Anyone who did comedy on the East Coast in the 1980s or 1990s probably worked, at one gig or another, with Rick Scotti. (In fact, Scotti was the headliner on The Female Half’s first road trip– at a club in Richmond, VA, way back in 1986.) Scotti stopped doing comedy in 2000.

Scotti is back doing standup again. And writing a blog called “Inside and Out.” The subtitle is “Eleven years ago, Rick Scotti performed stand up comedy for the last time. Now returning as Julia,she chronicles the long journey back.”

Julia Scotti writes of her first time back onstage at The Comedy Works in Bristol, PA:

I’m on.

“Thank you! It’s good to be back.! A lot has happened in these last eleven years…let’s see, I went back to college, got my degree, my parents died, upgraded my cable package…and oh yeah…I HAD A SEX CHANGE.”

At that moment, the oddest thing happened. There was total SILENCE. The kiss of death for a comic. The equivalent of being buried alive underground in a cigar box. Like being at your grandma’s 100th birthday party with five generations of your relatives giving her gentle hugs and you squeeze her so hard you crack her rib. It’s that horrifying. Time stops. The little people in your mind get the battle stations claxon and you can see them rolling out of their bunks. Millions of tiny little engine room workers are frantically shoveling mental coal into the boiler to bring the brain some power. At the very least, this line should have provoked a titter, and possibly a nasty remark from some scoundrel heckler. But there was nothing. Crickets. Why?

And then it hit me. They didn’t believe me. All my fears of being teased, of being called a freak in public, of religious zealots throwing holy sand at me and exorcising the demons that led me astray back to Sodom were for nothing, because they thought I had been lying! This was fucking insanely fabulous! (Cue the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel’s Messiah)

I had to do something. So I looked them squarely in their eyes and said; “No really.”

Still nothing.

At this point, it was like opening the trunk, taking out the jumper cables and attaching them to their collective nipples. I took one last shot.

“No….REALLLLLLLLLY.”

Finally, they responded. Some laughed. Some began to talk among themselves. I needed to take control again, so I found the hunkiest young guy in the audience and said…

“And don’t get any ideas, buster! I see you looking at me and undressing me with your eyes! Come on… put ‘em back on !

And that opened them up. The rest of my set was nothing memorable, but I got enough laughs to make me realize that maybe I could do this again after all. Sure I was rusty and my timing needed a tune-up, but I had told the truth. And I survived.

When it was over, Kaplan walked over to me. I was expecting kudos. What I got was, “NOW WAS THAT SO FUCKING HARD?”

Ya gotta love him.

The Kaplan referred to is the perpetually (but charmingly) annoyed Comedy Works proprietor Mike Kaplan.

We always find it fascinating when someone leaves standup… and then returns. And it’s even more interesting when the returnee comes back after a major change or two (Divorce? Weight loss? Near-death experience?) and feels the need or the desire to re-invent himself/herself onstage.

The above-mentioned comeback performance occurred just a few weeks ago, so Scotti’s real-time recounting of the saga has just begun. There’s no better time to hop on, bookmark it and follow along than now!

The Male Half was waiting in line a the Budget Car Rental Counter in Vegas when he looked up ta the plasma screen behind the counter and spotted FOS Lisa Corrao in a national commercial for Liberator Medical, a company that sells, among other items, catheters and catheter accessories. Corrao portrayed one of those headset-wearing 800 operators who are always “standing by.”

Fast-forward a few months and there’s a viral video which consists of a short chunk of The Soup in which host and Minister of Snark Joel McHale runs a snippet of one of Corrao’s commercials (this one pushing mens’ catheters) and then makes vicious fun of the commercial. It’s hilarious!

We sure hope the producers of the show bring Corrao on live! It’s a natural. If you’ve never seen the show, it’s really well done and it moves like lightning. It’s been around a while– initially named Talk Soup and originally hosted by Greg Kinnear– it has evolved while being hosted by comedians John Henson, Hal Sparks and Aisha Tyler. Some would say that the show has reached near perfection in its current form.

Making fun of such uncomfortable things as a cheery commercial for male catheters is right in the show’s wheelhouse. And it’s known for occasional guest appearances by some of the same celebrities (and near-celebrities) it so mercilessly skews. So… an appearance by Corrao would be hysterical and entirely appropriate.

Las Vegans wishing to hear a lengthy interview with “Mr. & Mrs. Comedy” can tune into KNPR tonight at 10-ish. And, through the magic of Podcastitism, those who are outside of KNPR’s footprint can hear it immediately by clicking here.

We were quizzed on our book (of course!) and on a variety of other subjects like our appearance on Last Comic Standing, what it’s like being married standup comics, how we come up with material and hecklers. A wide-ranging interview, done yesterday in the KNPR studios on the campus of College of Southern Nevada.

Since we moved here, nearly ten months ago, we have confirmed one notion: EVERYbody wants to play Vegas. At least it sure seems that way. When we tell people that we’ve moved there, they freeze for a moment, the wheels inside their heads spin briefly and then they ask a variation on the same question: “How can I work Vegas?”

Well… here’s one way, maybe: Enter the Improv’s “Up Yours” contest. That’s a link to the rules for the latest edition of Budd Friedman’s and Mark Lonow’s online clip battle that ends up with six finalists peforming in front of a panel of judges at the Improv comedy club at Harrah’s on the world famous Las Vegas Strip.

The winner gets paid gigs at The Improvs in Las Vegas and in Lake Tahoe, which are, according to the website, “valued at $25,000.” No word on just how many gigs at the two clubs which are necessary to add up to that magical figure. Also, the winner gets “a meeting in Vegas at the time of the finale with an agent from the talent agency APA.”

Hop on, check out the competition and dive in. And, as always, check out the rules before you enter. Know before you go. Poke before you joke. Enter with your head, not over it. Blah, blah, blah.

As with any contest of this sort, the organizers would be remiss if they didn’t include the Universal Release (look for it at the “Terms of Use” link) that pretty much says that anything you submit becomes their property and that they can use it any way they please. Our favorite part of Universal Releases these days is the part where you grant the contest folks the “license to use… all CONTENT… in any form, media, or technology now known or later developed. So if, in the year 2525 (with apologies to Zager and Evans), if somebody invents a way to inject your material into somebody’s brain in such a way that it’s re-written as a playlet and re-enacted by a microscopic troupe of actors composed entirely of tiny carbon nanotubes… you can’t kick. Of course, it’ll probably just end up as a ringtone. BORRRRing!

The news on the internet is confirmed. Patrice Oneal has passed away at the age of 41.

From his Wikipedia entry:

Patrice Lumumba Malcolm O’Neal (December 7, 1969 – November 29, 2011) was an American stand-up comedian, radio personality, and actor. He was known for his cutting, often confrontational crowd work during which he often played couples against each other. He was a resident of Jersey City, New Jersey.

Oneal had a stroke about a month ago, which left him unable to speak. Hit TMZ.com for the story.

Originally appeared on Oct. 8, but bumped.

We have received many requests for an autographed copy of our book. And we understand why folks would want to own an autographed copy of our book. So we did some research and we’ve figured out a way.

For those who want to own an autographed copy now, we can offer one at $30, payable through PayPal. (That includes the book, autographed, and it includes shipping, via USPS Priority, anywhere in the U.S.) We’re not sure what to do about our Canadian friends (or those in other non-U.S. locales), but we’ll be sure and research that.

Just fill in the name for the dedication, click on the “Buy Now” button and you’ll be whisked to PayPal. There you’ll be asked to fill in your mailing address and other info and we’ll receive your order instantly! Then we’ll mail it to you via USPS Priority!

