Sorry it's taken me so long to get a blog out. I have truly been very busy and I'm not just saying I've been busy.
Starting March 31st - June 30th I have 38 shows already on my schedule (not including Radio). This will be the busiest stretch of my career. Along with my comedy, I also have my family, my real job, and for about a month I have been exercising daily.
For those of you who don't listen, I am going to Mexico with 98 Rock and I am taking part in their weight loss competition. I am up against Mickey, Amelia, Scott (the producer), Josh Speigel, Chris (asst. producer), Dave Hill, Detour Dave and Tamara Nelson. It's $100 a person and I am going to kick the shit out of these fatties. I went into the competition at 193.6 lbs. I was somewhere around 20 lbs overweight. We weigh in weekly and after our third weigh in I am down 11.6 lbs. I just stepped on the scale and I am currently at 178. We are going by percentage not by total weight. As of Wednesday, I have lost over 8% of my body weight.
| Mickey | 178.6 |
179.4 |
-0.4% |
| Amelia | 183.8 |
172.6 |
6.1% |
| Josh | 252.2 |
252.2 |
0.0% |
| Scott | 216.4 |
205. |
5.3% |
| Chris | 237.8 |
227.8 |
4.2% |
| Detour Dave | 193.4 |
186.8 |
3.4% |
| ME | 193.6 |
178.0 |
8.1% |
| Dave Hill | 176.0 |
169.2 |
3.9% |
| Tamara | 167.8 |
162.6 |
3.1% |
Last month I was part of the dais for the Mickey Cucchiella roast at the Baltimore Comedy Factory. I had a blast. I wrote 36 jokes for the roast and about 33 hit. It felt great to write. I, honestly, never write which is my biggest flaw as a comic. Writing 15 minutes and 14 of them working is pretty encouraging. I would like to compliment a few of the other roasters. There were two other pros on the dais; Mike Aronin and Pete Eibner. They were both hilarious, but I was most impressed by Scott Reardon who is the producer of the Mickey and Amelia show. He was phenomenal. I laughed harder at him than anyone. If he ever wanted to try comedy I would encourage it and, as anyone who reads my blog regularly would know, I am about 98% more apt to discourage. Good job.
I found out last week that Doug Powell has decided to give up comedy. I am very sad to hear this. Mostly because there are not 5 people in this area funnier than him, including me. I'm sad, but do not question his decision. One day, probably more sooner than later, I may need to face this exact same scenario. I do comedy professionally, but I cannot make a living at it without traveling. I cannot travel because I have too much responsibility here. I respect his decision and know it must have been tough since it is undoubtedly his calling. I don't think he has a greater obligation to his art than he does to his family. I am not implying that I know why he's made this decision, but he is no fool. I hope he finds the opportunity, down the road, to make time for comedy again, even if it's just around the Baltimore-Washington area.
If he doesn't, however, I will remember him as an incredible performer who made me laugh out loud.
Jon Mumma told me that he was competing in a ''mini-triathlon''. It is a 500 meter swim, 15 mile bike ride and 3 mile run. I told him that I didn't think that would be that hard, so last Saturday I went with him to ''train'' . We rode 10 miles and ran 2. It was hard. I finished, but my pride and dignity are shaken.
3 days later my quads are still sore. I also have developed a hernia which will need to be operated on after my return from Cancun. I think one of the reasons I had trouble was because Jon 
insisted on wearing this helmet. It is difficult to give it your all when you are laughing uncontrollably.
I saw the HBO special where Jerry Seinfeld was given some comedy award by the network. Before giving him the award they interviewed Robert Klein, Chris Rock, Garry Shandling and Seinfeld about their careers and comedy in general. It was very interesting. They said nothing that surprised me, but were eloquent, profound and humble (except Klein who came across like a giant douche). Please check this out. As interesting as it was to hear what Rock, Shandling and Seinfeld had to say it was equally as interesting to watch Klein try and fail time and time again. He insisted on working in a Rodney Dangerfield story which was meaningless in terms of what they were talking about. It was so obvious that he was doing this because he wanted to show off his Rodney impersonation. I felt bad for the other panelists while they feigned interest. He would work in jokes (Bluetooth), plug (his book), boast (how much of his new HBO special was improvised) and list his résumé (second city). He called Chris Rock ''the great black hope'' implying that there were no good black comics. I realize that Klein was once one of the best. Now he is a ridiculous old man. He came across so badly I'm surprised they didn't edit him out. In the end, Jerry Seinfeld's acceptance speech reminded me of why I love Comedy and why no one is better.
My son, James, turns 7 in eight days. True story; We were in CVS this past weekend and he asked me, ''Dad, is this a drug store?'' I answered, ''Yes.'' Then he asked,''Do they sell crack here?''
He's the great white hope.