Kayos

     Here I am in Bend Oregon for a couple nights. I got a hotel room that shares the parking lot with the venue, very convenient. It was a very nice drive as well, passing through the mountains and watching the scenery change was very cathartic. My new car made the trip here fine with no hiccups. And buy new car I mean 1988 Honda Civic haha, follow your dreams people.
    The venue itself was the basement of a restaurant called Kayos. It could hold about a 100, maybe 120. Had dark brown walls and nice ambient lighting and a fireplace, with a tiny little stage right in the front. It's a very intimate venue, very laid back and fun to perform in. It was a great young audience of about 45 people showed up, and most of them were pretty attentive. There was a group of extremely drunk people in the back of the room, and they were just a little rowdy and wild and did not give a fuck... But that's what happens on the road. And they weren't too bad, it's not like they really disrupted the show.
    A lot of people came up to me afterwards and told me they like me, that I was the best comedian, and a couple of Cougars told me I was a cute redhead... So all in all a great night.

Tonic Lounge

    I haven't been on the tonic lounge showcase in awhile, it was good to be back on that stage. Solid lineup, all of the comics did great. And a pretty decent audience filling up the room.
    They have a new X Men pinball machine, to replace the Guns N Roses pinball machine. I'm not a fan. They need to get like 6 or 7 pinball machines in that back room. But that's just me.
     My cell it pretty well, the time flew by. I didn't even get to my closer before I had to leave the stage, I don't know what happened haha.

Fun house lounge

    Here I am at the big top, three rings, fun house lounge...good new venue. This place has a cool circus vibe to it, with crazy mirrors and paintings of clowns covering the walls. I don't come here as often as I should but now I have a car so...here I am.
    I watch my friends do their time and eventually go on. My set is pretty terrible, but I do have a good new joke about a Tom Hanks dream...Ill keep it.
    I head out and drive to Tonic Lounge for another show and watch my friends kill it. Twas a great show, Tim Hammer headlined and did nothing short of destroy it...he is awesome. Ill be on the tonic show next week so I will try to bring the heat.

Harveys....

   Ive been at Harveys this week, doing 8 shows. All of them have gone great, Saturday all three shows were sold out. I had the chance to perform in front of 800 people! And luckily my sets were on point haha. This is been a good week for me and comedy, I hope I can keep the momentum going...

Harveys....

    Wednesday show at Harveys, first show of the week and there's a decent crowd. About 60 maybe 70 people are here, and there with it. I do my job posting, tell some old jokes that I haven't told in over a year and they go surprisingly well. It's a bit of an older audience, but all of the old guys are clapping after every one of my stories, manners are important god damnit!
    After the show we doing open mic, where 15 comics show up to each 3 minutes on stage. About half the crowd stays around for the first half of the open mic but by the end theres maybe 10 people in the audience. Regardless it went surprisingly well.
    Now I'm at Brody Theater for a little no joke November action. Hopefully things will go well but if not, fuck it...the show must go on...

Capitol City Theater

    This was an interesting night, I got a ride up to Salem with a couple of my favorite comedians, Nariko and Dan. A brisk 45 minute drive and we arrived in downtown Salem. Yay Salem.
    We walked into the small theater, which is in the basement and seats about 60 people. A very dark video, which is perfect for comedy. We all sat in the green room and talk shit for an hour or so until it was time to go on. Dan was really worried about doing his religious material because he assumed there was going to be a conservative crowd but boy was the wrong. The host, Jared opened up this show with a volley of Jesus jokes and the crowd was with it so day and of course followed suit. His se Nariko set was amazing as well as you would expectriko set was amazing as well as you would expect.
     I was the headliner, and was told to do around 30 minutes... I got off the stage after 50, I just lost track of time. And I'm not saying it was amazing 50 minutes either, because it wasn't. The first 25 or so felt great, everything was landing and the crowd although small we're definitely laughing. Then I got nothing on my clothes are so kind of just kept going... For another 25 minutes haha. I didn't realize I was up there so long, I was just going through all my material and shooting the shit and it went decent. I would give the second half of my set C-.
   Definitely a fun night, and I learned quite a bit about some of my older stories. It gave me the bump I needed on my Old Navy bit. Productive.

