayless: The real problem here was the lack of star power. Sure, Jake Roberts was a star but he was not a regular guy here and using taped promos to hype up a title match. Pushing Bruiser Bedlam (former 1980’s WWF enhancement talent Johnny K-9) as a monster heel and the dated Kendo the Samurai act showed a glaring lack of depth on the heel side. Plus, the lack of quality wrestling on these shows too was tough to ignore. However, the feuds and programs were easy enough to follow and at the heels at least had managers that could talk for them while the faces were doing the heavy lifting in the ring but this promotion was struggling at the time with decreasing attendance and its not tough to see why. 4/10

Michael Cook: Going into this I did not want to shit all over it, and I do realize that it was towards the end of the promotion, but this was not good. Even Jake and Randy could not save it. Jericho was the only redeeming thing on these shows. I hope that if I get a chance to watch earlier shows I will be able to understand how people enjoyed. And yes, I know I will be in the minority but give me three hour Raws that I can fast forward through any day of the week. 1.5/10

Steve Riddle: Overall, I thought that these two episodes of Smoky Mountain Wrestling were pretty decent shows for TV standards. I haven’t seen a lot of Smoky Mountain Wrestling aside from random matches here and there, so it was pretty cool to actually watch two full episodes and get a glance of what it was like. SMW was in an interesting position in 1994 as the territory system was pretty much done aside from them and ECW, but they were still in a good position has they had the partnership with the WWF going still. The matches on the shows weren’t much as it was more about building towards Volunteer Slam with a bunch of solid promos, and I’m sure having Randy Savage appear was helping draw in more eyes. In the end, these were solid shows for me on my maiden voyage here on the Adventure and I look forward to what we have in store going forward. 4.5/10

Chad Campbell: Some challenging episodes to rate as they both were breezy and featured some good promo work even by Daryl Van Horn which I haven’t mentioned, but the in ring product was really lackluster. Also, even with big stars like Macho and Jake coming in, the transitional nature of this time in SMW was prevalent. 4.5/10

#IFTTT #Place to Be Nation

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365footballorg-blog · 6 years ago

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Armchair Analyst: RSL, Seattle drop the hammer & more from Week 27

September 2, 201810:20PM EDT

The 2018 MLS season is about 80% done. Hope everybody’s ready for the finishing kick.

Let’s dive into Week 27:

Of Time And Stars

Seattle won their eighth straight game, the first time anybody’s done that in a single season in the post-shootout era, thanks to a come-from-behind 3-1 win over visiting (and previously surging) Sporting KC.

The Sounders did it by building from the back, being patient, playing the ball from side to side, and waiting until gaps open up. They did it by defending deeper than most teams are comfortable defending. They did it by playing simple and taking few chances until they’re in the attacking third. Maybe it isn’t always who they’ve been, but it’s certainly who they’ve become during this remarkable run.

And unlike last week against Portland it didn’t take them 70 minutes to identify a mismatch – they went right at SKC Graham Zusi right from the start.

Say what you want about the simplicity of Seattle’s approach, and the fact that they’re not really playing “modern” soccer: They don’t do a ton of work in transitions and press much, and their positions are more defined (save for Nicolas Lodeiro) than what we see from many other teams at or near the top of the standings.

All of that is true-ish, but what matters is that you throw 11 guys out there, and the one thing that truly connects them is the ball, and that’s what the Sounders are built around – the fundamental idea that passing the ball is a good thing. Chad Marshall is reliable in his distribution. Kelvin Leerdam is reliable in his distribution. Kim Kee-Hee is occasionally game-breaking. Ozzie Alonso, who is the single greatest defensive midfielder this league has ever seen, is healthy and starting to do things like this again:

Hesitation dribble, side-step, and a defense-splitting pass. He eliminated the entire SKC press, just like that. It’s a breathtaking bit of mental, technical and tactical skill, and it unleashes Brad Smith – who can definitely pass – into space.

Harry Shipp can pass, even though he’s not the game-breaking No. 10 we’d hoped he’d be. Cristian Roldan can pass (and his movement when the game is tight is superb), and Gustav Svensson is uncomplicated, but he can pass. Lodeiro is maybe the league’s best and most versatile passer of the ball, shifting from zone-moving No. 8 to winger to elite, chance creating No. 10.

So if you have that many guys who can pass the ball, and are patient about it, and most of them move well off the ball, too, you’re going to win a lot of games. It’s taken some luck to make it eight games, but you can literally not show me a single winning streak in the history of this sport in which luck was not involved.

And before you point me to the expected goals battle, which was roughly even: Please control for the game state. Six of SKC’s eight biggest chances came in the last 15 minutes when they were down two goals and up one man and throwing the kitchen sink at the Seattle defense. For the vast majority of the game the Sounders were winning and controlling the game, and they were doing that because they were playing good soccer. They were the better team.

Childhood’s End

RSL entered the record books on Saturday night. They became the first team in MLS history to score six or more goals in back-to-back games, following up last weekend’s 6-0 win over Colorado with a leave-no-doubt-about-it 6-2 destruction of the death spiraling LA Galaxy in Rio Tinto. Here’s a duck:

Ok, now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s talk about what RSL are doing.

The defense has improved across the board, but especially in central defense. Hat-trick hero Damir Kreilach refused to go to a postgame press conference alone afterward; he insisted upon bringing center backs Justen Glad and Nick Besler, who mostly kept the potent Galaxy attack under wraps. Those two guys have been good, as have fullbacks Brooks Lennon and Aaron Herrera (who’s beaten out fellow Homegrown Danny Acosta for the LB job).

Sunny has pretty much permanently entered the XI as a destroyer on the “2” line of the 4-2-3-1. His range covers up a lot of mistakes that had proved fatal earlier in the season.

RSL have a cadre of quick, skillful attackers to sprinkle across the “3” line of the 4-2-3-1. Earlier in the year they were, for whatever, reason, static. Over the past two months, as the team as a whole has been better at moving the ball from back to front, they’ve become more dynamic and dangerous, and thus harder to track.

“False 9 by Committee” has worked! I thought (really, everyone thought, including the RSL braintrust) RSL needed a “true” center forward, one who goes toe-to-toe with the center backs, holds the ball up, and allows that “3” line to shine. But since Alfredo Ortuño didn’t work out, they don’t have that guy. Luis Silva’s a false 9, and Corey Baird’s a false 9, and Kreilach – yes Kreilach, the guy who was brought in this winter to play defensive midfield, and has spent almost his entire career bouncing between a 6 role and an 8 role – have shared that spot and… it’s worked.

Kreilach, Silva and Baird have 16g/6a between the three of them when playing as a false 9. I’ve documented before how Baird’s movement (he always tries to drift between the weakside CB and FB, rather than hitting the A gap between the CBs) has opened space for those around him, and Silva does a lot of the same stuff.

Now look at his, how Kreilach vacating the normal spot a No. 9 confuses the Galaxy defense:

That’s Kreilach drifting away from the central channel and out wide, and that’s Albert Rusnak, the No. 10, receiving the ball with his back to goal like a center forward, except his about four yards further from goal than a center forward usually is when receiving that pass. It confuses Michael Ciani just enough to make him a split second late closing down, and that gives Rusnak the room he needs to turn and fire one home.

RSL play weird, and that weirdness, when playing against disorganized backlines, creates just enough hesitation to turn normal defensive rotations into cracks. And when guys like Rusnak, Joao Plata, Jefferson Savarino and Bofo Saucedo are playing as well as they have been, those cracks turn into chasms. Those chasms are being filled with goals.

They just killed the Galaxy on Saturday night. They left no doubt who the better team was. They subbed in a duck. It was all good in Sandy, because for the vast majority of the game there was only one team on the field, and it was the one playing weird, fun, unexpected, playoff soccer.

A few more things to ponder…

8. All hail the Impact? They maintained control of the sixth spot in the Eastern Conference playoff race with Saturday’s convincing 3-0 win over a listless Red Bulls team. Montreal are usually the victims on set pieces, but they turned the tables on an RBNY team that have been struggling in that department recently, getting the night’s first on a corner, the second on a free kick, and then coasting to a never-in-doubt, comfortable win for the rest of the night.

This was a necessary “stop the bleeding” win for the Impact, who’d no doubt felt some pressure after a six-game stretch in which they’d won just once. And while they are in, as I said, control of the sixth spot, the work’s not done yet because the rest of their schedule is brutal: at Philly, vs. NYCFC, at D.C., vs. Columbus, vs. Toronto, at New England. And, of course, because of what D.C. United did on Sunday night (more on that below).

Three of the last four are six-pointers against teams that could plausibly catch them. Montreal’s defense needs to figure out what went right against RBNY, bottle it, and keep it with them for the rest of the year.

7. That said, TFC didn’t look much like a team in danger of catching anybody this week. Their 4-2 home loss to LAFC was yet another defensive disaster in a season full of defensive disasters. They don’t win balls in central midfield at the same rate they did last year, and they don’t close down danger through central midfield as well as they did last year, and that puts pressure on a patchwork backline that’s not been up to the job.

LAFC, after struggling for about a month, have gone 3-0-1 in their last four and are up to second in the West.

6. Up to seventh in the West? That’d be the ‘Caps, who beat San Jose 2-1 and are now 4-0-2 in their last six and possessed of an outside chance at making the playoffs. This whole sequence might be the prettiest goal they’ve ever scored under Carl Robinson, and it’s all our Pass of the Week:

In non-duck related news, I think this is legit the nicest goal the ‘Caps have ever scored under Robbo. Beautiful, patient, incisive buildup from back-to-front. #VANvSJ https://t.co/qGe56STAFg

— Matthew Doyle (@MattDoyle76) September 2, 2018

That run from Alphonso Davies is devastating.

In addition to Davies, Homegrown products Russell Teibert and Brett Levis (who is Homegrown-ish, having played for the ‘Caps U-23s and Whitecaps 2, but not the academy) have both played huge roles in this run. Better late than never.

5. Philly basically secured a playoff spot this week, going on the road to beat D.C. United midweek before grinding out a 2-2 draw at Orlando City on Saturday night. It probably feels like two points dropped for the Union, who took and then squandered a late lead, but it’s hard to complain too much from a two-game, four-day, four-point road trip against conference foes.

The bad news for Philly was that Borek Dockal came off with some sort of injury on 40 minutes. The good news is that Homegrown central midfielder Derrick Jones took his place and put in a solid and reliable, if unsexy 50 minutes as the usual 4-2-3-1 turned into more of a 4-3-3. It was a slightly different look than we’re used to seeing from them – one in which the midfield played a little bit deeper, they had a little bit less of the ball, and the wings had to do more of the playmaking lift – but it worked. And it’s the type of look that could be useful down the line, say in the last 30 minutes of a road game in the playoffs. Hint hint.

Cory Burke got another goal in this one, and he’s now on 8g/1a in 949 minutes. There’s no “Breakout Player of the Year” award in MLS, but there should be, and if there was then Burke would probably be it. His consistent goalscoring has changed Philly from a solid team that plays pretty if ineffective soccer to a dangerous team that plays winning soccer.

He’s also a guy who developed at Bethlehem Steel, Philly’s USL affiliate. We’ve talked a lot about the Union’s academy investment, and we should now dap them up for the investment they’ve made in their entire pipeline. It’s a huge chunk of why they’ll be in the playoffs.

4. FC Dallas put the brakes on what had turned into a mini slide – one win in five – with a convincing and comprehensive 4-2 win over the visiting Dynamo on Saturday in Frisco.

The most noteworthy takeaways:

I think Pablo Aranguiz is going to have a tough time getting onto the field. Oscar Pareja is loathe to bench Urruti, and to be fair, Urruti repaid that faith with 1g/3a in two games this past week after a long barren spell.

3. NYCFC are officially slumping. They went to Columbus and got damn near played off the field in the first half, took an against-the-run-of-play lead early in the second half, then almost immediately folded and gave that lead away in what became a 2-1 loss to a Crew team that’s mostly righted the ship.

It hasn’t been just one thing with NYCFC and is much more a collection of little things. But one of those “little things” is larger than it seems at first glance, namely: They’re playing 8% fewer passes in their own defensive half under Domé Torrent, which means they’re doing less work with the ball in terms of rearranging their opposition.

Think about NYCFC at their best. Yes, they could and did viciously press teams, but they were also patient and studious and precise with their movement when they had the ball. The goal was to suck opposing defenses into bad spots, then when they were compact, to use one or two touches to eliminate a whole host of them and force a scramble. Then in the midst of those scrambles, kill.

They don’t really do that anymore. It’s a problem.

For the Crew, this was Justin Meram’s real homecoming, the first time he looked and played like the player he was last year. If they get more of that guy in the coming weeks, and if Federico Higuain stays healthy, they are indeed, as Torrent said, a threat to win the league.

2. Wow. Let’s run down the list of things D.C. United did in Sunday night’s really, really really impressive 3-1 win over visiting Atlanta:

They ended Atlanta’s seven-game unbeaten run

They ended Atlanta’s two-game winning streak

They ended Josef Martinez’s nine-game goal-scoring streak

They ended Martinez’s streak of 10 straight road games with a goal

They bounced back from a painful midweek home loss to Philly

They climbed up to seventh in the Eastern Conference on both points and points per game

I’ll admit I didn’t think they had it in them. I’ll admit that I thought the midweek loss to the Union would be more destructive to both D.C.’s team morale and their overall playoff hopes. I’ll admit that I underestimated the “Bill Hamid vs. Atlanta United” effect.

I’ll also admit that I didn’t think D.C. would do such a good job of protecting the ball and limiting their midfield turnovers. They were out-possessed – almost everybody’s out-possessed against the Five Stripes – which is fine, and there were times when they sprayed their passes a little bit. But there weren’t a huge amount of passes that were forced down blind alleys or into traffic, and if you don’t do that, you at least somewhat limit Atlanta’s ability to counter on you. And if you limit their ability to counter on you, they’re beatable.

Paul Arriola was excellent in his first game at right back, and the center backs have been better since Kofi Opare’s won the starting job. The defensive midfield pairing of Russell Canouse and Junior Moreno has been solid. What Wayne Rooney and Lucho Acosta have done together in attack has been beyond solid – it’s been spectacular and compelling and match-winning.

D.C. could’ve fallen apart after the two-game losing streak against RBNY last weekend and Philly midweek. Instead they outplayed the best team in the league, and deserved their win. Next week they go to the Bronx and visit NYCFC. Then they have a run of seven straight home games.

Anyone brave enough to bet they’ll still be below the playoff line at the end of that stretch?

1. And finally, our Face of the Week goes to Lucas Melano, who played the final 20 minutes of Portland’s 1-1 draw at New England and had a chance to win it deep in second-half stoppage:

Why didn’t he even attempt to kick it? I don’t know! It’s a mystery! He looks confused, too!

Good week for the Timbers, though, who followed up their four-game losing streak with four points. As for the Revs, they’re now winless in nine and Brad Friedel’s backing up the bus.

“I told the players to their face that every single one of them are playing for their contracts, absolutely,” he said after the game. “We’re learning a lot about what’s happened here the last few years.”

