It’s been gone for four decades (as of last month). So the number of current, practicing comedians who received their first exposure to standup via The Ed Sullivan Show is understandably dwindling. It lives on via DVD’s and other media, but it’s impact was greatest when kids sat down in the living room– often with Mom, Dad and maybe even Grandma and Grandpa– and watched Myron Cohen or Alan King or George Carlin or Richard Pryor or Joan Rivers and secretly vowed, “THAT looks like something I’d like to do.”

Gerald Nachman has a piece in today’s L.A. Times about the show. And it’s shot through with references to comedians.

Few then had heard of — not to mention ever seen — Carol Burnett, the Supremes, Nat King Cole, Stiller & Meara, Jackie Mason, Eartha Kitt, Sam Cooke, Sammy Davis Jr., Phyllis Diller, Shelley Berman, Shecky Greene, Teresa Brewer, George Carlin, Keely Smith, Myron Cohen, Patti Page, et al. — when Sullivan escorted them into our homes on his national stage. His eclectic taste and a lust for the family audience inspired him to trot out acrobats, elephant acts, ventriloquists, along with the regulation comics and singers — plus, and perhaps most rarefied of all, little-known black performers.

Read the whole thing. Nachman is the author of, among other books, the seriously awesome “Seriously Funny,” an account of the cadre of comics who came up in the late-50s/early 60s and influenced our lives and the popular culture. And they nearly all owe a debt of gratitude to Ed Sullivan.

All right. So… Vancouver loses in the Stanley Cup Finals to Boston. In Vancouver. So the Vancouver fans go nuts and tear the place apart and turn over BMW’s and set stuff on fire.

The video goes viral. As do the pictures. One pic in particular– it depicts, in the background, a bunch of “revelers’ retreating away from the photographer and, in the foreground, an out-of-focus, riot-gear-clad cop or two. And in the middleground is a couple– a guy and a girl– embracing in the middle of the street, and he’s planting a kiss on her.

Bruins fans? No. Just a couple, caught in the mayhem. And he’s trying to protect her and shield her from the broken glass and the rocks whizzing buy. And, to reassure her, he kisses her. And it’s caught on a chip and uploaded and it rockets around the planet and it makes the couple a worldwide sensation– particularly after they’re identified.

Australian Scott Jones and his girlfriend Canadian Alexandra Thomas are now “vacationing in California,” but they’ve hired Max Markson, spokesman for the Australian public relations giant Markson Sparks.

Here’s where it gets… interesting… or nauseating, if you prefer:

Markson Sparks will represent them and handle requests for interviews, endorsements and job opportunities for Jones, who’s an actor and standup comedian.

“I think for Scott it’s a tremendous opportunity for him to springboard his acting and standup comedy,’’ says Markson, who added that the couple is heading to Melbourne, Australia for a while, after California.

Jones, 29, who had one standup comedy gig in Vancouver before the famous photo was snapped but mostly worked as a bartender there, “could use this as a way of breaking through for a standup comedy career,’’ says Markson. “It could set him up for life, if he’s as good as Robin Williams or Bill Cosby.

Ladies and gentlemen, we’ll be boarding the helicopter soon to venture to the top of that really big “if” that Mr. Markson has set up in that last sentence. If all goes well, we should reach the top of the “if” in about a half-hour or so. Please be patient.

Are there hundreds of bartenders in Australia who are as good as Robin Williams or Bill Cosby, but are simply waiting for accidental, international fame so they can “springboard” their standup talents?

Is this what people think goes on? People do one gig and they emerge fully-formed as the next Robin Williams?

We shouldn’t be surprised. We were standing in line at the deli on a cruise ship recently when the nice man in front of us recognized us as two of the ship’s entertainers and engaged us in conversation. Upon learning that we were the comedians, he asked us what we did during the day. We were momentarily confused– does he mean, “What do you do to kill time?” or does he mean, “Do you have a day job?” He meant neither. He was curious as to what we did during the day, on the ship, when we weren’t performing… he asked, “Do you clean or something?” Clean? Here was a man– from all indications, a reasonably intelligent man– who thought that part of our duties as fly-on entertainers on a major cruise line was to clean.

It is this lack of knowledge that Markson is hoping to capitalize on. (We don’t believe for one minute that Markson himself believes what he’s saying.)

Adam Gropman was, for longer than anyone else, one of our columnists here at SHECKYmagazine.com, back when we had columnists.

We just got this note from him:

I am finally doing my one man show about upbringing with “hippie adjacent” parents and being sent to scary extreme summer camp at age 9 and hating it, here in LA- as part of the Hollywood Fringe Festival. Show is called GET ME OUT OF HERE! and is this thurs and sun june 23rd & 26th.

We’ll miss it by just a week! We just read all about Gropman’s one-man show, and it sounds like a hoot.

…in a bid to “toughen him up”, Adam’s parents sent the nine year old Adam to the most rugged, stripped-down, back-to-nature camp in all of New England, for two months. Luckily, they also saved a shoe box full of the letters sent back and forth that summer between the somewhat precocious and extremely foul-mouthed Adam and the astoundingly zen, placid-toned Mr. & Mrs. Gropman, and this correspondence forms a powerful backbone to the show.

A short, 8-10 minute version of “Get Me Out of Here” (called “Unhappy Camper”) was presented a while back as part of a larger show and was a smashing success. If you’re in Los Angeles this week, check it out!

We call this one “Geechy Guy MacPherson” That’s Geechy Guy on the left and Guy MacPherson on the right, at the Fryers at the Orleans, on Friday night.

It’s another in a series! (It all started with Dwight Slade Ham and continued with Todd Paul Ogata.) We must be ever on our toes for the next “mash-up!”

Vancouver journo, FOS and Frequent Commenter Guy MacPherson was in town for a few days to take in some shows, write some reviews and conduct some interviews (he interrogated The Male Half at Hooters last Wednesday). He curates “The Comedy Couch– Your Guide to the Comedy Scene in Vancouver and Beyond.” (CORRECTION: The Comedy Couch is curated by Raegan Birch, whom MacPherson calls, “a true friend of comedy.”) Check out his podcast– he interviews everybody. (And you can read a transcript of a recent telephone interview with Tracy Morgan here.)

That’s Jack Benny on the left and George Burns on the right. It’s from the Riviera’s collection of 60’s and 70’s portraits and candids adorning the wall outside the Crazy Girls showroom. That George Burns was a snappy dresser.

Often the comedians who dare to appear on NBC’s America’s Got Talent are met almost immediately with boos. There’s something very Showtime at the Apollo about the crowds they recruit for AGT. They have a hair-trigger and they’re demonstrative– especially when it comes to comics.