Boiler Room

    I've had a great weekend at Helium, but now it's time to start off a new week. Being that its Monday, there's no where better to be the Boiler Room. I've been coming here pretty frequently ever since I started.                                Tonight, to mix it up a bit I ate some mushrooms about 2 hours prior to my set. Not a lot, about half an eighth of shrooms, which was enough to get me feeling pretty alright. Last time I ate rooms I did an entire 8th and freaked out a little bit, so I toned it down. The night with smoothly, I went up there with a blank slate and just made up a story about how it would be fun to be rich in turn into a super villain, only committing non jailable offenses, like tripping people and hitting kids. The story morph into how I in turn would actually be a superhero as people would be lining up around the street for me to kick their babies so that they could sue and be rich. It seemed funny at the time.

Helium...

    Last week I had the pleasure of hosting at Helium Comedy Club for my good friend Tommy Pope and headlining was Andy Kindler, who is a fantastic comedian to work with. Me and Tommy have worked together before last time he was in town, a high-octane dude, he's down for some shit. We ended up at Sassy's one night, the next night he slept on my couch after killing it at the Midnight Mass show @ Funhouse Lounge.
     Andy Kindler was one of the nicest and most down to earth professional comedians I have met. He watched all of my sets and enjoyed it, he talked to me a lot in the green room about family and his start in comedy. He really treated me like an equal, which is refreshing to see with some of the bigger names in comedy. I've never worked with anyone that was totally shitty, but Andy was by far the nicest.
    The shows went very well, the Tuesday night open mic was awesome, a lot of new faces in the last couple of months, I'm one of the old guys in comedy now. After the open mic I went to the White Owl with a couple of friends / fellow comics and we had a good time talking shit till 1 a.m. or so.
    I haven't gotten any new helium dates yet, but hopefully with the last couple shows I will be hearing back from them soon. I really feel like I'm making progress.

Midnight Mass

    Midnight Mass at the Funhouse Lounge has become my favorite show to watch. Held every last Saturday of the month at midnight, and it's free! Definitely a must watch.
    I was fortunate enough to be booked on this month, with the awesome Amy Miller hosting, this show runs smoothly and is full of laughs. Everybody has a great set, everybody's wearing Halloween costumes as well, but I brought a backpack full of Skittles so I was the only one handing out candy haha. I win.
    As usual, Curtis Cook killed it. He was dressed as a 6-foot-5 Oscar the Grouch, and was ranting about his misogynistic thoughts and such. That guy is the shit.
    I felt like myself went really well too, I wish I had recorded it. I got laughs in all the right places, and it feels good when you see your work pay off in such a fun way.

Comedy grab bag

    Man oh man, this was a fantastic couple of nights. My friend Jay asked me to headline his Comedy Grab Bag show held at the Action Adventure Theater. I was happy to do so as I have seen comedy grab bag a couple of times and really enjoyed it. It is a two hour show, with improv, videos, and as the title suggests, a grab bag of comedy. There's an intermission and they give out cake too!
    Both nights were sold out, it's a smaller theater so there was about 70 people each night. In fact it was standing room only! The first hour of the show is sketches and videos which the crowd loved, then an intermission and they come back with 30 minutes of improv using audience suggestions. The Improv was fantastic as well, everybody was on top of their game.
     Then came my time to close it all out. I wish all of my shows went like this one, the audience was laughing through the whole thing, and loud. That little theatre fills up with laughter and it just didnt stop. Definitely a memorable experience and I'm so glad I was invited to be a part of it.
     These last couple of weeks have just been great for my self esteem, let's hope it continues!

Portlandia...

    I was asked to be on Portlandia a week ago as an extra. I was super excited to get the invite, so of course I said yes. I showed up at the park location and hung out. The shoot was a blast and I met a lot of cool people, the crew were all very polite and of course the cast was all there.
    It was awesome watching some professionals shoot a movie with their equipment. A lot of cool cameras and cranes and dollies and equipment I have never seen before, really felt like Hollywood.
    I was there about 9 hours total. And hopefully I will get some good time on the episode, as I was front and center in a big crowd shot. I can't wait to see how it came out.
    Afterwards I headed off to Chinese village where I head lined the show. Hey small audience, about a dozen people in total. But they were really awesome through the whole show, I did a little over 45 minutes and they were laughing the whole time. No heckling, no dull spots, just steady laughs and smiles. I left there feeling like a boss.

Att commercial

   Hey look at me, I'm going to be on TV! Not really though, I landed a part has an extra on a local AT&T commercial. Nothing too big, but still nice to get my foot in the door. I have to be on set by 7 o'clock in the morning so it's a little rough haha. Everyone on set is super cool and they feed us a delicious breakfast and lunch during the filming. It feels good to be a movie star. Next stop Hollywood.

Helium....

