#super stoked to finally be selling my stuff! I know a few people have asked me to make prints so im finally getting around to it!!!!!

[kettleghost]

hi kettleghost nation i set up an inprint shop! im selling prints!! yahoo!!! if that’s something that interests you, it’d be really appreciated if you checked it out! super stoked to finally be selling stuff and whatnot!

[rigmarolling]

Top 5 Things That Will Kill You In the Victorian Era

If you’ve ever spent more than two seconds with me, you know that I live and breathe the fog-choked air of Victorian London. All day. Every day of my life. 

See, in many ways, the Victorians were the first version of us--overwhelmed by rapidly-changing technology (and its awful effect on the climate); dealing with incredible wealth gaps; grappling with rising crime and faster travel and out-of-control media and the whole, “God is dead, oh no” thing. 

Also, everything was trying to kill you.

Like, literally almost everything.

From your clothes to your doctor to your canned food, here are the top five things that will kill you in the Victorian era.

5. Other Victorians

If the rise of penny dreadfuls (cheap magazines stuffed with horror stories for us morbidly-inclined goth types) was any indication, Victorians loved them some true crime. 

And there was no shortage of subject matter to choose from: depending on where you ventured in London, at least, you could be subject to anything from pickpocketing to mugging to violent assault and, of course, murder. 

There were a few reasons for this:

For one thing, the population in London alone increased by millions in the 19th century, and approximately no one was prepared for that. So, to accommodate the rapidly-booming population, the wealthy folks in charge reached out and lovingly ensured the masses of the disenfranchised poor were taken care of by redistributing resources and education and access to opportunities that improved lives on a both a personal and social level.

Lol, no, I’m totally kidding; they shoved them into slums and tenement buildings and pretended they didn’t exist.

So of course, there was a rise in crime, because if you have five kids and you can’t find gainful employment and your family will starve if you don’t steal that basket of food over there, or that purse that lady left sitting over THERE, what are you going to do? You’re going to steal the food and the purse to survive, Jean Valjean, I understand, I do.

Except the powers that be did NOT understand, and instead routinely espoused the idea that if people were poor, it was because they were morally bankrupt, or inherently bad, somehow, and the “criminal classes,” as they came to be known by the growing Victorian middle and upper-middle classes, were simply considered genetically bad to the bone and therefore undeserving of assistance.

Basically:

So ANYWAY.

Crime was on the rise and there were multiple efforts to stop it with varying degrees of success, but big city usually = big crime, especially when there’s a massive gap between the one percent-ers and THE REST OF US, WASHINGTON.

Ahem.

All that crime? The booming news industry loved it. The press ate it up and then spit it back out in salacious headlines that never even bothered with journalistic objectivity, like this gem:

I mean. Full disclosure: I, too, agree that cutting off a woman’s head, arms, and legs and then burning them is “awful, inhuman, & barbarous” but just...maybe...maybe tone it down? Just a bit?

No? Okay.

See, here’s the thing: crime sells. It always has. And papers went nuts with full illustrated spreads about the latest brutal murders so you could sit in your parlor and get anxiety poops thinking about how the butcher down the street looked at you funny the other day and oh, God, you’re probably next, oh God.

The most famous murderer of the era, was, of course, Jack the Ripper, which was just the orchestral climax of a hideously corrupted society that had bubbled into naught but a festering carbuncle, an ulcer upon the very soul of man, trussed up as a city of industry, but which is merely Salome, dancing with the Lamb’s head upon a platter and sending us all tumbling into a fiery pit.

....Ahem, again.

Some popular ways your fellow Victorians could kill you included: dueling (with swords but usually with revolvers), stabbing, garroting, and, probably the most popular method of the era, poisoning.

Speaking of which...

4. Anything dyed that hip shade of green

In 1775, a guy named Carl Wilhelm Scheele invented a new shade of green, cleverly called Scheele’s green, and it instantly became a hit. Pretty soon, manufacturers and tailors were dyeing everything this color. 

Look at it. Bright, airy. Calls to mind a fresh, spring meadow. (What’s that, you ask? Well, before the Industrial Revolution belched out black smoke onto absolutely everything, there were these things called plants and grass and they were all over the place and you could frolic through them and it was very nice for your serotonin levels.)

I mean, listen, this isn’t really my color because anything vaguely yellow-ish makes my already yellow-ish skin look especially jaundiced, but it’s a lovely shade:

Besides using it to create beautiful dresses and tasteful waistcoats, they used it inside book covers:

And it was a super popular wallpaper color:

They had green candles and green cups and green kitchenwares and green paint.

But while Carl Wilhelm Scheele didn’t exactly murder anyone (even though he has three names like every serial killer ever), he sort of, accidentally, indirectly, kinda...did.

Because that springy dye contained every Victorian black widow’s favorite method to dispose of a troublesome husband: arsenic.

Scheele, of course, had no idea--no one did--so I’m fully exonerating him here, but the poison nonetheless started to take its toll.

Reports began to surface of kids getting sicker and sicker and then dying in their green wallpapered rooms; of fashionable ladies rocking those green dresses at balls and then ALSO getting sicker and sicker and breaking out in horrible sores before dying. 

They even used this stuff to dye food green, so of course, anybody who tucked into Victorian green eggs and ham also, you know. Died.

And if they DIDN’T die, they got cancer, because if arsenic doesn’t kill you, it will give you cancer. And then kill you.

Eventually, as science advanced and went, “HEYO, there’s literal poison in this stuff,” consumers were like, “Well, shoot, this summer’s hottest beach shade just killed an entire boarding school,” and Scheele’s green finally fell out of favor.

It was, however, used as a pesticide up through the 1930s, so...way to use the...leftovers? I guess?

3. Your canned food

Hey, now that we’re on the topic of deadly chemicals being where they absolutely should not be, let’s talk about canned food. 

In the Victorian era, it was the new Hot Thing (next to arsenic green). You mean I can can my food now? Like? Forever? Oh, only for a few months. Okay, cool. Still cool. 

Above: Road trip snax.

Food preservation methods had existed long before canned meats and veggies and soups, but canned everything really started to gain traction around the middle of the 19th century, and people were stoked. Remember, the population exploded; people needed new methods of obtaining cheap food that didn’t spoil immediately. So: cans to the rescue! 

Recycling hadn’t really been invented, though, so today, archaeologists constantly find giant Victorian trash pits filled with empty cans.

You know what also hadn’t been invented? Consumer health and safety boards.

So guess what was in the tin cans themselves? 

No, no, don’t worry, it wasn’t arsenic.

It was lead.

Which, in case you weren’t aware, is also very, very bad for you.

So bad, in fact, that today, scientists are pretty sure lead-lined tins of canned food were partially responsible for the deaths on the disastrous Franklin Expedition, an ultimately futile trip to discover the Northwest Passage lead by Sir John Franklin in 1845. Every single man on board the two ships stranded in the Arctic died, and in the 1980s, when scientists discovered perfectly mummified bodies (GRAPHIC, if you don’t like that sort of thing, but awesome if you do) of some of the sailors, one of the mummies contained insane amounts of lead. They later tested the cans found scattered across the wreck site and whoops, they also contained insane amounts of lead.

Above: Some of the tin cans from the Franklin Expedition, which contained items like salted beef, vegetables, tea, lethal amounts of lead, and Chicken of the Sea.

Granted, other factors contributed to the Franklin deaths, like, you know, being stranded in the Arctic and starving to death, and also tuberculosis, but lead-lined canned food certainly didn’t help things along.

2. Your doctor

Here’s my advice if you’re in the Victorian era and you’re starting to feel sick: do not get sick. Just don’t. Because then that means you’ll have to go to the doctor. Which probably means you will die.

Hospitals in the 19th century were deadly. Often even more deadly than just staying at home, according to Dr. Lindsey Fitzharris, author of The Butchering Art. Nobody knew how to treat anything, really, because medical understanding of biology was in its infancy and antibiotics didn’t exist yet, so you were absolutely, definitely going to get some kind of infection the second you stepped foot in a Victorian hospital.

Above: The surgery, where nobody has any idea what they are doing, ever.

Doctors weren’t trying to kill you on purpose--they just didn’t know any better. And it super duper didn’t help that common treatments for everything from the common cold to tuberculosis included taking mercury (which kills you) and blood-letting, (which can also kill you) the tools for which are shown below:

Those might look like fun doodads for your astronomy class at Hogwarts, but they’re actually vials and a really, really sharp needle that pricks you until you bleed out a critically dangerous amount of blood into those vials. 

The (ancient) school of thought behind blood-letting was that draining patients of “bad” blood would rebalance their “humours” and get rid of the icky thing that was making them sick. We might laugh at it now, but if you don’t know any better, logically, it makes sense.

Medically, oh my God, it’s the worst.

So if Doc didn’t bleed you to death, he might try surgery--done without anesthesia or antibiotics (until good old Dr. Lister came along--read The Butchering Art!), and then ship you and your amputated stump leg off to the hospital ward where, instead of healing, you’d get wheeled through hallways stained with every bodily fluid imaginable into rooms filled with people coughing up every bodily fluid imaginable, some of which would get into your leg stump, infect it, and then kill you dead.

“But what about medicine?” you ask. “Can’t I just take medicine?”

Sure! Just be aware that it definitely contains morphine and probably contains cocaine, or mercury, or arsenic, or sulfur, or pulverized bits of ancient Egyptian mummies (I am not kidding. True, the latter had started to fall out of favor in the 19th century, but, like. Stop).

Above: Hard drugs, but just for you.

You think I’m joking?

Above: PARTY TIME.

Sometimes, a doctor would just advise that you move to a “more temperate climate” like Rome or Spain if you were feeling chronically ill, which might help you get a tan and COULD help if you had sucky lungs, but eventually, you’d just die anyway, because what you really needed was a strong antibiotic or antiviral medication and the closest you were gonna get was Mrs. Hopplebopple’s Temperance Tonic, which was probably filled with ground up baby bones and just so much heroin.

And don’t even get me started on Victorian surgical tools:

Open wide.

1. Water

There are three rules in this life: don’t watch any Adam Sandler movies except for maybe Anger Management, don’t eat the yellow snow, and do not, ever, for any reason, ever drink water in Victorian England.

That’s because it was about as clean as a Victorian hospital. 

Meaning it wasn’t. At all.

Victorian water--of the Thames variety--contained:

Cholera, one of the deadliest killers of the era and bad water’s favorite roommate.

Poop, human and otherwise, because a functioning sewer system? I don’t know her. (At least, not until the 1860s.)

Pee, human and otherwise, because nothing says, “Jolly Old England” like an open trench of piss rolling through the city.

Dead things, like animals, fish (which are animals, so why am I listing them as a separate thing?), and, occasionally, humans.

Chemicals, which spewed forth from the great factories in billowing, bubbling, belching rivers of sludge. (Ha! Omg, yes, I was an English major!)

The Thames was so filthy that Londoners called it “Monster Soup.”

Above: Same.