He also added that “We’re coaching for our contracts. That’s professional sports.”

New England are on 1.15 ppg, their worst record since 2012.

Series:

Topics:

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Armchair Analyst: RSL, Seattle drop the hammer & more from Week 27 was originally published on 365 Football

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grapsandclaps · 7 years ago

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Before I talk about the matches the ring announcing has to be mentioned. Quite simply the worst ring announcing ever, and I mean EVER! I do believe the man doing it had never done it before and was doing it as a favour to help out assumingly in a way of keeping costs down which is understandable buthe clearly knew nothing about wrestling.

He had a clipboard with 7 or 8 pieces of paper on it and kept flicking between them, he was struggling to read what was written down occasionally asking the referee, getting confused which match was next, announced Jack Bandicoot as a WWE UK superstar (maybe one day) instead of Amir Jordan, didn’t know anyone’s nicknames, pronouncing Amir Jordan as the Banjra badboy (Poor Amir got a raw deal here) announcing a tag match that we had just seen andother faux pas that need to disappear if he is to do it again. It really was atrocious but I have got my smarkiness out of the way

MATCH 1 EL Ligero DF Boris Koslov in a Falls count anywhere match

Decent match this. 2 guys very well known and both babyfaces with the crowd. I really am not sure about the stipulation of falls count anywhere but for marketing it was a good idea with the fight going outside onto the streets and a few locals walking by wondering what was going on but hopefully havingtheir interest piqued. Boris took the beating to Ligero with a six pack of Walkers crisps before coming back into the venue and wrestling in the little 8 by 8 ring for a few minutes. The roof was so low at this point over the little ring the ref went down for the 3 count and hit his hand on the roof.

As the action went back towards the ring El Ligero used “cowboy” John Parker who was in the crowd watching as a stool and splashed Boris after jumping off John’s back.

They got back in the ring with action back and forth and Ligero got the win via pinfall. After the match

Boris got on the microphone and told the crowd that if any wrestler in the UK deserved his WWEUK shot it was Ligero. This got a good reaction from the crowd and it is hard to disagree with. To prove this Ligero walked out and drove down to Birmingham to have a 2/3 falls match with Chris Ridgeway which was, by all accounts, exceptional.

Match 2 Jack Bandicoot DF Amir Jordan to become new LPW 24/7 champion Brand new belt and a new title. Not really sure what the 24/7 title is but looking at the first 2 to challenge for it I am assuming it is a Cruiserweight/X Division type title.

This was another good match. Both wrestlers had some fun at the beginning with Jack being announced as a WWEUK superstar. He act shocked and very happy about this but Amir Jordan put him right. This was another babyface vs. babyface match with both guys well known by the fans and doing some good high flying (as much as was allowed with the roof) I enjoyed this match a lot and I enjoy watching Bandicoot always looking for ways to hit high flying moves. on a side note, the last 2 times I have seen Bandicoot in RISE and Tidal he has hit 2 of the most unique and devastating DDT’S I have seen.

Bandicoot was taking some punishment and Jordan was lining up for his finisher before Bandicoot got the roll up win.

After the match Jordan got on the microphone and told Bandicoot that if he keeps doing what he is doing he will go far in pro wrestling and a handshake was shared. On a personal note I have now seen Jordan in RISE, TIDAL, PCW and LPW and I know he has wrestled for Progress and others. The juxtaposition of Ligero with near 3000 matches and Jordan with just 2/3 years of wrestling is fascinating but his position is no less deserved and I really am a big fan of Amir and look forward to seeing him more.

Match 3 J Graves w/ Ruby Radley & Ivy DF Ragnar with use of a baseball batBoth of these wrestlers were new to me and frustratingly didn’t leave much of an impression. Ragnar seemed to be a powerhouse type wrestler but wasn’t really big enough or jacked enough to pull it off. J Graves’ character was more rounded off playing the 80s rocker type but coming off a bit Adam Rose like. Technically they appeared fine in the ring and this was the first heel vs. baby face dynamic of the show. The real stars of this match were Ruby Radley and particularly Ivy. Ivy would get in any fans face and shout at them, threatening to batter one young fan with her bat. She was Scolding the referee continuously and interfering where possible. Real heel heat and when Graves won it felt like the right result and the crowd were not happy which was good.

Match 4 Persephone DF Rhio Not a lot to say about this match as I didn’t watch a lot of it. I didn’t leave my seat I was just worried for Rhio getting seriously hurt. This match had changed from Thursday with Little Miss Roxxy vs. Lizzy Styles to this so it was a last minute booking but it was not a good match and became scary to watch. Rhio was trying her hardest and in all fairness none of the danger was her fault but Rhio seems to be able to have a good match when she is in with someone better (vs. Viper at PCW) but when she isthe better talent in the ring it can be messy. Intermission During the show a lady had come round doing a football card. We entered this but never heard a draw being done and never found out who won. Tony went for a cigarette and I found that the bar did sell alcohol, which was needed after that last match. As ghastly as Heineken is it was £2 a can and really cold on a hot day so it hit the spot.

Match 5 Drill & Drake Winter DF Jimmy Jackson & Jack Flash A real baby face vs. heel dynamic in this match, mostly because of Drake Winter looking and dressing like a fat Jon Snow (and the crowd let him know) although his gear looked a lot cheaper than Jon Snows. I knew none of these wrestlers and spent the match thinking Drill was actually called Trill (like the budgie food) because of the announcer and thinking what a terrible name. Tony was excited to see Jack Flash as he was a regular on the EBW shows around Rotherham/Sheffield and Drake Winter, withthat weird Shane Taylor midriff/leg weight thing going on was pretty good with some hard hitting moves and got good heat from the fans. This was a pretty standard match but I would enjoy seeing any of these again, Bandicoot vs. Jack Flash could be a good match in the future.

Match 6 Lexi Olivia DF Ruby Radley, Ivy and Alfie Rose to become new LPW women' s champion Really fun match. This started as a triple threat match with Ivy on the outside. As Alfie and Lexi teamed up against Ruby, Ivy was getting mad and forced the ref to let her enter the match and make it afatal four way(although we had to assume this as the announcer didn’t explain anything) and the ref obliged. If he didn’t he probably would of took a baseball bat to the head so who can blame him? Ruby and Ivy regularly teamed up with it often ending up with miscommunication and bumping each other. Lexi Olivia, another EBW regular, seemed very new. Lots of her moves looked good but not great transitions and each moved seemed obviously set up but I believe she is 18/19 and lots of potential. Her Elbows look legit badass and her running knees were good and drew gasps from the crowd. Lexi took advantage of miscommunication and got the pin on Ruby to win the title from Alfie Rose who wasn’t hurt as she was not pinned and lots of ways for this story to go. Really fun stuff.

Match 7 the Lion Kings DF Son of Ulaid - Rory Coyle and Big Lou from England ’ s hardest men.This was a very good match with 4 talented guys who will all be at the next RISE show. I have no idea what happened to Bas Ban the other SON of Ulaid but I like this idea of Rory Coyle having to team with someone different at all these shows. Almost a cult, disciple thing and hope he runs with it. The Lion Kings are firm fan favourites around the Leeds area and work really well as a tag team. This was a good solid tag team match and did exactly what you would expect and with the fan favourites going over. There isn’t really much to say about this as it was exactly what it should have been - a hard hitting tag match. Enjoyed it and always enjoy seeing any of these 4 guys.

Main event Matty Mayhem vs. HT Drake for the LPW title ended in a no contest afterinterferenceDrake has been on every Tidal, Rise and Defiant show I have been to but I did not know Matty Mayhem and did not know how long he had been champion. This was a good match with both guys working over the other and some good high flying. Drake took the match to the outside and Mayhem threw him over the chairs which were not folding chairs and it looked painful and drew a good reaction. The match was back in the ring and it felt like Drake was going to win before a man in a Michael Myers mask and boiler suit jumped into the ring and super kicked both Mayhem and Drake and left them lying. The crowd were stunned and the mask came off to unveil Sean Only! Only drew the boos and was interviewed in the ring but the sound wasn’t great and we couldn’t hear what was being said (should of just give Only the mic) the show finished with a match announcement of Only vs. Mayhem for the title at the next show which should make for a good match and also Only can draw legit heel heat. HT drake was one of only 2 wrestlers I saw pull double duty on my 3 show weekend also appearing at Defiant in Sheffield on the Monday and he is certainly a solid hand.

The doors opened and we left. It was a nice little show and a good start for the NEW LPW and I will certainly keep my eyes out for their next show. I hope they improve their social media presence as it would be good to see a few more in the seats next show as the promoters have clearly tried hard to put a good card together. But please improve the announcing .

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coffeeblogger-blog · 8 years ago

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One Year Journey to Happiness- day 62

Today is the last day of 2016! A very good day to set some New Years resolution. So, where should I begin? 1-The biggest resolution is to not care for relationship. At the end of the day, I have been constantly looking for the last God knows how many years and it never worked out. So far, he results of my searches has been only heartaches, humiliation and insecurity. I can live without it for an entire year! It will even be liberating, I'm sure. So no guys! Which means no bars, no dating apps, no dreams. And even if someone legit was interested (which I doubt lol), too bad, because my answer would be a solid no! So that's that which is e most important one. 2-Besides that, I want my weight to go down to 120 lbs! And actually stay there. It's 11 pounds we are talking about, so it shouldn't be that difficult. 3- watch a movie once a week (series don't count) 4- read a book for at least 15 minutes a day 5- exercise more than 3 times a week (definitely swim at least once a week) 6- spend 5 minutes on duo lingo per day 7- face time with mom once a day Wow I'm excited! I'm super excited about the guy thingy! This girl is officially out of market for the next 365 days. Oh except for tonight because I have promised my childhood friend to party on New Year's Eve, as it's become our ritual in the last 4 years! So Sunday morning is the start point.

#oneyearjourneytohappiness #oyjtoh

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winstonhcomedy · 6 years ago

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“Dope A-F” - 5/1-5/7 - “Lot’s of Shows, A Riot at Castleburg, and Do You Have Twitter?”

I GOT BEHIND AGAIN!!! WHY LAYDEES WHYYYY!!! You’ve got to keep me on my toes lovely ones. I will get these shows done. I have a lot of mics to get caught up on, but I know we can do it! So let’s get right to it! xoxo

5/1

I was trying to hit three mics tonight. It was going to be tough, but I knew I could do it. It was also Jacob McFadden’s last night hosting Home Sweet Home before he moved to PA.

My night started by doing a happy hour and hanging with some coworkers for a bit. After that I headed to Main Stage Cafe which is the home of Jay Ron’s Weak on Wednesday’s comedy show. This was the first time I was going to be able to check it out.

I got there early to sign up, and got some fried chicken Mac and cheese. I met up with Bryan Williams, and we hung out and chatted. I took a phone call with another comic about some stuff they were gong through and wanted to discuss with me, and then when I came back in more comedians started to show up.

Jay Ron gets there and he tells us he is gong to wait for a few people to get there before the show starts. There are a few comics doing the open mic, and a few for the booked portion. This is an urban show, so it was an exclusively black audience. Which is fine with me I love working these rooms. It’s a great way to try new stuff, and see if your material works across different groups.

I am told I am going to be up second. First is Bryan. He goes up after Jay Ron and they don’t really vibe with him at all. He gets a few laughs, but his self deprecating style doesn’t really click with he 8 or 9 people that are there.

After he gets off it is my turn. Jay Ron brings me up on stage saying I am his, “n word” and that gets a laugh. I then go up and go right into crowd work. Bryan asked if anyone used facebook and no one responded so I riffed on a lady who is obviously lying because she has been on Facebook this entire show. I then talk to a single lady about if she ever been with white guys she said no in a negative tone so I riffed on her being racist, and then went into my material. I talked about teaching and it got some good responses.

I felt good about my set because I feel like I woke the crowd up, and got them involved. I love being able to be the one to crack them, and make the show better for other comics. I’d give my set a B-. Some of the crowd work was lame, but it worked, and the material did as well.

I left immediately and headed over to Emiliio’s hosted by Sho. I was hoping I’d be able to get up quickly before heading over to HSH. I walk up to the venue and it looks empty. I walk in and there are like 5 or 6 people talking at the bar and Sho says I can go up if I want. Apparently only one other comic Aaron Shoemaker even did Emilio’s that night. Which is a shame that people did not take advantage of another mic so close to HSH.

I tell him I’m ready to go up and I have a super fun 10 minute set. I try all new stuff, and the people there are super into it. I riff quite a bit, and try some stuff including my R. Kelly joke (which has been doing pretty well) and legit this is one of the more fun poorly attended mics I’ve done in a while. I’d give this set a B+. I talk to Sho a bit and then head over to HSH.

I get there and it is packed. Like legit. The show is starting in five minutes and there are about 30 comics signed up, and an actual crowd, and Jacob is starting to get super emotional.

Comics drove from all over to go up. Some came from DC just to get a spot and say goodbye, which was really dope to see. The comics meeting was held outside and it seemed like Jacob was going to cry. I take a few pictures, and then head inside. Everybody is here. Beswick, Velez, Anthony, Kusterer, Engle, Mike Shea (Brown Frown the Clown), Stella, Richard Woody, Alex Dejulio (came from DC) Bryan, and so many others including some newbies.

The crowd is into the show from the beginning. It is jammed upstairs so you people are having to stand all the way down the stairs and it is awesome. I am up eighth and I am watching comic after comic go up and have a good set. I am so nervous, but also so ready to go.

Finally it is my turn. I go up and Jacob gives me a classic bad intro saying that I am a bad guy that everyone hated, and that I lie about teaching at a school for autism. It makes me laugh and I go up. I do a little light crowd work. I talk to a new comic who is chatty and says his name is also Jacob, and I am like, “I like old Jacob better, this new Jacob is too chatty.” That gets a laugh and then I go into my material and I have a pretty hot set. Some things don’t hit as well as others, but everything gets a laugh and my R. Kelly joke hits really hard. This is the joke I am enjoying doing the most right now,. I also used my last 30 seconds to say something nice to Jacob and just when he was getting ready to cry I made sure to throw a joke in. I’d give this set a solid A-.

I get off stage and feel super good. After me is Anthony and he has a hot set as well. I go downstairs after his and just relax and chill. I am enjoying talking to everybody and just being in the moment. I make sure to stick around for Brown Frown the Clown. I also make sure to watch Jacob give Richard Woody the worst intro of all time. He finally got to do the bit again where he brings Richard Woody up as a convicted sex offender which he has done to Richard for the last 6 years of comedy. It got a laugh and Richard said some kind words and then got off stage.

When it is Brown Frown’s turn to go up all the comics try to pack it in upstairs. People are standing on the steps and even sitting on the floor. I make sure to make my way to the front to get some good pictures. Brown Frown is a drunken clown character created by Mike Shea and a staple of RVA comedy for years and years.

This performance he pretended to be breaking up with Jacob and the set included suicide jokes, sex with poop, sex with dolls, sex with Jacob, used condoms, maggots in someone’s pee hole, and parody songs about his love for Jacob. It was the best Mike Shea performance I have ever seen. It made me laugh so hard and I am so glad I was there to witness it. Afterwards I headed downstairs said my goodbyes and headed home. This had been a long but fun night doing comedy in Richmond.