I got the pleasure of hosting another weekend helium comedy club for James Adomian, who is a real pleasure to work with. This guy is super funny, outgoing, and we end up hanging out a bit after the shows talking shit.
     In terms of shows, they all went pretty well. The last Saturday 10:00 p.m. Show was a little rough but still fun. I recorded a couple of sets with my phone, and got some decent audio from it. My new kiss from a rose bet is working out pretty well, as is my midlife crisis stuff too. I ended up closing with my same set I did for the helium comedy contest. The crowd is with it, now I'm shaking a lot of hands afterwards.
    We met this one guy outside of the club, rolling up a bunch of fat joints and handing them to us. This guy had some good weed, me and James and Nathan were all pretty out of it by the end of that rotation. And I had seen this guy before get pulled over on his longboard, small world.
     The feature is a good friend of mine Nathan Brannon. It's always a pleasure to work with Nathan, and we of course end up getting high and chatting after shows. I'm actually going to be working with him again real soon at Bagdad theater. It's nice to have such good friends in the Portland comedy scene to work with.

Funhouse Lounge

I started of the night at helium comedy club as usual. A pretty quiet audience tonight, very unusual.  A lot of great comedians had a rough sets, which was actually pretty interesting to watch. Everyone handled it well, nothin insane.
Afterwards I headed out to fun house lounge. I dont go out to fund house very often, I used to but stopped a while back. I am glad I went tonight, the crowd was packed. I got up and did about 5 minutes, felt really good about it and walked a couple miles back home. Definitely a productive night thanks to fun house.

Milepost 5

    I came out to the Milepost 5 Theater on an off night. I was in the neighborhood, so no reason not stop in. One of my good friends, Andy was a performer tonight. A couple out of towners as well. 5 comics in all.
   no audience...I mean none. Not a person was watching this show. I guess I was there, I do count as an audience member. The comics all made the best of it, and we still had a good time.
     Lemonade my friends, lemonade

Boiler Room

    I've been walking a lot more lately now that I live close into the city. the walk to boiler room is nice, and I get to cross one of the many bridges so it is quite scenic.
     My set is pretty terrible, but that's what open mic is for. Only 5 people in the bar so....fuck it.
    I stayed out till two o'clock singing karaoke...so it was worth it

Curious Comedy Theater

     its been a long time since I've been in this theater...too long. I'm glad to be back, the stage is set and the audience, although small is here to have a good time. I'm the only person on the bill to even show up, luckily there are a lot of my friends / comedians here to fill in the spots.
    Show starts around 10 o'clock, and I'm the third one up. I started off pretty slow, but it works with my opening bit. Everything goes pretty well, my closer gets a decent response and I walk off the stage with a smile. Afterwards I head out with friends to hang out for a bit at the White Owl.
      Twas a good night.

Dan Mintz

    My friend gave me some free tickets to see one of my favorite comedians tonight, Dan Mintz. It was set in the Mississippi studios theater, a small but grand little of venue in North Portland. There were probably around 60 people in the audience for the show, which is crazy because this guy should have no problem filling the house but yet there were quite a few empty seats.
     My friend Jason was the host and did fantastic. he had a great rant about Christian Death Metal, I hope you fans on it cause I would love to hear more on the topic. Derek Sheen from Seattle was the feature spot and he killed it as usual. And then of course Dan was the headliner. Be there in about 45 minutes, giving just enough time in between jokes for laughter. And there was lots of laughter, this guy is a joke riding machine.
    I left the theater and head out to Gypsy. this is the last night for comedy at Gypsy so I figured I would be there. as usual there was a very sparse crowd made up of only comics, & I regretted being there. But that's how the ball rolls, you take the good with the bad. I'm still glad I went, I got to bs with friends, and tell some random jokes. productivity is always a good thing.

Bleachers

     I'm at a little bar called Bleachers in Beaverton tonight. A typical sports bar with plasma screen TVs hanging all over the room and the Big Buck Hunter arcade machine standing alongside the many video poker machines.
    I arrived a bit early, and made a shortstop to the local Goodwill (since I was in the area I figured why not?) but unfortunately I struck out. No matter, I take a table in the back corner and start writing down notes and watching a random interview with Mike Tyson on ESPN. 30 minutes to showtime, about 15 to 20 people in the bar, no sign of the host or other comedian...classic. Seems like a pretty chill bar, not too many bro looking people. I'm feeling positive.
     The show went fairly well, everybody did their time and got a decent response from the audience. not too many people really paying attention, a lot of people were talking loudly and playing video lottery which is classic sports bar showcase action. I had a couple of hits and a couple of messes, then I got to hang out and get high with some friends. so definitely a good night.
   