In 1855, scientist Michael Faraday (who was also kind of hot; tell me I’m wrong), wrote a letter to the Times about the disgusting state of the river:

"Near the bridges the feculence rolled up in clouds so dense that they were visible at the surface, even in water of this kind. ... The smell was very bad, and common to the whole of the water; it was the same as that which now comes up from the gully-holes in the streets; the whole river was for the time a real sewer."

Tl;dr: “It smelled like ass.”

In fact, it got so bad, so putrid, so horrifically clogged with every disgusting thing your mind and your butthole can possibly conjure up, that it lead to one of my favorite things to read about in the world: The Great Stink of 1858.

Yes, that’s the real name. I did not make that up. History is incredible.

Above: Summer vacation, 1858.

The summer of 1858 was miserably hot in London. And the Thames was miserably clogged with poop, and pee, and chemicals, and dead things, and, uh oh, cholera. During July and August that year, the smell wafting from the river was so offensive that Parliament was actually adjourned because everybody kept throwing up. Cholera devastated the city. The water was killing London.

Faced with either the prospect of living with a city-wide vomit-and-diarrhea smell for the rest of forever OR finally cleaning things up, the government actually did something right and chose the latter. They contracted civil engineer Joseph Bazalgette to overhaul the city’s sewer, to which Bazalgette, pinching his nose, responded, “FINALLY.” 

Above: Joesph Bazalgette, savior of the London sewers and purveyor of a truly beautiful mustache.

Bazalgette proceeded to build the London sewer system still in use today. His efforts greatly reduced the number of cholera deaths, cleared the Thames of its Cronenberg-esque muck, and ensured that poop goes where it’s supposed to: way the hell out of HERE and way the hell under THERE.

Water sanitation still had a long way to go, though, which meant you either had to boil your water to kill the bacteria in it, or you could just drink alcohol instead, which was the safer option but which would also leave you very dehydrated and also, if imbibed excessively, would leave you very dead.

So really, you were doomed in some way no matter what you did, and if that isn’t the moral of the entire Victorian story, then I don’t know what is.

[cottagecore-peach]

hii peaches !! hope u're doing very very very well !! sending lots of love thru the screen !!!

so. i ended up buying stardew valley a few days ago !! and boyyyy did i not regret it,, i've been playing it a whole lot these past few days since purchasing it + specifically just spent something like. the last two hours playing it hhjshshjs it's just !! so calming n sweet !! i'll admit i've been struggling a lil bit with getting the hang of all the farming + just generally how stuff works around town but !! it's only the eleventh day so it's expected hhsjshhsm

but !! oh my god there's so much stuff to do + people to meet.... all of the villagers r so lovely just !! hhghn i wanna befriend,, all of em,,, i've paticularly liked maru (nerdy wife !! nerdy wife !!) + abigail + the guys also seem v v lovely,,, which r ur fav ones ?? any tips on who to talk to ??

and yeah !! i thought i'd drop an update & ask u if you have any tips + advice on getting started on the first few days of the game !! i thank u so much for having encouraged me to buy it bc. i am loving it very very much !! so thank u !! mwah !!

-oak 💌❣️ (yoga anon !! decided to use a name bc. signing yoga anon feels v v weird since i haven't done it basically since the first time i sent an ask ksjsjjksjjs and oak is my farmer's name !! might be mine !! i am choosing a name for myself lately so. that's why i'm not sure asksjjsm lots of love !!)

HELLO omg i’m so thrilled to finally know know you!!! i can’t lie tho, i could tell it was u from how u type (is that weird?? it feels weird)

anyway i’m super stoked to hear that my sales pitch was successful!! and yes, there are definitely some tips that make farming easier (and some items that you unlock later in the game too) so if you have any questions send me an ask or a message!

characters i like: i LOVE haley. love her to pieces. she’s so pretty. she’s so mean but i can’t help but be like 😍😍😍(don’t psychoanalyze me pls). i also like shane... again, don’t psychoanalyze me. their GROWTH is just *chef’s kiss* i also love linus, he’s such a sweetie. and both the kids!!! they’re so nice once they warm up to you and, as someone who loves kids, it makes my heart burst.

if you’re on day 11 that means the egg festival is coming up soon?? make sure u buy a couple packs of strawberry seeds. you can either sell them for big moneys (they’re the most profitable spring crop i believe) OR you can save them for your nerd wife!!! they’re one of her favourite gifts!

the name oak is v v cute and i also changed my name a few months ago!! seeing characters in stardew refer to me as [chosen name] makes my heart go 💓💓💓 everytime

anyway it was lovely to hear from u again and PLS message me about the game whenever u want, i’m definitely annoying my friends with how much i talk about it oops

[winstonhcomedy]

“Dope A-F” - 7/30-8/11 - “Smiley Frown Live, Lady and the Tramp, a trip to Durham, and the Asheville Comedy Festival”

Let’s catch up you big sassy loves! Time to go over a nice little run of nine shows. So let’s not waste any more time! 

7/30

I was excited about the prospect of doing three shows in one night. I was hanging out with a friend and then got the message that Mojos was cancelled and going forward was going to be moved to every other Sunday. I think it has something to do with scheduling and which bartenders enjoy comedy and which ones hate it. 

So I head down to City Dogs for the Witty Dogs showcase. ben Braman usually runs this room, but he had just gotten kidney transplant so Jason Kusterer was hosting this one. The showcase was going to be Mu, Nate Izquierdo, Bryan Williams, Tom Hall, and then I was closing out. I messaged Jarvis at Fallout for a spot, and got ready for the show. 

There were people here, but I got the vibe they weren’t going to be there for long. I have never had a great set in this room. It just is set up weird and the people there don’t usually seem to enjoy comedy at all.

Kusterer gets the show started and it is pretty packed compared to usual. He gets some laughs, and a few people walk out who just don’t want comedy. Then Mu goes up and does pretty well for the room. People are leaving and coming in. So it is like a constantly shifting audience. Nate goes up and does fine, as does Bryan. Tom goes up and you can tell he is not enjoying his set at all. This is definitely one of those nights where it just hurts. 

I go up and try to do my act. I get halfway through and hate it so much I just started talking about my dad passing away. I use those jokes and they work pretty well. Honestly this set felt awful. Felt like I was bomibng but people said I did as well as I could have. Which always hurts to hear. I’d give this set a D-. I did not dig it at all. 

I then headed to Fallout. I was lucky to get to go up in only a few people. There was a small crowd and I was ready for my set. I go up and work on some new stuff. I do much better here, but not as well as I want. I’d give this set a C+.  I grabbed my stuff and headed home.

7/31

The next day there was two mics. The first was at Canon and Draw. I was going to do a new episode of my podcast there. I asked in the RVA comedy page if anyone could meet me. I ended taking down the request because someone hit me up and said I should have run it by them first, or called the venue. It wasn’t a big deal. I just only do my podcast because it is easy to do and I decided to pass on it instead of asking someone if I could. I didn’t want to start any problems, but also didn’t think it was that big of a deal so I left it alone.

I went to Canon and Draw and no one was there right after work. So I got to get a lot of video editing done. I also did some writing. I had some newer stuff I wanted to try at the mic so I was stoked for it to start.

People started to show up and file in. Paige, Jack Gerow, Dylan, Ry Mather, Taylor O’Sullivan, and Jesse Jarvis amongst others. We got a super good hang going before the show started. There was a nice crowd. 

The show starts and Paige, Taylor, and Jesse are the featured acts. They all do well. The crowd is digging it. I think everyone is pretty happy with their sets. I am up first on the open mic portion. Before I am brought up Melissa tells everyone that’s the end of the showcase, but now it is time for the open mic. 

I do not like when hosts do this. Legit not a fan. I think it opens the room up for people to leave. I honestly believe if you have an open mic after a showcase you shouldn’t even tell the audience which is which. You should just roll right into the next comic. This would help with audience retention, and would make a  smoother show.

I go up and do some new materia. People had left, but I had a fun time. My stuff got laughs and I was able to sell some jokes in a different way. This was a super productive set. I’d give it a C+/B-. 

After my set I grab my stuff and drive Paige over to Home Sweet Home for the open mic. I find out I am up pretty early. I hang with all of the comics, and Kusterer runs the comics meeting. He tells everyone if you’re going to be there in time for signup to not do presignup. Which is a fair rule.

The show starts and people are into it. A good crowd for HSH. I am up like second and I have a pretty fun set. My new stuff is working in most places. I’d give this set a B. I then grab my stuff and head home and pass out. 

8/1

The next day after work I got to hop in my car and head directly up to DC. I was going to be on Ross Benoit’s live podcast at DC Comedy Loft. I met up with TJ and Chris at Tj’s place and we all rode in together.

We had a chill ride up and got a parking spot right at the venue. We head inside and Ross is already there. No one is at the venue yet, but it is set up beautifully. I set my camera up and we get ready. 

We have a good hang going, but as it gets closer to show time we realize that no one is going to show up. I mean nobody. We start the podcast and just get right into it. Since it is a podcast we don’t really need an audience to do it. 

The podcast is legit hilarious. There are some super duper funny moments, and I was stoked to be a part of it. About 20 minutes in one dude walks in and it turns out he runs shows all over. So he was just coming to support which was dope. 

The rest of the show went great. Honestly one of the best podcasts I have ever been on. I felt like I was on fire and had some really good lines to go with everyone else. I love doing podcasts. It really plays to my strengths. I’d give my performance an A.

After this we headed back to Tjs and I hopped in the car and headed home. I needed to get a little sleep before work. 

8/2

After work the next day I headed to Petersburg. I was on Wabi Sabi and it was going to be a killer lineup. I wanted to make sure I murdered. I also always just love hanging with these guys. 

The lineup was going to be Klingman, Dylan, Wingle, Besiwck, Jaye, Paige, and myself. I get there and we are all hanging out and having an absolutely blast. 

The show starts and the audience is super rowdy . It is pretty packed but they are super loud. Everybody has a pretty good set. They finally settled down when Dylan went up. He had a super hot one. After him people were paying attention and then it was my turn.

I went up and went right into crowd work. I did about 16 minutes and didn't do a single joke. I just wanted to have fun. It was absolutely killing. All of the crowd work was really hitting. I got everybody involved and had them from the get go. I had some good lines about the dj playing like 3 songs at once when I got on stage. 

It was truly a super special set. I didn’t even have to close with a joke to get off stage. I had a killer callback to the first joke I made just from crowd work and I got off on that. It was dope. I’d give this set an A. 

After Kenny went next we had Sex With Me is Like. It went really well. I’ve been doing great at this game lately.  Everybody got some big laughs and Paige ended it on a really good one. 

After The Who we hung out for a little while, and I headed over to my brother’s to spend the night. 

8/3

I woke up the next morning and hung out with my niece for a while. After this I headed down to Durham, North Carolina for the Liquor House Comedy Festival. It is the first one, and honestly seemed like it was more of a showcase over two days than a festival. 

I went down early with a friend and it was a wonderful day. We went to eat at the Blue Note Grill, and went to a killer barcade and played games. Then we walked around Durham for a while and found an ice cream place called The Parlour. I went into a gift shop and bought some homemade salsa for my brother.