5/3

No mics so I took off Thursday. There was also nothing going on in RVA on Friday and I wasn’t booked so I hopped on three shows in DC. I got off work and headed straight up there. I was in traffic for what felt like forever and a 2 hour drive ended up taking about 3 1/2. I get there and park where I usually do. I take a 30 minute walk to get to Comedy Club DC (at Club Heaven and Hell) which is Tom Mango’s room.

I get there and go inside. I talk to Tom for a bit. It is crazy hot upstairs because the AC isn’t on yet. Reid Clark is hosting, and he and I watch this video about how Anthony Jeselnik built his newest hour. After this some people start to show up, but we are warned it is going to be a light crowd. I grab my stuff and move to another table.

Mark Mensh a comic from up there and I had a super long nice talk. We talked about comedy and he said a lot of nice things about the blog which honestly means a lot. I don’t know I assume no one reads this so when someone else does, and they tell me things they enjoy about it it really gives me the energy to keep doing it.

We then talked about him moving into the city, and how shows have been. We talked about Gary Gulman and his everyday tips, and just continued to discuss the art of comedy. It was a nice and very fun talk.

More and more comics showed up. I met a few, but it is mostly people I don’t know at all. Bob Siegel was there and I met a dude named Jamal. We are all chilling and the show finally gets started with about 11 people there.

Tom gets in a Gumby outfit and goes up to introduce Reid as host. The first half of the show is people going up and trying to crack them. It is tough because it seems like no one is able to do it. They’ll chuckle a little, but the energy is never there, and the audience definitely needed to wake up.

Comic after comic goes up. A few do well, and a few do ok. Most don’t do very well at all. Tom is freaking out, but it is no one’s fault. These are a lot of newer and inexperienced comics, and being able to wake up a tough crowd is definitely a skill you have to develop.

Finally it is my turn. I go up and do 15. My only goal is to make the show better for everyone else after me. I have to do some crowd work, and slowly get them on my side. I get a few huge pops, and really won them over. I was sweating so much, and working my ass off. Not my best set, but it was super productive. I felt like I got the room ready for comedy, and did my job as the dude closing the first half of the show. I got to do a lot of newer stuff and it worked like I’d been doing it for a while. I’d give my set a B.

After this Tom went up and did his time. He got a few laughs, and I just hope the next few comics can really grab onto the momentum and ride it. After him everybody started to do really well. You could tell the crowd wanted jokes, and since I got on stage another 20 or so people had come into the venue. They all had good energy and everybody did well. Even though I wouldn’t say I got the biggest laughs of the night by any means, I definitely felt good about what I had done. Mark had a good set, and a few other dudes I had never seen before really did well as well. It was nice to see.

After this I said goodbye and thanked Tom for the time. I hopped in an Uber and headed over to DC Drafthouse to do Attack of the Comics hosted by Haywood Turnipseed JR.

I get there and I am a little early. I meet a comic from NYC named Irene who is down for a music festival, and I got to walk to a few comics I hadn’t seen in a while. I got to talk to Benjy for a bit because he was opening for Anthony Devito for the two early shows. Ross showed up, and finally Haywood decided to get the show rolling. I was going to be going second so I could hit Big Hunt.

Haywood goes up and does about 10 to 15 and gets the crowd warmed up. I can tell they are gong to be fun. After him Al Williams goes up. He just moved back, and he had a good set. After him it was my turn.

I go up and have a super hot set. Everything is working. My R. Kelly joke absolutely murders. I am so upset that I left my camera in my car like an idiot. I am desperately trying to get a good video of that joke so I can post it online before it becomes wack. The rest of my set goes well and I close really hard with a teaching joke. I'd give this set an A-. Other than a few lines up top that were weird everything worked great. I say thanks and hit the road heading over to Big Hunt. Ross tells me he dug the R.Kelly joke and I respect that dude a lot so that felt great.

I get to Hunt and people are hanging out downstairs. Sami Sfeir is hosting and there is a good conversation about strip clubs going on downstairs. I get to talk to Lafayette, Cook, Sean, Maddy, and a few others. Naomi showed up and we got to talk about some school stuff she has coming up soon so that was nice.

I am set to go up pretty late in the show so I settle in ready to hang for a while. then I get the glorious news that Ross isn’t there yet so I get bumped up a few spots. The crowd has been drunk and weird all night. They didn’t really give Maddy anything in front of me. It derailed her set and their attention was all over the place. They didn’t seem fun, but I had to go up and work it.

I had a pretty good set all things considered. I hated it, but I know it was going pretty well. I got the R.Kelly joke to work well, and a few other things. They were drunk so I had to slow down what I was saying and try to sell it really hard. I feel good about it though. I just didn’t murder the way I wanted to. I’d give this set a b-. I then grabbed my stuff and headed right to my car. I was too tired to go home so I ended up going to TJs and passing out immediately. I have two shows tomorrow and I need my rest.

5/4

The next day I woke up and relaxed for a while before driving down to Richmond. I was going to be there pretty early and was looking for something to do. I was getting ready to go to a friend’s to take a nap but then Nathan Possum (my old partner from Comics and Consoles and the creator of Barry White Hanson) hit me up and we got lunch.

It was a lot of fun seeing him. We talked about comedy, and possibly bringing back Comics and Consoles in another form than the let’s play. Mostly we just caught up and talked shit. It was a super fun time and the best way to wind down before the first show.

I had e-mailed Mike Engle for a spot earlier in the week, but I wanted to get there early to write and relax. I head over to Castleburg Brewery to set up shop. I chill in my car a bit and then head inside once Bryan Williams gets there. We chill and talk a bit and more comics show up.

Mike gets there, a bunch of new comics, Stella, Ryan Mather, the headliners (Tim Truehart, Drew Robertson), Moe Singleton, Aaron Shoemaker, and Ben Oliver.. We get a game of corn hole going, and legit it is one of the better hangs I’ve had doing comedy in a while. Everybody is joking around and we keep playing until showtime.

The way Game of Jokes works is you have several brackets of randomly selected comics. You don’t know when you’re going up, but when you go up you do 5 minutes and at the end of the round the audience votes on who they like, and it is up to the two judges to pick who they think had the best set. The only thing you win is an extra five minutes. Which is cool, but honestly it doesn’t matter that much.

Around the time the show starts Anthony Thompson shows up. The hang is still pretty good and there is a nice little audience. Mike goes up and he does ok. They are not vibing with his new, but I respect that he was trying to work out this new joke anyway. The first comic is this dude named Fancy Gym and he does a bit where he brings a huge red bag on stage and he goes “knock knock”. The audience goes, “who’s there”? He says, “banana,” and then proceeds to take a banana out of the bag. He does this for 5 minutes and brings out about 70+ bananas, when he finally gets to the orange it gets a pretty good laugh. He messed up the line, but it was entertaining to watch. Kind of ridiculous, and five minutes is a long ass time to see that.

I then get a phone call and go outside. it is a dude trying to book me for a gig on Mother’s Day. While we are working out the details someone comes out and tells me it is my time to go on stage. I am kind of freaking out because this is a paid gig, but at the same time I’m not trying to ruin the show. I ask the booker to let me call him back and as I am running inside I hear one of the judges yell, “if he doesn’t hang up that damn phone, and get in here he is gong to get bumped.” Which I felt was a little aggressive.

I get up on stage and go into my act and I have a super hot set. My R.Kelly joke gets a huge response and then I do a few teaching jokes along with my newish bit about sleep masks. I have the best set up to this point of the show. I dealt with a table of hecklers calling them juggalos after I mention Faygo, and then shitting on them a bit. They loved it and all in all it was a really fun set I was proud of. I’d give it a B+/A-.

I get off stage and go finish my phone call. I get done right as the final comic is on stage. I asked how people have been doing, and everyone says the rest of the comics in my group did ok/pretty well. I have another set to get to this night so I don't particularly want to make it to the next round, but it is definitely cool to be picked.

They ask the audience to vote for everybody. Each person gets a pretty good response, but I had a resounding response for my set. It felt cool to be able to crack them, and set the rest of the show up for success. Then it came time for the judges to pick. Tim picked his buddy Jacob who rode up with him, and Drew picked my buddy Ryan. No big deal. I was surprised but at the same time this solves the problem of sticking around for the second set.

They then have the audience vote between those two. They say Jacob’s name and no one really claps. They then say Ryan’s name and no one really claps. Mike goes, “ok well we are going to have to do it again.” As he says this a woman behind one of the judges goes, “everyone did really well, but this is bullshit we all know Winston won,” and then the crowd went insane. Like absolutely nuts. It was giving me so much anxiety because I’d never seen something like this before. In the moment it sucked, but looking back it was a pretty cool thing. One judge goes, “he is not in this so you need to pick between the two we picked.” This upset them a bit, and I had to go and be like, “hey everybody. It is ok. Pick between my friends this is a fun show.” After this they finally picked and they moved on. Tim went on stage and started his set talking about how he voted for who he rode with because he has to go back with them. Which is fine, and got a good laugh. I didn’t watch most of his set because I was feeling weird.

I went outside to kind of unwind. Like that whole situation gave me a lot of anxiety. It was weird for that to happen and feel like it was derailing the show. The vibe was just weird and I didn’t really want to be around it. While I was outside with my friends talking and relaxing the Drew dude came out to me and was like, “you had a wonderful set.” I told him he didn’t have to lie to me. I wasn’t upset, but for him to not vote for me it just means he didn’t dig my comedy which was ok. This stuff is subjective, the dude was obviously an alt comic and it wasn’t his cup of tea. He kept trying to talk to me, and I told him I didn’t want to talk. I was having an anxiety attack and this wasn’t productive. He said I had good stage presence and I was like, “dude. I do not want to hear why you didn’t pick me. It is ok, but this isn’t productive and I don’t want to hear it.” He finished with, “I’ll just shut up.” I told him that was a good idea and he went inside.

This also gave me more anxiety, but I feel like I did the right thing. It was weird for him to come out and try to smooth stuff over. I felt like everyone was making this thing a bigger deal than it was. I also just hate people being fake. Like he didn’t think I had a wonderful set. So it doesn’t make sense to lie to me about it. I felt like I didn’t get voted for because I’m a hack (I suffer from imposter syndrome quite a bit). I still hung out and watched some more of the show. I stuck around to watch part of his set, and they didn’t vibe with him up top for first few minutes so I grabbed my stuff and headed out. The vibe was wack, and I was upset because of how much fun the day was up until that point.

I got in my car as it started to rain and headed to the warehouse show I was going to be on. It is on the other side of town and it was hosted by Tom Hall. The lineup is going to be fun, and I’m just ready to get there.

I get there at 10:40 and the show was supposed to start at 9:30 and it hadn’t started yet. Tom is pretty drunk and everyone is hanging out. It is a good vibe, and I tell a few people the story from Castleburg which alleviates some of my anxiety. LE Zarling is there as is Anne Meng, Kusterer, Paige, Buhse, Alida, Muñoz Jarvis, and a lot of others.

They have me going last and I have to ask them to bump me up because I’m exhausted and I cannot go up at 12:45 in the morning. They let me go first and we get the show started. Tom goes up and warms them up for ten minutes, and then I get to have a pretty good set.

It is as well as a show like this could go. Two doors down there is a hip hop show, and everyone had been here drinking since 8 pm. I have a good opening line thanking people for coming to a show on the set of Saw 3. That gets a good pop and the rest of my set goes well. I do ten minutes and I’d give it a B. I still feel weird, but I am proud I did my set.

After I get off stage several comics from Castleburg show up. Including Stella, Anthony, and the judge Drew. The show keeps going on and everybody is having fun. I find the cupcakes Tom made and shove about three in my mouth (I eat when I’m anxious). As the show continues the Drew guy comes up to me and we talk about it. He apologizes and I do the same. He is a nice guy and we talk comedy for a bit and it ends well. This immediately eliminates a lot of my weird feelings and we both get to enjoy the rest of the night. I think he understood where I was coming from, and got that it was a weird thing to try and do. I definitely understand he probably had good intentions, but it was not the time for it while dealing with my anxiety.

Everyone is having ok sets. I think I got the sweet spot because of how tired people were. Some people did well and people were coming and going. I had a blast and would totally do it again. Paige went up and worked some stuff out and it was definitely good to see. He and I talk for a bit and then I say goodbye to everyone. Stella and I talk about my anxiety and the night. This definitely helps. I feel a lot better afterwards and I get all my hugs in with my friends. It was truly a weird, but amazing night. I head home and pass out!

5/6

The open mic at The Southern was cancelled so I decided to do Jkogi. After work I kind of just hang around and relax. I get dinner and watch some tv and really just wind down.

I then head over to Jkogi a little early and get a nice hang in. Jack Parker is there and then Mike Engle shows up. I am trying to write some stuff down and figure it out. Ryan Mather comes in with his wife to chill. Eventually a bunch of comics are there. Moe, Rebecca, Anthony, Ben Oliver, and some others show up. The hang and vibe is pretty chill.

Kate is hosting and she has the comic meeting. I am going first and I am definitely ready to go. She goes up and works out some material about her car accident. She talks about a drawer in her car that has tampons on it. She brings me up next.

I get on stage and riff that it was exciting to find out that Kate doesn’t know that the drawer is called a glove box. This gets a laugh and I work out some material It all goes pretty well until Jacob McFadden comes in drunk and throws me off a bit (he loves doing this). I close super weak but that’s ok. I'd give this set a C-.

I get off and go outside. I decide to watch Jacob’s set. We are all hanging outside. I make a bunch of memes with him and Nate Izqieurdo and Jacob makes a setlist of what he is going to do.

I go in to film and watch him and the runs the hell out of the light. it is five minute sets and he does 10. His set is really funny, and I am glad I get to see some of those jokes one last time. He is absolutely wasted and is stepping on some of his own punchlines and messing up wording, but it was magical. Afterwards I say my goodbyes, and head out.

5/7

I am so excited for today. It is going to be three mics, and it is teacher appreciation week. So after work Kenn, Alex and I go grab some CiCi’s pizza. Which is legit one of my favorite restaurants.

We talk about Endgame, Game of Thrones, our buddy Paige, comedy, and everything in-between. While at dinner Pat Buhse posts that Mojos is cancelled for the night because their computers are down. so now my only spots are going to be Vagabond and Fallout.

I get to Vagabond and go in. There is one other comic and two dudes from DC hanging out. The other comic is Jack Parker and he goes up and does like 10 minutes. After him the two guys ask if I will go up.

I go up and do about 25 minutes of the most offensive stuff I have ever written. It is the kind of stuff they are into, and I haven't done that material in a long time. I don’t know if I worked any of it out, but they really enjoyed it. I felt good about myself while doing it, and realized how I dig those jokes but a lot of that stuff just doesn’t fit in my act anymore. I’d give this set a B- because it is very productive and I don’t think I could have made those two dudes laugh harder with anything else.