Of course, you can always buy the book– at your favorite bookstore or off of Amazon.com– and, if we should happen to cross paths (and someone nearby has a Sharpie!), we’ll be happy to sign it!

We awoke this morning to find that a Facebook friend (Carl Brandt) posted on The Male Half’s wall that SHECKYmagazine had been “name-checked” on the Nick and Artie Show, the nationally-syndicated radio show hosted by Artie Lange and Nick DiPaolo. (The show debuted October 3 and is described as focusing on sports and entertainment.)

We hopped onto the N&A website and listened to hour one of the Thursday broadcast in which a caller, Karen from Boston, chatted with the hosts about the Steve Sweeney assault story (Scroll down to see our post on that). Sure enough, at the end of her call (at the 12:15 mark of the broadcast), she quoted the last line of the aforementioned SHECKYmagazine post– “It’s even more astonishing that anyone would tangle with a Boston comic! If she had done that in the 80s, she’d be in a full body cast right now.”

Tellingly, “Karen” referred to the author of the line (and to the author of the blog) as “he.” This is something we’ve noticed now for a long time. While it is true that the blog is named after a man. And while it might be argued that the tone of the magazine could be interpreted as masculine, we’ve gone to great lengths to convey that it’s a joint effort between two people– a man and a woman. We even have our photographs prominently displayed top left! We’ve adopted certain crazy conventions (like referring to The Female Half and The Male Half, and wiping out any use of “I” when writing posts) to make it clear that the posts are authored jointly. We’re not sure how anyone– let alone “Karen,” who is obviously a woman– could automatically use the masculine pronoun when referring to our blog. But it happens with alarming frequency.

We briefly addressed this very subject during a recent interview with Las Vegas Review-Journal (LVR-J) columnist Mike Weatherford. Weatherford’s Sunday column was based on that interview and contains the following pertinent passage, on the subject of married couples in comedy:

But they still don’t have a lot of company among married comedians. “There’s a few out there,” he says, “but they seem curiously reluctant to … ”

“Say they’re married,” she adds, finishing a sentence in the way long-married couples do. “(Promoters) tend to devalue the female half of the couple.”

Emphasis ours.

Promoters, readers, audiences– all tend to devalue the female half of the couple.

And we’re not whining. It is what it is. And it certainly has shaped how we’ve dealt with business and work. And we certainly understand how other couples seek to build a wall between their respective careers (usually at the insistence of the female half of the partnership).

But we’ve embraced it. For a time– back in 1988 or 1989, we strove to make it clear that we were separate entities, that we didn’t have to be booked together, etc.  But, no matter how hard we tried, the message didn’t get through.  We eventually rolled over.  Now, we’ve totally given up and given in. And now, it’s on a billboard!

We especially like the billboard below, in the distance, that says, “Divorce Custody!” (It’s readable on larger versions of the pic, trust us!)

Since we’re headlining at Big Al’s this month a the Orleans (and since we didn’t have a show on Sunday night), we managed to jiggle a few connections and get comped into Don Rickles at the Orleans Showroom last night.

Rickles.

That’s right. We saw Don Rickles. We know that thousands of people have seen Rickles over his 63 years, but we haven’t seen him yet! And we think it is incumbent upon every standup comic to see as many of the masters as he/she can.

And what made it twelve times cooler was seeing him in Vegas! With a full orchestra! And a packed house!

It’s been quite a year for us– we saw Shecky Greene at the Southpoint in April on his birthday weekend. And now we saw Rickles!

We dig the mid-century caricature that loomed over the stage before showtime. (We’re pretty sure it’s mid-century since he’s depicted as having hair!)

The kind of comedy that Rickles purveys (and that Greene purveys) is going to die with them. It’s “a little song, a little dance” and no one– NO one– is keeping the tradition up. We’re not insisting for a minute that anyone should incorporate the soft-shoe into his act. We watch these guys do what they do and we know that no one will carry on the tradition. So we are nostalgic (“A bittersweet longing for things, persons, or situations of the past”) and as we watch, we understand that what we’re witnessing will not be around– except via video or film.

Rickles was rickety. But his enthusiasm for performing is not dampened. His interaction with the band (especially the musical director who acted as his ultimate straight man) was hysterical. And it was a joy to watch him deliver some of his more pointed lines– such confidence and such a raucous response from the audience!

It was a thrill to see the legend after having grown up watching him on the small screen.

He’s coming back in March.

Let’s crack open a bottle of Gnarly Head Cab and upload a couple of posts!

Have you seen Comedy Shop? It’s hosted by Norm Crosby. It pops up on Sunday nights on TWO stations around here! KGNG (or “King Kong Broadcasting!”) is Channel 47 here in Las Vegas. They spray EIGHT subchannels of quirky television from a transmitter high atop Black Mountain, over in Henderson.

KGNG runs back-to-back half-hour episodes of Comedy Shop on channel 47.4 (RTVNET) and 47.6 (MYFAMILY) every Sunday night from 6 to 7 PM. Our sorry-ass antenna picks them both up.

We don’t have cable. We don’t have time to watch that much television. (Honest! We are usually skeptical of anti-TV types… their excuses for not having/watching a television usually ring hollow or are calculated to somehow get across the message that they are superior and those who wallow in the glow of the “idiot box” are giving into baser instincts. We don’t play that. We’ve considered subscribing to cable or satellite or some other sort of paid television service. For a while, we had Netflix– but we weren’t even able to consume enough of their service to make it worth even that paltry fee! We analogize our decision thusly: It would be like buying ten loaves of bread per month and only eating two or three slices out of each loaf.)

Comedy Shop is variously described, depending on which website you go to, as having started in 1978 or 1979. They all agree that it died in 1981. Just in time for the explosion of comedy! (Perhaps Comedy Shop was some sort of cultural blasting cap.)

We each have our various excuses for missing the show on its first go-round. But we must say that it’s fascinating viewing this time around!

Last night, while preparing to go see Don Rickles at the Orleans Showroom, we ping-ponged back and forth between 47.4 and 47.6 to catch a wild variety of comedians and sample a slice of late-70s, pre-boom comedy.

Slappy White, Lenny Schultz, Shelley Berman, Dave Tyree, Murray Langston, Jimmy Aleck, Ed Bluestone, Bowser… and that was only in the space of about 20 minutes. We note that Buddy Hackett also made an appearance. And, of course, the proceedings were hosted by Crosby.

At times, on certain episodes, it seems as though the show is taped in an empty studio with bizarre, grainy 70s-style audience pan-shots shoehorned in to make it look good. (Lots of flamboyant hair, lots of plaid, some vests, some really horrendous Italian designer-framed glasses.) Some episodes clearly were taped in front of a studio audience– as evidenced by some folks yelling, “Go crazy, Lenny!” to Lenny Schultz during his set.

of all the comedians we watched last night, we would have to say that Ed Bluestone’s set was the funniest and the set that would hold up today, some 31 years later. Slappy White’s set was pretty solid, too. And he lit up a cigarette! Hey, FCC: KGNG just called and said, “Come get me, bitches!” We’re not sure where Bluestone is these days, as there is scant evidence of him online. He seems to have contributed to National Lampoon a lot in their glory days, but past that, he’s not showing up.

We’ve seen Freddy Roman, Wil Shriner and others on previous episodes. It will be appointment television around here for a while. Or we might just check them all out, serially, on Amazon.com! (It’s available on Netflix and on Amazon.com. We assume that our newly-purchased Amazon Prime membership will entitle us to call them up and watch them for free whenever we have the time and inclination. Right now, though, we’re in the middle of watching all eight seasons of Red Dwarf! Amazon Prime, BTW, is a delightful alternative to Netflix. And you get free Amazon shipping for a year!)