We then walked to the venue which was Durty Bull Brewing Co. It is a pretty cool space. The lighting is really cool, and their beers looked delicious. I got ready for the show. I was waiting to someone to check in with to show up. A comic named Robert Schenider (usually runs the open mic at Durty Bull) showed up to put together the PA. I met him for a bit, and he told me who to check in with. Other comics showed up and people started to come in, but honestly I am not great with ingratiating myself with other comics when they don’t know me. I don’t want to come across like a douche, and I assume they’re going to hate me or wonder who I am.

I meet the host who performs under the name Ghettorauchi. He wears a bathrobe, and has this whole character thing he does. I tell him I am checking in and he tells me that he will put me in early. He had me going in the three spot which I was ready for. That is definitely one of the sweet spots in a show. I am told I am doing 10 minutes and right away I know what material I am going to do. 

I had another friend who lives in Durham come out to the show. She used to be really good friend’s with my brother, and I knew her when I was just a little kid. It was so nice to be able to talk to her and meet her husband. We had a wonderful time chatting before the show.

The show starts and the microphone doesn’t work. Well it works, but there is a short in the cable. So they work on it for a while. Eventually the host just holds it like a sword and does his entire set not moving at all. He gets laughs, but this looks like an incredibly uncomfortable way to do standup. 

In-between the host and the next comic they work on it some more and try to tape it. I go to my car to get my cables to try and help, but they use a different cable not a standard XLR which sucks. This is when they tell me that they are bumping me up to 2nd and putting a local in the three spot. I am assuming this is because I’m just a no name person and the local was like come on you’re going to put me up after whoever this is. This is fine with me. I tell myself I am going to try and bury everyone after me. I want to prove myself, and I want to destroy. 

The first comic does ok. He doesn’t really project, and his jokes are on the edgier side. His mic keeps cutting out until he just decides he is going to stand in one spot. He has an ok set, but I know this crowd is ready to crack. There is about 80 people jammed into the room. It is packed, and more people are trying to file in. 

I go up and since I’ve dealt with microphone shorts before I know exactly how to hold the mic/cord. I am able to move around and do my normal act. I do about a couple minutes of crowd work and then go into the jokes. I absolutely killed. It was an amazing feeling to have all those laughs wash over me. I did all stuff that always works, and was able to call back to my crowd work when I needed to. The mic only cut out 3 times and it didn’t affect my set at all. I’d give this set an A. 

When I got off stage everyone was way more willing to talk to me and was super supportive. I wish I had recorded it, but honestly it was so packed there was nowhere to set my camera up. I talked and met some people. I handed out some business cards, and got a few IG followers. Said goodbye and headed home. I had a long drive back to my brother’s.

I get there and hang with my mom a bit before passing out. I was exhausted from such a fun day. 

8/4

I spent all day with my mom and niece. I then had dinner with my whole family when my brother and his wife got home. It was a super fun and special day. It was also great because I got to head over to Mojo’s and do the new Sunday night show that got moved. I was excited to get a set in kind of early before heading out. 

I get to Mojos and Ryan Mather was hosting. He was going to get there pretty late so he asked me to help set up the PA. So I did. I put it mostly together and let him do the finishing touches once he got there. 

it is pretty much just comics there. There is a pretty good sized list and I am up second. I am so happy to be able to get up and get out. Mather does a few new things before starting the show, and bringing Mike Engle up. 

After Mike I go up and only do stuff that is in progress. I try one brand new thing that gets a pretty good response for the room. I usually like to do newer material if I’m performing for comics. Some stuff didn’t work at all, and I was pretty exhausted from yesterday. I’d give this set a C-. 

After my set I think Ryan and talked to Dylan about some comedy business stuff. We discuss middling/featuring for the Funny Bone, and some other stuff. It was a good talk. I say goodbye to everybody and head home to pass out.

8/5

The next night after work I headed up to The Southern. I set everything up at the venue, and did a little writing. I was having a pretty tough day. I had been missing my dad a lot and those feelings finally hit me a little bit. 

It was nice to meet up and record an episode of my podcast The Winstmas Games. I had made up my mind to do a release schedule for content each week and the first thing is get back to doing The Winstmas Games weekly. I was able to get John Marg, Keaton Ray, Samantha Padgett, and JR. 

The show ended up pretty good and hopefully people dig it! After this I went back in and waited for the show to start.

There was an ok crowd. Nothing too crazy big, but they were into it. Everyone was doing ok but no one was really killing. 

I went up in the middle of the show and had an ok set. Some of the new I worked on came out ok. I got a couple good laughs on a few new bits, and I ended ok. All in all definitely very pleased. I’d give my set a C+.

The rest of the show went well and Paige went up last and had the set of the night. He seemed loose and comfortable. He was connecting, and even did some crowd work. It was nice to see. After this I said goodbye and headed home.

8/7

This was my last day of work for the week. As soon as it was over I hopped in my car and headed up to Arlington to close out Ragtime. This is Rahmein’s show and I always have a blast doing it. 

This week Michael Summers is hosting and there is a lineup consisting of a few of the student’s from Rahmein’s comedy class, a dude named Jamal Russell and then myself. 

I get there super early and get some video editing done. I am really trying to get stuff ready for my new release schedule. While I am doing this Gigi Modrich (dc comedian) shows up. She is there to support her boyfriend Eric Koucheravy (comedian and the guy who designed The Winstmas Games logo). We have a nice conversation about comedy, and how she’d been. Then Eric showed up and I was able to talk to him for a bit as well.

After Michael got there we got to catch up and shoot the shit as well. There was two huge tables full of people who had been there since like 5 who just wouldn’t leave. So we knew when comedy started it would thin out. We figured we’d probably have no crowd tonight due to how nice the weather was.

The show started and people had actually came in. As the night went on more and more came in and it was actually almost completely full. This was going to be an awesome time. Michael had a really good hosting set. His material was working, and he did some crowd work as well. 

Then he started bringing up the students. The first was a girl and she did ok. She was super new, and she had a few things hit. Then Eric went up and he had a killer set. He broke that crowd wide open. They loved him. Then after him Jamal Russell killed for 20. Like destroyed. All of his stuff worked. You could tell this was a dude who had 20 and was finally getting a chance to showcase it. The audience loved him.

Then I went up. I had a really strong set. I had a few lulls but for the most part I was very happy with it. I tried some dad stuff in the middle and it didn’t really work the way I wanted it to, but this is what this show is for. I opened super strong, and honestly did about 2/3 new stuff. The other 1/3 was stuff I hadn’t done in a while. I am still struggling to find a way to really build a tight 25 minute set. I get too bored and always want to do new stuff, and I really think in the short run that is going to hurt me.

I had a few things hit incredibly hard and a few things stink up the room. The dad stuff really brought them down. Thankfully I was able to bring them back up and close strong, but still it is disheartening for material I have worked really hard on to not get what it deserves because I legit think the dad material is great. I’d give this set a B.

I said goodbye and talked to Michael for a few minutes after before I hopped in the car and headed home. I wanted to pass out since tomorrow I was leaving for Asheville for my first real comedy festival. I was nervous and wanted a good night’s sleep.

8/8

I woke up at around 9 and got ready. I then hopped in my car and started the 6 hour drive down to Asheville for the 13th annual Asheville Comedy Festival. It actually isn’t that bad of a drive. 

I get there and unload my stuff at the airbnb. It’s my first time using it and its a cute cozy little house. I walk around downtown for a few hours and do a little window shopping. 

After walking around I tell Dylan to meet me at Buxton Hall bbq for dinner before the show starts. I get there and just by surprise the only other comedian I know at the festival is at the bar. It is Natalie McGill (redacted tonight). Her, Dylan, and I have dinner together. It is nice to catch up while they meet each other.

After dinner we head to the Diana Wortham Theatre for the early show. We get there and start to introduce ourselves. I meet Rafe Williams, Nat Baimel, Carter Deems (KOTD), David Sitrick, and Dan Carney. We get a pretty good hang going on before the show starts.

The show starts and I get to watch a little bit of it. It was at about 400 people for the Thursday night show. There were some really funny comics on this show. Zach Chapaloni had a super dope set, and I was a big fan of his. After watching a few comics I went back to the green room to hang.

Dylan was on the late night show at the Lazoom Room a few blocks away. So after a while I went over to meet him over there. I get there and meet a few other people including Chris Flanagan, and Aviva Siegel. The show gets started and Dylan is up third. The crowd was super tight when he went up. It was lightly attended and they weren’t really enjoying the show. He worked really hard and cracked them a bit, but they were just pretty dead.

After he was done we headed down to this place called Ben’s Tune Up which is a bar that was having an open mic. We put our names on the list and we were going to be going up crazy late. Dylan didn’t really want to do it, and was ready to leave but I had to get up so he stayed. 

David Sitrick comes as well and is hanging out. Along with Ben Bryant. The setup is wild. There are like 9 chairs at the front, the stage is outside, and there is like 70 people loudly talking around the show. There was also two giant jenga games in the back that luckily no one was playing. 

The show goes on and the host told us it was the most sign ups he has ever had there, but he was still letting everyone do 8 minutes. So I just ended up shooting the shit, busting balls, riffing, while we waited for like an hour or so to go up. 

Everybody who is going up is doing ok. No one is paying attention and the people in the front were wasted. When it was my turn to go up I feel like I did fine. I got people to pay attention and actually got some laughs on the stuff about my dad. I worked out some new stuff at the end and it really helped my anxiety about the festival by being able to get up. I’d give this set a C-. 

After this Dylan and I headed to the after party. I got to meet Dro Knows, Max Rosenblum, Zach Chapaloni, and a few others. We had a good riff session going until late at night. At around 2:15 Natalie offered  to give me a ride back to my place which I took and was very appreciative of. We had some panels the next day so I wanted to get some sleep.

8/9

The next day I woke up and walked to the Diana Wortham Theatre. We had two panels this day. The first was a podcast panel with Joe Kiely who runs a podcast studio in LA. 

It was a super helpful and informative panel. All of this made me realize I have to start putting my podcast out regularly. I have to be consistent. He also gave me some ideas about what to do with my podcast differently. 

After this panel Natalie and I go grab tacos at the place next door. Then Max Rosenblum and Carter Deems joined us. We have a good conversation about comedy before heading back for the writing in Hollywood panel featuring M. Dickson (Disenchantment, Superstore). 

This was a super eye opening one. I honestly learned a lot, but the biggest thing I learned was I have absolutely no interest in writing for a television show. I just want to do standup, and make my own stuff. I could write for my own show, but  the thought of being in a writer’s room for someone else’s show sounded like dogshit and I really hope I can avoid it. It just doesn’t sound rewarding or fun. I know one day I might have to to make ends meet, but I hope I can just make it on standup.

After this Natalie and I went to 12 bones bbq. It was some of the bet ribs I have ever had. After stuffing our faces she dropped me back off at my place and I took a nice long nap.

I then woke up and headed back down to the Theatre to watch a bit. This is where I met Scott Eason, Kyle Mara, Mike Feeney, and Ian Aber. The hang was pretty fun. The show was also sold out tonight so about 500 people were there. The show started with a. bang, and everything I saw and heard was absolutely destroying. 