One of the dudes goes up and he opens by saying R.Kelly didn’t do it, he is Afghan so he didn’t do 9/11, and that he f**cks really hard with the environment. He does his act and gets a few laughs and has a seat. It was a fun cool time. I had a blast. I grab my stuff and tell Jack I’ll meet him at Fallout.

I get to Fallout and talk to the bartender Shelby. I wait for some other comics to get there, including the host Jesse. The hang is good and Jesse finally shows up. He and I catch up and talk about what shows we have coming up. He tells me about the stuff he is going through with his dog and it is really tough to hear I feel for that dude.

Alex and Beswick show up along with Ben, Jack, Anne, Alida, Mu with Paula, and a lot of other comics. A bunch of newer guys so this is going to be fun.

I am up third. So Jesse warms them up, then Beswick works out his material (he has some really good shit cooking right now), then Jack goes and does a Kegel act out to close out, before I get on stage.

I go up and I can’t get anything going. There is a nice little crowd and I am just eating shit on stage. There is a dude talking right at the stage and I try to address it and it doesn’t work. I have weird energy, and I have no won anyone over. Every bit that has been working lately is just dying on stage. I then do a bit and a girl in the audience goes, “do you have twitter? Because I know I’ve heard that before.” She is basically accusing me of stealing a bit off of Twitter and this sends me in a spiral. I finish my ten minutes and this set sucked. Even though I got laughs I feel like I am a piece of shit and a hack. I’d give this set an F.

The first thing I do is go in the back and talk to Alex. We are busting balls, but I look up the joke online. I find one line of it on Twitter, but it’s an opening line. It is not the joke. I can’t find the joke anywhere, but I am leaning towards dropping it altogether (I eventually just rewrite it). I legit can’t handle that. Being a hack is the last thing I want. I want to be funny and relatable. I don’t want to play to the back of the room, but I also want to be respected.

I am in a horrible headspace, but Brandon, and Alex talk me down. They tell me to do some breathing exercises, and we all talk about stuff we used to deal with. They bust my balls some more, but I watch Alex’s set (really good. hot one for that crowd) and afterwards I grab my stuff and go. We talk a bit outside and I do some breathing exercises in my car before heading home to pass out!

We did it laydees! Caught up again. I’ve got some fun shows this week, and the rest of the month. Tonight I am in Blackstone near where I grew up. We will see if I am a draw at all in that area (forecast says not even a little bit.) I will be back tomorrow sweetie pies! xoxoxo

#comedy #bomb #hack #thief #jokes #standup #improv #riot #competition #alt #club

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winstonhcomedy · 6 years ago

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“Dope A-F” - 1/28-1/30- “I Think I’m Going to Lose It”

What’s up baybees!?!? I’ve got a lot of shows to cover in a short amount of time. We’ve got a couple good ones, but for the most part this week has been a struggle. Definitely some super trying times, and I don’t know exactly what to do. I figured it’s time to share with you some of you laydees! So let’s get to it.

1/28

We had a twofer Monday night. I was super excited about it. For a lot of reasons. I had a spot on the showcase at Bottom’s Up pizza hosted by Patrick Buhse, and then I was going to go do a set at Jkogi’s open mic run by five comics (Brittany Andersen, Mu Cuzzo, Rick Williams, Beau Troxclair, and Kate Carroll).

So the Bottom’s Up showcase is going to be interesting. It will be the first show there in like 6 months. It used to be an open mic every single Monday hosted by a comic who is no longer a part of the scene. He lost the room after some accusations came out about some misconduct. I am not going to comment too much on it because I know there are some court proceedings going on/about to start going on.

Needless to say most people thought comedy would never happen there again. Thankfully Patrick Buhse got the room, and he booked a pretty dope lineup for the first showcase. I invited some people from work, and made sure to share the event info quite a bit. I thought this was going to be a dope show, and people would be excited for comedy to be back.

I get to the show a couple hours early and try to get some writing done. As we get closer to the show there is only two audience members. I am starting to get worried. I always do. Which is dumb, and I need to work on it. I just freak out about attendance for every show I am at. It is a dumb fear, but for right now I can not help it.

Jesse Jarvis shows up and sets up the PA. He and I start to move the tables and get the room set up. Buhse, James Muñoz, Kate Carroll also show up. After a while some people start to filter in. I have about three people from work come out (thankfully they haven’t seen a lot of my comedy so at least it will be new to them). We keep pushing the show back waiting for a crowd. It never happens. We have 8 audience members who aren’t comedians. They are all spread out, and usually this means the show is not going to be fun.

Buhse goes up and has a good hosting set. The people there are actually laughing. I realize they all have good energy and this is actually going to be pretty dope. After his set he brings up Jesse Jarvis who keeps the train rolling with a. strong set. Kate Carroll followed him and we get more of the same. The energy in the room is great for such few people. During her set Francesca Lyn comes in and we have the full lineup there.

It is my turn. I go up and I see a lady in the front row. I ask her name, and after she tells me I say, “ok cool now I officially know everyone in this room.” That gets a good laugh and I go into my material. I do about ten minutes featuring bits I have been working on for a bit. I feel like this chunk is taking longer to get finished than most. I think I’ve been lazy which is on me. Also the topics are a little more sensitive (race, gay conversion therapy, politics) so that also makes them tougher to sell. The set goes really well. Honestly I’d give it a solid B. I felt really good about it.

Afterwards Francesca goes up and has a dope set, and James closes it out with a hot one. He had manic energy while he read off a huge list of jokes. he was like a human Twitter stream. Everybody had a good set, and the show was fun. it was fun enough that I hope Buhse can start to pack it out and turn it into something awesome.

I hop in my car and drive to do a spot at Jkogi. There is a pretty good crowd, but they don’t seem super into it. I walk in and the PA sounds pretty busted. It keeps cutting in and out. I walk in during a dude bombing and see my buddy Alex there. We talk for a bit and then he goes up. He has an amazing set. He caught some lightning in a bottle. All of his riffs on the PA not working killed. His jokes worked as well. It was definitely the best set I saw of the night. He did so well he made it really tough for Jameson who had to follow him. He didn’t have the energy to really follow the type of set Alex had. You really had to grab the dingy and ride the wave.

Jameson bails early and I find out I am on stage next. I don’t even have time to grab my notebook so I just go up and do my set. I don’t even remember what I did. I am a little out of it and that’s to my detriment. Some of my jokes do ok, but I never really capture the audience the way I want to. I get a couple pops but thats about it. It is also distracting because to my left Jameson is just talking about how his set went. It wasn’t loud enough to distract the crowd, but he was close enough to the stage that I could hear it so it just felt like voices in my head. It is also weird when a show has multiple hosts, because most of them are lighting so I have to acknowledge like 3 different lights. I’m like I GET IT I’M BOMBING! I’d give this set a D+ or C-. Idk it was fine, but I didn’t love it.

I go outside and talk to Alex, and Mike Engle for a bit. We get a good riff session in and Alex walks me to my car. We talk about bombing, and how his set went. Alex also tells me that even though he doesn’t read it he is proud I am keeping up with the blog. Which is as nice and honest a compliment you can give someone. It was a good talk. I hop in my car and head home.

1/29

So this is where it starts to get juicy. This is one of those rare nights in Richmond where you have the opportunity to get up not once, not twice, but three times!!!

I pick up Alex Castagne and we go grab a bite to eat before the shows. I take my goPro in and we make a video. I came up with my new video series called the Lunch Boiyz. We went to Golden Corral and Beau Troxclair joins us. We end up shooting a super funny video, and have a really great time.

After this we head back to Alex’s place and meet up with Paige. We all head down to Mojo’s to find out where we are in the lineup. We were going to do Mojos, City Dogs, and then end at Fallout. We talk to Buhse and find out that won’t work so we reassess and head to City Dogs first.

We get there and the host Benjamin Braman is setting up. There is like 4 audience members, and only like 5 comics total on the list. Kenn Edwards and Liz Carr show up, and we make up the 5 comics.

Braman goes up and does a short hosting set before bringing up Paige. Paige is working out a new chunk of trans material and he has ben nervous to. try it in RVA. It goes ok. Not a bad set. I go up next and honestly have a really hot one. All of my stuff is really hitting and the four audience members are super into it. I am able to riff some new lines which feels really good. I’d give this set a B. Honestly I don’t know if I could have done better with my material in that room.

After me Alex goes up and has a good one. He does a bunch of crowd work and works out his new shit as well. They dig it and a few more people walk in during his set. I wish more people did this room. It is a humongous shame that people have a chance to get a lot of stage time and refuse to do it. A lot of people talk about grinding and trying to make it but I think only the three of us ended up doing all three open mics. They also aren’t even that far apart and the timing is perfect to do all three.

Before Kenn goes up I head over with Paige to Fallout. We talk in the car and head inside. Beau is there and so is Kate. Kat Malone is hosting and she gets us a good spot so we can also make Mojos.

Alex goes up after the same comic who did a street joke at Hof Garden two weeks ago. The PA is absolutely garbage for Alex tonight. Every time he moves he gets crazy feedback. Then he riffs on the bad PA and this time unlike Jkogi it doesn’t work. So he gets some laughs but all in all it is a rough set. Paige then goes up and he tries some stuff and gets some laughs. He works on his trans chunk again (I'm proud of him for doing it in RVA). After his set I go up and proceed to eat a fat one. I can’t connect. Some stuff does ok, but most of it falls flat. It’s like idk wtf I'm doing anymore. I’d give this set a D. I needed more energy and needed to sell it more.

We finally head over to Mojos. The hang is fun. I am up in like 8 comics but I really am exhausted so Paige and I switch and I get to go up a few comics earlier. Alex goes up and is getting nothing. We watch a few more comics bomb. The crowd was kind of dead. They were all in the back of the room and either comics or just people that don’t give af about comedy. I tell myself I am just going to do my material.

I go up and bomb harder than I did at Fallout. I did my set and kept working on the wording, but it felt awful. Legit it felt like I was just like staring into the eyes of 30 people who have just started comedy looking at me thinking, “how the hell does this guy get booked on anything.” It sucks. I’d rate this a D or D- as well. Maybe one thing worked, and it wasn’t what I really wanted to work. I mopily walk to my car and drive home.

1/30

I have a solid day of work. I get to go to the Science Museum which was super dope. I am trying to destress after a rough night of comedy. I edit together my Lunch Boiyz video and I am crazy happy about it.

After work I do some relaxing with friends, and then grab dinner with Alex. We go to this Philly Cheesesteak place next to Garden Grove in Cary town. It is pretty good. I show him the LB video and he loves it.

There is two shows tonight. Home Sweet Home hosted by Jacob McFadden and then Nuevo Mexico hosted by Moe Singleton. HSH is a pretty fun hang. Tons of new comics, but also some of my buddies show up. The show starts and I’m going second. Jacob starts us off and there is an ok sized crowd upstairs. So I am anticipating having an ok set. I’ve got about five new minutes on teaching that I want to work on.

Jacob always does a joke intro for people. They’re always funny, and can put you in a weird spot on stage because the audience has no idea that it is a joke. He really got me this night. It was a perfect aligning of the stars. I get brought up to, “this next comic used to do this super offensive character where he pretended to teach autistic kids, but thankfully he stopped Winston Hodges.” So now all my teaching stuff is out the window and I just work out other material.

I BOMB SO HARD HERE. Like according to Alex I did better than I think, but I felt like legit nothing was working. There was a dude there who was doing comedy for the first time as a punishment for fantasy football, and he came up during my set and he is just talking. I can’t shit on him because he brought the crowd, but I truly feel like I am floundering. I feel like nothing is working and I want to bail early. I do my time, but do not feel good about it. I’d give this set an F. Alex goes up and has a hot one. Gets lots of laughs, and everything at least hits a little bit. It is dope to see.

I walk outside with Alex after and I am furious. Like legit am having a breakdown. I feel like all of the newer comics hate me, they think I’m unfunny, and they’re just staring at me because I’m a hack. This kills me. The bombing hurts so bad. I feel like all of my jokes are trash and I legit feel like I can’t remember what a good set feels like or how to do crowd work. I don’t see the point in continuing to work out new material. We have a nice talk. I am in my feels, and am devastated. I decide I am not going to Nuevo Mexico. I can’t do it. I am defeated. Alex says let’s go inside and say bye to Jacob. He goes in and I sit down to talk to Beswick and wait for Alex.

Beswick and I have a good talk. He understands where I am coming from. He gets what is going on, and he knows it is tough. He reaffirms what I already know. That I have to keep doing new, because that is how you get good in the first place. Him and Alex both remind me we don’t need to impress anyone, this is all about working on our acts.

It has been like 15 minutes and I don’t see Alex. I assume he is upstairs. He calls me and then texts me asking where I am. I tell him I’m driving. I figured it’d be a good gag because I’m his ride. He’d rush downstairs and we’d leave.

So like another twenty minutes goes by and I go upstairs to watch Brown Frown the Clown ( a character portrayed by Mike Shea). It is insane. It has ballads about poop, jokes about rimming, and Brown Frown eats shit on stage (literally). It is nuts. Mike does a lot of characters. They are always insane sets that change the energy in a room. I respect what he does a lot. I could never do it. It is so different from what I do on stage it is kind of astounding to watch. Audiences are always trying to figure out what is going on and that is the beauty of it. Super funny and fun set.

I finally text Alex did you leave? He says yes. I go outside and we talk on the phone. Apparently it was a miscommunication. He was outside waiting at my car when he texted and called. He thought me saying I was driving was me telling him to screw off so he got a ride to Nuevo Mexico. I am pretty furious. Not at him but at the situation. I wouldn’t have sat in the room where I bombed so hard I wanted to die in for an additional 40 minutes if I had known he left.

I say screw it. I get in my car and drive to Nuevo. I don’t care if I bomb again. I legit refuse to let comedy beat me. I get to Nuevo and as I walk in Alex told me he was texting me it was good I didn’t come there. Super light and drunk crowd. Super talkative. Alex said he did pretty well with crowd work but you really had to work it.

Ben Oliver, Nathan Carlson, John Marg, Rebecca Hyman and Moe were all there. I get to see John and Ben go up. There are some moments in each set that are dope. Marg had a strong set. First time I’ve ever seen him do crowd work and he weaved his jokes in and out. Definitely a good thing to see. Ben did some as well. He is still working on being comfortable on stage, but I love that he isn’t afraid to do the tough rooms to try to figure that shit out.

The it is my turn. Even more people have left at this point. I look at Alex and we both share a side eye. The look that this might not go well. We start laughing. I see Moe has a shit on that he made that says “embrace the bomb”. So I decide to just go up and do my thing.

I have an incredibly hot set all things considered. I do about fifteen minutes. Most of it is crowd work with some rowdy hecklers. I really go in on this guy and he loves it. I get a few applause breaks (weird with only 7 people) and some super good pops. I feel so good during this set I don’t want to stop. I do about three actual jokes and they both kill. I ended on an applause break. I know this might mean nothing to most people but this was one of the most validating sets I’ve had in a long time. I’d give myself a B+ or A-. It was a reminder of what I can do when I am not in my own head. Bombing is part of the process, and always will be. I just have to keep working on accepting it and accepting that it doesn’t matter what anyone thinks about my act other than myself/audience.

