Friday the 13th

Che..Che…Che…Blog!

What’s up party people.  Its Friday the 13th and I’m just glad its Friday!  Lots of adventure this week.  On Wednesday I came home from work to a huge 4-alarm fire a couple of blocks away from my apartment.  It looked like a war zone with fire, police, helicopters, and what seemed like every news van on earth. They closed down my entire block and you could see the black smoke from a mile away.  Every time their is a fire in my town a large group of people gather like lemmings to witness it.  It’s like a morbid block party.  The irony of it all is that my girlfriend just dropped off her expensive suit jacket to the cleaners in that building just a day before. Since they are Chinese she still holds out hope they’ll clean it anyway.

I recognized one of the reporters from Pix 11 news and I was tempted to jump into one of the live broadcasts and yell “BABABOOEE!”. I noticed after broadcasting these reporters would just stand around in the cold and wait until the next one. Some would pile into the tight news van with their crew and suddenly the reporter’s job didn’t seem so glamorous.

A lil common sense goes a looong way.

It seems as though the past few years have seen a slew of comedians who passed away too soon. Patrice O’Neil, Greg Geraldo, and Mike Defastano to name a few. While living in LA it seemed like every other week I’d hear about another young comic’s demise and it was unsettling.  A heart attack, a drug overdose, or a car crash were just some of the many causes of death.  My Facebook page quickly began to look like the daily obituaries.  I wondered if the proliferation of the social networks made it seem like their were more deaths or was the business of comedy just reaching a dangerous new level.

According to Steve Martin’s book “Born Standing Up”, their were about 100 or so comedians traveling the country in the 70’s. Today it seems like every Tom, Dick, and Harry call themselves comedians. The competition is fierce and for the most part not based on talent at all. Rather its based on what I call the “What can you do for me” syndrome.

  Comedian: I’m interested in performing at your club.
  Booker: How many people can you bring?

The fact is that comedians are getting the shit end of the stick.  Club owners and bookers are getting rich by promising exposure instead of real life dollars. Comics are nervous about pushing for compensation because another comic will just do it for free. The bottom line is we are working and  providing a specialized service that we should be compensated for.  I don’t hire a painter and then tell him he should paint my house for the exposure.

I agree that new comics should be hungry for it and pay their dues but that’s what open mics are for. While this isn’t the only contributing factor to what’s happening to these young comics it certainly is the big fat pink polka dotted elephant in the room. Until we demand our fair share we will never elevate ourselves in the field.  Maybe if these guys were making a better living they would have longer lives.

Congratulations are in order!

My good friend Mark Viera just landed a new sitcom on Fox. George Lopez is executive producer.  I wish him all the luck in the world.  It’s nice to see truly funny artists making it!

Robot Dinosaurs of course!

Greetings from cyber space,

Today I have a doctors appointment to get a full physical. If left to my own devices cruel and unusual things can happen. I got bored and decided to check the popular website, WebMD. By the end of my session I was convinced I had several diseases, everything from Lymphoma to Diabetes. So the only way to be at peace is to go to the doctors office and demand I receive every test known to modern medicine.

I tell ya, getting an appointment is quite a task. Now I know why Doctors go to school for so long, so they can never work. Every office I called had a different rule or excuse:

“Sorry the doctor only works Tuesdays and Thursdays”

“You need a referral in order to see this doctor”

“We don’t take United Health Care for physicals”

“He only works every other full moon during the leap year”

I mean, come on! The receptionists act as if you just stumbled upon their secret society and only the elite are allowed proper health care. It’s also strange how the service improves the further North you travel. In my town, where us minorities live, you may walk in for a check-up and walk out with an amputated limb. Not to mention you have to wait in a 4ft by 4 ft room with 80 other patients with highly contagious diseases. On the positive side most of these offices have many services - Doctor/Insurance/Cell Phone Outlet so you can get a tax refund on your new cell phone in the middle of surgery.

So today I will opt to drive a bit north and pray that they don’t discover some new rare disease that only I have.

Until next time - IF their is a next time

Hello all or Myself,

Today is Wednesday, jeez only the middle of the week. On my way to New York yesterday I was almost killed by a Welsh Farms truck # 182. Ya know those trucks with a big cows ass on the rear door. I was driving my little ford behind him when suddenly he stops in the middle of the road. My only warning were his white reverse lights before he gunned it, full speed, right toward me. All I see is this huge cow ass about to sit on me. Without a second thought I switched into reverse and began to back up into a car that was behind me! Playing a reverse Cat & Mouse game while blaring my horn I went as far as I could before ramming into the poor guy behind me. Luckliy and not a moment sooner the truck came to a screechng halt just inches from my front bumper. What was this guy smoking? As if that weren’t odd enough, he then jerks forward and decides to come to a complete stop, blocking the road. I sat their with a line of cars hoking the horn to no avail. Finally we all decided to reverse out of the road. Thank you God for protecting this fragile soul.