Geechy Guy, however, handled the situation smartly– first, by stressing the world record holder joke-telling thing and second, by steamrolling the audience. On Joke Number Two, he stepped on the audience’s (positive) reaction and made it quite clear that he was not interested in basking in their approval but was instead intent on banging out a lot of jokes in a short time and that they had better catch up.

The result is predictable:

Piers Morgan is a world-class idiot. (We came to this conclusion after watching Piers Morgan Tonight— the only show that can make one nostalgic for Larry King.) Try to imagine his utterances without the British accent. Not only is he utterly lacking in brains, but he seems to have a curious blank spot where any normal person has a sense of humor. “I didn’t find you remotely funny…” says Morgan, after Geechy Guy’s hysterical barrage of one-liners. Not even remotely? He should donate his brain to science.

Full disclosure: The Male Half regularly performs on Geechy Guy’s “Dirty Joke Show” at the Iowa Theater for the Performing Arts at Hooters Casino Hotel here in Vegas. The show, produced by Geechy Guy, features him and a rotating cast of two other comedians telling dozens of old jokes (or “street jokes”) in a back-alley setting. The pretense being that the audience is witnessing three comedians sitting just outside a fictional comedy club’s stagedoor, shooting the breeze and entertaining each other by telling the jokes that have amused them over the years. Great fun for the audience and, says the Male Half, great fun for the performers as well.

The Male Half got a nice hit in the local paper. (The local paper, in this case, is the Las Vegas Review-Journal.) It’s a nice article by Corey Levitan that contains mini-profiles of The Male Half and four other Vegas-based comics who “haven’t yet turned the corner to fame.”

Geechy Guy, Ron Shock, Matt Markman and Rob Sherwood are the others in the quintet.

You can read it for yourself (and see the sweet picture of TMHOTS!) by Googling “lvrj mckim” (without the quotes, of course).

It’s a very nice thing to get such a high-profile (front page of the arts and leisure section, above the fold, color pic) hit just 122 days after hitting town.

And normally we’d link to it, maybe even run the pic and an excerpt from the copy, but we’re dealing with the Stephens Media-owned Las Vegas Review-Journal. And they employ a company whose sole purpose is to harass blogs and other websites for copyright infringement. (We’ve posted about this in the past.)

The deal is, if you link to a piece (or excerpt from a piece) in one of the publications that this company is acting on behalf of, you open yourself up to ruinous litigation. Thus the rather ungainly Googling advised above.

(There is hope. A judge here in Nevada has ruled that the company “has made multiple inaccurate and likely dishonest statements to the court” and that they must “show cause, in writing, no later than two weeks from the date of this order, why it should not be sanctioned for this flagrant misrepresentation to the court.” Pretty strong language from the man with the gavel. We can link to that article without fear. Some law bloggers are speculating that it could be the end of the company. Others have even speculated that it could signal the end of the aforementioned Stephens Media!)

FOS Bonnie McFarlane anchors a new web-based video series (or a “web series pilot”) for comedy website Cringehumor.com called W5 (for “Who, what, when, where, why”). It features McFarlane interviewing comedians on camera at “various comedy related events.”

McFarlane is also prepping her documentary “Women Aren’t Funny” for release. We saw rushes early on in the process. (We were also interviewed for the doc last year.)

CORRECTION: We hasten to add that the film was co-created by both McFarlane and Vos. And the film is produced by Vos. You’d think we’d be more careful about this kind of thing, being a husband and wife team that often collaborates. We were in Walmart buying ricotta cheese when we got a phone call from Vos clarifying the film credit. But he doesn’t want it to sound like he’s a dick. Which is unusual… because, normally, he doesn’t care if he sounds like a dick.

And we recently viewed a small chunk of the near-finished product on an IPad when hubby Rich Vos was in Vegas gigging at the Palms.

The genesis for the film was a particularly controversial column that McFarlane wrote for SHECKYmagazine.com (way back when this site had columnists). The column, entitled “Women Aren’t Funny,” was, for the longest while, one of our most heavily-downloaded files. (And it was high up in the search engines until Christopher Hitchens wrote a Vanity Fair piece entitled “Why Women Aren’t Funny!”)

McFarlane’s piece was satirical. We’re not so sure about the Hitchens piece. We are certain, however, that the controversy from both pieces will be dwarfed by that of McFarlane’s movie.

We admire Patrick Milligan, the motivator at CringeHumor.com. And we agree with him far more often than we disagree.

He’s expanding his site’s influence with the above mentioned W5 project and with other video ventures.

He also interviews comics and uploads them under the title of Cringe Humor Comics To Watch (CHCTW). He did one recently with Vos.

It’s an interview that lasts only 10:30. Milligan describes it thusly: “This edition of CHCTW asks Vos what’s in store for his future, and quickly turns into one of the most depressing episodes yet.”

Oh? Vos is his usual wiseass self, but he is also introspective (perhaps surprisingly to folks who don’t know him). We think it’s a thoughtful interview that offers not just insight into Vos but into almost any veteran comic.

Depressing? Perhaps the only depressing part of the interview is tired cliché that is trotted out at the end of the interview.

At the 9:15 mark or so, Vos gets at one of the fundamental truths about standup:

Vos: It’s so hard to be content as a comic. When is a comic content? When?…When is anybody content doing this? I would think that in other businesses people are content. I don’t know. An artist? I don’t think an artist is ever content.”

It’s a startling moment. But then the interviewer chimes in with:

“It seems like anybody in the entertainment business never retires; they just keep craving that attention.”

Attention? Did he not hear Vos? The discussion is not about narcissism or megalomania or attention– it’s about art. And knowing when to be satisfied with one’s art. Or maybe wondering if one should even be content with one’s art. (Or, to extrapolate: Whether or not this constant discontent is what separates an artist from a hack.)

Vos has just displayed some vulnerability and introspection and the conclusion is that people in the entertainment business (and, we assume, Vos) can’t stop doing what they do because they crave attention. WTF?

Milligan carefully curates a site about “honest” comedians who speak “truth.” But he has one in his midst who gives about as honest an interview as we’ve seen in some time and we’re told it’s “depressing” and that we’re all attention whores.

We don’t normally comment on other blogs, but we were struck by the dissonance.

If a guy like Milligan– who respects comics and spends a lot of time trying to understand them– clings so tenaciously (or automatically, or reflexively) to such simplistic truisms, what hope do comedians have that we’ll ever be understood?

He’s right: It is a depressing interview. But for far different reasons than he cites.