I stay and watch Rebecca’s set. She closes on her song and I dance and sing every word to the delight of Alex. It is super catchy and I memorized it fast. I had a blast. I give Alex a ride home and then drive back to my place late and pass out. I needed this week. This feels like a big moment for my growth comedically.

So that’s it folks. We are all caught up finally. WOOO HOOOO. Yall’re the kindest laydees who have ever lived and I love you so much. Check out the Lunch Boiyz on Youtube! XOXO love you

#comedy #lunch #vlog #dinner #jokes #standup #improv #richmond #character #hilarious #bomb

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winstonhcomedy · 6 years ago

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“Dope A-F” - 5/8-5/13 - “Blackstone, Apartment Show, Mother’s Day, and A 16 yo POS”

I am the king of catch up. A real Heinz boy. It is time to get these shows started. It was a wild and wacky week of comedy. I had some highs and lows! So let’s do it!

5/8

I was pretty excited but also nervous for this show. Liz Carr had booked me to headline her new room in Blackstone (which is about 20 minutes from where I went to hs). I did a ton of posting and tried to get people out to The Brew House.

People are always like post when you are close. So I did. I posted in my hs alumni group, and posted on fb a ton. I sent over 400 event invites, and got absolutely zero response from it. I get it. It is tough to come out, but I was really hoping I could at least be a draw this close to my hometown.

I get to the show early and walk around downtown Blackstone. I take some pictures and watch cops low-key harass a dude. This dude was parked where he shouldn’t have been parked and some redneck piece of shit called the cops on him. So this dude had like two or three cops surrounding him, and it was ridiculous.

I walked back to the venue and most of the people on the show pulled up. Alida Harper, Liz, Mu, and Richard Woody. This was the first I’d seen Richard in a while. He got added to the show last minute, and it was going to be fun to watch him work. Alida was going to be hosting and I think it was definitely one of her first hosting spots.

We go in and they have a huge banner with everyone’s face on it. There is a crowd there, but they all seem to be pretty disinterested in comedy. The vibe in the room is that they would have been at that bar whether comedy was happening or not. The staff was sweet and the venue was nice, but I had the feeling it was going to be a shit show. Davine Ker who is featuring and down from NOVA also shows up.

I was pretty bummed, because I was like legit nobody came from back home. I felt like I had let Liz down by not being able to bring anyone out. Then someone came up and tapped me on the shoulder. I turned around and it was one of my really good friends from hs! She told me that her and another great friend from back home had come to check it out. So I go talk to them for a little bit before the show starts. They are seated up front and to the side, and I now feel way better about the show.

The show starts and Alida Harper gets up. She has an ok set. You could tell this was one of the first sets she has done where the audience was a little rowdy. They were talking, and interjecting. They weren’t being rude, or trying to ruin the show. They were having fun, but if you aren’t used to that it can be very distracting. She finishes up and gets some good laughs. She then brings Liz up.

Liz goes up and the crowd is still a little rowdy. She gets some good laughs as well. There is two little kids in the audience, but this definitely isn’t a clean show. She keeps the energy going and the show seems to be building. I can tell Richard is nervous, but he has his set figured out and is ready to go.

Richard goes up next and he starts pretty strong. He talks about going to Longwood, and a few other things. The audience digs him, but he tries longer stories and new stuff towards the end and their attention span is short. They enjoy it, but they definitely needed you to hold their attention.

Next up was Mu and he had the best set so far. He was super high energy, and had them laughing. He was the first to address the baby in the room, and he addressed being scared being the only black guy. He had a solid set, but he came in short on his time. He did about 7 minutes instead of 10, but I get why. He got a huge laugh, and it felt like it was the right time to get off. Super dope set.

Then Davine went up and did about 15 minutes. They liked her as well. She was pretty dirty, and that got their attention. She did pretty well for the whole time, but I could tell people were a little tired and I knew I was going to have to work my ass off. I wanted to bring it, and have the best set. I had friends there, and I was headlining. I need to be able to show why.

I go up and go right into crowd work. I want to wake these people up. it turns out about 75% of the audience is military. So I joke about that, and the kid that is there. It is working really well. I get them really on a roll for about the first 15 to 20 of my set. I have stuff that is hitting ridiculously hard. Every bit of crowd work is working. I am busting balls, and getting the guys all the way in the back involved. I involve the staff, and have a hot set. I use the last 10 to work out some actual material and it goes well. I close super strong, and I feel great. I’d give my set an A-. I don’t think I could have done much better than I did here.

I get off the stage and a bunch of the dudes ask for my social media info, and ask for some stickers. I don’t know if anyone of them will follow through, but they had so much nice stuff to say it meant a lot. I talked to my friends a bit more, and took some pictures. After saying my goodbyes everybody headed out. I drive home and pass out immediately.

5/9

This is a fun night. I’ve got a lot of open mics to get to. I love a three mic night.

My first stop is The Camel. Jameson is hosting and the headliners are Kat Malone and James Muñoz. I go right after work and get as much writing done as I humanly can. I am trying to work out and change the joke the girl said I took from Twitter. So I dropped the hack intro and changed it completely.

It is a lighter crowd, but they seem fun. There are a few comics there but honestly not a ton. Lot’s of newer people. Anne Meng is there and we have a good time catching up and busting balls. I let Jameson use my clamp light so we aren’t so backlit from the sunlight that you can’t see the performers face. Bert Martling and John Thomas show up as well.

Jameson starts the show and let’s Will Minor go up to get it rolling. After him James goes up. He has a good set. He gets a little wild and has nice involved heckler. His jokes are working and he takes his shirt off halfway through. It was really fun to watch.

Kat Malone then went up and had one of the better sets I’ve seen her have. I haven’t seen her out much at the open mics, but she was really able to connect with the crowd and get them on her level. I definitely dug it.

After Kat it was my turn. This was a good first set of the night. I got some quality laughs and was able to get the wording down a little more on a few of my jokes. I felt like people were entertained, and even if they didn’t love a joke they weren’t rude. I got a lot out of this. It was very productive. I’d give it a solid C. I could have done better, but I learned a lot.

I stuck around the rest of the show and watched. Some people did pretty well, and all in all it was a solid mic. After packing my stuff up I told Jameson to put me on the list for Garden Grove. I headed over there to get ready for the next set.

I get there and I am the first comic on the scene. I set my stuff up and when I turn around other comics have already started to show up. Mike Engle, Jesse Pearlstein and his gf (Hallie), John Thomas, Bert Martling, Jack Parker, and more.

The lineup is super light for this show as well. I requested to go early so I could get to the last mic. He makes Mike and I play Rock, Paper, Scissors to see who has to go first. I win so Mike goes first.

Jameson starts the show and has an ok set, he then brings Mike up and he gets some good pops. He tries some new stuff out, but it doesn’t hit the way he wants to, but it does get some laughs. He had a solid set. Then it is my turn.

I go up and try to get everyone’s attention. The people there are into it, but their attention span is a little short. I get them up top and then start hitting them with my material. It is a super solid set. The jokes from earlier work better here, and I get some sizable pops. I feel very good about this set and I’d give it a B-. I still stumble on some of the newer stuff, but the jokes are getting better.

I get off stage and grab my stuff. I watch one or two more sets and then head over to Penny Lane to do my final set of the night. I head straight over and walk upstairs. I see that there is a small audience, but only three comics are there. It is Jack Parker, Will Minor, Brian Mann (hosting), and myself.

We are waiting for more people to show up. So Brian goes downstairs for a smoke and I join him. We talk about who his favorite comics are, and his time in Chicago. It was a really good and fun conversation. We bust balls and talk about the local scene before heading back upstairs to get it started.

He decides to start in about ten minutes and he has me up third in case more comics don’t show up and I have to just keep stretching. Right when he tells me this more comics show up. Stella, Rebecca Hyman, another new girl named Taylor, Moe, and some others all show up. Rebecca and I shoot the shit and tease each other while playing darts. It was a super fun hang before the show started.

The show finally gets going and Brian opens it up. He gets a little weird, but the small crowd is definitely vibing with what is going on. I am super excited for this set. Will and Jack both have pretty good sets. They get some good laughs, and I am ready to roll.

I go up and have a super hot set. It is definitely my best set of the night. My new stuff is working, and I get some really big laughs. I do some teaching material and some of my newer stuff, and it is really connecting. I’d give this set a B+/A-. I needed this and it felt like the culmination of an entire night’s work.

After my set I chill for a while and watch a few more sets. A few other people go and don’t really connect, while a few really do and get some good pops. Overall though I feel great about how I did for the room. I watch the new girls set and then say goodbye. I talk to Stella for a bit about her set, and then head to my car to head home. This was an amazing day of comedy.

5/10

Brock Snyder had hit me up earlier in the week to book me on an apartment show in Richmond. I was stoked even though he did not give me much information about it.

I got off work a little early due to teacher appreciation week so I went to the mall and got a new outfit. I got some dope Vans and an odd future jacket. I was beyond ready for this show.

I headed downtown to the venue and waited to be let in. It was at First National apartments downtown. I go downstairs and Brock is there setting up. The lineup for the show should be fun.

Apparently all the comics from DC had gone to King’s Dominion during the day. Brock said he got escorted out by a plain clothe’s cop because he took his phone out of his pocket as a prank. Hearing the story gave me anxiety. But the thought of a comic being escorted out of a theme park is amazing.

Martin Phillips, Jelani Wills, Lee Loy, Liz Carr (with her new boo), and Sean Savoy were all on the lineup. Along with a couple comics I’ve never met before and didn’t get their names before the show. Martin and I talked about what happened with his radio show (crazy story), and just have a good time catching up.

The turnout is a little light, but it seems like it might be a pretty fun time. I think there was maybe 7 or 8 people there who weren’t with the comics, and another 5 or 6 that worked there. I didn’t know how the show was going to go, but I was ready for it.

Brock went up first to get the show rolling. They had a tight vibe, but they weren’t rude or mean. A female comic I didn’t know went up and she did pretty well too. She ended her set by giving sincere compliments which was interesting to see. Jelani then went and had a pretty good set. He got a few good pops, and kept their attention. Martin went up and did well too.

I went up soon after this and I had the definition of an ok set. I tried to get the room to liven up and talked about how I loved performing somewhere I couldn’t afford to live. everybody seemed super up tight, but I kept going anyway. Some of my stuff worked, but I really wanted to kill (which none of us did). I wanted to break through and was unable to. I closed ok and I’d give this set a C-. This was my first apartment show, and I think that I will be able to better adjust next time.

Liz, Loy, and Sean all had solid sets after that. They got similar responses. The audience seemed to dig the whole show, but they just weren’t huge laughers. The lights also were up because the room had a motion sensor so it was impossible to properly light the performance area.

The weirdest thing was everybody was working pretty clean. There were kids there, and honestly didn't seem like a crowd that wanted something super dirty. The next to last comic went up and said the F word a few times and it legit was kind of jarring. Like no one expected it and the audience didn’t seem to vibe with it at all. He got some laughs in his set, but it was so weird going an entire night hearing clean stuff and then that word hit like a bomb.

After the show I said thank you and goodbye to Brock. I had a mic at Slyderz a few blocks away I desperately wanted to get to. I sprinted about 8 blocks to get there. I walk in and there is no comics there. Just a bunch of weirdos setting up DJ equipment and doing art. I called the host Mu and he said it was cancelled. So I walked back to my car ready to head home.

I was pretty down in the dumps. I don’t know I felt shitty about my set, and I didn’t get to do another one. As I was getting in my car someone yells at me. I turn around and it is a lady from the show. She said some nice things to me and followed me on IG. So this was a nice consolation prize for how I felt. I said bye and headed home

5/11

This was a day I had no shows scheduled. I was going to a wedding, and then heading back to town to watch Detective Pikachu with my family. After the wedding I found out that an open mic was going on at Intermission Beer Company and it was being hosted by Liz Carr.

I hit her up and asked if I could go up when I got there. She told me she’d try to keep the show going. I headed straight to the venue as soon as I could leave the wedding. I run in and there is one comic before me and I am closing it out.

My buddy John Marg is on stage and he is having a good set. He has a heckler but the dude is just having fun. You can’t be mean to him to shut him up because you’d lose the entire audience. John gets off stage, and Liz brings me up.

I address the dude talking a lot and make a few jokes. He loves the attention. I have a response to everything he has to say. I spend the first half of my set addressing the audience to get them quiet and ready to go. I then use the last half to try out some jokes. They go pretty well. I feel awesome about this last minute set. Some stuff didn’t work, but the stuff that did kind of killed for the room. I’d give my set a B-.

I say bye and head to Detective Pikachu. This was a super fun and jam packed day. I then head home and pass out!

5/12

I go to brunch with my mom, dad, and brother for Mother’s Day. I then go take a nap before my show. I got a great nap in and then drove to the venue.

I was going to be a part of the Premier Entertainment comedy show put on by Patrick Mamou. I was referred to him by Micah “Bamm Bamm” White. It was going to be at the Hof Garden and I was super excited. This was the gig I got while outside on the phone at Castleburg.

I get to the venue and Mike Jay is already at the show. Patrick introduces himself to me. He shows me to the green room and then Mike and I chill. This is probably the most Mike and I have ever talked. There’s always been a respect there, but never a lot of conversation. We had a good talk about comedy, and what we need to do to make the next step. We talked about shows we had been on lately, and what we had coming up. It was a good talk.

After this Micah showed up. He was going to be the host. We talked the NBA for about 30 minutes or so. Our favorite players, the goat, and who we would draft. It was a super great time. We did some interview stuff for the camera crew that Patrick had for the show. He was doing a dope job of really making this a fun and insane show.

I went to check the crowd right before we started and it was a good crowd. Maybe 30 or so people. In that size room I knew we were about to have a good time. So the show starts a little after 7 and Bamm goes up and has a hot opening set. Then Mike Jay goes and has one of the better sets I have seen him have. All of his jokes are hitting, and the show keeps getting. better. During this time Antoine Scott the headliner gets there, and we talk about comedy.

Bamm goes back up and does a little more time before bringing me up. I have a super hot set. I feel really good about it. I just go into crowd work and talk to this one older dude that had found the show on his way home to Boston with his wife. I riff on how I am going to use him to talk shit to my friends who live a minute away and couldn’t make it out. I talk to all the mother’s there and hit on them a bit. I talk to the couples and ask how they met and had a really good interaction with a dude who has been with his wife ten years and she just got a job where he works. If was a super fun set. Then I closed with about 10 minutes of material. The crowd work killed harder, but I was super proud of the set. I’d give it a B+/A-.

I get off stage and talk to Antoine and Mikey while Bamm is up doing some more material. We are talking the business of comedy, and what it takes to work a bunch of different rooms. I talk about being one of the only white comics who is consistently in the black rooms, and Antoine talks about his first time hosting for an all white crowd. It is good to talk to some other comics that view versatility as such as important skill. Then Antoine goes up and murders for 30 minutes. I mean kills. He brought the house down. It is so dope that these sets will be on video because they’re all amazing.

After the show I get a bunch of followers on Ig, and a bunch of people want pictures. It definitely feels good to have people want to follow me. It makes me feel like I have a product worth putting out there. This is the dream. After I get some pics I say goodbye and then go watch Game of Thrones before passing out!