7 corners

    this bar is quickly becoming a popular late night hang out for the local comics. I am the first one in tonight, & I sit alone at a table writing untilthe host shows up. She arrives at 830 and I put my name on the list. A bunch of other people start trickling in around that time, & I don't recognize most of them. I guess I'm just getting to be an old comic now, most of the people here are new. but that's how it is, comedy is just a revolving door in some ways. There is always going to be someone new coming into the scene.
     The bar is pretty nice and divey, just the way I like it. Bathed in blue light, with a few small circle tables scattered around, and it's also close to where I live.
    The host start the show right at 9 o'clock and does well, getting the energy up and using a hula hoop while telling jokes. I watch all of my friends and fellow comics take their turns and for the most part the room is pretty quiet. its only comics, and not too much laughter though it's not completely dead either. I went up number 8, and I hate to toot my own horn but I felt I had a pretty good set. Using some brand new material and tying it into some older stuff, it worked out well.
    I left with a smile on my face.

Boiler Room

    A beautiful Monday eve spent at the Boiler. The weather is perfect so I walked here, only a couple miles and I get to go over a bridge so its scenic. I wear my headphones but am not listening to music, they just make me feel better about talking to myself in public.
    I'm one of the first comics there but they slowly show up and fill the room. Very small list, maybe 15 comics and about 15 spectators so there is a nice balance. The multi colored lights are reflecting off the mirror ball and are circling the room. I love the dive bar ambience in this place. Its not too pretty or too gritty, its just right.
    I go up 4th with some new material and it goes suprisingly well. Then I sit in the back corner under the mirror ball and watch my friends take their turns. Some hits, some misses.. but that's what an open mic is for.

Harveys....

    another weekend at Harveys! I'm hosting six shows Friday through Sunday and am pretty excited about it. I will update this post as the weekend progresses.
    First shows on Friday go great, the 730 crowd is super loud and they are digging me. The 10 o'clock show is a little less enthusiastic, which is a surprise given that they should all be pretty drunk by now, there was a Blues Festival in town and people have been drinking since 2 in the afternoon. They are pretty chatty as well for the later show. The headliner has to wrestle with them to keep them quiet during her set. But she's a professional, and she handles it well, she shut people down quick. This was a great way to spend Friday and I wouldn't want it any other way.
   

Helium and Dantes

     Tonight started off at helium, a very small audience tonight. The weather has been a wonderful outside, and when the suns out the comedy audiences are usually pretty small. Nobody was sitting in the front two rows of seats, so it seemed pretty empty. Regardless I go up there got a nice 5 minute set near the end, have a good time with some new material and chalk it up as a win. I did a lot of crowd work and just kind of freestyle my set.
     Then I am off to Dante's. It is a very small crowd maybe 5 or 6 people in the audience, and I am the feature comic at the show. Such an empty room, it was quite hilarious in the aspect of despair. Talking to an empty dark room, reminds me of a usual night at home, its very grounding. But hey, it was still a good time overall. Dante's has been one of my favorites spot to do comedy because it's usually a small city crowd, and it reminds me of when I first started out, working in dive bars.

The Fixin' To....

     Got booked to do a little bar in St. Johns called The Fixin' To. Its a small bar with a nice corner lot and stage setup, unfortunately we are set to perform in the smaller side lot...oh well. The show is fantastic, like 40 people show up and they are super loud, I dig it.
     There was a beautiful blonde girl checking me out all night but left before I said anything to her. I am a coward.

Bar of Gods

   Taking a night off and watching some friends tell jokes this evening. A solid lineup at a classic dark bar on Hawthorne. A small PA system setup in front of a giant window facing the street. My type of setting, getting to watch people walk by in the background gives it a nice touch.
     30 minutes to show time and only one comedian is here. The host is getting antsy, but everything will fall into place... And it does, all the comics arrive 5 minutes to showtime just like professionals, and I got asked by the host to do a guest spot .. hell yeah let's do this.
     By the time the show started the room was full. At least 50 people packed in here, great times. I used my choking bit as the closer trying to switch it up. It worked amazing, it will be my closer at Harveys.
    Good night off

Helium week...

    I was fortunate enough to get booked for a weekend at Helium. This was an amazing weekend for me, in an always packed room. I love this club, the small stage down low makes it feel like you're in a coliseum. LED stage lighting is super bright, I'm sure my skin is getting some sort of damage while I'm telling jokes but fuck it right? If I'm not getting damaged from artificial light, it would be real light. Damn gingers.
   The headliner was a Portland native name Auggie Smith and he brought the ruckus. This man knows how to do comedy, and Its inspiring to watch him. He is also a very dirty comic, which makes me feel a little less bad for opening up with a choke fucking bit.