Watching Comedy Shop is like cracking open a time capsule. It’s a fascinating look into the American Standup Comedy World just seconds before the BOOM. You can see just who were the go-to comics in the standup cosmosphere in the waning days of the 70s, just before cable and other cultural forces combined to make standup a phenomenon. The old-school guys from the 50s and 50s and 60s appeared alongside some of the up-and-comers who were slugging it out in the newer showcase clubs in NYC and LA at the time. It’s like scanning the Billboard Hot 100 just before the Beatles toured America for the first time.

Seek it out!

Comedian Drew Hastings has decisively won election to mayor of Hillsboro, OH.

With Hillsboro reporting complete, unofficial results, Drew Hastings had 773 votes to 440 for John Levo, a retired banker and former city councilman.
The 57-year-old Hastings moved from Los Angeles to the community 50 miles east of Cincinnati six years ago, buying a cattle farm. He became increasingly involved in the city of 6,600 residents, buying and renovating several downtown buildings.

Congratulations to Hastings, who starts a four-year term in January.

The comedian, who identifies as a libertarian, has been the subject of many an article in the MSM since he announced his intentions to be mayor. The Republic of Columbus, IN, said, “He at times had to fend off criticism of his adult-oriented humor and questions about his motives, such as whether he was seeking publicity for himself or gathering material for new comedy routines.” A piece of cake for a comedian– we’re always having our motives questioned, are we not?

Fans of Hastings (and democracy) can follow his exploits on HillsboroOhio.net.

That would be Big Al himself, on the right. (We assume he’s “Big Al.” We also assume that’s short for “Big Alligator.” Perhaps we assume too much.) Al is in keeping with the mardi gras theme of the Orleans. New Orleans is one of those rare places where one can both eat and be eaten by an alligator. Or so we are constantly reminded.

The marquee is giant. And employs both an electronic screen and elaborate, kinetic neon. Neon is getting rarer and rarer in this town and that’s a pity. The Orleans sign towers perhaps 50 or 60 feet over Tropicana Avenue. It is a marvelous throwback to the pre-Wynn era, before multi-colored neon gave way to computer-controlled LED’s.

We hit the Big Al’s open mike last night because it occurred to us that we hadn’t once set foot on the stage that would be our home for the next four weekends (with the exception of a brief photo shoot a few weeks ago– see below).

We’re excited about “Mr. and Mrs. Comedy!”  (And that label is a choice that we made.  It’s not pretentious in the least.  It’s… ironic!   Kinda.  Old-school, maybe.  Vegas-y, perhaps.  No other comedy couple has laid claim to the title.  And no other comedy couple has written a book about comedy.  Or written about standup in a high-profile way for more than a decade.  Besides, if you stand in the Orleans parking lot long enough, the slide touting our engagement is replaced by one that displays Don Rickles, who is known as “Mr. Warmth.”  Folks get sarcasm and irony around here.  Or they don’t.  That’s the beauty of Vegas.  Either folks enjoy the entertainment in a literal way or, if they choose, in an ironic way.  We suppose it depends on where you’re coming from– literally and figuratively!  Oddly, the folks who most often seem to fail to grasp that are in the entertainment media.)

Big Al seems to be conducting a hold-up using a microphone as a fake gun. The Female Half seems genuinely startled.  “Don’t tase me, Bro!”

Entertainment Weekly, whose website has the unfortunate name of EW.com, published a bit of fluff in the guise of a blog post called “Poll: Who’s your favorite stand-up comic of all time?” by Aly Semigran.

As any entertainer will attest, making someone laugh is always harder than making someone cry. It takes an entirely different skill set and taps into an entirely different, and arguably, more complicated psyche….

Then again, having to choose your favorite stand-up comic of all-time might be just as difficult a task.

Some choices are then laid out (tough choices, it says!) and a few clips are offered to get the brain thinking of standup comedy. Then the readers are invited to submit their fave. It’s an attempt to get some of that interactivity going between EW and its readers.

It’s always good to see comics getting their due. Not a harsh word in the entire piece. And the various modes of comedy are actually presented as (possibly) equivalent! And that comedy might be subjective!

It got us to thinking about our “Comic of the Millennium” poll from late 1999 (the first year for SHECKYmagazine.com) We, too, wanted to create some of that sweet interactivity and we got some interesting commentary from our readers. The winners of the poll in order:

• 1. Richard Pryor
• 2. George Carlin
• 3. Lenny Bruce
• 4. Bill Cosby
• 5. Henny Youngman
• 6. Jerry Seinfeld
• 7. Milton Berle
• 8. Steven Wright
• 9. George Burns
• 10. Shecky Greene

Fascinating.

We also ran some reader comments in which folks nominated such comics as Sam Kinison, Woody Allen, Chris Rock and Lord Buckley. We even received a lengthy argument for Mark Twain as COTM, from none other than A. Whitney Brown (who also nominated Shakespeare and Herodotus)!

We got to thinking about who would make the list if we were to conduct a similar poll in 2011, 12 years later. And we theorize that at least half of 1999’s top ten wouldn’t make it onto the 2011 list. We can’t imagine that our present-day readers– far greater in number than we had back then– would vote in such a way as to place Berle, Youngman, Burns or, sadly, Shecky Greene in the top ten. Indeed, they might even leave out Wright or Seinfeld.

This isn’t so much indicative of a change in the size of our readership or demographics as much as it is indicative of a vast change in the standup landscape over the past decade-plus. In a relatively short time, the standup business has matured and mushroomed and given birth to a couple dozen comedy “stars” that seem to have captured the fancy of a significant numbers of fans and comedians.

Or we could be completely wrong.

Video contests are in the air. We got two emails soliciting emails for contests. And there’s cash prizes if your video is chosen. And contest organizers thought our readers were logical places to go for contestants.

The first one is from the folks who promote recycling through America Recycles Day. “So help us show that “recycling is no joke” by participating in the first-ever America Recycles Day (ARD) video contest, open to contestants of all ages. You’ll be eligible to win $1,000 if you make the judges (and the public) laugh.” The details:

The video contest runs through the extended deadline of October 28, 2011. Submissions can be anything ranging from a one-liner, to a comic strip or skit about recycling, but the video must show recycling in a positive, humorous manner. The video needs to be uploaded to the ARD YouTube page by October. 28, 2011, as a response to a short video that explains the competition. The ARD Video Committee will vote on the top 10 winners and upload them to a YouTube playlist on our ARD page by November. 8, 2011. During the following week, the public will pick the winning videos by clicking the “like” button associated with their favorite video. Voting ends on America Recycles Day. Full rules found here.

Extended deadline? You know what that means (probably)– not that many folks entered… and you know what that means– a better chance of winning!

The other contest involves “a group of leading national advertisers whose goal is to provide consumers with entertainment options the entire family can watch.” They’re called Alliance for Family Entertainment and they’re looking for a family-friendly script.

I’m reaching out to you on behalf of the ANA Alliance for Family Entertainment (AFE) to let you know about a new national writing contest to find the next great story featuring the modern family. From October 5th – 28th, aspiring writers can submit an original half-hour comedy format script into the Search for America’s Newest Comedy Writer Contest for the opportunity to win $5,000.00 and receive creative guidance and direct input from American film and television producer, John Wells, best known for his role as executive producer of the television series ER, Third Watch and The West Wing among others.

I know a lot of talented comics read your site and you probably know of a few folks who may be sitting on a winning screenplay. If so, we’d appreciate any help you can provide in getting the word out about the opportunity, through your site, Facebook page or Twitter handle – submissions are currently being accepted at www.comedywritercontest.com

Make us proud, readers.

