The Mill Casino

The Mill Casino... A room.full of bright flashing lights, bells and whistles, and 70 year olds. Smoke fills the air, giving the room a nice musty smell...like my parents house. Except much sadder.

Helium

Tonight, as with every Thursday I find myself at helium comedy club. The crowd tonight is perfect, there must be a 150 + in there. They were also a really wild audience as well. In a good way.
    I go up and do my material about crack stems,  then I do a giveaway for a Jerry Rice action figure, and then I come back into my bit about eating pussy. All of it's hard. I get about 20 people hollering at me after the show telling me I'm their favorite and this and that, it's really reaffirming.

Wildhorse Casino

Last night I did my first ever gig at the Wildhorse casino. The casino has a really nice stage with rows of lighting above it. Iron Maiden could have performed in here and been all set. The stage is set in a small bar off of the casino, like most casino gigs. The seating is back away from the stage, and the room is pretty barren when you're looking out from it.
   I will probably never be invited back. My set was rough. Really rough. The crowd was all 50 to 70 year olds and they didn't like a damn thing I had to say. Seriously. I was supposed to be 30 minutes and they gave me the light at 20 to get off stage because I was just not selling them on anything. It was brutal.

Earthquake Hurricane

Tonight, I am performing at a show called earthquake hurricane. It is taking place in the basement of a bicicle bar... very Portland. The venue is fairly small, but it is nice. It has theater seating and can hold about 40 people.
    I am headlining the show apparently. It's a fairly solid lineup and I thought be out of town I was going to go last but, here I am. It was a good set too. I did mostly this stuff but closed on my swastika story cuz I got the light and that is one of my shortest jokes. Good crowd, very easy going, really good show overall.

Helium

It's Tuesday night, so that means I'm at helium for the weekly open mic. The crowd tonight is kind of tight. Nobody is getting super big laughs, even the more vetted comedians.
   I go up there with my typical fuck it attitude and talk about smoking crack for my entire five minute set. It felt really good. I didn't have a game plan when I hit the stage I kind of just shot from the hip. The crowd was into it, & I even got a few emails later that night from people who said they really enjoyed it.
   I'm at a point now where I'm comfortable just winging it on stage at helium and I usually do pretty damn well. I haven't repeated myself in about 6 months on that stage. That's something I'm really personally proud of. I like going up there with something new each week. The crowd seems to appreciate it too, I've had a few people in the last month comment on how they've never seen me tell the same joke twice. Good.

Daily Double

   Tonight is a god damn shit show. Classic shit show action. Its taking place in a dive bar that leans to the side a solid 5*. The show starts a couple hours late, and their is no mic. Classic.
   Waiting for the show to start im treated to a parade of trashy people. First up, big dude leaning on me and Neeraj talking dumb shit. Then he came over a talked shit about Lonnie and Neeraj was about to lay him out. Seriously, dude doesn't take shit. Good guy.
     Later, another guy shared some jokes with us...really good jokes too. Classic racism, sex, religious material.
   The show finally starts late with out a mic... It goes as well as you could imagine. The few people in the bat are either glued to the lottery machines or have their backs turned at the bar. I feel like its 2012...I kinda like it.

Double Dippin ...

Tonight I take a break from helium and head to Dantes. The classic dark rock venue that attracts a sometimes less than perfect crowd. I haven't been and that room in well over a year. It was just like I remember, a very dark room and about 10 people in the audience. My set went okay honestly, I went up there with a dark frame of mind which is just right for that venue.
   Afterwards I hit up Brody Theater, a classic spot that I used to frequent. The walk from Dante's to Brody is something I haven't done in a while. I got to see a lot of vagrants and random people yelling into the night sky. Old times. I had a good set there as well it was a good way to end my night.

Helium

This week has done so much reaffirm what direction I'm taking in my life. 5 shows, every one of them packed! Brian brings a great crowd, they are all super nice and friendly. The early Saturday show had a kind of older crowd though, they were still great it was just a noticeable thing.
    Thursday I did a set with material that I did not even have when I did the last weekend at Helium in November. I told a five minute version of my Jeff story, a story that I wrote specifically for the storytelling showcase. The Civil War section of it has gotten applause break every time I delivered it. It's the first piece of brand new material I'm really happy with I've made in the last month. Friday I did two sets that were mostly the same as the Thursday Sat. And then saturday I opened up with my liver transplant, into my long hair/crack material. Not my strongest stuff. Why? Because talking to Brian in the green room about life, that came up and he wanted to hear what I had to say about it on stage. He was actually listening to my sets which is awesome.
   Derek sheen was the feature and god damn it he is such a pleasure to work with. I consider him a good friend and I am glad to work with him. And of course Brian was amazing, super down to earth. We talked a lot in the green room about all types of cool stuff like horror movies, wrestling, weed. We smoked a lot of weed...I was in the green room till like 1 a.m. Saturday night shooting the s*** and it really felt great to have an icon like that talk to me as an equal.

Dirty Dozen

    Tonight is the 8th or 9th installment of The Dirty Dozen showcase at helium comedy club! A showcase that I am fortunate enough to host once a month. We have the schedule pretty solid now, I am doing the Dirty Dozen the first Wednesday of the month every month. I like it. Also, Thursday through Saturday I am hosting for Brian Posehn! I have a big week ahead of me.
     The show goes fantastic, as always. A slightly smaller crowd than I was used to actually, only about 120 to 140 showed up. The last two or three shows have been 200 plus people.
    All the comedians had fantastic sets, and we ended strong with Kristine Levine.