5/13

I was so excited to go to The Southern. The last Monday the mic was cancelled so I was stoked to see my friends. I started to not feel well while at work, but I refused to let that get between me and comedy.

I get to the mic and there is no comics there other than Paige. I talk to Angel, Danny, and Paige. Paige shows me this new thing he got (not at privilege to say), and we make fun of that for a while. Heather Kilburn and JR get there as well. Then Chris shows up and we set up the PA. Some more people come in. They look younger and a few of them know Chris. They sign a couple of their friend’s up. As soon as Alex gets there we head over to Jack Brown’s to get a bite to eat.

After eating we head back over and the mic had just started. There isn’t a lot of people here. This is going to be a brutal mic. I am up 11th and then at the last minute I got bumped for two comics coming from out of town.

After Chris does his opening set we all start to piggy back. This is one of the most brutal mics of all time. I mean everyone is bombing. It is a shit show. Each coming going up and just eating a dong.

Paige goes up fifth and he does not enjoy his set at all. He looks miserable but he gets thorough it and does his time. Kristina Montouri goes up and just tries to do some crowd work and see if any bits pop up and legit nothing is working.

The stage is cold all night. I go up after a newer lady who ran the light and bombed her ass off. She then almost forgot to bring me up. I was like I am miserable, but it is my time to go. Before I go up Alex asked me what I was going to work on and I riffed this thing about fake vomiting and raping dogs. It made him fall on the floor. Legit it made me so happy. I knew this set was going to suck all the good feelings from this away from me, but so glad I make someone laugh.

I go up and it sucks. I try newer stuff and I am getting small laughs and chuckles from everybody. Like it is ok. After about three minutes I see a dude in the front who seems sad. So I playfully riff with him about why is he sad. I want to make him have a good time. He says I suck and I am not good at comedy. He said my time is up. So I just start riffing that he is lying and that he is crying. I keep asking him why he is crying. I hate to see him this way. Like tears aren’t the answer. This makes his friends laugh, and he is still shitting on me. I keep going in and saying your friends are laughing. You seem mad. Let’s have fun.

I am legit super close to freaking losing it. This dude is obviously super young. Like he has to be in hs. He is being a piece of shit, but if I snap I lose. So I just keep teasing him. I ask if he is doing comedy and I tell him I can’t wait for him and his friends to go up and I am going to sit in the front row and cry just like he is. I’m going to wear my hoodie as tight as him to squeeze the tears out of my little cheeks. I FNALLY GOT HIM TO LAUGH ON THAT ONE! I then quickly tease a bit more and get off stage. I won because he laughed, but it felt miserable. I’d give this set an F. It was quitting fuel and hurt to do.

I get off stage, and talk in the corner about it. Apparently he is like 16. He almost got 3 years of pent up teaching rage unleashed on him. I don’t like the energy in the room so I grab my stuff and leave. Apparently the rest of the night was shit as well. That dude did like 2 minutes and got no laughs and that made me happy. I finally got home and passed out. Ready for the rest of the week.

Ooo weeee! That is it laydees! I am caught up. I had off on Tuesday! So we will be back with today’s shows tomorrow. I love you all so much and thank you for following and reading. You baybees are all a blessing! xoxoxo and see ya next time.

#comedy #jokes #standup #heckler #crowdwork #mothersday #bomb #charlottesville #richmond #party #shit

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winstonhcomedy · 6 years ago

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“Dope A-F” - 2/28-3/4 - “Eleven Shows To Go”

We have a lot to do because I get lazy on the weekends baybees! We had some bomb ass sets, some bad bomb sets, and some big news to get to. It’s going to be a wild ride. So let’s get to it.

2/28

I’m co headlining at The Camel with my friend Dylan and then I’m also hosting at the RVA Funnybone with Cash Levy and Dylan as well. The Camel is usually really fun. They have a good turnout and it is hosted by Jameson Babbowski. He unfortunately couldn’t make it this time because he got in a car accident and had a concussion. So he got Jacob McFadden to guest host.

I meet Jacob there early and we catch up. We set up a fun show for next week, and wait for comics to show up. This was one of the most poorly attended mics/showcases I’d been to in a while. Not just audience but also no comics showed up. Like it starts at 5:30. It doesn’t get in the way of any other mic/show in the city but only two comics signed up for the open mic portion. Two dudes that I’d never seen do comedy before. One of them comes in signs up and leaves saying he would be back in time for his spot. I don’t know. He is new and it rubs me the wrong way. He wasn’t going to do another spot. He just didn’t want to watch the show. Not a fan of that kind of attitude.

We have about 10 people here. I have a friend from work, and there is a table fo three girls, and a couple on a date. Along with a few regulars at the bar, but this was going to be brutal. Jacob goes up and he does as well as he could do in this situation. He got a few laughs and then brought up the first open micer. The open micer has a weird voice. He is new so the jokes need work, but his voice works. He sounds like an old time carnival barker when he delivers his material.

I then go up and proceed to do 15 minutes of misery. Like people are laughing, and I get some pretty good pops, but it feels like I'm dying on stage. Honestly just brutal. I give this set a D. The only positive was the fact that I was able to not do crowd work, and just do 15 of material. That felt pretty good to do.

After this I watched Dylan’s set and he did well. He is a good joke writer, and has stuff that works for everybody. So he had a fine set. After this we both headed to the Funnybone for the next show.

Once there we chill and hang out. Find out Big Scotty is doing a guest spot on the show. So we are having a good green room hang, and then Cash Levy (Cashing In with TJ Miller) comes in. He is a super nice guy right off the bat. Very soft-spoken, but had a super kind smile and very warm and welcoming. A lot of headliners are dicks. This dude was dope.

I try to be as professional as possible while hosting. I asked him how he liked his openers to work. He told me he works pretty clean and that he pretty much does crowd work so leave that to him. So now I have to work clean with no crowd work which is my least favorite way to work in the toughest club that I work. The RVA funnybone on an off night can be absolutely brutal.

Which it was. I went up and bombed my dong off. I got a few laughs, but it felt awful. I am so hamstrung without being able to do any crowd work. For the night my host set was fine. I just hate everything I do while hosting. It is a good skill to have and I’m a good host. I just will never get over the feeling of bombing in a club. I’d give this set a C-

Up next was Big Scotty and he did ok and Dylan had a good strong feature set. Then Cash went up and really worked them with crowd work for about 45 minutes. They were super into him and it was dope. He was going to be featuring for TJ Miller Friday/Saturday and they’d already sold out like 4 shows and were adding a 5th. I was glad I was already booked Friday and Saturday and they were doing a two man show because I did not want to have to make the decision between performing in front of him and being ostracized by some people in the rva comedy community (due to assault allegations about TJ Miller) or turning it down and letting the club down.

After the show I headed over to Penny Lane Pub to do a spot. I was fully prepared to bomb for a third time. There actually was a pretty good crowd when I got there. I was surprised. It was pretty late because I took my time getting there so I just assumed the show would be dead.

Patrick Owen was hosting it in James Muñoz stead. Patrick is a newer comic and a cool dude. He was doing a good job hosting. He kept the show running which is definitely important for a long show.

When I get there though I walk in and the dude who left early at The Camel and didn’t stay to watch the other comics was on stage. He was doing ok, but he had bought like 5 friends. The most egregious thing is he was going way over his time. Like Patrick had lit him a few times and eventually he just told him, “you’re at 10 minutes you’re done.” The guy said ok and then went into another bit, and Patrick came in like a champ and shut that dude’s mic off. It was glorious. I could watch mics get cut off on people running the light all damn day. I wasn’t a fan of this dude’s comedy, but he’s super new so it’d be weird if I was.

He came to the back room and everybody kind of told him that isn't ok and to not do it next time, but the newer comics were being pretty supportive of him as well. Which is a cool change of pace from when I started. When I started people wouldn’t have even talked to the dude. I am glad the scene is becoming more inclusive and inviting. I will always be a fan of ball busting, and having to earn your spot (which is sadly something that seems to be going away) since it is what I had to do and I think it made me a better comic, but if this means more shows/comics I’m all for it (even though I will continue to bust balls everywhere).

It is my turn to go up and I do newer stuff, and am super loose. I had the best set of the night for me. Everything was working and I got some super big laughs. I’m glad the newer stuff was working, and even riffed a weird thing about snake venom being like snake jizz that I probably won’t ever do on stage again, but was fun to do. I’d give this set a solid B which is definitely a great way to end the night.

3/1

Friday I headed up to DC for the weekend. My first spot was at Comedy Club DC run by Tom Mango, then Haywood Turnipseed Jr. got me a spot on his Attack of the Comics show at Drafthouse, and then I was going up on the late night mic at Big Hunt.

I go meet Chris at his hotel and pick him up and drive him to the metro. He is doing the early shows and late mic at Big Hunt. We ride up and talk about some new bits we are working on and just catch up on our week. We get to the metro station and it is pouring down rain. I have about a 30 minute walk to the venue. I am so glad I bought my waterproof backpack. It kept all my stuff dry. I just wish I had waterproof clothes because my legs were soaked once I got to Comedy Club DC (club heaven and hell).

I am going up a little later in the show. the crowd is not bad for a rainy night and they seem kind of tight. Nobody is really doing well. Tom was hosting and he did about 20 minutes up top and wasn’t getting anything at all. He kept talking about how sticky the stage was. You could hear his feet move it was disgusting.

I feel like I’m going to have a pretty good set. I am ready to go up and just do my thing. I’ve got some newer stuff that I want to work on and my crowd work usually goes well here.

Before I get brought up Tom talks about having sex gorilla style and then doesn’t explain what that is. It also put the crowd in a weird mood. So I go up and try to address it and a loud annoying couple to my right starts talking and looking it up on their phone. It interrupts my two bits I do so I resort to crowd work and kind of pick on them.The crowd was tight and I couldn’t crack them. It felt worse than it looked I heard. I’d give this set a D. It is weird because it was one of those sets where I felt horrible but comics and people came up and said it was really great how I handled the hecklers etc. The comic after me was the headliner. He was kind of derivative but he did pretty well. Definitely better than me (especially up top, he slowed down by the end) so I can’t say shit. He did the job and I didn’t. On to the next show.

I hop in an uber because I refuse to walk 45 minutes in the rain. Best 8 dollars I have ever spent. I get to Drafthouse a little early and head inside the restaurant next door to grab a bite. A comic I don’t know at all joins me and I forgot his name. He is super nice and we hit it off and just shoot the shit for like 30 minutes. He is from Vegas and just moved to DC. He knows the only Vegas comic I know (Martell Green) and we talk about him for a bit (super nice guy and only comic I know that has a good impression of The Game).

We then head next door and wait for the venue to open up. Haywood shows up and we make fun of a couple that is kissing in the rain under the dude’s jacket. We talk about comedy, and just our days. Once we head inside Haywood tells me that I am going to go first so I can get over to Big Hunt.

Haywood goes up and warms the crowd up for about 15 minutes. There is a pretty dope crowd for a 10:45 free show. He gets them by the end and gets people in the mood for the show to get on the road.

He brings me up saying I’m from Charlottesville, and I start to riff off of that. after getting them hooked and on my side I did a super strong 6 minute set. Everything I did was working and I closed on a really big laugh. It felt awesome I’d give this set a solid B+. Legit felt amazing to do after a set I was so disappointed in.

It had stopped raining a bit. So I said my goodbyes and booked it to Big Hunt. This was a nice 20 minute walk, and it flew by because of the high I was riding. It was my first time on Haywood’s show. I know he has seen me do well before, but I love making a good first impression anytime I’m booked on a show.

I walk into Big Hunt and head downstairs. The show has just started and my buddy TJ is hosting. I walk in during the end of his set and he is doing really well. I catch back up with Chris and see a bunch of my friends (Lafayette, Eddie Morrison, Michael Summers, and more). I get in a dope riff session with Michael about his 36 spiders jerking off a grown man bit. We talk about how he needs to really just make that his whole act, call himself Michael Spiders, and getting merch made (I got jerked off by 36 spiders and all I got was this stupid t-shirt, grass gas or getting jerked off by 36 spiders nobody rides for free, and Virginia is for getting jerked off by 36 spiders.)

Chris had a super good set. He had the confidence to try a joke about his wife’s miscarriage that doesn’t usually go over well. It absolutely killed that night. He also found another punch in the joke just from pausing. It was really awesome to see my friend’s joke come together.

After a few more comics it is my turn to go up. I have a crazy hot set. From beginning to end it is working. It was nice to have each set build on the others and end with my strongest one. I’d give this set an A-. I got off stage definitely feeling good about it.

We then hung out at the bottom of the back stairs for the rest of the show waiting for TJ. We are all joking around and riffing. We talk about old tv shows and bust each others balls. It was a dope night. After the show we all hopped in TJs car and he drove me back to mine. I then headed back to his place and passed out.

3/2

Today was a day I needed. I slept in for what felt like forever. I just kept waking up and going back to sleep until I finally got up for good at around 4 pm. I love lazy days like this after super long weeks. All I have to do is prep for my two headlining sets in Manassas.

I wake up and head downstairs and chill for an hour or so with TJ watching basketball. I then hit up Dom Grayer and see if he wants to meet up for dinner at Primetime Sports Grill. Which is one of my favorite places to eat. He says yea and we head over.

He introduces me to this app on his phone called OneNote. It is going to be a game changer when it comes to organizing my material and stuff. It is super easy to use and free. He showed me his notes and they looked dope. I really can’t wait to give it a try.

We shoot the shit and talk about comedy stuff. How I want to move and how he is too. He goes over some roomie drama that sounds absolutely insane, and I tell him it has to be a bit. It is too ridiculous not to be. We have a great dinner and he leaves to go work the door at Big Hunt and I head to Manassas to Public House Kitchen and Brewery to headline a couple shows.

I get to the shows and the booker Andy Sanderson is outside. I haven’t seen him in a while, but he is always extremely kind to me. He was one of the first people who had ever booked me in the area so I will always appreciate that.

He takes me inside and walks me upstairs. He tells me the first show is sold out, and if there is interest in a second show we will do it. I am not expecting this to happen. I am fully expecting a great/fun first show and no second show. We play it by ear, and either way I’m stoked.

The openers are Bob Siegel (I've met him a few times) and Greg Scott (my first time meeting him). They’re both super nice guys, and I'm excited to see their stuff. The place gets super packed out upstairs and the show starts right on time (which is always a blessing). I can already tell from the energy in the room that this is going to be a fun show.

Andy introduces the show and does a couple minutes of jokes. Then he brings up Bob. He has a pretty good set. He gets people involved and they’re definitely ready to laugh. He has a solid 12 minute set. Then after him is Greg. Greg has some really big pops in this set. They’re on board with him from the beginning and he isn’t afraid to just go for it. I am legit in a great mood watching this.

I start to get in my own head. What if I can’t follow this? What if I’m not worth the ticket? What If I’m an awful comic? These are always questions that pop in my head when doing a longer set. I hope that one day they go away, but at the same time they really push me to try to do my best on stage. I finally tell myself to have fun, and I get in the right mindset. I have my set list ready to go, and am ready to see what happens.