I left halfway through to get to the Lazoom Room because I was on the late show. While waiting one of my brother’s really good friends from high school Scott Carson showed up. We got to catch up and talk for a while. It was a lot of fun to just chat it up and it meant the world he came out to the show. 

I found out I was next to last so I will be going up crazy late. I am not excited about this, but I am just happy to be there. The show starts and it ends up being. good crowd. They are awesome for about 3/4 of the show. I keep pacing, and walking in and out just waiting to go up. 

A few people in front of me struggle quite a bit. People start to leave, and it was incredibly hot in the room. There is no AC and it is brutal in the summer. I finally get ready to go up.

I start selling everything. I do as well as I can. I am not killing, but all of my jokes are working for the few people that are left. I didn’t do anything I am going to do at the theatre. I’d give this set a C, but I am pretty proud of how I rose to the occasion.

After the final comic and everybody cleared out I got to talk to Scott some more. It was a lot of fun and then he headed out. Dylan and I went to the after party again and it was a fun hang. Then I got another ride back and passed out. 

8/10

I woke up and headed down to the theatre for the panels for the day. The two panels were pretty interesting.

The first was a social media presentation from Jay Vega (runs DL Hughley’s social media). He definitely did a great job explaining how to use social media to get a following. I definitely took a lot of it to heart, and am glad I got to sit through it. 

The next panel was with Jeff Tully(Joel Mchale Show, Chelsea Lately) and about how to audition for panel shows. He had 16 questions he was gong to ask us and wanted to audition us in front of a camera. I was up 10th. We all auditioned in the room and answered a few of the questions. We had no clue which one he was going to ask. So I used the time I had to come up with jokes no matter what he asked me. 

When it was my turn I went up and did really well. He said I was super funny, called me a “joke ninja” (no idea what that means), and said if he was going to cast me it’d be as a “voice of a generation type” like I could speak for people in my age range. He then said his only note for me was since I was so interesting that I should be on more podcasts. That would be great but there is nothing I can do about that. 

I stick around for the end and then a group of us go eat at Tupelo Honey. Natalie, Hobert Thompson, Lucia Whalen, Caitlin Checkeroski, Maddie Weiner, and myself. The lunch was great but I was nervous. 

I went to the theatre to take a nap. After my nap I found out I was going next to last again tonight. Honestly if I’m being frank this kind of upset me. Like having to go late on both of the shows made me feel pretty bummed out. Like I have been looking forward to this for a while. I also got to meet Courtney Gilmour who had to go up last on both of her shows so she had it even worse than me.

The shows have 15 comics and everyone is doing 10. So if no one runs the light  then I will get to go up at the 2 hour 30 minute mark. So even though it is sold out in my mind by the time I go up I am going to have to work my ass off to do well. 

The show starts and it is fire from the top. Mike Feeney is hosting and everyone does well. Dylan has an amazing set. He is a great comic, and was at the 2 spot. So he was able to hook them and just absolutely destroy it was good to see.

I spent the next two hours just pacing, and being in my head. Listening to music, and freaking out. I was trying not to be self defeating, but it was hard. Chris Alan sent me a motivational thing to watch and it really pumped me up. It is just a spot. Who cares? I can do this. It doesn’t matter when I go up.

When it is finally my turn almost all of the comics are standing at the wings. All the people I had met and gotten to know were there waiting for the final curtain call at the end of the night. I go out on stage and I could tell from the last few comics that the audience was tired. They were 525 strong, but still exhausted audience members. So I just went for it.

I sold everything I could. I did my material with no crowd work. It started ok but slowly started to build. By the 5 minute mark of my set I had them. After that everything was hitting incredibly hard. I didn’t kill the way I wanted to. I didn’t slaughter from beginning to end, but I put in work. I showed I deserved to be there. I closed incredibly strong, and got a few applause breaks. This was the kind of set that reminded me I deserve to be doing this and I have a chance to make this a career. I’d give this set a B+/A-

After the show there was a final after party. I got to hang and talk to everybody one last time for like 4 hours. I thanks Melissa Hahn and Ryan Folks for putting it all together. Ryan told me he put me in that spot on purpose. He said he had seen my video and knew I could handle it. This made me feel really good. It is a small compliment and honestly could have been bullshit, but just hearing it made me feel like a million bucks and put the whole set into context. 

The hang was great. Made a lot of connections and friends. These were some incredibly funny and awesome performers. So glad I got to meet everybody. I was sad it was coming to an end. I really enjoyed every minute of this even when I was having panic attacks about my order in the show. This goes to show it doesn’t matter when you go up. You can do it.

I walked back to my place and passed out, before waking up and driving home so I can get ready for work the next day. 

That’s it everybody. Another #cutecomedy blog in the books. I was able to catch up laydees and baybees. I am ashamed I was so upset about my order in the show. Like that is so dumb. I just wanted to do well, and I was contemplating not saying I was upset in the blog. Except I don’t want to lie to y’all. It is ok to feel those things sometimes, but never hold onto them. 

I freaked out for a bit, but realized that I was going to have fun anyway. If I want to make it in comedy I have to be able to rise to the occasion. I have to become undeniable. I just want to get to that point, and these type of things are what gets you there. 

I WILL BE BACK ON THURSDAY WITH A NEW BLOG POST! EVERY TUESDAY, THURSDAY, AND SUNDAY I WILL HAVE A NEW ONE! I love you all so much and thank you for taking the time to read! xoxo laydees!

[houseofvans]

ART SCHOOL | Q&A w/ FRENCH (UK)

Influenced by heavy metal, fantasy artwork, and 80′s skate graphics. artist Richard Sayer, aka FRENCH, summons through his art the images of decrepit skulls, mummified skeletons, and creatures from the deep abyss, all with a “good dose of dayglo colours.” Not only one thing, FRENCH has been taking his dark arts to various mediums from animation, claymation, printmaking to textiles. His works have been shown all over the world, his graphics have appeared for various skate companies and brands –from Creature, Independent, to Santa Cruz–, and he once had his art show in Sweden visited by band 'Entombed.‘ We’re stoked to chat with FRENCH about his art, his process, and his influences as he gears up for his upcoming art show at New Image Art Gallery Dec. 16th in LA. 

Photographs courtesy of the artist.

Introduce yourself.   My name is French, well actually my real name is actually Richard Sayer, but since I was about 12 I’ve had the nick name of French and its just stuck ever since. I got the name ‘cos I bought a t-shirt on holiday in France and then when I came back I got given grief from all the other skaters for buying it. There’s a long standing resentment between the English and a the French a little like the States and Canada, so I guess it was meant as an insult to call me 'French’. I’m an artist / illustrator based in the UK, but I just spent the past 3 and half years living in Melbourne, Australia.  I make artwork for many different brands and industries, including the skate industry, fashion, print, music and advertising. 

I run a small skateboard brand with my friend Alex Irvine called Witchcraft hardware. I currently make all the artwork for an Australian brand called 'Death Rites’ run by my friend Shawn Yates.  

I exhibit my artwork widely, I have exhibited in the states, Europe, Asia, Australia, Israel and the UK. More recently my work is generally a bit darker, looks a bit like a cross between old metal album art, fantasy artwork and skate graphics from the 80’s but with a sense of humour and a good dose of dayglo colours. I’ve just started to work more with ceramics and also with animation as well. I like to work in many different fields and medias and I think that helps improve my work in all areas.

Your drawings are always filled with rad imagery like skulls, skeletons, dragons to crazy creatures.  What were your early influences art wise? I grew up surrounded by heavy metal records and music, my brother was a huge metal fan, which caused me to be. He was also super into 'Fighting Fantasy’ books, 'Warhammer’ , 'Dungeons and Dragons’ & all kinds of fantasy stuff, I think that just filtered its way into my brain and seeps out through my artwork. Obviously skateboarding and the artwork involved in that was a massive influence on me, when I was a kid I was obsessed with old Santa Cruz graphics and as I got older I was always more drawn to the skulls and puss versions of graphics, rather than the clean edge stuff. I grew up in a military town in the south of England so I think being surrounded by war monuments, soldiers and those sort of images it brought me more visually to it. My brother used to make me watch movies after school, before my mum got home from work, there would be a lot of John Carpenter movies, Arnie, horror movies of the 90’s had so many rad monster and animatronics that I think thats stuck with me as well, the covers for those old VHS tapes we seriously imaginative.  

What are your all time favorite materials you like to use? Any new mediums you’re interested in trying? I like working in pencil first and then ink over the top. Recently I’ve started to paint in colours to the artwork, I wouldn’t say it was painting as I just add areas of solid colours, nearly always dayglo or fluorescent paints. Saying its not painting, I think everything I do is drawing, for example I just started to make some ceramic pieces and I definitely come at 3D in the same way as I would drawing, but I think that makes it my own. I’m interested to see what the ceramic works come out like in the end as its still early days and I haven’t fully glazed a piece yet. 

You’ve created art for tons of things from skateboards to albums to clothing. How did you get started creating graphics or art for some of your favorite brands?  And tell us about your current or upcoming collaborations with Vans? I got started making artwork for people way back in the days when you had to show people a physical portfolio. I actually used to make post cards and small zines and then go and look up peoples details in Borders, like look in the magazines I liked for the art directors details and then send them a zine and post card and ask if I could take them my portfolio. I also used to just send people my zines and then call the office and see if they’d got it and if I could come and see them. I used to send so much stuff it was mad, it was a bit like 'if you through enough mud at the wall it starts to stick’ and I got work from a few people and from then on it kinder worked for me. 

I think the best way of getting work, is by having work. You do one job for one brand, people see it and want something from you and so on. I worked in a few different skate shops and at a skate distro as well so I got to know people at brands I liked and respected and sent them my work and then I gradually got more work in the skate industry. That’s pretty much how I got to do work for Creature, Independent, Santa Cruz, Real etc. I met Nick Street & Jasper Jones who worked for Vans europe and they started to hook me up with small jobs for Vans and gradually I got more and more through Vans, not just in Europe but also in the states and world wide. It’s funny, cos I actually worked in the Vans store when it first opened in London. 

I’m currently making work for a solo exhibition at New Image Art in Los Angeles which opens in December and Vans have very kindly offered to support the project and help me make a bunch of artwork for the show. I making drawings, animations, ceramics, enamel wall hangings, trophies, flocked screen prints and bunch of weird and wonderful merch. I’m really excited for it all, as well as stressed about making all this stuff. Recently you’ve been making some giant prints which we’ve seen on your IG.How did this come about? What’s your background with print making? How’d you get into it? The big dayglo paper ones? Yeah that was purely that I was having a few exhibitions in skate shops and smaller shop venues when I lived in Aus and I found that trying to sell original artwork to skate kids or metal heads is dumb. They can’t afford to buy originals and I can’t afford to sell it that cheap, but if I can make a print or zine and sell it for the price of a beer or a board then that audience is stoked. I’d rather be able to give something to those guys that love what I do and want to support it, but might not have a the cash to buy an original. I was working on and off at my friends printers in Melbourne and he just said that he would make me some huge digital prints on the fluro paper, the same as they used for band bill board posters and so I made a few and people seemed to dig them, so I made more. Its fun, cos its digital, theres no real set up cost and you can make as few or as many as you like. So if no one seems to like one image you can just ditch and make another. Also I really liked the bright coloured papers and the black ink, its a bit like a 1 colour black light print.  