Well Last nights LLEGAMOS TV Show’s live taping at the Improv was awsome. It was a packed house and the audience had a lot of energy. I couldn’t beleive how exited they were. We invited a comic by the name of Angry Bob to do a sketch with us and it went over very well, he is quite the character. George our host seemed out of it before the show, which made me worried, but as soon as those cameras turned on he became a different person.

My new sketch, “Salsa” went great! Wardrobe got me this ridiculous costume with this huge mustache. They got me this big puffy muti-colored dress shirt with ruffless that made me feel like a parrot. I also had two very fine ladies as my Salsa girls come on stage with me. It was a lot of fun. The good thing about writing your own material is that when you play the part, no research is required. I can reach the core of the character in an instant because it came from me.

We also had a very talented comedian on the show by the name of Peeches Rodriguez. I actually met her about a year ago when she DJed for a stand up show we did. I recognized her and said, “Aren’t you the DJ?” She replied, “You didn’t know I’m a comedian as well.” And she was a very talented comic indeed. After the show she came up to me, “I heard you do a Freddie Prinze impression, where can I catch that?” I nodded and told her where I would be performing next month. She grabs me by the hand and pulls me away from the crowd in front of the club. She then tells me how much Freddie Prinze has inspired her career and really expressed her feeling toward him with great emotion. I of course share her emotion for Freddie.

Its amazing to me how many people Freddie Prinze has touched. His success was so short and yet he managed to accomplish so much. I constantly meet people who share their expereince of Freddie and how he inspired them. I can only hope to spread my humor and try to change the world as he did.

Until next time - Keep smiling.

This blog is really for my future self to read, I hardly think anyone cares to read this blog out of the millions of them out there. Anyhoot, in case I reach one soul.

This weekend was pretty standard. I was slated to shoot a few skits at the Bronx Zoo but hence the producers cancelled due to what they called, “A complication with the zoo”. I wasn’t too disappointed since it was raining cats and dogs or should I said Lions and Bears.

Every Sunday is the comedy show at the Boston Comedy Club in the Villiage. I love the Villiage people. It’s one of the few bohemian places left in the city. I consider myself to be a conservative hippy and enjoy their company.

The show started at 9:45pm - kinda late. I went up first, after the host of course, and while the audience seemed a bit subdued by the end of my set I felt I had bought their energy up at least a notch or two. It was a smaller crowd, about 25 people. I find you can work the crowd more and my material less with a crowd like that, you have to get more personal in order to win them over.

Jim Norton of Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn fame stopped by and did a set. I think its interesting that once your on T.V. you can come in and pretty much crash any room you want. While I understand the need for semi-celebs to give the room credibility I can not understand bumping another comedian simply on the fact that he isn’t on T.V. In any case, as he was leaving, I shook his hand in recognition as I do all of the other comics and off he went back to T.V. land.

Today, Monday, I’m beyond tired but I have to pay the bills so here I am at my day job. Ahh Corporate America, surrounded by yuppies. At least I killed some time writing this blog on company time ;) Until next time - I bid you Adue.

Greetings,

Yesterday afternoon I had a very exciting day, I met the great Paul Rodriguez. A very talented comedian who is one of the Latin Kings of comedy. I remember first seeing him in a hilarious movie called, “Born in East L.A.” starring Cheech Marin, when I was about 11 years old.

Our show called, “LLEGAMOS” (we’ve arrived) got in interview with him and I, being a cast member of the show, tagged along.

We entered the Laugh Factory in Time Square, which I have never been in. What a big place. I hope to play there one day soon. We were seated in the main area, where their was a big stage with a neon backdrop that said, “Laugh Factory” illuminated. The crew busied themselves with setting up lights and camera while I sat on stage under the hot lights pretending to be famous. Then right on time, in walks Paul. He looked at ease and in shape and gave us 20 min more than we asked.

He spoke of many things, among them the late great Freddie Prince Sr. and the comedy of Cantinflas, the Mexican Chaplin. I never knew that Paul served in the U.S. Airforce and also that his son has won Gold in the X-games for skateboarding. All in all it was a very interesting conversation which will be airing in a few weeks on LTV (Latin Television) so check your listings.

My boss and host of the show was very please because Paul anointed him a “Sir” of comedy. Now we won’t hear the end of that one for at least 3 to 4 weeks.

Well, thank God its Friday, I got a paycheck from my day job and can eat again, lol. Their are many facts I haven’t revealed yet because I’m not sure if I want to remain anonymous. Perhaps this blog will be more intriguing that way.

With that said - Until next time - God Speed.

TwiCe

Links: - http://www.paulrodriguez.com/

This is my first blog. I decided to document my experiences with the world, or the 3 folks that may read this because like everyone else, it is my unique perspective. I am a Comedian in New York City. That’s basically the extent to my uniqueness.