We find the following at the tail end of the Zach Galifianakis mini-interview in the NYPost:

He also worries he’ll get soft if he doesn’t get on stage in front of a live audience more often.

“As a comedian to have that recognition almost is anti-comedy to me,” he says. “We’re not supposed to be the ones who get that kind of attention, so I’m a little bit sensitive about it. I don’t want to soil what brought me there in the first place.”

Good for him. And good for comedy club audiences who come to see him.

We’re hearing stories for the last year or two about celebrities and/or “celebrity comedians” who hit the circuit when they’re less than prepared. We’re puzzled when we hear tales of these luminaries apologizing from stage (“I don’t do it as often as I should.” or “This is a lot harder than I thought!”) or reading from scripts or “working out material” on a Saturday night in front of a packed house… often with less than spectacular results.

We’ve always said that “stunt bookings” are okay… but not if the oddity doesn’t deliver. We’ve suggested that these celebs might do better to drop down to host or emcee and bring on a trio of professional comics who know what they’re doing– a win/win! The audience gets to see the celeb AND they see real comedy, not some sorry, fumbling trainwreck.

Club owners will think nothing of bringing in a faux comedian with little more than freak show appeal who tanks from Thursday through Sunday. Or they’ll bring in a Big Name who engages in all manner of anti-social (or illegal or quirky or annoying) behavior and who pitches one shutout after another. But it’s all smiles as long as the turnstiles are spinning. (They’ll subsequently bring in a solid, veteran comedian– with perhaps little or no drawing power but who delivers nonetheless– and freak the fuck out when that act has one show out of seven that is less than wonderful.)

Is there a great, lasting benefit (aside from the receipts and drink sales, of course) to bringing in a huge name that ultimately pisses off a significant chunk of the crowd? Especially considering that the marquee name brings in first-time customers?

And, conversely, is there much damage if a no-name comic happens to have one bad show out of seven? (Especially considering that the no-name comic demands one-tenth or one-twentieth the salary of the celeb who is dabbling in standup.)

Perhaps the folks who come in and see the celebrity (who subsequently engages in a legendary week of comedy meltdown) ultimately think poorly of the celebrity but don’t hold the club responsible … and the folks who see the bad show from the unknown hold it against the club and let the comedian off the hook. In that case, there’s absolutely no downside to bringing in the risky, demanding nutjob who causes a lot more headscratching than belly laughs. (Or we’ve just given club owners a brand new excuse for engaging in ever more “creative” booking!)

Earlier today, Ted Alexandro hipped all his Facebook friends to the article in COED Magazine entitled “The 24 Most Underrated Stand Up Comedians,” so we had to scurry on over and check it out. Here’s the nutshell, the elevator pitch, the first paragraph, the setup, from authoer Igor Derysh:

The best comedians aren’t necessarily the ones that get all the movie roles, have sold out comedy tours or guest star on the most popular TV shows. In fact, some of the best comedians have been touring the minor circuit: comedy clubs and colleges, perfecting their craft for decades. Unfortunately, for one reason or another, they just haven’t been able to get that one big break. Sure, some of them may have their own hour-long stand-up specials, and have appeared all over Comedy Central, but you’re not going to see one of these guys starring in a hit movie any time soon. COED’s giving credit where credit is due in our list of the most underrated comedians.

Emphasis ours.

Where do we begin?

We could go on and on, but maybe our whole problem with the article is the use of the word “underrated.” It’s a pointless word– and even more worthless concept– that is used mostly among sports geeks. And we can understand its use among sports fans. After all, athletes are often rated. Their performance is ranked, their statistics are compiled and examined and analyzed and twisted this way and that. Even athletes who are a decade or more past their playing days are considered in the millions of discussions that take place in sports bars, dorm rooms, broadcast booths and radio talk shows. The idea that a baseball player or a long-distance runner might be considered by some folks to be less than fully appreciated is fun or entertaining to kick around.

But when talking about standup comics it’s a pointless exercise. After all, who rates comics? (Mind you, we’re not complaining. We often say that standup comedy has dodged a bullet by not having a comedy reviewer at every major daily. We’re fairly sure that comedy hasn’t suffered for lack of a regular ranking system or an annual awards ceremony.)

Of course, there are some interesting measurements out there (“metrics” is what the wonks like to call them) that offer some clues as to who is capturing the public’s fancy comedy-wise. Forbes (the biweekly magazine that covers business) comes out with an occasional list of the top-grossing comedians. The iTunes site ranks comedians according to how many times their work has been downloaded. Youtube.com includes the number of downloads of each clip that a comedian (or a well-meaning fan) uploads to the video-sharing site. If you’re lucky enough to have access to Pollstar magazine, you can see actual dollar figures for tours of some of the top comedians.

With all that, though, there are still people who insist on “rating” comedians. And, sadly, there will be editors and writers who take the lazy road and create “list” articles like the one linked above that seek to gather all the “underrated” comedians into one lengthy piece that alternately praises the comedian chosen for the list and bemoans the vague, unnamed forces that “prevent him from breaking into the mainstream.”

And there’s another term that gives us pause: “mainstream” Isn’t being featured on Comedy Central the very essence of mainstream? Exactly what are the criteria for becoming mainstream? Is it, like the author says, “starring in a hit movie?”

We’re just somewhat dismayed that the author seems to think that these fine comedians– from Demetri Martin to Mike Birbiglia to Bill Burr to Patrice O’Neal and on and on– are being portrayed as being failures. Martin, for instance, has had a stint as “a writer for Conan O’Brien a few years ago, a few appearances on The Daily Show, his own stand-up special and a starring role in the indie hit Taking Woodstock,” yet seems to think that Martin has every reason to mope.

We look at the list (and we look at their list of accomplishments) and we see resumes that are (or should be) the envy of every comedian who hasn’t yet achieved what they have.

And it is more than ironic that a publication that is named “Coed” couldn’t find at least one female comic to include. (We’re not into affirmative action, but the lack of a funny woman in the list– especially considering the inclusion of two deceased comics!– is just a bit insulting. Couldn’t they have thrown the women a bone (or a boner, maybe) or two?

(Note: We don’t think that Hicks or Giraldo maybe should have been included on a different list. We mean them no disrespect, we just think that their presence on this list is somewhat incongruous.)

After all the swirling controversy of the last couple weeks, we decided to post something warm and fuzzy. We have noticed that some club owners have been talking warmly about Groupon lately. About how it’s helping to fill up their clubs, how it’s helping to sell drinks, how it’s helping to get the word out about their presence. So far, we haven’t heard anyone talk about a downside.