This is fun! We’ve gotten a grand total of four customer reviews on the Amazon.com site. The first two were lovely, five-star assessments of the book. We didn’t talk about those publicly. That’s not our style. We brag only on rare occasions. We let the upward thumbs speak for themselves.

The fun part comes when the negative reviews come in!

We know– we said we were probably not going to trash every bad review we got… but we left ourselves an out! (“We aren’t going to fisk every review of the book…”) And this one is so delicious that we couldn’t pass it up! Herewith, agnew.peter’s review of “The Comedy Bible: The Complete Resource for Aspiring Comedians” in its entirety:

Anybody could write a book like this and, contrary to the title – it will not help the aspiring comedian in the slightest. Please – if you are considering a career in comedy – spend your money on Judy Carter’s bible – a robust and legitimate piece of work. ….unless of course you need to read drivel like: “Punch Line: Position this at the end of your joke.”

This is probably the worst book I have ever purchased. The (cruel) joke is on me! and anyone else foolish enough to purchase this so-called book.

“Anybody could write a book like this?” Yipe! We’ll listen to legitimate criticism, but that’s just childish.

And we don’t think it’s catty to say that agnew.peter– were he commissioned to write a book like this– would have a rough time of it. After all, he refers to our book as “this so-called book.” Uh… the last time we checked, it had pages, words and a cover. No one would dispute that it’s a book. (And anyone who uses this tired rhetorical gesture has some cajones writing such a harsh review.)

Agnew.peter says our book, “will not help the aspiring comedian in the slightest,” and his main complaint seems to be that we offer “drivel”– or information that is so basic as to be useless. We suspect that agnew.peter hasn’t hung around an open mike lately. Or conducted a comedy seminar for aspiring comedians. These are things that we’ve been doing for 25 years.

Folks who aspire to do standup– or who aspire to give their nascent career a kick in the pants– quite often have gaping holes in their knowledge of standup. We are often aghast at some of the questions that up-and-coming comedians ask us. (Of course, we quickly suppress our horror and patiently attempt to answer any and all questions, for we recall all too vividly that time when we knew NOTHING about standup.)

Agnew.peter makes the very basic mistake of not remembering. It’s like not failing to recall that time when you possessed absolutely none of the skills necessary to drive a car. The first time behind the wheel is intimidating. The prospect of piloting 2,000 lbs. of steel and glass seems near impossible. Fast-forward a few months and you’re cruising down the street, steering with one index finger and trying to tune in your favorite station. After a decade or three, you can only recall those initial, sweaty driving attempts with great effort.

But we remember. That’s why we offer advice like “Put the punchline at the end of the joke,” we’re speaking to someone who hasn’t the faintest notion of how to approach the art of joke-telling. There are probably novices who have been performing at open mikes for months or years who haven’t figured out that the reason they aren’t getting a laugh (or the laugh that they might) is because they’ve consistently failed to put the punchline at the end of the joke. It is for them that we’ve included such “drivel.”

As for agnew.peter’s advice to purchase a book by a rival author instead of ours, we say, “Buy them both!” You’ll get free shipping and you’ll be out a total of $26.51! In spite of the claims made by their respective titles (“Ultimate” and “Complete”), neither book is comprehensive, so buying and reading both would probably make for a better-informed (and not that much broker) student of comedy.

We’re surprised by the emotion contained in the title of the review– “Utter garbage– How to write a scam book”– but we understand how passionate people can get about comedy. And we understand just how excited people get when they’re granted the “privilege” of reviewing someone else’s work.

As for calling our book a “scam,” we would say that calling our book a “dishonest scheme” or a “fraud” (both basic definitions of the word “scam”) overstates things and strains credulity. (Ask anyone who’s been ripped off by Bernie Madoff if buying our book– for the grand total of $15.63– is anywhere close to being a scam.)

We may sound defensive, but we’re not. We’re slightly befuddled that someone could read a 45,000-word book and fixate on one, short tidbit in order to condemn the entire work. There’s a lot of handy, interesting information in the book and it’s fairly wide-ranging. And, like we’ve already said, we didn’t choose the title… or the sub-title.

And, just as it might behoove a 40-year driver to take a refresher course in driving, it might be a good idea for a professional comic to browse through a book like ours to recall long-dormant fears, read a new take on hecklers or maybe pick up some new knowledge that puts our profession in an historical context.

When turned in the final chapter, we said privately that folks are either going to either love it or hate it. Force of habit, we suppose– folks have either loved SHECKYmagazine.com or hated it and folks have either loved our standup or hated it. And that’s pretty much how it’s breaking down with the book. Five-stars followed by one-star.

We suppose that it’s not such a bad thing that one’s work should evoke such extremes. Perhaps it’s an indication that we’re doing something right.

Being on the road isn’t the ordeal it used to be. With email, internet access, smart phones, Kinko’s, fax machines (Remember them? We’ve actually been required to fax something in the past year!), digital cameras and Flip cams, the miles between where you are and where you live don’t matter as much as they once did. Once in a while, however, even with all the technology, a jam occurs.

We were staying at the Nassau Inn in Wildwood Crest, NJ, last week, laying low between engagements here on the east coast, when we got an email from Vegas saying that the pics we had provided to the folks at the Orleans (for use in “collateral material” to promote our upcoming monthlong gig there) were unusable.  Something about having an inadequately high resolution.  What to do?  The deadline for the pics was near, so there was no way we could be home to dig up proper pics, so…

We figured we had three options, with a deadline approaching in hours: 1) Use the pics, no matter how lo-res they might be, 2) Go to a Walmart Portrait center and have “formal portraits” taken, 2a) find a local photographer and studio or 3) Use our Fuji FinePix S2950 “bridge” camera to shoot some sort of provisional headshots, using the built-in flash and/or existing light. The pics would be used for everything from table tents to signs over the slot machines and billboards, so we were panicked

We opted for number three.

Wildwood in the off-season is… abandoned.  So much so that it seems eerie.  In fact, for the first four days of our stay at the Nassau, we were the only occupants.  Friday saw an influx of visitors, but the town was still pretty much empty.  So we had our pick of any one of dozens of walls to use as backdrops, many of them painted in muted, mid-century groovy colors and some having offbeat textures.  After a hurried survey of websites offering portrait-taking tips (“shoot in open shade,” “clouds make a good softbox,” “shoot with the sun at your back… unless the sun’s behind a cloud,” etc.), we set out to find the perfect backdrop.

We shot TFHOTS against an aqua wall, but the exiting storm front kicked up winds that made like an eggbeater on her carefully arranged hair.  When a light rain started to fall, we retreated back to the Nassau to wait for the sun to reappear.

When the clouds moved on, TFHOTS suggested we use the front door of our unit as a backdrop (see below). She also suggested we both wear black-and-white clothing, so that, together with the backdrop, the pics would be a matching set.

Since we had only recently purchased the Fuji, we were not as familiar with the equipment as we would have liked. We downloaded the owner’s manual from the Fuji site, skimmed the important parts, and, after we gave the Fuji tech support line a call and got the answers to a couple of pertinent questions, we were ready to shoot.

Brian: f-stop: 4.2, 1/50 sec., ISO-200 and no flash. Traci: f-stop: 5, 1/30 sec, ISO-200 and no flash. We FTP’ed the files to up to the folks in Vegas and eventually got word that the images would be included in all the necessary materials.

Are we 100 per cent happy with the results? No. But it was crucial that we provide some sort of workable image. And, considering that we did so with little notice and a looming deadline, we think that the final result was pretty good. Had it been 1999, we would have been totally screwed.

Mike DeStefano passed away on March 6 of this year, of a heart attack, at the age of 43. Some of his friends will get together next month to remember him.