Tardis Room....

     A friend of mine recently hit me up on Facebook, asking me to fill in for a dropout. Apparently, it is me, another comedian, and a magician! I'm going into this with fairly low expectations, as I have not seen any promotion for the show.
    I get to the room in North Portland, there are two people sitting inside, and a fairly nice stage setup taking up a good chunk of the main room. I got there about an hour early and got some food while I waited for show time. I'm waiting around and no one is coming into this place, I'm not worried its just pretty funny. As showtime grows closer my friend and the other comedian show up. So its just me and him and the sound guy J who is ready to go.
     The couple that was in the main room left as soon as I announced that there was going to be a show. I don't blame them, this was a very quickly throwing together event. We did the show anyway, fuck it. There was literally not one person in the room watching us perform when we started. I took this stage in did about 12 minutes of just bs'ing with my friend back and forth no real reason to even try and tell jokes in this scenario. A couple of parents walk in with their daughter who was apparently 15. And of course at that moment I was in the middle of some really dirty sex story that involves role play and choking...so they left.
     I brought three people in and then walked them within 2 minutes.That's a record for me.

Malones....

I got to headline a gig tonight out in Beaverton tonight. The stage was set at a little bar 20 minutes outside of Portland. Typical sports bar with Nickelback playing on the jukebox and SportsCenter top 10 highlights on the TVs. Great room overall, there were probably 50 or 60 people, all of them wanting to hear stories.

I had my friend Cody open up for me and he did great as usual. Then I went up and closed out the show with about 35 minutes. Not so much crowd work this time, the crowd wasn't really saying anything at all. I kinda just ran through some of my older bits, and did work on some new stuff.

I really need to get some merch.

Helium...

    Another great crowd at Helium, this is my favorite open mic by far.  I went up with a vague idea on what I wanted to talk to and ranted for a couple minutes. It went over very well and I got an applause break right in the middle of my set. Nothing feels better than an applause break. So that's definitely some new material I'm going to keep.

Mill Casino...

    My first casino gig. I am definitely pretty excited and a little nervous as I have never met the headlining comedian before. Turns out he was the chill dude with a lot of good experience.

    2 shows, 30 minutes each. This was all done in a smaller bar that was connected to the main floor of the casino. You could hear all the bells and whistles going off, but it didn't distract much as the PA system was dialed in well. The PA guys name was Tony and he seem like a pretty cool guy.
     First show had about 50 to 60 people in it, seem to be about three quarters of the way full. Pretty good crowd, I won't lie my opening swastika joke got nothing and my nerves shot up quick. Thankfully my follower had them back on my side. Still definitely not my best set of the night and it felt like I had a few empty moments during.
     My second set went off great, I used what I learned from my first set and switched a few jokes up, I did a lot more bs'ing with the crowd, and it was also a bit of a younger audience...and completely full. They ate most of my shit up.
     I shook a lot of hands afterwards , I wish I had some merch to sell I probably could have made some decent money afterwards. Lesson learned. I need to get some cards, buttons, and a shirt made...

Gypsy

    Back at the gypsy for a good time. They switched the comedy venue to the bright main room, which is much better than the dark side room. Multiple lights, wireless mics, and a nice stage. They usually have karaoke in this room, so the setup is legit.
    I watch my friends go up and tell stories., the audience is mostly comics at first, but fills out soon after the show starts. Boomer is hosting...he sucks. He is also watching me type this right now. But It's ok,  cause he deserves it. So fuck you Boomer, you fucking fuck.
    Then I sing....hardly anyone else is partaking, an older couple is doing Sinatra...so me and a couple comedy buds throw it down. Tonight my choices are: Rock with you by Michael Jackson, Private Dancer by Tina Turner, and Voices Carry by Till Tuesday....nailed it.

Back in black

    A long has passed since I last wrote on here. A lot has happened in those few months, I've gotten a lot more work at the clubs. And have grown considerably as a comic I believe. This city offers so many opportunities to practice my craft and the people in it have been nothing but awesome so far. I feel very lucky to live in Portland.
    But enough of that, let's talk about my night. I went to a relatively new open mic at Backspace. An awesome venue that hosts a lot of poetry slams. Tonight it was hosted by Jeff and Steven, two of my favorite Portlanders. I went first, working out some new material to the sparse but attentative crowd. A few chuckles here in there, pretty much what I expected. But I did win a couple of x-men comics as well!
     Afterwards I went over to see another friend KJ and sing a little R&B... for the ladies.