Groupon, in case it hasn’t been covered by the Sub-Igneous Times, is a super-duper free online service that gets folks to sign up, then sends them a daily Groupon coupon notice. Subscribers then have the option of ignoring it or purchasing it. Sometimes it will be a $32 oil change for $14, or a $45 one-hour foot massage for $12. Or sometimes it will be half-off admission for two people to a comedy club. Those who take advantage print out their authorization, then take it with them (with I.D.) to redeem their coupon at the designated venue, massage parlor, garden center.

Occasionally (it’s up to the business offering the discount), the Groupon offer will have a tipping point built in– so that the Groupon will only be valid if a certain benchmark is reached, i.e, a certain number of people sign up for the offer. Ingenious, really, as it depends on social forces to muster a critical mass. In case you’re wondering, Groupon is successful. At least some folks think it is or might be. (There was talk late last year of Groupon being purchased for $6 billion!)

The subscribers sign up for a local region– When we lived in South Jersey, for instance, we signed up for the Philly-area Groupon. We now receive notifications of Vegas-area Groupon offers.

We are impressed that some club owners are taking advantage of this social media/coupon hybrid. So often, they opt for the Business-Card-In-A-Fishbowl method of papering the house. Groupon is right in their wheelhouse since it’s easy, it takes hardly any energy and it doesn’t cost anything. (If you think that we’re implying that club owners are often dull, lazy and cheap, well, that would be your interpretation!) And technically, it’s not “papering the house,” since the merchant actually gets some cash for each admission.

Papering the house has gotten a bad rep over the years. But, we spoke to one club manager/owner a few years back who said, “There’s a wrong way and a right way to paper the house.” We honestly believed him. And we worked in one his clubs for a week and the shows (and the crowds) were spectacular, so if that house was papered, we say, “Spread your house-papering gospel!” So many times we’ve seen club managers take tried and true methods and apply them in ham-handed or half-hearted ways. And we’ve seen too many clubs employ “new” methods without really understanding those methods. They proudly implement sparkly, new marketing techniques– while failing to grasp exactly what it is they’re doing– expecting the technology to do all the work. They are disappointed when the result is less than optimum. Of course, they blame the technology.

One thing that separates this from outright giveways, like we mentioned early, is that the customer actually has to part with some dough. So he’s invested in the performance and he’s not just a slug who dropped his biz card in a bowl and got a phone call on a Thursday afternoon. He isn’t just some chump who got a “special offer” email that entitles him to free admission next Wednesday. He and/or his fellow Grouponers got that txt message or that email, considered the deal, crunched the numbers and bought the ticket. It’s a tremendous way to reach people who might not have been aware of the venue or might not have considered being a part of a comedy audience otherwise.

It’s just one more way the internet is changing standup comedy. If there’s a hard and fast, quantifiable downside, we’d like to hear about it.

Are you selling CD’s or DVD’s after your show? Are you limited to taking cash only? Or do you occasionally rely on the kind hearts of the venue to facilitate one or two credit card purchase? (And occasionally give up 10 or 15 per cent to the comedy club manager pirates who let you use their credit card machine for verification?)

Say goodbye to all that! Hook up with Squareup.com and cheerfully accept all major credit cards from those comedy club patrons eager to take home an audio/visual souvenir from your killer appearance!

We read about this ingenious little device (and it’s futuristic, WWW-based system) when we were flying back from a gig in January. We had fully intended to hip our readers to it, but a lot of stuff got in the way– moving to Vegas, writing a book, etc.

Then we ran into Jimmy Shubert at the Fryers Club meeting at the Alexis Park the other night and he had one in his pocket. His enthusiastic proselytizing convinced us that it is the real deal! He pulled out the tiny square device, popped it into the top of his smart phone and nutshelled it for us like the wimpy article in the Southwest Airlines mag just couldn’t. (They emphasized lending money to deadbeat friends. What year is this, 1959? Is the author of the piece a fan of The Ritz Brothers or Gasoline Alley?)

Sign up for an account. They send you the little white doo-hickey–For free! Pop it into the top of your Droid, iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch and swipe that grinning customer’s credit card and– automatically and cleanly and neatly– their card is charged with a pre-determined amount of money. They need only sign on your touch screen to approve the transaction!

We knew it would be awesome, but, after seeing it (and having Shubert breathlessly pitch it), it’s Awesome Squared!

Hop onto Squareup.com to sign up. We just did. Our free card reader will arrive in just 2 to 5 days, says their website.

A reader writes:

What about a section… a toolbox if you will… for beginning stand-up comics such as myself? Maybe Q/A with professional comics to help in guiding the evolution of comedy? It could even develop into mentorships and eventually opportunities that could transform into established careers later down the road.

An excellent suggestion, reader! But… since we started pounding out this crazy website 12 years ago, we have studiously avoided giving advice to young ‘uns. We took a different approach– and that approach has changed over the years– of interviewing experienced comics and letting the beginners infer from the interviewee’s answers various nuggets of information and multiple strategies and tactics. Then we evolved into posting about stories about standup that we found on the internet and letting the aspiring comic take from that knowledge about the industry and about standup’s place in the pop culture. And occasionally, we’d post about events (like the Just For Laughs festival) and we’d afford the newbie an unprecedented window into an extremely important comedy biz ritual. And all along the way, we’ve taken to grousing about our own situations, or exalting about our minor triumphs here and there, or relating our occasional epiphanies, and letting our readers tell us exactly where we had our heads firmly planted. We’ve tried to challenge prevalent assumptions (or the so-called Conventional Wisdom) and invited our readers to draw their own conclusions.

We’ve always known that the opportunity has always been out there for someone else to fill the niche you speak of. But we preferred to tap the resource that was experienced comedian. Not only did they have a lot of knowledge and perspective, but the ones we chose to talk about were frequently engaged in a career change or a lefthand turn. They may have been in the biz for a while, but they were willing to apply their skills and knowledge to some quirky venture or some exploration of a newly discovered skill set.

We’re not surprised at all that our book (due out Oct. 1 and now available on Amazon.com for pre-order!) turned out to be an extremely laid-back affair that urged readers to find their own way. We encourage the aspiring comic to take in advice and data and information, and craft his/her very own path to comedy competence and fulfillment. While we may be opinionated, we are always careful not to push a comic too hard in one direction or another, lest we inadvertently deprive the comedy world of an innovator. And the same goes for the magazine.

We liken our magazine to an evening spent in a booth at a diner, eavesdropping (or sitting very quietly) while the headliner and the feature acts talk, celebrate and commiserate. As newcomers, we experienced quite a few nights like that… and we found them to be profoundly satisfying. The information we absorbed on those sessions was invaluable. They were like a wormhole, a shortcut; and way more efficient and gritty than a seminar or a comedy class (although some of those have their good points). Of course, later on, we found some of the information to be suspect. But figuring out who is credible and who isn’t is all part of the process, too.