Billed as “An all-star tribute honoring the late Mike DeStefano,” Colin Quinn, Robert Kelly, Rich Vos, Bonnie McFarlane, Eugene Mirman and Roy Wood, Jr. are scheduled to perform Wednesday, November 9th at 8PM at TRIBECA Performing Arts Center in New York City.

It’s presented by CringeHumor.net. Hit their website for further details.

That’s the “Theater Arts” section of the Barnes & Noble in the Summerlin section of Las Vegas. We trekked up there this afternoon to make sure our book was properly displayed. The store was in disarray! They were in the process of moving entire sections to new locations.

In spite of that, we were thrilled when a sales associate located our book and asked us if we’d like to purchase it. “No…” we said. “We’re the authors!” Hey! That was fun! Let’s go to the other B & N on the other side of town and do the same thing! Nah. Enough for one day.

We hear from a local comic that the other location was fresh out… or they couldn’t find it. (Not to worry, he’ll just order one on Amazon.com!) It would not be surprising if we learned they were sold out, considering that they’ll probably only stock one or two initially– then carry more as reviews and other press mentions drive customers. At least it is hoped.

In this day and age, it’s not so important to have all that many in stock, what with online orders and inexpensive shipping and Amazon Prime.

It’s significant that the first thing one encounters when entering this particular B & N is a giant display for the Nook, B & N’s color e-book reader. Too little, too late? We shall see.

Click on the above pic to be taken to the Amazon.com page where you can purchase our book! (And it’s a special URL, because when you click on it, Amazon throws a few pennies our way!)

Greetings, SHECKYmagazine.com readers, regulars, first-timers, robots, all!

It’s Tuesday, Sept. 27. Which means that our book will be available soon… like when the book retailers open their doors on Saturday morning, October 1. We’re all tingly, sorta. We’re not gonna get rich off this book. But we are thrilled that we’ll be immortalized via the printed word, in a book. (Although we hearken back to those articles we read in Wired and other publications that remind us that not even DVD’s or CD’s or even magnetic hard drives are permanent… or immortal. Whatever! It’s immortal enough for us!)

Have we not always endeavored to bring you in on our various adventures? Have we not always tried to give you a bizarre, ringside seat at the oddball experiences that we’ve encountered? Well, maybe we’ll do the same with having our name on a book. A hardback, tangible early 21st century, may-be-one-of-the-last hard copy books about standup ever published through conventional, Gutenberg-style, printed-on-a-page, not-an-Ebook, hold-it-in-your-hands, not-vanity-press-generated book. You can read this in the bathroom. It’s perfect for the e coli-brary™.

Our publishers– both here in North America and in London– have, in their employ, a cadre of decent, sincere people who have been, for some time now, engaged in laying the groundwork for a media blitz– centered on our book– that will have tongues wagging from from Sydney to Mumbai, from London, Ontario, to London, England, from Seattle to Sea World.

But we’ve been doing some grassroots promo of our own, shoving the book in the faces of all whom we encounter and creating press releases and websites and pestering various local, national and international media figures to mention our tome in their ever-contracting “newshole.”

We’re proud of the one-sheets we’ve concocted to promote the book. But we figured we’d need something less conventional, less vanilla to bring the word to our comedy brethren and their business cohort.

So… we climbed onboard the “Downfall Parody” bandwagon!

CAUTION: This video may images too strong for children and pets!

Last week, we got a Google Alert saying that our book had been reviewed…

Our book got its first review. At least we think it’s the first one. It’s by Steve Bennett, the Big Cheese over at Chortle (“The UK Comedy Guide”). He got a copy of our book after we asked/told the folks in the offices of the London publisher of our book– Quintet Publishing– to send a copy over to the folks at Chortle. After all, we’re sure that if Bennett had written a book about standup, he’d no doubt make extra sure that the folks at SHECKYmagazine.com got a copy for review.

The first thing we learned was that our book is called “Comedy Techniques” in the UK! And it has a different cover! Fancy that! We knew the book was going to be distributed worldwide, in different languages, but the idea of different covers or titles took us completely by surprise! (And are they so hung up on religion over there that the word “bible” in the title would tank sales?)

The second thing we learned is that “Comedy Techniques” is an inappropriate title for our book. As is “The Comedy Bible.” But we didn’t choose either one.

The third thing we learned is that it is exceptionally difficult to refrain from “fisking” a review of your book. (“Fisking” is internet slang. It’s a “point-by-point refutation of a blog entry or news story that highlights perceived errors, or disputes the analysis in a statement, article, or essay.” It’s named after an English journalist named Robert Fisk, whose dispatches from the Middle East were ruthlessly torn to shreds, in line-by-line analyses, by bloggers back at the beginning of the last decade.)

Don’t get us wrong. The review isn’t negative. But it’s not a glowing review, either. Folks are entitled to their opinions. (Which is why we made a point of getting a copy to Mr. Bennett in the first place.)  And don’t get us wrong: We aren’t going to fisk every review of the book… in fact the following might as close as we come to doing so ever again!   But there are some odd bits that we can’t let pass.

The opening line:

Comedy Techniques make the bold promise: ‘From improv to stand-up, and from satire to slapstick, here’s an essential guide to get yourself a cult following or mainstream success.’

Well… we didn’t actually make that “bold promise.” The publisher did. We suspect that this is the first of many “bold promises” that we’ll have to answer for. And we suppose that, after a while, we’ll give up. There are two kinds of people in this world: Those that believe all the dopey things that publishers say on a dust jacket or in a press release and those that realize that publishers say all kinds of dopey things on dust jackets and press releases that are not to be believed.

Bennett goes on to say:

It’s more of a Comedy 101, explaining the fundamentals of the art to an almost remedial level. An introduction might be a better description than the ‘resource’ it claims.

And we are okay with that. That is precisely what we thought. We winced when it was dubbed a “complete resource.” It is, after all, only 256 pages. But it is a tremendous introduction. And, while we don’t, as Mr. Bennett rightly points out, “delve too deep,” we nonetheless deliver a basic book on standup in an entertaining fashion. And we provide a lot of basic info, we daresay, in a far more entertaining fashion than it has been delivered in countless other books in the genre.

After a few paragraphs of mild snark, Bennett says:

Although basic, the advice offered by McKim and Skene – both American comedians – is pertinent and reliable. possibly because they’ve merely consolidated information that’s already widely available, not least from online comedy resources where comics hang out, such as Chortle or their own long-running blog, Shecky.

Here we have our usable, excerptable meme-let!

“The advice offered by McKim and Skene… is pertinent and reliable!” Says Chortle.co.uk

We’ll take it! (It’s not unlike the other meme-let that we’ve beaten to death– and rightfully so: USA Today calls SHECKYmagazine “charming, sincere and helpful!”)

Perhaps the review is “saved” by the very last lines:

The book’s most useful advice is surely to just get on and do it: start writing or performing without delay. For the aspiring comic, Comedy Techniques is probably another displacement activity delaying that vital day of action.

Perhaps not. When we were writing the book we imagined our reader countless times. We tried to consider nearly every statement through the eyes of the title’s aspiring comedian. We knew that we were creating a book that advised him or her to “just get on and do it: start writing or performing without delay,” as Mr. Bennett has so correctly discerned. In fact, in the press for the book, we’ve repeatedly said and written that the book is not so much a “how-to” as a “why-to.” We’ve tried to set the reader on a path to determining exactly why he/she wants to do comedy and we’ve been careful to refrain from any specific advice. We’ve sought to give that small push, that slightest bit of encouragement to someone thinking about trying standup. We tried to say that what’s being contemplated isn’t crazy, but could be quite fun and quite illuminating. So often the tone of books and articles that address the wanna-be comic on the precipice are either cavalier (“Give it a try! It’ll be great!”) or unnecessarily ominous (“Be prepared! Otherwise you’ll bomb and embarass yourself!) or overly technical. And, of course, no matter the tone of a book, it can always be a “displacement activity.” But we’d like to think that ours avoids being that.