What’s your process like for making art?  Do you keep a sketchbook or just get at it in the studio? I usually just work in my studio, in my house. I often work from reference images and pull together images and photos in photoshop and then draw from that in pencil, then re-work it again in pencil, adding the detail and finally ink it. If need extra computer stuff I scan it and do that after.

Who are some of your favorite artists you think folks should check out? Some my current fav’s are : Parker Jackson, Daniel Cantrell, Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran, Grady Gordon, Will Sweeney, Ragnar Persson, Paul Parker, Aaron Storck.

What are your favorite kind of Vans? I always skate in black and white original old schools or sk8 hi’s, I don’t do colours. But since the new pro’s came out I’ve been really into them, the inner sole has saved my knees.  

Can you tell us your best or weirdest art story? I dunno if I have any weird ones really, its all pretty boring really, I just make artwork. I have a ton of weird skate trip stories, drunken stories, but art ones not really. Once one of the dudes from the band 'Entombed’ came to my art show in Sweden? 

What’s on the horizon for 2018? What you super stoked on coming up? I dunno yet, I’m just trying to get to the end of 2017 and make the exhibition at New Image Art the best I can. I’ll keep you posted!  

Follow FRENCH Website | www.funeralfrench.com Instagram | @funeralfrench

[wrestlinghasmelike-blog]

Monday Night Raw Review- January 15th, 2018, Second Half

Alright, here’s the review for the second half of the show tonight! Not a bad first half, so let’s see if the second half meets up to that!

Let me know if you liked this style of review! Feedback is appreciated!

Recap of First Half-

The show is mainly focused on the events unfolding around Braun Strowman, who was fired by Kurt Angle due to his actions of last week. Since he was fired, Braun has been going on a rampage and was destroying everything and everyone in his path.

We saw Cedric Alexander defeat Tony Neese, Asuka get the DQ win over Nia when she hurt her knee, and we saw a huge upset win over The Bar by Titus Worldwide. A pretty good string of matches so far!

We also witnessed the announcement of the main event for tonight... FINN BALOR VS. SETH ROLLINS BOY HOWDY

The Revival vs. Local Talent

It’s great to see the Revival back in action! They’ve been absent due to various injuries, and now they’ve returned to send a message to the tag team division.

This looks to be a squash match, and it was, so not a great start to the second half of the show in my opinion. We got to see the Shatter Machine, the finishing move of the Revival, which I thought was executed beautifully. I wish this was actually a better match so we could see a better showcase from them, but they gotta start at the bottom, right?

Elias

You’re damn right Elias gets his own piece in this. I think he’s doing so well with getting his name in everybody’s vocabulary. Do I think he’s the greatest competitor? Not really, but I believe he’s getting better and better. I think it takes a lot of balls to go out and sing a stupid song in front of a huge crowd, and Elias definitely has them. I’m also digging his floral look tonight, he’s looking good. He ended up introducing Miz and his crew, which I didn’t expect actually!

Miztourage vs. Roman Reigns in a Handicap Match

Roman is scheduled to take on The Miz next week for the IC belt, so tonight he’s facing the other two members of the Miztourage tonight. I see this as a way to hype the match next week, but I don’t see this match being the match of the night. Bo Dallas and Curtis (I almost called him Michael McGillicuty) have been doing alright in the ring as of late. They definitely aren’t forgotten superstars anymore, but that’s because they’re rolling with The Miz now. They’ve strapped onto The Miz, and they’ll keep riding him until the storyline ends. Good for them.

The bell has just rung to signify the start of the match, and The Miz is already trying to get involved. If this is how the match is going to go, I don’t imagine it will last long. The match has finally been moved inside the ring, and the villainous acts of the MIztourage have begun. 

Last week in the main event, Miz and the gang attacked Roman, and there’s no doubt that Roman wants payback. He’s not getting it yet because Bo Dallas is all over Roman. He’s had Roman in a hold to keep him down on the ground, but Roman has found a way to break, but Axel found a way to interfere to wear down the champ again. The crowd seems to be bored with this match except for a few let’s go Roman chants. The match is moving at a technical pace thus far, which is fine for people who aren’t Roman Reigns. Reigns finally found an opening and hit a Samoan drop on Axel, but hasn’t gotten to his feet yet. 

Roman is now up and he’s ready to beat up Axel. The champ has locked Axel into the corner, but Bo is sneaking around the corner to try and distract Reigns, but with no luck as Roman looks to set up the Superman Punch. Roman connects with Axel, and runs out to connect again with Bo. The Miz has been thrown in by Reigns, but Axel countered, but Roman hits Axel with the spear to get the win. I personally can’t wait to see The Miz back in action next week, and I hope he wins the title back.

Sonya Deville vs. Sasha Banks

If you haven’t already heard, it’s been rumored that Paige is being forced to retire due to an injury she sustained at a live event a couple of weeks ago. She hasn’t really made an official announcement yet, but I guess we will have to see what happens in the upcoming weeks. I wish her all the best with this news and her injury, and I hope she can compete again soon.

I’m very happy to see Sonya in the ring. I loved her in NXT, and I love her in this faction. I am a little over seeing this matchup time and time again and I wish Absolution would take on other members of the roster. 

There wasn’t much in this match to talk about for me honestly. It was the same stuff that we’ve seen week after week. Sonya picked up the win after landing a kick to Sasha’s midsection when she dove off the top rope. Congrats to Sonya, wish it was a bit of a different match.

Woken!Matt vs. Heath Slater

We are joined again by Woken!Matt and I’m all here for this! This is great for Matt and it’s great for the company because this is a huge get for them. Booker T just asked what he thought Jeff was thinking, and we all know Jeff is thinking of all the face paint he gets to wear now and do the Woken thing with Matt.

Heath is really trying to bring it in this match, but it’s not going well for him as Matt is straight up brawling with Slater. A side effect from Matt but a kickout at two from Slater. 

The crowd really loves Matt and doing the whole delete thing with him, and I love that Matt has found his place with WWE again.

Seth Rollins vs. Finn Balor

WELL BOY HOWDY LOOK WHAT WE GET TO SEE TONIGHT GET HYPED

If you can’t tell, I’m very excited for this match. Not only do we get to see Finn in the main event for the third week in a row, we get to see this Summerslam rematch! The match where Finn became the first Universal Champion but then had to give it up because of an injury! I think this will be the first time we’ve seen these two compete one-on-one since Summerslam, but don’t quote me on that because I could be wrong. I can’t wait for this match to happen, it’s going to be TOO SWEEEET (I had to, I really did)

I still absolutely love the return of Finn with the Good Brothers. They’re all so happy to be wrestling, and even happier to be wrestling together. If you missed last week’s main event, Finn and the Brothers picked up the win over Reigns, Jordan, and Rollins after the Miztourage interfered. This promises to be a good feud, but I hope this leads to more in the future. 

This match is off to a very technical start, with hold after hold from Seth and Finn combined. A great chop from Seth forces Finn into a corner to give Seth control for now. A headlock from Seth is keeping Finn grounded for now, but Finn is back up and fighting back. I wish my family wasn’t asleep right now so I could scream and cheer for Finn right now! Finn delivered that kick on the ring apron to Seth, and Finn is looking great heading into the commercial break.

Finn has lost the control coming back from commercial. Seth keeps clutching his knee, but he bumps Finn outside and leaps through the ropes to knock Balor down. I think Seth has been selling his knee a bit too much lately, but maybe he’s actually in pain? Seth went for the pin but Balor kicked out at two. The crowd has been mostly quiet, but I think everyone is super focused on this match so they don’t miss anything. I know I’m giving this match my 100% attention, this is great!

Finn found some strength and is starting to retalliate against Rollins. Balor is so fast, and if Seth is letting his knee bother him, he won’t be able to keep up. Balor tried for a slingblade, but Seth countered and hit Finn with one of his own. Both men are down for the moment, so let’s see who gets up first. It looks like Seth is up, but Finn returns with a slingblade, but Seth clocks Finn right in the jaw with a great SUPERKICK! Seth connected perfectly, and Finn sold it so well!

Finn is starting to get riled up, but his anger is getting the best of him because he’s leting Rollins breathe too much. Rollins missed a phoenix splash, and Balor went for the Coup but Rollins was quick and met Finn at the top rope and nailed him with a superplex and a falcon arrow! I am so in love with this match!

Rollins tried for a top rope move, but got kneed right in the ribs by Finn. There was a weird pin, but now the Bar has joined us, but Finn flew outside to stop it! Finn almost hit the Coup but missed as the Bar interfered...

SETH HIT THE CURB STOMP THE CURB STOMP THE RETURN OF THE CURB STOMP I HOPE FINN IS OKAY BUT MAN OH MAN WOW

What a main event! But Finn looks hurt now and I really hope he’s okay.

That does it for this episode of Raw! I thought the first half of the show was a little better than the first, but nothing beats that main event! Poor Finn, BUT THE CURB STOMP HAS RETURNED I’M STILL SCREAMING! Tune in next week for the 25th Anniversary of Raw! I’m pretty stoked to see that!

-Casey

[davidcarterr]

Skateboard Cafe Profile

Welcome to the first company profile in what will be an ongoing series. Skateboard Cafe have become one of our favourite companies here at Slam. Their output is steady, we love their graphics and if you haven’t watched their latest video you need to scroll down and get familiar. The idea of this feature is to offer some background to the brands we stock via the people behind them. We were stoked to speak to Rich Smith who offered a valuable insight into the inner workings of Skateboard Cafe as well as the strengths and weaknesses of it’s team riders. Without further ado here’s the profile…

Rich Smith at work. Photo by Korahn Gayle

When did Skateboard Cafe start as a brand?

As a brand, to me 2012 was kind of a milestone. That was the first time we released a small drop of boards and clothing together alongside a promo (which introduced our first official rider Shaun Currie) that was definitely a moment, like shit… Shaun’s relying on us to give him a few boards a month, I hope these boards sell! We were also giving boards to Harry Ogilvie and Josh Arnott around that time.

Before that though ‘Skateboard Cafe’ was the name of a scene video I released in 2008. It became a label for our crew and the edits we made that then developed into making a few tee’s, followed by a few boards and so on. So yeah I’d say the idea started 08, brand 2012.

What inspired the name?

Originally it was simply to give the video a theme, the intro was filmed in a cafe, 50s diner style, checkerboard floor n stuff and had jazz music playing. I just thought that was steez and a slightly different approach than usual. The name kinda stuck after that and as we grew into a brand it was the perfect theme and aesthetic to work with for graphic, music, edits.

What other companies were doing things that resonated with you guys when you first started out?