And, of course, there’s the very practical matter of man-hours. Putting together such a “toolbox” is a nightmarish task and one that we don’t have the energy or the inclination to undertake. And those mentorships you allude to are happening all the time without our help and without the use of such fancy technology as the WWW or Facebook.

Your suggestions are appreciated. And we invite you to swim around in the deep, dark recesses of our site, especially the early days from 1999 to 2004 (much of which can only be accessed via the Wayback Machine!) and we are sure you’ll find plenty of ” professional comics… guiding the evolution of comedy.”

From left to right: Bobby Henline, Jimmy J.J. Walker (on monitor) and The Female Half in the green room at Brad Garrett's Comedy Club at the Trop.

The audiences at Brad Garrett’s Comedy Club at the Trop got a lot of bang for their buck last night– Jimmy JJ Walker, Traci Skene, Geechy Guy, headliner Mike Loftus and “Welldone Comic” Bobby Henline.

Henline was unique among the comedians onboard as he is the only one of them who has been burned over 35 per cent of his body.

From the Dec. 26, 2009 NPR piece on Henline:

A roadside bomb hit the Army convoy truck Henline was driving in Iraq nearly three years ago. He spent months recovering inside the burn unit at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio and went through dozens of surgeries. During the most difficult days of his recovery, he tried to maintain his sense of humor, telling jokes to his doctors and therapists.

Henline is a super nice guy. The waitstaff bought him a honkin’ sheetcake that said, “Thanks for serving our country!” There were a lot military (active and former) in the house. Facebook Henline to keep track of his upcoming appearances. Or, better yet, go to BobbyHenline.com!

The Male Half is doing a feature spot at the club tonight, second show.

Yesterday (April 8) was Shecky Greene’s birthday. He turned 85! Just one week ago, he celebrated by doing a three-show weekend at the South Point Casino here in Vegas.

There are people– even some in the business– who don’t know who he is. Time for a chunk of his Wikipedia entry:

His first gig in Las Vegas was in 1953. Fred Sheldon Greenfield (he finally made the legal name change to Shecky Greene in 2004) grew up on the north side of Chicago, served in the Navy during World War II and enrolled at a junior college to become a gym teacher, but he also picked up spare money by playing resorts and small clubs around the upper Midwest. He quit school after he got a call to fill in for two weeks at the Prevue Lounge in New Orleans and stayed six years, until it burned down. From there he went on to showrooms in Miami, Chicago and Reno/Lake Tahoe before an agent persuaded him to move to Las Vegas and open for Dorothy Shay, “the Park Avenue Hillbillie,” at the Last Frontier. His act was held over for 18 weeks, a first for the Strip.

The rest is comedy/entertainment history. And he’s still making more.

Sunday night, we hopped in the SHECKYwagon and turned on the Bruce Woodbury Beltway for the 14-minute jaunt to the South Point Hotel Casino and Spa to see the third and final evening of a three-night engagement of the legendary Shecky Greene.

We saw Shecky perform back in May of ’09 at the Suncoast Casino. Here’s how we described that set:

The set was tremendous– a stream-of-consciousness combination of reminiscences, songs, impressions, story-telling, Yiddish, dialects, messing with the boys in the band and messing with the audience. He would leave a story at one point if it intersected with another (or if he happened to deem a second third or fourth story more worth pursuing at the moment), sometimes returning to the original thread, sometimes not. A few old jokes were thrown in, too. At times it was old school, at other times, it was contemporary.

And this set was just as tremendous. This time around he invoked Kathy Griffin, the Kardashians and Biggest Loser among other pop culture icons. He also called out frequently to his buddy in the audience– Steve Lawrence! (Who shared a banquette with his lovely and talented spouse, Eydie Gorme!)

Ya gotta love Vegas! You go to see Shecky Greene and Steve & Eydie are in the house! (Lawrence came up onstage and helped wheel a cake onstage– as it was not only a show, but a celebration of Greene’s upcoming 85th birthday– and sang a song as well!)

If there was any difference between this set and the one we saw 18 months ago, it might be that Greene seemed a bit wistful. The jokes about retiring or “never working again” were, as always sprinkled throughout the set, but this time they had a bit of a serious undertone. Three-quarters of the way through the performance, we began to believe him.

Perhaps it’s because this engagement nearly coincided with his upcoming birthday (April 8).

Whatever is going on, we hope we didn’t see his final show. (Of course, who wouldn’t want to be present for such an historic occasion, but the man is a tremendous comedian. And notice we didn’t append that with “…for a man his age.” He commands the room, he displays multiple talents, he is a one-of-a-kind. And it is quite obvious that he absolutely loves doing standup.

And his impression of Buddy Hackett is hilarious!

Happy Birthday, Shecky Greene! And hope we see you perform next year!

We threw it together in 48 hours. We wanted to have a get-together here in Vegas to celebrate the 12th anniversary of the upload of the first “issue” of SHECKYmagazine.com. Initially, we were merely going to piggyback our celebration on top of the regularly scheduled Fryer’s Club meeting at the Mad Onion over at Hooters Casino Hotel, but the April 1 Fryers was postponed due to the fact that Fryer’s organizer Geechy Guy was out of town (bringing a road version of his “Dirty Joke Show” to Star Plaza Theatre in Merrillville, IN) and due to the fact that the current relationship between the Fryer’s and host venue Mad Onion might be… “in review.” So, utilizing social networking tools and good, old-fashioned cellphones, we arranged to have a faux, temporary, stopgap Fryer’s-type gathering in the friendly confines of the comedy club that houses Joe Lowers‘ Las Vegas Comedy Show at the Alexis Park.

From left to right, it's Todd Paul Ogata! This is our best concept photo since Dwight Slade Ham, which we snapped at Montreal in 2007!

So last-minute were the arrangements that we really had no idea if two people or two-hundred would show up. We invited Fryer’s regulars and texted locals and invited folks who we knew to be performing in town.

L to r: Mike Stigs, Greg Vacarriello, Kenny Thomas, ruling a banquette at Joe Lowers' LVCS showroom at the Alexis Park

Turnout was healthy! We were even honored by a brief visit from Carrot Top and his opening act Shayma Tash

!