We got an email here at SHECKYmagazine.com HQ, from “Neil.”  He said:

Everything I read about learning, working in comedy and “how it’s done” makes my asshole squinch up and a voice booms in my head: “You, as you suspected, are worthless. Stop dreaming and pursue that marketing career.” I haven’t even gotten up for the first time yet and I feel like I’ll never have what it takes. I’m also getting a late start at 40. Any tips on how to stop feeling like such a turd sandwich? Thanks.

Are you in luck! We have a whole book full of tips! It’s our book! It’s called “The Comedy Bible: The Complete Resource For Aspiring Comedians!” (And it’s available NOW on Amazon.com by clicking here!)

Of course, if you can wait a few days, it’ll be in the stores (the bookstores, or what’s left of them) on October 1! That’s Saturday.

When you get the book, read it all. But pay particular attention to Chapter 4, the one called “Standup Preparation.” It’s probably the one that is most important to you and the one that may result in you shedding your reservations and hopping up onto that stage for the first time. Good luck!

The winner is in the middle. It’s Ryan Dalton standing behind the “won’t fit in the overhead compartment”-sized trophy. On his right (our left) is Landry, who came in second in the balloting. On his left (our right) is Dave Williamson, who came in third. And that is, quite possibly, the worst picture ever taken of Williamson. (We know it’s not our Fuji FinePix S2950, because other pics, taken over our shoulder with other cameras produced the same result. Ambient lighting? Temporary demonic possession?)

Hey! Look who stopped by! It’s Shang! (Didn’t he usta be Shang Forbes? He dropped the surname when it was no longer useful.) From left to right: Landry, Shang, Corey Manning. Two one-named comics with one two-named comic! What IS Landry doing? (Looks to us like he’s trying to scissor off Shang’s nipple… or taser it. “Don’t taser my boob, bro!”)

All right, then. In the previous post, we alluded to the three-day gap in our WSOC coverage and we promised an explanation. On Monday night, after the dust from the Wildcard shows had settled, The Halves of the Staff dined on steak & eggs over at Mr. Lucky’s in the Hard Rock Hotel. Midway through the meal, The Male Half complained of a headache. We thought nothing of this, as we were dining with Brad Reeder, and, great God almighty, if Brad Reeder doesn’t give one a headache, then who does? (Note to Brad: Let’s put that 2012 date in INK, shall we?) Anyway, about three hours later, The Male Half awoke, sweating, moaning, teeth chattering and complaining about the cold. (It’s in Vegas… the temp is maybe as low as 79 degrees… not a good sign.)

Fast forward a few more hours and TMHOTS is DOWN. A nasty head cold or a “bug” or call it what you like. Dreams of participating in the WSOC golf outing and poker tournament are instantly shattered. Both Halves immediately fret that participation in the WSOC Midnight Bowling outing is out of the question as well. And the seminar that they were scheduled to conduct on Friday at 11 AM is in jeopardy.

TFMHOTS was booked all week at Brad Garrett’s Comedy Club making it devilishly difficult for her to be over at the Alexis Park for much of the week’s festivities. And on Tuesday, she was dealt a temporary career blow that dampened her spirits and made it near impossible for her to hang out with a bunch of comedians who had something resembling hope. Which is why the beginning of their seminar (which they eventually conducted when The Male Half rallied) kicked off with The Female Half saying, “This week, I hate comedy…”

But this isn’t about us. Correction: this isn’t all about us.

It’s about the 101 comics (and a couple dozen more) who traveled to the desert to participate in the second annual World Series of Comedy– those aforementioned folks in the paragraph above… the ones with all that… hope. Hold on… we have a list around here somewhere… Ah… here it is (Scroll past it for the rest of this posting):

Erik Monical
Shadowheart
TEKG
Micah Bleich
Chris Holmberg
Mike Baldwin
Feraz Ozel
Patrick Melton
Bubba Bradley
Tom Van Horn
Ed Hill
Marcus Ryan
Phil Johnson
Chris Valenti
Mike Kennedy

Debbie Praver
Patrick Jaye
Ben Hague
Jamie Ward
Brian Beaudoin
Adam Gropman
Mike Bobbitt
Retha Jones
Andrew Sleighter
Bronston Jones
Derrick J. Stroman
Todd Larson
Scott Porteous
Marc Mulvey
Reg

Mike Thompson
David Conolly
Mark Gonzalez
Michael Harrison
Enrique Smooth
Cody Kopp
Will Lopez
Lizette Mizelle
Ray Harrington
Herricane
John Conroy
Jonna Jarnagin
Jason Harris
Justin McClure
Carly McMenoman

Vic Alejandro
Andy Forrester
Tom E. Morello
Chris Clarke
Jonathan Pfendler
Ryan Dalton
Mike Haun

Brad Tassell
Alien Warrior Comedian
Kabir Singh
Leah Mansfield
Byron Bertram
Tom Sharpe
Ace Guillen

Ralphie Roberts
Steve Scholtz
John Moses
Dave Williamson
Nicholas Anthony
Eric Grady
Saleem

Sean Grant
Nate Weatherup
Marc Takemiya
Jason Dudey
Leif Cedar
Short Bus
Alli Breen

Marcus Harvey
Lars Callieou
Erik Allen
Mia Jackson
Tom Sims
Chris Maddock
Corey Manning

John Little
Joe Fernandez
Sam Norton
Landry
Jason Love
Chris Hegedus
Torian Hughes

Curt Fletcher
Matt Markman
Bethany Therese
Eric Shantz
Denise Ramsden
Zoltan
Kevin Patterson

Franklin Marshall III
Clayton Fletcher
Viet Huynh
Sean Kent
Brandon Vestal
Austin Anderson
Andy Erikson

Of course, there’s a lot of hope, because, at the heart of this whole six-day affair, was a contest. And, at the end of that was a winner. One winner. Which means there were 100… uh… “non-winners,” to put it charitably. So, of course, by necessity, there was a lot of dashed hopes. Night number one produced 37 instant “non-winners” in the space of about six hours (see photo of the Wildcard lineup below), as only eight of the 45 wildcard comics survived to perform in the next round.

So, it then becomes a matter of how to deal with that setback in your remaining hours/days in the desert. For some, it’s simple: They fly/drive home the next day and put the whole experience in their rearview mirror. Others hold their head up and dive into the various activities– structured and unstructured, sanctioned and unsanctioned– and make the most of it.

Eric Shantz arrived Monday but wasn’t scheduled to perform until the 7 PM Friday show. He dealt with all that down time by turning his Alexis Park room into a “hospitality suite”– offering beer and a place to commune, commiserate or strategize (depending on your WSOC status at the time). Shantz also cleverly turned the desk in the corner into a “media table” (just like they have at the big-time festivals!) where comics could place a stack of their biz cards or other promo material for others to collect. These parties, we’re told, were lasting until five in the morning. Only occasionally garnering dirty looks from other hotel guests and sporadic visits from hotel security.

We heard tales of bad behavior. We shall refrain from identifying those who engaged in said behavior to spare them any embarrassment… although, after hearing the stories, we doubt they are capable of such feelings as embarrassment or shame. We must point out that, if, out of maybe 200 or more comics, bookers and assorted others in attendance over six days, it’s possible to count the number of incidents or bad actors using only one hand, then this pack of folks did pretty well.