I’m not sure about any brands we really resonated with, I remember being hyped on 5Boro around then, this edit and this edit in particularly hit a sweet spot for me, especially the music choice… Obviously haha. I was inspired by what Daves Quality Meats were doing back then, I remember visiting their store in NY around 2008, seeing the interior was amazing, all done out as if it was a butchers, t-shirts hung up on meet hooks and stuff like that. That made me think, aye maybe Skateboard Cafe could be a place like this one day, a skate store all themed out like a cafe, serve tee’s on baking treys or whatever… It helped me vision what Cafe could be.

We’re really stoked on all of the new graphics you guys are putting out. What’s the process there, do you do all of that in house?

Cheers! I’m really happy with the new direction we’re taking. It’s a mix, myself and Makepeace cover some of it, the more bold, simple, text based and photo stuff. More recently I’ve found myself bouncing ideas back and forth with Ollie Lock, he has input here and there then we reach out to artists that suit the graphic we’re after. @becki_clark_ @richtpaint and even my dad worked on a graphic for us, so yeah it’s very in house.

We often work with Gaurab Thakali which I’m super grateful for, his art ties in so nicely to our aesthetic. He’s responsible for Dom’s debut pro board, Sax Flowers, the 4 board bar series we did…

It’s been cool watching the company grow organically to the point where it’s at. Has it been a trip watching it evolve?

Yeah it’s pretty crazy, from filming my mates for a little scene video to now having a full blown company, a skate team to look after, product being sold all over.

Having a Cafe edit on Thrasher for the first time was a trip! Knowing people all round the world will see us skating and fucking around at College Green haha

The whole thing began with your love for filming and your edits define the company. Is that still your favourite role?

Yeah as much as it fucks my back and ruins my social life I love it haha. My motivation for the whole brand continues to stem from filming and making edits with my friends. I also really enjoy the process of working on graphics… It’s similar to the feeling of editing, you make a rough draft, develop the idea a little then export a final version your happy with. Anything where I’m creating is my favourite roll.

What videos inspired you to pick up a camera?

I was mostly inspired by local vids growing up, Jus Foolin and Bristol In Bloom in particular. It was sick to see footage of some of the skaters you’d see out and about on a daily basis, skating spots you know. Then a little after that I used to buzz off of Lost & Found and Static 2 (Josh Stewart keeps inspiring me to pick up the camera! I just don’t understand how he can still walk, how do you do it Josh?)

What was the response like to the new video Ensemble?

I had a feeling it would get a good response but not like this, it’s getting shared all over the globe and getting such positive, genuine feedback. Quartersnacks wrote on their site saying the vid will still look good in 10 years from now, does it get much better than that? Haha definitely hyped to move onto the next thing and glad we now have our own platform to build on.

Which premiere went off the most?

Manchester was the most rowdy haha, we ended up arriving late (due to some insane technical difficulties like my laptop dying during the final export and a shit load of traffic amongst other things I can’t even go in to) so it meant everyone had time to get nice and steaming before we arrived. Was like walking into a busy pub after a football match.

TT Liquor, Shoreditch.

London was pretty special though, big thanks to the guys at TT Liquor, they hooked it the fuck up. Cocktail bar / cinema with a few different floors, they decked out the window for us, sorted drink sponsors, made us custom Cafe drink menus… Seriously the best venue you could ask for.

The video is banging, such an amazing array of styles too. You must be stoked on where the team is at now?

Yeah I’m stoked on the diversity of the team. We’ve been around long enough now to have a nice mix of a few generations too, from Sam (Philly Slugs) and Savannah who are like 18/20 to guys like Harry and Dom in their early 30s with everything in-between. Trips feel like a big tweaky family vacation haha

Who is the most surprising person to film?

Korahn continues to surprise me, I wasn’t expecting much from him for Ensemble as we had both kind of agreed he was taking a back seat on this project to focus on finishing up his part with Magee and Kev and also to make this vid more about the new guys. He ended up filming 30/40 seconds of footy in the last few weeks of filming. I know that’s classic Korahn but it still surprises and amazes me.

We were really happy to see Dom Henry’s love letter to Fairfield’s. Such a sick send off and then the second part was poetic too. He’s a firm favourite here. Did he know he was going to be turned pro when the video dropped?

Yeah the Fairfields section was Dom’s idea, I still don’t get how he skates that place so well… It’s so grim and crusty! Dom knew he was going pro, that was the arrangement as soon as he got on. It was just a matter of when and with the launch of the vid felt like the perfect time. The idea for the stand up comedy graphic was actually his too, passed on to the man Gaurab who absolutely nailed it.

While we are on the subject of team riders we asked you to run through the team as part of the company profile. Introduce us to the family…

What can we expect this coming year from the Skateboard Cafe? Are you straight onto the next video project or having a breather?

The plan is to work with new artist and explore new graphic avenues as well as releasing more than 2 drops a year. I’m currently having a little breather from filming to rest my back but as soon as that’s better we’re gonna be making more frequent, shorter edits through out the year and keep the YouTube channel pumping.

Words of advice for anyone wanting to follow in your footsteps?

Besides doing it for the right reasons (because you love it and not to make a quick £) I’d say if you have an idea don’t be too precious with it, don’t sit on it until it’s too late… Just get it out there and let it start developing because you never know what it could become.

We hope you enjoyed this informative conversation with Rich. See everything we have from Skateboard Cafe

The post Skateboard Cafe Profile appeared first on Slam City Skates Blog.

Skateboard Cafe Profile published first on https://medium.com/@LaderaSkateboar

[winstonhcomedy]

“Dope A-F” - 3/20-3/26 - “DC Improv and Four Long Years”

I got some catching up to do laydees. I need to be better on the weekends, but honestly I don’t care. I am thinking about quitting this blog anyway. It has been almost six months and it is a ton of writing. No one is reading it, and it is pretty exhausting. I’m going to keep doing it for the time being, but honestly I am pretty much done with this shit. 

3/20

I had two open mics to hit tonight. I was finally back in town for the Funny Bone open mic which is usually a super fun show, and then I was gong to go to Home Sweet Home afterwards.

I get to the Funnybone open mic which is hosted by Liz Carr. 

After work I headed to the mall and took a quick nap. When it got closer to showtime I walked up to the club and saw Brett Leake was going in. Brett is a dope comic. He did The Tonight Show like 5 times and has been doing standup forever. He is always very kind and sweet. He works clean and is an observational comic. Very funny and good dude. 

I go in and say hello to Liz and chat a bit, I go order some food from the bar, and then talk to Brett. He mentions my JFL audition and gives me a lot of kind words and advice. We have a great conversation and then Liz calls a comic meeting. There are a lot of comics I don’t know here. Other than Brett and Sarah Pip Rose, I legit don’t know anyone’s name. 

The show starts and we have a nice sized little crowd. Brett goes first and has a really good set. He has some thing I haven’t heard in a while, and some other stuff that was brand new. It was awesome to see him really be able to work a crowd. 

After Brett it was my turn. I went up and I think I did ok. I did newer stuff that kind of worked, but I also peppered in some stuff that I wanted to put in my audition set. I honestly have been the worst about running that five. I don’t think I’m going to know what I am running until the day of. I closed pretty strong and I'd give this whole set a B.

I then jetted to Home Sweet Home. I got there a little early and got to see my friends Patrick Nowaczyk and Jason Kusterer. I also got to meet up with Jacob McFadden and he helped me get my podcast ready to submit to Spotify. It took about an hour, but after I did all the changes they accepted it, and now The Winstmas Games is on Spotify, iTunes, and Google Play! Makes me feel great!

The mic starts and I go up third. I bomb my ass off. There was like absolutely no audience there. There was like one new comic and this set didn’t even feel productive. I riffed a little bits and got a couple of laughs on new stuff, but honestly it was just nice to get up. I then hung with my friends for a bit before heading home to get some well deserved rest. I head up to DC the next day for the Improv and I want to be rested.

3/21

The next day I got off work a little early and headed straight to DC. I was going to be at the Improv opening for Taylor Tomlinson(Conan, Last Comic Standing, and Netflix) and Leclerc Andre (Tonight Show). Thank god I left when I did. Traffic was absolutely brutal. I didn’t get to DC until like 6:40 and then had a twenty minute walk to the club and a 7:30 start time.

I walk into the green room and Taylor is already there having a photoshoot with Todd Rosenberg (@toddrphoto). I am expecting her or him to be like, “hey can you wait outside for a bit.” Which would have been perfectly reasonable and understandable. Nope she invited me in. We started talking right away about comedy. I tell her I do church shows, and she talks about how that’s how she started. Todd is getting some good candid photos of her and I’m already feeling really great about this weekend. Rahmein Mostafavi pops his head in to say hi because he is a huge fan of hers, and is doing his standup class graduation show in the lounge. 

After a bit of this it starts to fill in. A super dope Thursday crowd. I am super nervous for JFL and for opening for her. So I have no idea how it is going to go. Also Taylor drops the bomb that Whitney Cummings was going to be doing a guest spot on this show and then doing one in the lounge. At this time the feature shows up. His name is Leclerc and we hit it off right away. I”m stoked to see this dude’s act because he was extremely nice and funny off stage. I also respected the hell out of him because when he was told that he had to follow Whitney Cummings he responded, “I wouldn’t have it any other way.” I love a dude that will rise to the challenge. 

Right before the show starts Whitney comes in. She is also nice, but not as talkative as Taylor. I think she is just nervous about her special. She shakes my hand, I get her credits, and the show gets started. 

I was super nervous during my set. I delivered some jokes a little weird and wasn’t super happy with it. I did well, but the first couple of jokes I felt like I stumbled on them. I’d give my set a B-  since I closed well. All in all it was a good hosting set, but I know I can do better. I still am trying to get comfortable on this stage. I do not feel like I belong here, like this is one of the best clubs in the country, and I’m only a few years in. Why am I here? I still had a pretty hot set, but it just feels weird.

After me I bring Whitney up to some dope applause and she has a pretty good set. Taylor is super into her notes, but she says it sounded like I did well. Which is a compliment I will take. I’m super excited to see what her special is going to be like. After her is Leclerc and this dude is dope. He is super likable on stage and has some killer jokes. He closes crazy hard and this is going to be.a dope show. I then bring Taylor on stage and she just murders for an hour. Really great jokes. She’s not up there just making points. She is up there just slaughtering.  

After her set she does a bit of meet and greet, and we hang for a little bit more. I have to head out asap because I’ve got to teach in the morning and then drive right back to perform again. So I say my goodbye’s and realize this is going to be a pretty dope weekend

3/22

This is going to be a super fun night. I am going to be doing four sets at the Improv. Two in the main room and two in the lounge. This is going to be an awesome night.

I drive up to Fairfax and hop on the metro. I didn’t want to drive in the city and I figured I’d just ride with my buddy TJ from town after hanging at Big Hunt. I get to the show at around 6:30 and just kind of unwind. I really want to do well tonight. I want to show them both that I deserve to be there.