The Female Half of the Staff with Robert Duchaine

In keeping with the Fryer’s tradition, we arranged for $100 worth of wings for our guests. How many wings does a Benjamin buy? (We had no idea either! We figured, if we went by Hooters math– they’re currently offering 25-cent wings– that would be 400! Or it would buy us one, giant, freakish wing! Or somewhere in between!) Turns out it gets you about 80 or so. With veggies and dip on the side. And one of them fancy, silver chafing dishes to hold the wings. All spread out on a low-rise wall in the back of the showroom– low enough even for Tanyalee Davis to be able to reach the food! (Her observation, not ours, lest anyone think we’re mocking the vertically challenged!) Co-host Joe Lowers sprang for another half-order, thereby keeping late arrivals happy.

Matt Markman, Sarah (Brad Garrett's Comedy Club) and Charles Cheese

We hope our little shindig helped to keep the momentum going on the Fryer’s meetings. It’s one of the grooviest things about living in Vegas… and such a Vegas thing! And, when you get down to it, a very SHECKY thing. We haven’t used “SHECKY” as an adjective in quite some time. But the Fryer’s epitomizes the tenets of the SHECKY manifesto (which was published in the first issue 12 years and a day ago and which is possibly lost in the ether!).

L to r: Derrick J. Stroman, Joe Lowers, Gary Weaver

We’ll keep folks posted on the progress of the Fryer’s quest for a new home. And we urge all who visit Vegas to check their Facebook page (link above) and make sure you stop by when you’re in town. Every night of the week is special in Vegas, but this gathering makes Fridays even more so.

L to r: Todd Paul, Rob Sherwood, Joe Lowers, checking out Lowers' handiwork on the stage of the LVCS Theater.

L to R: A.J. Finney, David Drake, Shep Slater, David Moroz, Marc Maietta, being snapped at the Comedy Castle on the evening of Showcase Two (Tuesday)

The Halves of the Staff were invited to co-host the second of three nights of showcases at the 4th Annual Garden Fresh Laugh Detroit Comedy Festival this year. We flew in Thursday, gigged on Friday, layed low on Saturday, attended the David Alan Grier on Sunday, attended Showcase Show One on Monday, then did our thing on Tuesday. We flew back to the desert on Wedneday.

The great thing about attending a fest that’s sponsored by a company that makes food is that they provide a lot of their product– the Hospitality Suite was bursting with tubs and tublets of hummus and salsa and dip and great, bulbous bags of nacho chips. All of it gluten-free, so the Female Half was able to nosh. (We’ve attended fests sponsored by beer brewers… they never let any of it go for free!)

Jeff MacKinnon went all Martha Stewart on us and combined a crock of cream cheese-based dip with some of the salsa– microwaving the concoction and slinging it out there, where it was devoured. Festival Big Cheese David Moroz endeared himself to the fest participants by providing plenty of free booze– Coors and Heinies and Labatts and Johnny Walker Black(out!) and Maker’s Mark– comics hate paying for alcohol! (Worry not, nanny types, all the imbibers were staying close by, so there was little chance of anyone wrapping a rental car around a pole!)

L to R: Ryan Reaves, The Female Half of the Staff and Kevin McCaffrey, at the Hospitality Suite after Showcase One (Monday)

We’re never understand comedians who make the effort to be part of a festival but don’t show up afterward at the after-party! That’s where all the merriment and the bonding and the networking and the crazy stories are told (and often originate!), so why would anyone skip that part? And you get to see weird shit– like the spectacle of The Female Half getting into a barnburner of an argument with (Unnamed) over (Unspecified) resulting in The Female Half storming out! (We found out the next day that a handful of the showcasers immediately took up the argument and that it raged on until 4 AM or so!)

Monday night’s show was ably hosted by Auggie Smith. Our only personal experience with Smith was back a few years ago, we filled in a the last minute for Smith, who backed out of a gig at Wiley’s in Dayton. (We’re sure he had good reason!) We only mention it because we had to endure an entire weekend of disappointed faces– “Hey… You’re not Auggie Smith… Auggie’s not here? Hey… I thought Auggie Smith was headlining this weekend… you aren’t Auggie.” And on like that. It became a catchphrase around our house for a while. Showing up in a substitute role is a thankless task! Especially when you encounter disappointed Auggie Smith fans!

Packed house (as usual for the Comedy Castle), great and enthusiastic crowds (again, as usual) and a lot of the showcasers for the upcoming nights coming in early to watch their fellow fest attendees work the room.

The Hospitality Suite was located in an upper unit at the Residence Inn-like hotel and it opened each night shortly after the festivities ended at the Comedy Castle. And, in spite of the party poopers, it was well-attended each night. So well-attended, in fact, that the police showed up on Night Two when the three phone calls from the front desk failed miserably to quell the riotous conversation. (The spectacle of an entire roomful of comics trying to whisper is… comical. Each silent period might have only lasted about three minutes.) The men in blue couldn’t have been nicer (or so we’re told– we bugged out shortly before The Man arrived… so refined are our instincts when it comes to avoiding arrest)!

L to R: Kyle Ploof, Jeff MacKinnon, Trevor Smith, at the Hospitality Suite after the DAG show (Sunday)

The hotel was quite foolish for not booking comics into the three units surrounding the Hospitality Suite. They could have avoided any unpleasantness– like five cops breaking up the bash and escorting the entire contingent down the stairs (while, allegedly, Auggie Smith sang “We Shall Overcome”). The following night they moved the whole affair into the lobby.

L to R: Mike Baldwin, Michael Finoia, enjoying beverages at the Hospitality Suite after Showcase One (Monday)

We hosted the Tuesday Showcase. We had originally planned to do “shtick.” A little something together, maybe, as we were co-hosting. But our time got cut down severely, as there was an extra comic– Forrest Shaw, whose flight was delayed out of Miami the previous day managed to eventually make it to town, so he was accommodated on our night and there was a rumor that local-boy-made-good John Heffron might show up and do some time. We have so rarely appeared onstage together, however, that we were reluctant to chance any risky business– we had the others to think about, after all. Wouldn’t it suck if you had a nice slot in a nice festival and the host(s) bombed?

L to R: Emily Wahlund, David Moroz, at the Hospitality Suite, after Showcase One (Monday)

Another packed house for our showcase show. The Halves ran a tight ship, and the show went like clockwork… except for one incident. Prior to the show, all comics were instructed to be back behind the giant, wooden rolling door that leads to the stage at least two acts before their own slot came up. And they all complied. Except for one, Scott White, who dreamed up a dramatic entrance– entering from the audience, stage-right and bounding onstage from the darkness.

Jeff MacKinnon recalls watching The Male Half on the monitor turning toward the giant door and seeing… no one… while simultaneously hearing The Female Half caterwauling from the hallway, “Where the FUCK IS HE?!” Such a breach of protocol is a no-no. It is a giant Fest No-No! We were not happy.