The overall mood was festive. Admittedly, we missed a giant, gaping chunk at the heart of it because of circumstances beyond our control. But, judging by the feedback we got, nearly everyone was satisfied with their experience. Very little disgruntlement, from what we could tell. (And, believe us when we tell you: If anyone attending a conflagration like this one feels hurt or left out or boned– they let EVERYONE know. Negative word travels fast, borne on a river of alcohol and bile. And happy participants constantly check their own mood and temperament to make sure they they, too, are actually happy and not merely doing a good job of convincing themselves that they are. There will always be minor complaints. But organizers– good organizers– always go out of their way to put out any fires, nip any discontent in the bud, quell any minor hassles before they become major headaches. Especially if the complaining is offered in a constructive manner.

Photo credit: Joe Eberle

We eventually conducted our seminar. Perhaps “seminar” is too weighty of a word. It was more like a “chat.” A chat with the authors of “The Comedy Bible: The Complete Resource for Aspiring Comedians.” We originally planned a dash or two of multi-media and a more structured presentation. That all fell apart, though. We rallied, however, and delivered an hourlong melange of confession, griping, advice, Q & A and encouragement, with more than a few hearty laughs. (In fact, a startling number of laughs for 11 AM!) Feedback was wildly positive and the Halves gladly stuck around afterward for the inevitable 45-minute “spillover”– those one-on-one or two- or three-on-one mini-seminars that continue long after the stage lights go out. One attendee said, and we paraphrase, “I learned a lot, but I’m not sure what I learned.” High praise, indeed! We wanted to avoid any pedantry. We sought to entertain, enlighten and provide some perspective for the folks who were, in some cases, traveling one or two thousand miles to upgrade their status in– or at least change their relationship to– the comedy business.  Oh… and plug our book.

Our book comes out in six days.  Our copy, our only copy… and, for all we know, the only copy in existence… was pawed by a good percentage of the attendees. Of course, that may have had something to do with the fact that we were carrying it with us at all times and we were thrusting into the hands of anyone who faced in our direction. (Not unlike a proud parent who “dazzles” unsuspecting airplane aisle-mates with baby pictures.) Feedback on the book is wildly positive. And we got a lot of inquiries about an autographed copy. We are pondering this and we will announce shortly just how that might come about and how much it might cost. Stay tuned.

Will there be another? Hope so. There’s a “See you next year!” message on the WSOC Facebook page. It takes a mountain of effort to plan an event like the WSOC. And because we moved here in February and hung out a lot (performing and otherwise) at Joe Lowers’ club, we had a front-row seat for a lot of that preparation and planning. It gave us plenty of insight into just how much detail Lowers (and wife Jenny) need to pay attention to. And how many things can go wrong. And how much nerve it takes to convince yourself and others that it’s possible. We imagine that, last night at about 2 AM, it seemed worth all the sweat and the tears. This morning, however, with about 358 days until a possible “next one,” there’s probably some nagging doubt. Of course, tomorrow, with 357 days to go, any doubt will probably vanish. Stay tuned.

BREAKING: The semifinalists just finished competing. In order, they were Alien Warrior, Corey Manning, Denise Ramsden, Landry, Ryan Dalton, Brandon Vestal, Jason Dudey, Dave Williamson.

Advancing to the finals (in just about an hour) will be Landry, Ryan Dalton and Dave Williamson. (That’s the order of finish, by the way.) Congratulations to the winners. And, from what we hear, everyone smoked the room and it was difficult to determine the winners.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

We attended last year’s WSOC as guests of organizer Joe Lowers.  We joked at the time that were imported into Las Vegas to act as “observers” during the competition.  (We weren’t sure what, if any, our function was… but we had a swell time and our coverage can be found here, here, here.)

We looked forward to this year’s WSOC. After all, we live here in Vegas now. And it would be a good opportunity to try out our FujiFilm FinePix S2950 “bridge” camera.

We hung out at the Alexis Park on Monday night and snapped some pics. We also hung out last night (Friday) when what appeared to be the entire WSOC contingent converged on Big Al’s Comedy Club at the Orleans. Those pics are also below. You may notice that there’s a big gap in there… a lot of stuff missing. We’ll explain that in another post. Meanwhile, enjoy the visuals.

Brad Reeder, Marcus Ryan, Eric Shantz

Joe Lowers, Adam Gropman, at the Alexis Park

The Male Half, Will Lopez, The Female Half

Artsy shot… That’s Joe Lowers… singing… a Bob Seeger tune.

The S2950 has a setting for turning beautiful people into oil paintings! In this case, The Female Half and International Sensation Tanyalee Davis!

A panorama shot of the horde at Big Al’s on Friday night.

That’s Edomonton’s Lars Callieou worshipping The Comedy Bible.

It’s Mat Black and Geechy Guy feigning amazement at the Comedy Bible

Lars Callieou, Scott Porteous, Vic Alejandro, Ben Proulx

Ben Proulx finding an inventive way of reading The Comedy Bible

Debbie Praver, Denise Madsen, Jason Dudey

Tanyalee Davis poses with The Comedy Bible as Rob Seven looks on indifferently.

October 1 is the publication date. Of course, it’s available for pre-order now on amazon.com and on BarnesAndNoble.com. We’re excited. And, if you click on the image below, you’ll be able to see a larger image. It’s gorgeous and beautifully designed.

That might be our favorite line from Justin Hegerman‘s appearance on Philadelphia NBC-10’s 10! morning show. Watch the excruciating (and mercifully short) video of his set. He won a contest conducted by local morning radio show host John DeBella and the prize was… this: We must commend host Bill Henley and his co-host (whose name we do not know) for treatign Hegerman with respect and pretty much acknowledging the debacle but minimizing it– in a way they were admitting that the producers screwed up badly by either not approving the material beforehand and making some sort of switch or demanding different material or delaying the appearance.

Hegerman deserves props for plowing through the set. He’s obviously not very experienced, so he dealt with the whole mess with surprising aplomb. (You gotta figure that he wondered if this appearance– on a local television outlet, with only a local viewership– would tank HIS CAREER. Of course, it’s merely a speed bump… a bizarre incident that yields nothing more than a great story to tell– and a great, possibly viral video– and a real “That which does not kill me makes me stronger” experience.) And, of course, he no doubt got some people to come out and see him at Helium that weekend!

We’re reminded of two incidents. The Female Half went on a sixth-grade class trip to the WPVI studios in Philadelphia to witness a broadcast of AM Philadelphia. One of the guests that day was Pincus Leff AKA Pinky Lee. (According to Wikipedia, Leff was “better known as Pinky Lee… an American burlesque comic and host of a children’s television program, The Pinky Lee Show, in the early 1950s.”

Of course, by this time, Lee had been off television for a decade, so the booking was ill-advised. The reaction to Lee’s plaid-clad shtick was less than receptive. (“The kids were fidgety and dismissive,” says the Female Half. “The first thing he did when he sat down to do panel was to complain about having to perform in front of a bunch of kids.” Lee no doubt had hoped that there would have been a studio full of his older fans in the stands.)

The other incident involves The Male Half appearing on KYW-TV’s People Are Talking, then hosted by Maury Povich. A call had gone out through the local comedy community about 48 hours earlier that the producers were seeking local comedians to do two minutes of material to supplement a segment starring Alan King, then on the show to pump a recent project. The Male Half answered the call, did his time, got a half-decent response and stood still while King graciously offered a mini-critique of the set. (It’s still in the press material somewhere– Alan King describes the Male Half as “an egghead comic.”)

So… is anyone here scared of dying? If so, decline the offer from the local television morning show producers. If you’re not scared, set the clock for 4:45 AM, get out your notes, monitor the traffic, get there in plenty of time and prepare for anything. Even dying.