I get brought on stage to a very nice intro and I just get into it. I do some crowd work up top about the room, and the front row. It is destroying. I am kind of all over the place riffing and trying to get into my set. After a few minutes I start with my teaching material and it is slaughtering. We have a few teacher’s in the crowd who want to get involved so it is a mix of about 30 minutes of teacher material and crowd work up front. Then I get the light and do another 10 of material that doesn’t have to do with teaching. Then I closed with 5 minutes of newer/unfinished/offensive material. It felt incredibly good to do. I am absolutely killing and it feels great. I felt like a real headliner. I did 45 minutes of material and killed the whole time. I'd give this set an A. I actually had people get a few copies of my album and a bunch of stickers. It felt great to do.

After the show everybody was being very nice. They followed me on IG and Twitter. Some added me on Facebook, and they just kept giving me compliments. Honestly one of the coolest moments of my comedy career so far. I loved the fact that a few of the teachers came up and told me they worked with special education and that I hit the nail on the head. That my material was awesome and really spoke to them. Having universal material about kids that people don’t usually talk about makes me really happy and that I am continuing to get better as a comic.

Andy tells me that we are going to do a second show even though it is going to be lightly attended. He said there were like 11 pretty drunk people who wanted to check it out. So we made the second show free, and we were going to just do a loose fun show. I’m stoked. I am so ready to get up and go again (although I am weary because poorly attended late shows have a tendency to be shit.)

I meet one audience member before the show and she is already wasted. I don’t know how this is going to go. I am definitely worried. A few more people come upstairs, and a couple who was at the first show decided to stay and watch the second which was super awesome.

Andy goes up and he does some time and gets a good response. After him Bob goes up and his set goes pretty well as well. Greg had a strong second set too. Honestly the people here were having a super fun time. Except for this one dude who looked furious. I could tell he was mad and I don’t think that it was over the show. He was with the drunk woman I met earlier and he just looked super embarrassed.

I was up next and decided to do an entirely different set than I did for the first show. I wanted the couple who was at both to be like damn he has a lot of material. The first thing I did was address the angry dude. I was like are we ok. you seem upset and I don’t want you mad you’re just such a pretty man and I want you to like my comedy. This made him laugh for the first time of the night. He was on board (until his gf got so drunk 20 minutes later that they left. They did it in a very subtle and polite way so I didn’t mind.)

I then did a bunch of different material. I got to know everybody in the crowd and got some really big laughs. I was killing for the entire thing. It was just so validating for like 40 minutes to still be doing well with a small late crowd with a completely new set. I’d give this set a B. I got to work out some new stuff, and I got a few extra punches I am very proud of. This was a dope set.

After the show I got to chat with the comics for a bit. Bob had to leave but Greg and I talked for about 40 minutes. It was a really nice talk. He is a good dude who has stepped back from comedy a bit, but he has a good head on his shoulders and was super fun to talk to. I then got a message about Big Hunt. I had completely forgot to message that I wouldn’t be there because they added a second show. I felt bad about it, but there was nothing I could do. I then grabbed my stuff and headed back to TJs. It was a super fun night and I can’t wait to go back.

3/3

I am super stoked about the show today. I have my first brunch show ever. Maddy Brannon booked me on her brunch show called “Mimos-Has” at Wonderland Ballroom. I have never been here before and it was kind of a bitch finding parking at 1 pm.

After finding parking I see Kasha Patel walking in and I head inside with her. We catch up and I talk to her about her Ted-Ed video I saw online. After heading upstairs I see Maddy and a few other of my friends. I get a compliment from a comic I’ve only met once before, and find out I am going up 4th.

The show is pretty packed. Way more people than I expected. Maddy and her co-host go up and have a solid cohosting set. I love sets like this. It reminds me of how much fun Host Battle is and makes me wish I was doing a duet set sometime soon.

After them Kasha goes up and has a hot one, then Leon Scott, followed by Liz Norman( Baltimore comic I have never met before). They all do really well. Super hot sets.

It is then my turn. I set up my camera and go up and have a relatively decent set. I started really strong with a riff about how this is the most an attic has ever looked like a basement. It got a huge pop and then went into my material. Everything worked pretty well especially up top. I closed weak and it left a bad taste in my mouth. I’d give this set a B-.

I got compliments after the set so I felt a little better, but I knew that I didn’t perform up to my own standards. I say my goodbyes and then hop in the car and headed back to the Richmond Funnybone for my final set of the weekend.

I get back to Richmond and head straight to the club. It is going to be me, Big Scotty, Dylan, and Cash again. I need the paycheck, and honestly am excited to hear how the weekend of shows went.

I catch up with Dylan. He had a good weekend in DC and we riff and raff for a bit. Then Big Scotty gets there and he seems to be in a good mood too. Finally Cash shows up and he and I get a chance to talk. He talks about how much fun the weekend was. That they basically sold out all 5 shows and they were absolutely amazing.

I am super happy for Cash, but I know a lot of people I’m friends with hate TJ due to the allegations against him (sexual assault in college/calling in a bomb threat more recently). Cash is a good and genuine dude. Absolutely a master at crowd work, and very sincere. I wish him only the best and am glad that he got to enjoy five really dope crowds over the weekend.

The show starts and I bomb my dong off into oblivion. The crowd was super light maybe 40 people. I still wasn’t allowed to do work blue or do crowd work. So I was just trying to get this disinterested crowd to pay attention. I started with absolutely nothing. I mean nothing. Then the next joke got a little bit. This kept building. The next joke did even better. More and more people paid attention. I finally closed on a sizeable laugh for what I was working with. These are the sets where when I listen back I’d say this was an F due to crowd response. I was so unhappy, but being in the moment and taking a crowd that wanted absolutely nothing to do with comedy and turning them into a crowd that wanted to have fun was dope. I’d give this a C- for that alone.

Big Scotty went up and didn’t get much at all from the crowd. It was kind of a bummer seeing the work I put in go away. He just wasn’t able to hook them and that is ok. it happens. Then Dylan went up and had a fine feature set. He really put the work in and they responded.

When I went back to the green room Cash was very complimentary. He had actually paid attention to my set and gave me a solid note about how to deliver my material about autism. He told me to maybe sometimes say I used to teach. It said that maybe the moment I tell them I’m still an educator they might tune out a bit because it means I’m not a professional comic. He was very humble giving advice, and I appreciated it a lot. I may try it, but I don’t know how I feel about lying to the audience right away. Still a solid and helpful note if for no other reason than it made me think about my jokes in a new light. After the show I say my goodbyes and go and pass out. This had been an incredibly long week.

3/4

I was stoked for Monday. Because Monday means it is time for The Southern. Which is the best and most fun mic around. I get to town early and get to have dinner with a few comics (JR, Abdulla, Charlie Gilliam). I had to talk Charlie into coming out. He said he wasn’t feeling well and he didn’t want to, but I did my go to move of guilting people into doing comedy. It’s how I like to keep people going out, but also kind of busting balls. Worst case is he comes out and bombs his dick off, and the best case is he comes out and he does well and feels better. It’s a win win.

I get to the Southern to meet everyone and talk to Angel and Danny (the gm) while taking down the chairs. I catch up with them about the future shows, and how last week was. After Charlie, Abdulla, and JR get there I get them to help me set the PA system up. We then decide to go over to Christian’s Pizza.

After grabbing pizza and shooting the shit we headed back over to The Southern. We get there and there are a few comics already there and we get the sign up sheet going. I start getting the video from the College Inn show together for McCallie since he was planning to do a promo video for the next show.

Paige was sick and Alex wasn’t around so they weren’t coming out, and we were missing a lot of the newer comics this week. So I think instead of 25 to 30 we only had about 16 comics so everybody got to do 5 minutes. I was up ninth, and was in a good mood so I took some notes and tried to help people out when I can. The crowd was light but attentive. They stayed the whole show, but I could not tell how I was going to do.

When it was my turn to go up Chris brought me up to a dope intro. He announced to the crowd that I had been selected to perform in an audition at the DC Improv for Just For Laughs comedy festival. Which is true. So this is my way of telling people. I am very excited and insanely nervous. I get five minutes to try to impress a booker to put me on their new faces showcase which would be a huge deal for me and my career. I’d have a real credit.

So I come up to a lot of applause and decide to do a bunch of unfinished and new stuff. It all worked. I had a brand new idea that got some laughs and tow or three things that I half assed on stage a few months ago, but never got around to doing. They all worked, and I found some new punches and places to go with the jokes. I’d give it a solid B.

I brought Chris back on stage by announcing that he had also been selected to audition. It’s absolutely insane that two comics from this area are getting an opportunity to even showcase. It is just validation of a lot of hard work over the last 4 years. It felt good to be recognized and not have to the one to announce it so I really appreciate it.

The rest of the show was a blast. Some people did pretty well and some other people bombed so hard. Colby, Abdulla, and Jared all had crazy rough sets. Colby tried roasting people and audience wasn't into it, Abdulla just couldn’t connect, and Jared was just Jared. McCallie had to leave early but he tried doing some crowd work and he asked the audience about what’s a stereotype about UVA students and Padgett (bi and a comic) yelled, “being Gay!” McCallie said no from a real audience member and Meredith (Keaton Ray’s fiancee) responded, “being Gay.” It absolutely destroyed me. It was definitely an inside joke but it was so fun. Keaton had a few good things and I gave him some notes. He has come a long way. A lot of them have actually. It felt good to see them continue to come out even with a lighter crowd and really try to work stuff out.

It was a super fun night. I headed home and passed out. This was the beginning of another long and fun week!

I am caught up sweeties! It felt great to get these written down for my laydees and baybees! So thank you to everyone who reads. Give me some feedback. Want anything in particular written about please let me know! I love you all so so so so much! xoxoxo babes!

#comedy #jfl #standup #jokes #hilarious #bomb #dc #cville #charlottesville #standup comedy #improv #crowd work

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winstonhcomedy · 6 years ago

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“Dope A-F”-1/17-1/20- “Snowing in Space”

We’ve got some shows to catch up on my little sugarbees. We had some hot ones this week, but also what goes up must come down. Got a nice humbling set in there as well. So let’s get started and recap this ish. Don’t forget to follow me on IG/Twitter @winstonhcomedy

1/17

I was pretty stoked about this day. I was going to get to do two sets. The best part is the first one is a brand new show in Charlottesville. It’s super dope to see new shows pop up in that area. Especially one’s I am not involved in running,

The new show was at Snowing in Space Coffee. Ironically enough it started snowing on my drive up to Charlottesville. I get to the venue pretty early and order a super delicious hot chocolate and settle in.

New shows are always weird, and can give me a mix of excitement/anxiety. The excitement comes from the prospect of doing jokes in front of a new crowd, and the anxiety comes from the fear of no one showing up/it being poorly run/no attendance.

The comic who was putting on the show is Carly Crickenberger. I don't know her at all, but was interested in meeting her. She didn’t attend because she had broken her ankle so Brian Gerard was going to host in her place.

Lot’s of my friends showed up, but we also had some new comics as well. JR, John Marg, Keaton Ray, David McCallie, and David Luzader were all there. Then there were about two or three other comics I had never seen before who were going to try it out.

The show starts and Brian does his set, There is a pretty solid crowd there actually. They have a weird energy. Not antagonistic, but they just had a really chill vibe. Which makes sense we are about to perform in a coffee shop.

The seats start to fill up and more and more people come in. Brian then brings up John Marg. John does ok. I can tell the audience is trying to really get a grasp of what to expect from the show. The room is also super deep so people are spread all the way to the back of the room. I set up my camera and get ready to perform.

I had a pretty hot set. Only one of my jokes didn’t do really well, and it was a race joke in a room with no black people so I expected as much. I closed on my witch joke. I’d give this set a B. Honestly super solid. It was hard to get huge laughs because of how deep the room was, but they were into it and attentive.

After me a few more comics went up. The show is going well and no one is really bombing which is nice to see. McCallie has the best set I’ve ever seen him have, JR has some stuff that goes over pretty well, and a new female comic who brought some friends had a good one.

They then took a fifteen minute intermission. Which historically seems like an absolutely miserable idea for a comedy show. All the momentum we had just built up for an hour now has to be recaptured. You’ve also basically ended the show and given people the permission to leave. Thankfully neither of this happened. It was a miracle.

I watched a few more sets and everyone was doing well when I left. I also had a friend’s sister come up to me and tell me how dope my set was. It was awesome because I hadn’t seen this friend in years, and had never met their sister before. So all in all a pretty dope moment. I left and then drove to Richmond to perform at Penny Lane Pub.

I get to Penny Lane and there is a tiny little crowd there and a handful of comics. It was weird because it was a lot of newer comics. It’s crazy how the scenes has changed in Richmond since I started. Legit the only comics at this show who have been doing it for over a year were Dylan Vattelana, Anthony Thompson, Patrick Buhse and myself.

It is super good to see Anthony out. He was one of the group of people I really looked up to and wanted to be like when I started standup in Richmond. It seems like he is ready to get out and start grinding again at these mics which is dope af. He’s a beast on stage even with the time off, and I can’t wait to see all the new shit he has been working on.

I get there and Jameson Babbowski is hosting. He asks if I’m ready to go up and I tell him yea. I go up and work my ass off. I have people laughing and paying attention. It feels good to work out the new stuff, and just try to sell it well. I’d give this set a C. I lost them at some points, and a couple jokes didn't hit in the way they should.

I get off stage and Anthony goes up. He has to deal with a heckler who gets mad about a MAGA hat reference. He handles it well and continues to do his shit. Just nice to see him on the stage. Solid set.

This is one of those nights where I could stay out a little later. Just talking comedy with the other comics. Shooting the shit, riffing, being weird, all that good stuff. One of my friends Bryan was in his feelings about his set, and we kind of broke it down for him. He seemed better after the talk, but sometimes people just need tough love. All in all super fun and a great hang. I headed home and passed out.

1/19

I took Friday night off because I wasn’t booked anywhere and I needed to be home for my niece/brother’s birthday brunch.

So after the brunch I headed up to DC to meet up with Chris at Tjs place. We hung out for a few hours before heading into the city. Chris was featuring at The Improv for Adrienne Iapalucci and I was going to try and get three sets in.

It is already raining and I am an idiot and did not bring my boots. So my tennis shoes/feet are already soaking wet. We go and grab dinner at Super Pollo before heading our separate ways.

I walk to my first set at Comedy Club DC at Club Heaven and Hell. Usually this is run by Tom Mango but this week Brock Snyder was running it. I’ve never met him before. He sees me and informs me I am up third. The crowd is pretty huge. Like this is going to be a dope show I am so ready.

The show starts and already they’re into it. Keith Correy goes up first after Brock and had a solid set. Then Kevin Tit does well, and closes especially strong. Then it is my turn.

I went up and had a killer set. Like it felt so good. Everything was hitting, and I could have been up there for an hour. I felt like I was able to really wake them up. I’d give my set an A. After I get off stage I get a lot of compliments form other comics which is nice. The best part is two comics come up to me about booking opportunities which is awesome.