They both show up and we shoot the shit some more, and it is sold out and packed. I mean the crowd is electric. I know this is going to rule. I was right. Taylor tells me that like five minutes after I left last night Brian Regan called and came and hung out. I MISSED A BRIAN REGAN HANG OUT BECAUSE OF WORK! It is ok. I get it, but damn still a bummer to miss out. 

I go up first and have a super hot set. Like everything is working, and I am going big with my energy and selling every joke. I feel really proud about how I worked that room to start. I’d give this set an A.

I bring up Leclerc and he does the same. the show just keeps getting better. He gets off and I bring Taylor up. She is starting to kill and Leclerc and I head over to the next room to do the lounge. 

The host is this dude Brian Parise. He is doing ok, but the crowd seems super tight. The next comic goes up and doesn’t really get their attention either. I am so worried this is going to be shit. 

I get brought up and immediately go into it. Do a little light crowd work to try to break it up and make it less awkward. I ask a lady in the front if she is going to be a problem and if she is there to ruin my dream. That got a huge pop and I go into my material. I turned the room around and had a super hot set. This was probably my best set of the weekend. Due to the level of difficulty of the room, and how I was able to whip it into shape. I’d give it an A/A+. 

After this Leclerc dapped me up and was so complimentary. We had already talked about how much we respect each other, but he really said some super nice stuff. I had to head back to get Taylor off stage in the other room, but he told me later that the dude who followed me didn’t do so hot, but he had a great set. Which honestly felt so good to hear. That we dropped in and just had hot sets.

I got Taylor off stage and went upstairs for the meet and greet and got some really nice compliments from the crowd. I also took pictures for Taylor and her fans. After this we headed downstairs and she talked about how draining it can be to have to meet that many people, but she continued to do it because she really gives af about the people that come and see her. 

We chilled in the green room and got ready for the next show to start. I also had my phone tuned in to watch the Virignia Tech vs St.Louis basketball game to watch throughout the night.  During this time Leclerc gave me some JFL advice since he was a new face the previous year. He also gave me advised about college gigs. Honestly he was so cool and he didn’t need to be. 

The second show is sold out again. The energy is amazing and I go back up. I had another super dope set. I run some of my JFL stuff, but really just keep the audience into it and engaged. I’d give this set an A as well. The response felt so good.  

I bring Leclerc on and when I walk in the green room Taylor looks at me and goes, “So Leclerc was talking about how hard you killed in the lounge. That is awesome.” This made my week. Like he had no reason to tell her that. It was nice to be talked about my comedians I respect and admire.  Leclerc kills and when I bring Taylor up he and I head over to the lounge for our final set. 

It is way lighter and the audience is not into it at all. I get there and Herbie Gill is on stage and he is a super funny dude and he is really having to work. They are not into the comedy even a little bit. I am next and I just want to bring it.  

I did not. This was hard work. I did crowd work up top to try to get it going but there was a couple right in front of me making out, and I didn’t want to address it at all. The crowd wasn’t on my side anyway so I just went for it. This was the best plan. I got some pretty big pops, but none of the tags were really working. I closed strong, and had a moment where someone awwed and I was like, “I do not care about you ma’am” and that got a laugh. This set was super hard, but productive. I gave myself a C. 

I headed back and got to watch Taylor do the last 20 or so of her set. She is legit murdering. She has great material, stage presence, and confidence on stage. She is super likable and her act has substance. She isn’t on stage preaching or making points. She is just up there being absolutely hilarious and that’s all I care about. 

Leclerc comes in and talks about how the couple in the front for him were basically having sex. It said it was super hard to do and the dude was just fingering the girl in the front row. Which is insanity to me. He said they were the last people to leave the show room and they basically had to be asked to leave.

After the show I was going to go to Big Hunt but my buddy TJ was sick. So I ended up heading back on the metro and stopping at McDonalds. I stuffed my face and passed out once I got back to TJs.

3/23

The next day I went to the mall and bought a new pair of Vans that I was dying for, and then stopped at Primetime Grill to eat and watch college basketball. I then headed into town and went to the Improv. 

Taylor brought her bf Kyle to this show. He was with her the whole weekend, but was giving her space during most of the shows. He was a super nice guy, and we got along great. He used to do standup but now he runs Don’t Tell Comedy shows all over the country. We talk about that, and then get into sports. We have a super dope conversation, and the green room is buzzing with energy.

It is super packed out again. The crowd is into it and I switch my set up a little bit. Still do like no crowd work, but the material is killing. I’d give this set an A. It just keeps feeling better and better. I am getting spoiled hosting this weekend. 

Leclerc goes up and kills it too. His closer is getting better and better. He is adding new stuff to it, and it’s awesome to see this bit evolve. I then bring up Taylor. Kyle, Leclerc, and I start talking comedy and sports. Kyle is complimentary of both of us. We turn basketball on my laptop and all order the sliders. They’re absolutely delicious. We get so caught up in our conversation that I almost missed Taylor’s closer. Kyle reminds me and I sprint to get her off. Right on time. I close the show and go to the meet and greet. 

People are so excited to see her. I take pictures, and joke around with them.  After about 30 minutes of this she asks me to get a picture of her, Kyle, and his parents. After this we all head back downstairs for the second show.

This show is going to be even better. People are clapping before they ask them to. This one dude is so excited. I go up and talk about the energy, and I do some crowd work with this hot dude that started it. He was the best audience member ever. I have one of the hottest hosting sets I've ever had. From top to bottom it ruled. I’d give it an A+

Leclerc and Taylor both destroyed. basically just watched basketball and talked comedy. I got a chocolate cake for a dessert and stuffed my face. I was feeling so good. After the show we did a meet and great again and the dude who was clapping was the nicest guy ever. He followed me on IG and just couldn’t stop talking about how much fun the show was. 

There was a super funny moment though when a dude asked his two daughters what they thought of the openers. They were standing right next to us and they paused so long to answer I just bursted out laughing. Most everyone loved the whole show, but sometimes people only want to see the headliner and I totally get that. 

Afterwards I tried to talk Leclerc and Taylor into going with me to Big Hunt (I can’t ever get the other comics on the show to come with me). She is tired and he has a friend in town so they can’t. I understand it, but I just thought it’d have been super cool.

A group of us get told by Andrew Cook when we get there that one of us might get bumped off of the show because Nick Thune (Comedy Central, Netflix) and Jay Chandrasekhar (Broken Lizard) are there. I am hoping that I don’t, but if I am I wanted to know right away so I could go to sleep.

I stick around and names keep getting called, and I haven’t heard anything yet so I am hopeful. I am having fun hanging out talking to my friends Michael Summers, Sami Sfeir, Nathan Luft, Denise Taylor, Benjy Himmelfarb, etc. We are talking about all kinds of stuff and eery now and then comedy. Andrew Cook had had a weird ass show for Purim. It sounded ridiculous. He said it was all old people and then they did a Purim spiel that was a parody of The Avengers. 

I eventually find out I get to go up. I get called and like 15 people leave. I refuse to lose on this set. I dig deep and really sell my jokes with my energy. The people who stayed loved it and I was very proud of my set. I’d give it a B-. I then said my goodbyes and walked back to my car. I got back to TJs and immediately passed out.

3/24

I didn’t do anything this day. I didn’t eat. I just slept all day. I was exhausted and trying to catch up on the last week or so of not getting much rest.  

I head into town and park about a 20 minute walk away. I get all the way to the club and realize that I left my sunglasses on the roof of my car. So I head all the way back to my car to find them. Luckily they were there. I then walked another 20 minutes back and we are like 30 minutes from showtime. 

It was the lightest show of the weekend, but the crowd was still super into it. We had some big Taylor Tomlinson fans there and that was pretty cool. I went first and really did my best. Not the best set of the weekend, but it was still amazing. I’d give it a B+.

I get off stage and during Leclerc’s set Taylor and I talk. She says some incredibly complimentary things to me. I’m not going to post them here because it feels weird, but we had a super nice talk. She offered to give me some advice for new faces and I left the conversation/this weekend feeling way better about it. She goes up and absolutely murders again. I get pictures with both of them and head back home. 

This was one of the best weekends of comedy of my entire life and I was only hosting. I can’t wait to be in a position to be doing more. Hopefully I keep showing people I am capable of that.

3/25

This is it folks. I made it. This is my four year comedy anniversary. This is officially the longest I have ever done a thing before. I’ve never held down a hobby or a job for four years. I’ve been doing this as long as I was in college. I feel like I've learned a lot more doing this than I did in college anyway. 

I have made some of the best friends of all time doing this thing. Without comedy I wouldn’t know Chris Alan, Paige Campbell, Alex Castagne, Frank Neblett, Kenn Edwards, Brandon Beswick, and honestly countless others (legit you guys/gals have no idea how much I love each and every one of you).

So thanks to all of the comics who booked me, put me up, paid me, gave me advice/stage time, and took me under their wing. I really appreciate all of you. I am thankful to the Richmond Funny Bone for helping me be able to work a tough room and cut my teeth hosting. It was the first place I ever performed and will always be my home club.

I am thankful to Danny Shea/Chris Alan and The Southern for the opportunity to host and do some dope ass shows in their venue. Thanks for giving Host Battle, The After Show, and Winstmas Games a chance. 

I’ve gotten to do some truly fun and amazing shows. I’ve gotten to do them all over the place too. I got to fly for the first time because of comedy (I know that’s lame but idc).

Just a big thanks to everybody. I love you a lot.

I celebrated this day by going to have sushi with some of my besties. Alex, Chris, Paige, Brandon and I. We then went to the southern and honestly had a super fun and laid back hang. 

A lot of my faves came out to The Southern. It was a lighter crowd than the last few, but it was ok. I decided to do a set of material that I need to bring back. I did a smorgasbord of unfinished stuff from the last 4 years. I did ok. Some stuff worked and some didn’t. Honestly it was a perfect and sentimental way to do it. I’d give my set a C.

I chilled and hung for the rest of the show, but as soon as it ended I headed home to rest. This was a dope ass night. I needed it. I didn’t kill, it wasn’t packed out, but it just felt right to celebrate 4 years.

3/26

The next night there was a couple of mics. I told myself that I was going to run my JFL audition five this week. I have been avoiding it, but I really need to. I hit up Ben Braman and ask to go early.

I get there and he and I chat a bit. He had bought some cotton candy Faygo for Bryan Williams. One of the most disgusting flavors of drink I have ever seen. There is no way it is good. We talk for a bit and then Mike Engle, and Brandon Beswick showed up. 

We all start riffing and having a good time before heading outside for a bit. While outside Bryan shows up and has a couple of friends with him. A new comic shows up as well. He brought some people and it was his first time.

We go back in and a few other comics showed up. Braman read us the list and the rules. I told the new comic about the other open mic going on at Fallout later and told him he should hit it up. 

Before we start I ask Braman to light me at 5 so I know where I am at.  He agrees and gets started. The mic has an echo and there is a table of four people who legitimately do not give af about this show. They are just having a conversation close to the stage and just being as loud as possible.

I ignore it and just run my set. I want to get the wording right. It is doing ok at some points, but to me this is bombing. It is killing me not to address the people talking, but that’s not what I’m there for.