He’s baaack.  Andrew “Dice” Clay is featured in a USA Today article that portrays Clay as a nurturing father (to his two sons) and an actor and standup who is mounting a comeback with an appearance (as himself) on Entourage, and discussions with Barry Levinson about an appearance in that director’s film about John Gotti.

The path to the new Diceman has not been without some bumps:

But doing standup club dates here and there wasn’t sufficiently paying the bills, not to mention child-support payments. Last summer, he went to Las Vegas to raise some money through gambling — which he had given up 10 years ago along with smoking cigarettes. He ended up losing more money than he won.

Curiously, there is no mention of the fact that Clay headlined the Versailles Showroom at the Riviera in Las Vegas during that period, then switched briefly to the Hilton just across Paradise Road.

Clay says he “hopes to release a memoir” and that he’ll “need somebody to work with me on it, but it’s time.”

We’re available.

We just obtained an advance copy of our book (“The Comedy Bible: The Complete Resource For Aspiring Comedians”– available for pre-order on Amazon.com!) and it’s beautiful! We knew it would be lushly illustrated and well laid-out, but we’re thrilled at just how handsome it is.

At the very least, Clay should buy a copy for his kid. According to the USA Today piece, 21-year-old Max (Silverstein) is a “budding standup comic.”

Facebook status reports are peppered with the news that Vic Dunlop has passed. The basic info on his Facebook page says, “I have been in the Comedy business for 37 years in one capacity or another. Stand-up comic, actor, writer, director, producer. I am also a COMEDY COACH.” He died from complications of diabetes.

Actors, writers, comedians Bill Kirchenbauer and Brad Slaight, posting as “Captain Glucose and Meter Boy,” said, “Vic took on the challenges of diabetes with great courage and never let it dampen his spirit or immense talent.” The diabetic duo (having Type 2 and Type 1 respectively) have crafted a multi-media campaign to raise awareness of diabetes.

Once again, Facebook serves as very real, very useful purpose– facilitating the grieving process.

We have a pre-school-age great niece with Type 1 diabetes and our late nephew also had Type 1. We’ve seen up close the challenges of managing the disease and we’re encouraged by recent advances made in the treatment and management of the disease. We urge our readers to participate in any of the various fundraisers that take place throughout the year or to cut a check on occasion to help fund the aforementioned research. At the very least, hit the above link to befriend the Captain and his sidekick and check out their website.

The producers of the hit NBC sitcom Modern Family have re-cast “Lily.” (If you watch the show, you know that Lily Tucker-Pritchett is the daughter of gay couple Cam and Mitchell. They adopted the Vietnamese orphan, who was originally played by Jayden and Ella Hiller, and she appeared in the show’s pilot.)

The new “Lily,” according to Entertainment Weekly, is Aubrey Anderson-Emmons, daughter of comedian Amy Anderson and entrepreneur Kent Emmons. The new cast member is being introduced with great fanfare– check out the photo spread in EW’s hard copy when you’re in the checkout at the grocery store this week– by series creator Steve Levitan.

We hung out with Anderson last week at the Improv here in Vegas (along with Wendy Liebman and Jodi Borello). Emmons is an entrepreneur who presides over a comedy radio empire– he’s the “inventor” of the all-comedy/24/7 radio format– who we’ve had the pleasure to have met at a JFL or two.

Congratulations to both of them. (And if the tot turns out to be the next Olsen Twins– as some in the chat rooms and comments are speculating– then mega-congratulations to both of them, as Aubrey will preside over a $100 million-dollar pile of cash… or maybe just $50 million, since there’s only one of her.)

The Female Half told Anderson, “I hope the series runs on for so long that one day you can play Lily!”

We were home for about nine hours total– between returning from a cruise on the Gulf of Mexico and heading out across the Mojave Desert for Los Angeles– so we were somewhat exhausted when we arrived in Redondo Beach on Friday afternoon.

The Male Half was scheduled for shows at the Comedy & Magic Club one town over, in Hermosa Beach, as part of that club’s monthlong birthday celebration.

Clinton Jackson, Laurie Kilmartin, Greg Hahn, backstage at the Comedy & Magic Club

As usual, the crowds were delirious and the lineup was befitting that august Southern California institution: Jimmy Brogan, Jim McDonald, Wil Anderson, Taylor Williamson, Diane Nichols, Jeff Dye, Ritch Shydner, Matt Fulchiron, Quinn Dahle, Ty Barnett, Daniel Tosh, Crystela Alonzo, Noe Rodriguez, J. Chris Newberg, Clinton Jackson, Greg Hahn, Laurie Kilmartin, Edwin San Juan, Angelo Tsarouchas, Alan Havey, Tommy Johnagin, Dennis Regan, Jim Edwards, on three shows over the course of two nights. If we left anyone out we apologize!

The signup clipboard

After the Saturday shows, we chugged down the Pacific Coast Highway and caught the last few minutes of Vinnie Coppola, as he closed out a show at Gaetano’s Restaurant. (It was a benefit for a movie– this is Hollywood, remember– called “Death To Cupid,” and we got to hang out with director Joe Gonzalez.) We also caught up on the past couple years with Coppola and with FOS/comedian Dave Smith, who we know from our days at a certain club in Atlanta. Smith and Coppola made the move west about 2-1/2 years ago.

J. Chris Newberg, The Female Half of the Staff, backstage at C&MC

In conclusion: Happy birthday, Comedy & Magic! AND: Comics and fans alike should check out one or two of the Twenty Hot Comics shows they’re putting on this birthday celebration month, every Friday and Saturday in July! The shows are fast-paced and oodles of talent populate each and every one (see list above)!

We visited Las Vegas last September to “observe” the World Series of Comedy, a six-day affair at the Alexis Park Hotel, dreamed up by comedian/producer/impresario Joe Lowers. We posted about it here and here, where we recapped the affair:

It’s generally agreed that the whole WSOC was a success and a lot of folks– talent and bookers alike– are hoping it repeats again next year. There’s some tweaking that needs to be done, but nothing major needs to change. There was surprisingly little bitching or strife when you consider that 101 comics went up, in a contest, over six days. No controversy– to our knowledge– and few if any regrets on the part of those who participated but did not win. This might be because, after elimination, the contestants found themselves in Las Vegas! It’s the ultimate place to grieve, to assess, to drown any sorrows. And– big bonus– eliminated contestants were still able to avail themselves of the other offerings– headshot session for thirty bucks, meet and greet with industry bookers/club owners, poker tourney, golf outing, etc. Though the main attraction may have been the contest, the overall feel was that of a convention. And many of the comics took full advantage of the gathering to network, to party, and to bond. It might be argued that upping the convention-type features might be a wise idea.

The winner was Andrew Norelli, who, since his success at the WSOC has appeared on late-night television and copped coveted headline spots at the Hilton in Vegas and at Comedy & Magic in Hermosa Beach. Cause and effect? You decide!

We mention it right here, right now, because it’s coming up again! Time flies like an arrow! Fruit flies like a banana! (Groucho Marx?)

Lowers has been augmenting this year’s WSOC with “satellite” competitions in various markets like Wichita, Raleigh and Scottsdale. But the big magilla will take place (as it did last year) this September (19 through 24) at the Alexis Park.

We had a blast at last year’s WSOC. But this year, we’re particularly enthusiastic because Vegas is now our home. Not quite sure how that works, but we’re excited.

Deadline for registration is approaching, and details for registration can be found here. The impressive list of clubs offering work to the winner(s) is currently at 39, but the website claims to be “working on 50 weeks.” And this year, one of the clubs is Jongleurs in England!