That evening’s schmoozing took place in the lobby dining room, amid the trappings of the free continental breakfast, under the glare of an (inexplicably) unhappy hotel manager. No complaints from other guests were fielded and no law enforcement was necessary, however.

The next night, as we were landing at McCarran, Karen Rontowski was hosting the third and final Showcase. We hear that some of the lucky showcase acts from the previous three nights had the privilege of opening for Rontowski this weekend.

It’s a swell festival to aspire to. If for no other reason than the folks who head it up– David Moroz of Aspen Talent and Mark Ridley, proprietor of the Comedy Castle– are two of the most even-tempered and placid people in the business. While no festival is stress-free, the level of stress is guaranteed to be at a minimum with those two gentlemen at the helm. And there was a smattering of industry there– Jeff Singer added a third seminar to his scheduled two. And festival iron man Rich Miller, among others, was also in attendance.

It’s a good, fun festival with– BONUS– healthy, rabid crowds! So the comics get to showcase, hang with their colleagues and do their thing on the stage of one of the top five or ten clubs on the continent. May it live long and prosper.

Laugh Detroit Kicks Off March 27: MyFoxDETROIT.com

We appeared on Detroit television this morning. On the local Fox affiliate. Fox 2. Our mission: Promote the upcoming Garden Fresh Detroit Laughs Comedy Festival. We did so, we hope. We had a swell time on the Big Brown Couch and we noticed that the cameras are all controlled by robots! (It’s a sad commentary on our careers that we’ve only now noticed a ten-year trend in big-market TV production. Apparently, no one is spooked by cameras skittering about, without human guidance.)

We remembered the requisite information and we slept for most of our downtime between the TV appearance and the show.

We were exiting the Bob Evans restaurant when we heard one patron, “Oh… They were on TV this morning!”

David Alan Grier kicked ass. We were too stupid or too polite or too jaded to snap a photo with him. It is, after all, his triumphant return to his hometown. The last we saw DAG he was communing with an elderly lady wearing a fur (real fur!) coat. The last thing we want to do is in insinuate ourselves between a man an his elderly relative/acquaintance wearing a real fur coat! We don’t do that TMZ thing. Especially when it comes to old folks.

That's Robert Hines on the left and James P. Connoly on the right. They're standing in front of the Murphy bed that is part of the hospitality suite.

Many of the comics from the upcoming three days of showcases are filtering into the metro area to appear on the shows. We’ll be headlining/hosting Tuesday night. There will be 30 comics over three nights showcasing. We will post pics. Stay tuned.

From the FutonCritic.com:

LOS ANGELES (thefutoncritic.com) — NBC has passed on another summer cycle of its veteran reality series “Last Comic Standing,” a network spokesperson has confirmed to the site exclusively.

Craig Robinson hosted the franchise’s most recent edition, which wrapped on August 9 with a season low 3.91 million viewers and a 1.5 rating among adults 18-49.

This is a negative development. The show was good for comedy, at least the last season was. (And we say that not merely because we were on it! The five finalists who spread the cheer throughout ComedyLand on the monster LCS tour were solid, diverse, professional and no doubt a gateway for many thousands to subsequently sample comedy in local comedy clubs.)

For the “haters” who will no doubt crawl out of the woodwork and say that the show’s cancellation is long overdue, we counter that they simply don’t know what they’re talking about. Almost any time standup comedy is presented in a sane manner on primetime network television, it’s a good thing for standup comedy.

And those numbers cited above don’t tell the whole story– at its peak in Season 7, the show was pulling in 7 million viewers (and plenty more via Hulu.com and other viewings). We think NBC will relent and bring the show back yet again. It’s inexpensive to produce, it gets decent numbers in the summer doldrums and, who knows, one of these seasons, they might actually “discover” a comedy star who can anchor some sort of NBC series– A sitcom? A game show? A reality series? Who knows?

We’d start a letter-writing campaign, but we don’t have enough faith in our fellow comics that they’d actually spearhead such a campaign. Of course, fans would love to see the show return, but the comics would have to be the engine for such a movement. And we’re not convinced that they’ve seen the light as far as the clear benefit that the return of LCS would bring.

It’s the best green room in the business. The Female Half has been saying for years that every green room should have a coffee machine. (Have you ever noticed the look on the face of most comedy club waitresses when you ask for a cup of coffee? If you ask for cream it’s as if you’d punched her in the baby-maker– we’re using the alt-comedy lingo, heavy on the irony… for the kids.)

Brad Garrett’s Comedy Club at the Trop has one of those Keurig machines that makes one cup at a time. And a glass-doored fridge bursting with Snapple and cold water and Gatorade and Red Bull and Coronas and Bud Lites. And a giant hi-def screen that lets the comics monitor the show. And an oversized coffee table with jars filled with candy and snacks. (In the venue’s previous life, the room was used for… storage. And the comics were forced to hang in a tiny room just off the stage.)

One comedy club owner once referred to a green room as “a breeding ground for egos.” Needless to say, his club didn’t have one at the time. Nor, we assume, did the comedians he hired have any egos. Nor, we assume, did they have any self-respect.

The comics in the green room this past week at Brad Garrett’s Comedy Club at the Trop have plenty of self-esteem. The Female Half, Greg Vaccariello and Bob Zany were there from Monday to Sunday. Eva Longoria even stopped by! So huge is the green room (and so tiny is she) you could fit a thousand Eva Longoria’s in there!

It was quite a pleasure to hang out with any after all these years– we worked with him many years ago in Atlanta and he agreed to be the first ever SHECKYmagazine.com main interview. His words were featured in the premiere issue of the mag, way back on April 1, 1999. We almost forgot to mention Zany’s documentary, “Close But No Cigar.” He gave us a copy of the as-yet-unreleased film and we watched it the other day. It is (or will be!) mandatory viewing for anyone in the business, no matter what level of experience you have. It’s alternately inspiring, fascinating and frustrating. It moves like a shot and it’s an insightful look into one man’s absolutely singular career in standup comedy. We’ll keep you posted when it’s available to the general public. It’ll be shown at the Los Angeles Film+Music Weekend.

The Female Half with Bob Zany at Brad Garrett

Greg Vaccariello with The Male Half at Brad Garrett's Comedy Club at the Trop. (Bob Zany can be seen on the big screen in the rear.)

FOS Murv Seymour called to let us know that James Vernon passed away this past weekend of a heart attack. According to his Facebook page, Vernon was born June 12, 1951. (There are multiple comments on Vernon’s wall and that would be the place to consult for funeral services, donations, etc.)