I then walk to DC Drafthouse. Once I get there I realize my backpack is not waterproof and all of my notebooks and art from my students soaking wet. I am absolutely devastated, but have to power through because I’ve got two sets left to do.

I am lucky enough to get on at Drafthouse. I end up having a dope set there as well. I’d give this one a B. They were a tiny crowd, but they definitely wanted some comedy. I started a little slow which I feel like I tend to do a lot. I need to work on that. If I could start faster/stronger at these mics I’d definitely kill harder. All in all a super fun set.

This time I say screw it and get an uber to Big Hunt. I am so angry about the rain I did not mind I was spending ten bucks. I go downstairs and Chris is there. Everybody is hanging out and I find out I’m going up in a few spots. I do some different stuff during my set than I’ve done at the other spots. I had a dope set. My Kavanaugh joke worked pretty well, and I��m really starting to see the material grow. I’d give this set a B+.

Chris and I walk back to his car after his set and head back to TJs. We chill the rest of the night and I pass out hard af around 3 am. All in all a solid DC trip.

1/20

Sunday is a little more low-key of a night I woke up crazy late and headed back to Richmond. There is two open mics happening this night. Which is dope. Sunday is always a dead night for open mics. So the fact that there are now opportunities to get up a couple times on a Sunday is pretty amazing.

Unfortunately even though lot’s of comics talk about there not being shows, and wanting to grind both of these open mics had like no comics there. Which is a shame because both shows had fine crowds.

The first room I did was Brewers Cafe which is a black owned coffee shop. The host of that show is Remo Millz. This is a good, tough, workout room. I’ve done this room a handful of times and more times than not I do pretty well, but I also do a lot of crowdowrk here.

Only about 5 comics show up, and including the audience I am one of two white people at the show. I love doing rooms like this. I have a few race jokes that I am trying to work out, and I am a firm believer that if you have race material and you won’t do it in front of black people then you shouldn’t be doing that material.

Since there are two mics to go to Remo doesn’t even doing a hosting set he just brings me up. This is not a good start. They seem disinterested in what I’m saying. I’m not offending them. They just aren’t vibing with me which is brutal. Instead of resorting to crowd work I just double down and keep doing the material. Everything gets light chuckles and one dude really dug my set.

The mic cord pops out of the tiny PA and Remo has to come plug it in. This ten minute set starts to feel like an eternity. Then a lady comes in and she has bright hair, bright make up, and bright clothes. I talk to her a bit and make one joke about how she look and IT DOES NOT WORK AT ALL. This was a big fat bomb. I’d give it an F. Definitely proud I worked out the material I did, and stuck to it, but part of me was like I should just do crowd work and not bomb.

After I bomb my dong off I head over to Hof Garden to do a set there. The setup is different than it was the previous week, but the good news is there are more people here. There is an actual crowd which is awesome. The Patriots playoff game is on the tv, the crowd is a little talkative, and swing dancing is happening in the other room. But a crowd is a crowd so I am pretty excited.

The host Moe Singleton goes up and gets the room right for comedy. After his set my buddy Alex Castagne goes up. He cracks them a little bit. He has a good set, and his newer material is working well. He responds to a heckler during his “talk like a baby” joke and that riff works great. Alex has a solid overall set, but then he has to leave.

There is a new female comic who is up right before me. She is obviously new and is working stuff out. Her stage presence isn’t quite there yet, and she definitely needs help with economy of words. She keeps the audience’s attention so you know she has interesting things to say. She just needs to work on punching it up.

I go up next and decide against crowd work again. I double down on new material and try it all in a different way from earlier. This is a more diverse crowd than the first show. So the material goes better. I get my “Trump is the 16th worst President joke” to work a little better. I keep adding to my witch joke as well. All in all a solid productive set. Definitely feels good to work that stuff out. I’d give it a C.

I continue to watch the rest of the show and everybody does ok. Patrick Jensen, Rebecca Hyman, and a couple new comics I forget go up. All in all not a bad show.

The last comic did go up and he opened with a street joke (which I hate). That killed. Then he just starts reading fb statuses and it’s basically just repeating memes. Then he closed with another street joke. Please people don’t do this. I hate this. It’s a bummer to see, and it’s cheap. Write your own shit please. Yes at first it won’t be as funny because doing comedy is hard. That’s why not everyone does it. Repeating memes won’t make you a good comic. It will just lose you the respect of other comics, and honestly just bum them out. Be better comics.

After this I hang out until they close and head home. The hang was super fun. Alan Vann dropped by but he didn’t get off work in time to go up. One of the new comics said that for only doing comedy four years I wasn’t that bad. Which I am going to take as the compliment it was intended to be, but won’t lie it hurt. Such a fun night, and can’t wait for the Hof Garden next weekend. I just found out I will be hosting it so that will be dope.

Thanks baybees and laydees! This was a good one to do. I’ve got some fun shows coming up. I’m at Cozzy’s Wednesday at 8. I’m doing Tidewater Tonight as a fun character I created Friday at 9:30. Saturday I’ll be in DC and I'm hosting Hof Garden Sunday. I feel like I”m a little stagnant right now. I hope I can get some more shows booked, and make some extra cash soon. The move is coming and I'm ready for it. XOXO Love you all.

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winstonhcomedy · 6 years ago

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How’d Winston Do This Weekend? 11/2-11/3

What a wild and wacky weekend of wonderful comedy!!! We had a twofer on Friday in Petersburg, and then a bit of a road trip for a shit show at Smith Mt. Lake on Saturday!!!

I love a twofer. Two sets in one night. It’s especially rare when the show isn’t in a huge city. The fact that Petersburg had two shows on Friday is kind of ridiculous, but I am definitely not complaining.

The first was the Off The Rip Improv Showcase at Plaza Mexico Bar and Grill run/hosted by my buddy Mu Cuzzo. I think it was Mu’s first time running a show like this which is pretty neat. I hit him up before the show and asked for a spot. He put me on and let me go first so I could make my second show.

I get there early and get to hang with Mu, his dope girlfriend Paula, and Bryan Williams. I knew Paula before I knew Mu. She used to come out and support a bunch of comedy shows. She’s a pretty dope artist as well. She is a poet, a writer, she makes jewelry, and there’s probably a lot more I’m missing as well. She’s a good influence on Mu, and supportive af. I always enjoy talking to her!

Mu is in a super good mood, because his mom is coming to watch him perform for the first time. This is a super dope moment to watch. When his mother gets there Mu hands her a bouquet of flowers (it’s her birthday) and gives her a huge hug. Shit like this gets me teary eyed. Small stuff like that really touches me in a crazy kind of way.

Mu’s mother is a pretty strong, and awesome woman. Mu told me she’s on city council and when city council tried to knock down city worker’s pay by 10% she told them to take all of her pay. This is a bad ass move. It show’s she gives af about the community, which is rare as hell nowadays.

Had to talk to Bryan about staying in his lane. Bryan is a good dude who means well, but he sometimes gets involved in some stuff on fb he really shouldn’t. I think arguing about stuff on FB is super annoying and pointless (even though I’ve done it.) I just advised him it’d be best to mind his own business and keep his head down and just write/tell jokes. He’s so new he doesn’t need the reputation of a White Knight or argumentative dude on FB. It was about some personal stuff going on in the comedy scene rn so I don’t want to go into it, but it was a good talk.

The room itself is pretty big and spacious. There is a weird divider in the middle of the room. The DJ is set up on one side, and the comics perform on the other. There is a pretty good crowd there, but because the room is so big it doesn’t feel super intimate. Also there's a table of about 11 people behind us that you have to turn around to see. It’s an odd setup, but it works.

Mu went up first and did a good job getting the room ready for comedy. Since the microphone was wireless and he knew a lot of the audience he walked out into them a little bit and did his thing. He got his mom involved a bit, and warmed up the room nicely.

I go up first and have a pretty solid set. I only did crowd work. It did not have the vibe of a crowd that would be into my material. I only did about 5 minutes since I was a guest, but I got his mom involved and his cousin. I had some pretty good lines, and got some big laughs.

All in all I’m glad I went to the show. I’d give my set a B-. After the set I hopped in my car and drove straight to Wabi Sabi.

Wabi Sabi is one of my favorite comedy rooms. It is usually hosted/run by Jason Klingman. Tonight Kenny Wingle was hosting since Jason was at the Brian Wilson concert in Richmond.

This is a room set up for comedy. It is in a basement, has low ceilings, tight seating, brick wall backdrop, separated from rest of the restaurant, and usually has a good crowd. This is not an easy room by any means, but they do reward funny. You have to be willing to work for your laughs. They like jokes and crowd work.

I’ve had some of the best sets of my life at Wabi and I honestly think it’s a room that has made me into the comic I am now. I’m not afraid of any room, and it really helped me build my confidence while doing material or crowd work.

When I got to the show Alex Castagne was on stage and he had a hot one. The room was full, and he was slaughtering. Alex is a funny dude, and a good friend. A real fine jew of a boy.

He gets off and Joshua Horsford goes up. Joshua has been in and out of the comedy scene for a long time. He started well before me, but he also writes/acts so there are times where he is absent from the scene for months. He had a pretty good set and Kenny went back up and did some crowd work in-between him and the next comic.

Next up is Patrick Nowaczyk one of the members of Rich Girls comedy. A comedy troupe that isn’t really doing anything anymore but was full of some of my favorite comics when I started. Pat started out super strong. He was really killing up top, but then he got into some of his longer jokes and they either didn't get them or just didn’t have the attention span for them (which sucks because he did two of my favorite bits he does).

He gets off stage and since it is late about two tables get up to leave. Which is always disconcerting as a comic who is going last on a show.

Bryan showed up to hang out after his set at Mu’s show. When he got there he asked for a guest spot. Kenny came up and asked if it was ok if he went in front of me. I didn’t give a shit. Bryan’s five minutes aren’t going to affect me.

Bryan goes up and really does not have a good set. He caught them when he got on stage, but after that he really let their lack of laughs get to him and he got more and more timid. He just had no confidence and they just weren’t his crowd. After his set about half of the remaining tables leave.

Kenny goes back up and does a little more crowd work to get the crowd back and excited again. Luckily the tables that were left were great audience members.

I go up and just go right into crowd work. They are vibing with me and my energy right away. I do about 25 minutes and I can honestly say I did one joke in the middle (and it worked).

The audience members left were amazing. I had one of the best sets I’ve had in a while. I was jumping back and forth between two large tables of guests, calling back to crowd work, and really getting weird and intimate.

Talked about sex with a mom/dad in front of her daughter who was celebrating her birthday. Talked to another lady about how much she loved to be choked. I had a lot of lines I can’t even remember, but it was a super fun and hot set.

I’d give it an A- and maybe even bump it up to an A.

It was so much fun, and really glad I was booked on this show. After the show I hung with the guys a bit, and then Klingman showed up. We talked about the Brian Wilson show, and I asked to be on next month’s Wabi show (it is the 9th year anniversary and I didn’t want to miss it.) Afterwards I headed home.

Saturday was a fun day. I got to wake up late, and hang out with my niece which is one of my favorite things to do. I also knew I had a good hang on the horizon because I was driving to Lynchburg to meet up with my dude Jake Snyder and ride with him and Paige Campbell to the comedy competition at Heath’s Waterfront Grill at Smith Mtn. Lake.

Once I get to Jake’s we got and grab a bit to eat at Wendy’s next to his house. Someone asks him how tall he is (6′7) and they then reply with, “that ain’t too bad”. I don’t even begin to know wtf that even means.

Paige gets to his apartment and then we hit the road. We are jamming to older metal on the radio, and it legit feels like we are comics in the 80s. Three dudes crammed into a car, driving into the middle of nowhere for some dogshit show and a chance at $250.

We have done this show before, and it actually wasn’t bad. I had a super hot set and won some money. They had us on a real stage, and it was pretty packed out. Definitely more fun that it had any right to be.

This time we show up. The sound system is shit, there is no stage (they have moved us to the corner), very little audience, and the energy is weak af in the room. We all know it is going to suck.

The good thing is there are definitely some folks I love to hang with here. Johnny Camacho (Roanoke comic), Kristinia Montouri (Roanoke comic), Colby Knight (lynchburg/charlottesville guy), Zach Webb (lynchburg comic), and a few others idk at all.

The host Phil Hogan goes first and he just gobbles dick for like 15 minutes. Like it is brutal. Barely any laughs at all, and really isn’t vibing with the crowd. After him he brings up a comic Ron Hebert who also bombs. The next comic is Melissa Douty. I have never seen her before, but her reputation precedes her. She is a local headliner/touring comic. Super likeable and a good joke writer. She has what I consider the best set of the night.

I go up next and in my opinion bomb. I got some good pops, and about 3/4 of my jokes work. I try to engage the crowd, but they aren’t having it at all. I also keep stepping out of the light because it is poorly placed and bright af (I get points deducted because of this).

The best part was in the middle of a setup to one of my jokes that needs people to pay attention a man who has to be 80 rolls in on his mechanical wheelchair. He is making what I can only describe as a comical amount of noise. He is knocking his wheelchair into tables, and the hostess is talking so loud asking him where he is going to sit. The whole time I am just on stage delivering a joke people don’t want to hear just trying my best not to yell at this old dude. HE WHEELS ALL THE WAY TO THE FRONT!!! On the inside I am dying laughing. It felt like it was out of a tv show.

I’d give my set a C-. I just didn’t have it that night.

Melissa Douty comes over and we both compliment each others sets. I definitely respect her as a comic. Super funny lady check her out.

Everybody else goes up and honestly it feels like everybody is bombing. Paige and Jake didn’t do great but also the crowd was shit. Johnny Camacho goes up and does a German Psychic character (that I enjoy) and gets a few good laughs. Lastly a 16 year old kid goes up with a notebook and he does ok. Not bad for a first set ever, and he had a few good ideas.

They are adding up the scores at the end of the show while the host goes back up and plays guitar for an obscene amount of time. We are hanging out in the back and 16 year old is one cocky dude. You can tell he thinks he is a comedic genius. He is trying to bust balls, and be goofy. He asks me if my legs are ok because my jeans are too tight (brilliant roast). A little later he says he’s a bit sleepy because he did a bunch of heroin, so I responded with, “yea and after your set I just wish you had Od’d.” He heard me, but he didn’t respond. He also quit busting balls after that. He did have some funny shit so I hope he continues to go out and work on new stuff. His parents were there, so it was cool to see them support his dream.

They announced Johnny Camacho as the winner. Which blew me away. Not because he isn’t funny, but just because Mellissa Douty got more laughs than all of the other comics combined. I’m happy for Johnny because at least a hack didn’t win, but I felt bad for Melissa because for that room she kind of freaking crushed.

We head back and stop at Sheetz to grab some food. We park back at Jake’s place and start doing our favorite street jokes. Then we all go our separate ways. I head home and start playing tf out of Red Dead Redemption 2! Which is how I spent the rest of my weekend.

WHAT AN AMAZING TIME BAYBEES AND LAYDEES!!! I love you a lot and will catch up with you soon. Keep on trucking everybody! xoxoxo LOVE YOU!!!

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