After I run my five I use my last two minutes to just talk about the table. How this was comedy, and how I expected a hot dog stand to be more professional. I talk to the new comic and tell him this is what comedy is like. I’d want to tell him it gets better, but it does not. This does really well. I felt like I had blue balls not addressing it. It killed me. I’d give this set a D-.

Beswick goes up a couple after me and closes with a great bit where he is screaming. The table is unmoved. It is so funny how loud they are and watching him just scream his material and them continue to talk is brilliant.  I hit up Kate who was hosting at Fallout and asked her to put the new comic up. I then went over to him and was like go to this show. You are on the list. Just go. To see if he really wants to do this. 

I then drive over to Fallout. I walk up to Patrick Buhse and Beau Troxclair. We have a good talk and they lovingly bust my balls. There are a lot of new comics at this show which seems to be happening a lot lately.

Kate does the comic meeting and this one female comic starts talking to Beau about his jacket and Will Wheaton and he has no idea what to do. So she tells him if he doesn’t know who Will Wheaton is he doesn't deserve to wear that hoodie. It was a great moment. 

The show starts and it is an ok crowd. Kate goes up and get people’s attention and works out a bit about her car accident that has a lot of promise. She then brings me up and I have an ok time running my set. It goes really well, but it still just feels so weird and I hate the feeling. I’d give the set a B-. 

I stick around for a while and watch Brandon and Buhse both have solid sets with some new stuff. I talk to Brandon about a tag and then go eat some hot wings and fries. I noticed the new comic never showed up. I gave him a chance to get extra stage time. I just have to keep remembering that not everyone wants this. He is new, but it would have made a good impression if he had taken advantage of the opportunity. 

I say goodbye and then head out the door. I use my ride home to contemplate the fact that I am done running this stupid five minutes. I know these jokes. They are fine. I got it how I want it. If I keep doing it I will end up hating the material and losing confidence in it before Saturday which is the last thing I need. 

That’s it folks. All caught up again. I sure do love it, but I have to be better because it is giving me anxiety having to play catch up all the time. I love you all so much and thank you so much for reading. XOXO love you baybees!

[winstonhcomedy]

“Dope A-F” - 4/19-4/22 - “I’m Probably Not Going To Do That”

Let’s get it popping you sweet ass laydees and baybees! I had a fun and interesting weekend, and then a fun show Monday night. So let’s get to it boo!

4/19

There was a huge storm coming for Richmond so I was able to get out of work early. I am beyond happy I did because I was in traffic forever on 95. It usually takes me at the most 2 hours to get to DC, and I didn’t get parked until about 3 1/2 hours. Just a lot of accidents and people not knowing how to drive. 

I finally get up there and get my usual parking spot. I then walked about 35 minutes until I get to the DC Comedy Loft at Bier Baron. I am going to be hosting for Eddie Pence in the cellar area. It is a dope basement room and always an interesting and fun show. It is much more intimate than the upstairs room, and honestly I prefer it. 

I get there and they’ve got a lot of stuff set up. Eddie is filming a crowdfunded comedy special. He has brought his feature with him and her name is Jennifer Sterger (Roast Battle, The Upside). When I get there Eddie is talking to the sound guy Grant about the rundown of the show. It sounded a little weird to me, and when Grant points me out as the host Eddie runs it down for me.

Eddie wanted me to go up and do 10. Then the feature do 10. Eddie does an hour and then I go back up and do another 10 while they drop checks. He asks me if this is ok, and in a rare moment of self worth I tell him it doesn’t make sense for me to be making half the money the feature is and having to do twice the time. He understood this completely and we changed it to where she would go up twice.  I felt weird about standing up for myself, but honestly at the end of the day I know I did the right thing. It was super dope after that because everybody was cool and understanding and I throughly enjoyed getting to know both of them. 

The first show starts and it’s al to of Eddie’s friends and family, but they were an older crowd and were super tight. I had a pretty good set, but I was working my ass off to break through. I messed up the wording on some of my jokes which was frustrating, but for the most part the audience couldn’t tell. I’d give this set a C+. It was a solid start to a hosting weekend. 

Jennifer went up and they were not fans of her. I felt bad, because they just did not dig her shit. Which sucks because it was totally the crowd. They just didn't vibe. After her was Eddie. He is a good comic, and had some strong material. The audience was so drunk, and just not great. He had a really good set, but his stuff was not killing the way that it should have.

After his set she and him both went back up and did a Q and A type of thing to pass the time. It was super awkward, but I was just glad I didn’t have to do it. Also they had no AC on because of the noise throwing off the recording. So it was like 90 degrees in there and everybody was sweating like crazy.

Because they didn’t sell enough tickets they cancelled the second show and scheduled a male strip show. So I grabbed my bag as soon as the show was over and walked over to Big Hunt. Even though I had a bunch of time to kill before the show I would rather hang out at Hunt than sit around and do nothing. I grabbed some Tiki Taco, and got over there. 

I went downstairs at Hunt and Charlie Ross was there. We hung and talked as more comics showed up. Eventually Maddy Brannon and Martin Amini came in to chill since they had been opening up the paid shows this weekend. Sean also came in and was explaining to a new comic the steps to get on open mics. 

Everybody is shooting the shit, and having a good time. They were saying the second show for them had a super tight crowd. I could tell just from the sound of the room that they were hesitant. We all talked about how that’s how comedy works sometimes. It was a good fun talk. Michael Summers eventually showed up and then Sean made the list. I found out I was going first and I was so excited, because there is nothing I like more than getting to head out early in DC.

The show starts and they seem a little tight. Sami Sfeir was hosting and it took his whole set for him to crack them. When I get called up I just really go in and try to sell all my jokes. I got some big pops and tried a new joke that worked pretty well there. I am super pleased with how it goes. I’d give this set a B. A solid and dope start. I head off stage, grab my stuff, say goodbye, and head back to my car to go to TJs where I pass out almost immediately.

4/20

I spent most of the next day sleeping. The only time I left TJs was to go grab a bite to eat with him at Hooters. After this we headed back and napped before I got my shit together and headed back to DC. I got to my parking spot and walked right over. I was excited because both shows were happening tonight.

I get there and the first show looks like it is going to be lightly attended at first. I kind of chill and relax and get in the mindset of another tough show. As we get closer and closer to showtime it really starts to fill out. It is pretty packed and they have a great energy. I also find out they are going to keep the AC on tonight, and also the format changed (now it will be me doing 10, then him doing an hour, then her doing 10).

The show starts and I have a really dope and hot hosting set. Everything is working, and I felt like I could have gone on way over my time. I close super strong and I’d give this set a B.  They are super warmed up and I bring Eddie up and he has a super hot set for an hour. I feel like he is going to get a lot of usable footage out of it. Then Jennifer goes up and they dig her a lot. She has a much better set than the night before which I was happy about. 

After the first show Jennifer and I talk about the other stuff she does and what she’s into. Her husband plays baseball, but she does a lot of stuff with wrestling which is pretty awesome. So we talk about that for a while.

The second show of the night is going to be shit. It is a light crowd. They’re all super drunk and I can tell they aren’t going to be a lot of fun. An older white dude wearing gym shorts, t shirt, and socks in flip flops comes over and asks me how many comics are on the show. He asks me if I’m funny, then asks if the headliner is funny, and then how long the show is going to be. It was a super strange interaction. 

This show is about half the size of the first one and the audience seems wack. I go up and I struggle. I warm them up, but I am definitely having to work my ass off on this one. The stuff from the first show works, and I close a little differently. I did my job, but was not happy with it at all. I’d give it a C-. Eddie then goes up and he also has to fight them forever. People won't quit texting or talking and after his set I find out he people being the worst are some of his friends from high school. Some people are just ass holes. Jennifer goes up and does ok, but honesty we were all just powering through this one. 

I get my check and talk to everybody. THey’re super nice as I say my goodbyes and I feel like I’ve definitely made some friends this weekend. I then head over to Big Hunt. I get there and the crowd is pretty awesome. I am up in a few people so I am just hanging in the hall. Nathan Luft is hosting this one. 

I end up having an interesting discussion about road comics, good rooms/bad rooms, and the importance of doing both with a few of the other comics. Talks like this are always fun even when I don’t agree with what is being said. 

While Im there I hear my buddy Ross screaming at people heckling from the stage. Then someone got the bouncer and made a huge scene throwing these guys out. I’m like 10 feet away sitting with Jack Coleman as these dudes are getting thrown out. It was low-key awesome to see even though it disrupted the show. 

After this I go up and have a fun set. I have a heckler but he’s not a big deal. I kill with my first bit and the second one I do only does ok which is fine. I was still super happy with how I handled the heckler and just did my own shit. I’d give my set a B/B+. I then walked to my car and started to drive home. I get back at around 4 am and pass out so I can go to church with the family the next day. 

4/22

I am in a great mood at work all day. I had had a super great Easter with my family. We all got together, ate a bunch of food, and enjoyed a super fun day. So I had all this positive energy follow me through the day which was super nice. I was stoked to get to do The Southern. 

I talk to Paige on the phone up there and I riff a new idea, and he tells me to try it. I am super nervous, but I love having new jokes and I love this room. I finally get to the show at about 7. I come in super happy and start shooting the shit with Paige, Danny (the gm), and JR. 

People start walking in and I just have a fun energy. I’m busting balls, and riffing until the cows come home. Chris shows up and he seems a little upset. This blows over pretty quickly and we are all having fun. He gets the list ready and has a comics meeting outside. We are piggy backing the show (each comic brings up the next comic) and I am up third. In-between Chris Cantrell, and Keaton Ray.

Chris gets the show started pretty close to on time. There isn’t a ton of people here, but we are determined to have fun. As Chris starts his set a few more people start to file in. Honestly it is awesome to see. We get a pretty good crowd for the open mic all things considered. The best thing is usually when people come to this mic they stay for like 90% of it. 

The first few comics do ok, but can’t really break through. I go up and I start a little weak up top, but eventually break through. I get some big laughs, and my NEW BIT WORKED. I only did it as a quick line, but I realize there is a lot of meat on those bones. I’m going to work the hell out of that joke until it is a signature bit. I’d give my set a B-, but honestly I get off stage and feel like a million bucks. 

As the show goes on I get to hang and see a bunch of people I hadn’t seen in a while like Anne Meng, John Marg, Sam Padgett, Charles Bill, Keaton, and some others. Anne takes a super funny Boomerang of me with my legs in the air pretending to finger myself that made me laugh out loud. As each comic goes up there is a lot of good sets this night. The audience is small but mighty. All in all a great night. I leave early so I can get some rest. I talk to Paige on the way home, and I stop at Sheets to get some fried cheese. A super fun time, and I’m really glad I got to do it. 

THIS WAS A HOOT TO DO LAYDEES! I’ve got some big shows this week. Tots on Wednesday in Blacksburg at 9:30 and Thursday is the last Host Battle open mic at Pro Re Nata at 8 in Crozet. So come one and come all. I love you all very much. Thanks for the support and see y’all next time. XOXOXO