From a March 2007 article:

James Vernon’s past is nothing to laugh at. The 55-year-old Clearwater resident battled heroin addiction for 18 years, spent two years homeless, went to prison twice and once tried to kill himself on a Houston street corner. And that was before he received second- and third-degree burns in a freak gas station accident. But after sobering up and becoming a comedian, Vernon has been able to squeeze jokes (and laughs) from his turbulent former life. He headlines a benefit show on March 24 at Coconuts Comedy Club in Clearwater.

And from his bio on RecoveryComedy.com:

In July 1979 the Comedy Workshop opened its doors as Houston Texas’ premiere comedy club. It was the birthplace for some of the most well known names in comedy, both past and present: Bill Hicks, Sam Kinison, Ron Schock, Fred Greenlee, and Brett Butler, just to name a few. Before closing its doors in January 1990 it produced yet another talent who is rapidly following in the footsteps of his predecessors.

James Vernon has experienced life the way most only read about. From his three years in the Marine Corps to his prison terms, sixteen year drug addiction to catching fire and receiving third degree burns over 35% percent of his body. James found humor in all of life’s experiences. His intellect and street suave lend to James’ unique outlook on current events. James has the uncanny ability to present controversial issues with a flair for walking that fine line between dangerously dirty and brilliantly funny without offending even the most prudent of audiences. His enlightening view of reality allows us a different perspective of life.

Gallagher collapsed during a performance at a gig in Rochester, Minnesota. He was conscious when they carted him away. Someone (not a doctor) speculated that he had a stroke. His manager says Gallagher is in “stable condition.”

We can’t help but think about all the classless geeks who, upon hearing of the death of Mike DeStefano, wished that it could have been some other comedian for whom they have zero fondness. Be careful what you wish for, geeks!

Roy Wood, Jr., wrote a lengthy remembrance of friend Mike DeStefano.

I no longer use the term ‘friend’ lightly. I’ve learned over the past couple of years just how few friends I really have. The older you get you’re more likely to take people OFF that list rather than ADDING people to that list.

Outside of the guys you start comedy with, it’s a rarity to pick up new friends along the way. The solitary nature of what we do keeps us from forming real bonds with people. The friends you had before you started comedy become cherished commodities.

Mike Destefano (Mike D) and I met briefly during auditions for ‘Last Comic Standing’ in New York. The convo didn’t go much deeper than a handshake and the usual chit chat about our hometown comedy clubs. That was the last I saw of him for a couple of weeks because of the way they separated the semi-finalists. It wasn’t until we made the Final 10 that I got to interact with him for the first time.

Read the whole thing. It’s worth it.

It sounds so… Vegas-y– “Flamingo Goodwill.”

We stopped in while waiting for the Shecky Wagon to have its radiator looked at.

We couldn’t help but notice the three (Three!) Frank Caliendo bobble-head dolls. And we couldn’t help but notice that they look nothing like Caliendo!

The Male Half thought it kinda looks like Birbiglia. The Female Half thought it resembled Larry Miller.

HEY! Only a $1.99! Get 'em while they're hot!

Maybe it was designed using the specs from that science experiment from 2006, the one where the scientist melded the features from 20 prominent comedians to come up with the ultimate “Face of Comedy.” (Everyone concluded it looked like Ricky Gervais.)

Caliendo is at the Monte Carlo through April (“…ending his 16-month run to spend more time with his family.”) Or is he? We hear conflicting reports. Showrooms on the strip are like a chess board. People “announce” or “leak” information all the time about their comings and goings, all in an effort to secure either a better deal at their current home or a new deal at another across the street.

Mike DeStefano, who reached the finals of season seven of Last Comic Standing, and who was to appear at the Barrow Street Theatre on Wednesday night in “Mike DeStefano In: A Cherry Tree In The Bronx” in NYC, died last night of a heart attack.  Stay tuned.

DeStefano had just finished a lengthy tour with fellow LCS finalists Roy Wood Jr., Myq Kaplan, Tommy Johnagin and Felipe Esparza.

The Male Half with DeStefano at the 2007 Just For Laughs Festival. (Photo credit: Todd Jackson) DeStefano turned in a splendid performance that night on the Wise Guys show at the Spectrum Theatre, in which he “got the second half off to an edgy, roaring start.” That was the first time we had seen DeStefano perform.

We have a special request to the cretins (both comics and no-comics) who, when commemorating a deceased comedian, end the whole statement with, “… and yet (fill in name of hated comedian du jour) lives on.” It’s low-class, it’s stupid and it’s spiteful. Anyone who does it is a loser. And a hack. Knock it off. It certainly makes you (and, by association, all of us) seem insubstantial. Grow the fuck up.

Left to right: That's Buffet Jackson, Ralphie May, Tanyalee Davis, (in background: Amazing Johnathan and Robert Nash) Robert Duchaine, Tim O'Rourke and the hands of Joe Lowers

There was a good turnout this week for the Fryers. There was a nice mix of local comedians and out of town comics.  It was festive… it’s like a mini-festival!

Occasionally, when we think of it, we’ll google “Sheckymagazine,” just to see what’s being said or blogged about our publication. (It has nothing to do with vanity and everything to do with good business. We’ve found some pretty interesting– and occasionally goofy– stuff by googling the mag.)

Imagine our surprise when we found this blog entry (on a blog called “Comedy Land,” curated by one L. Wayne Hicks, managing editor of the Denver Business Journal):

Brian McKim and fellow comedian (and wife) Traci Skene, the duo behind the long-running website sheckymagazine.com, are writing “The Comedy Bible: The Complete Resource for Aspiring Comedians.” Barron’s Educational Series has a Sept. 1 publication date. Both McKim and Skene appeared in season seven of NBC’s “Last Comic Standing,” with McKim making it into the semifinals.

Of course, it’s all true. (At least we think it’s true… we weren’t aware of the Sept. 1 pub date, but we assume it’s real!) But we were momentarily wigged because we didn’t know that Barron’s had launched any kind of publicity campaign yet. (Actually, they still probably haven’t… this, we assume, was taken directly from a press release.)

We’ve reached out to L. Wayne Hicks, via LinkedIn, but have yet to hear back from him. (It never occurred to us to contact Barron’s! We’ve been pretty much exclusively corresponding with the co-publisher, in the U.K., during the writing and editing process.)

Well, there you have it: The reason our posting has been anemic. That, and two cruises and a move across the continent. Stay tuned.

As for Comedy Land, it’s been up since January 2007, but Hicks has posted only occasionally.  But there’s a good interview with the late Mitch Hedberg and a lengthy and relevant (at least to us) interview with Louie Anderson.