My Market

Hello all. Hope your Thanxgivin was great. Mine was saw. Saw the friends, 064, played a Turkey Bowll, and it was great. I was very sore, but I scored the last two touchdowns to put the game into overtime. Anyways, I also saw The Fountatin. Not the biggest fan. On to the title of the blog. I recently watched Dane Cook's Vicious Circle. 2 hours of Dane is always good. But here was the thing. The attendance. It was 18,000. 18,000 people showed up for Dane. Most of it was old material, they still came up, and paid a lot of money, to just see him. Mostly, because they knew they were going to laugh. Laughing. Personally, the greatest aspect of anyone's personality. 18,000 people. That is UWGB's students times four. I work at ComedyCIty in De Pere. We sometimes don't have more than 6 people at a show. 6. 6 to 18,000 You might say, well John, that is ridiculous. Dane is famous all over America and has spent years building up a fanbase, etc etc. Bull. There is no way we shouldn't have at least 50 people are each show. Milwaukee and De Pere are the only, ONLY places to see improv comedy in Wisconsin. And people just don't come. We promote. We have posters up a lot of places. We all promote at our businesses, give out coupons, send e-mails, etc, etc. If we had more money I am sure we could do more. The attendance baffles me. If I wasn't performing, I would see it at least once or twice a month, because comedy is something that will always interest people. I know that some people, a lot of students, are turned off because it isn't stand up or dirty. And it looks like we won't be having any midnight or dirty shows in the future, I've tried. I also think some people don't know it's all ages. I always get e-mails or MySpace or Facebook things about if it is ok to bring kids under 21. It is a family show. Our attendance is dropping. Seems like we have less remotes this month, December, usually one of our busiest months. We don't get paid to do ComedyCity. We all do it because enjoy doing comedy, believe in the club, and love what we do. None of us mind doing whatever we can for the club and still not get paid. A lot of people always tell me that sucks. Well, that is life. You do what you believe in. We don't ven get free soda or popcorn anymore. And that isn't our club's fault. That is audience's faults. There is no reason why people shouldn't be at our club. We live practically on a college campus. A RICH college campus. Most of these kids have the money. It is ridiculous that we shouldn't have crowds of 50 every show. It is cheap, fun, and a different show everytime. We are improv comedy, something better than the crap on TV like Whose Line or Wild'en Out. Some of my roommates have seen Nick Cannon more than me. And that my friends, is a crime against humanity. Hell, we even sell beer cheaper than bars. It's frustrtating, but there isn't a lot we can do more. If money grew on trees, we could spend more on promotions. I guess this was a rant about low attendance. Can't really blame anyone but the public, cause God knows we are trying to get people in those seats. 18,000 people, saw one man, do mostly old and material we have all memorized.We sometimes can't get more than 6 people, so see a brand new show, that has never been done before, that is never with the same cast. (Sigh). Let me know your thoughts. Not sure what else to say.

My Delay

Sorry everybody, I have not written in a while. I looked and realized a couple of people actually read this, so why not continue. Thanxgivin is coming up. I couldn't be happier. One because there is no school, another because I get to see the old gang again. None of my uncles will be at my Thanxgivin. While I love all my aunts, my uncle Rick is always there to challenge me in who can drink the most and to push my buttons. I love it. Now looking back on my outburst, I was in quite a mood after that election result. Needless to say, nothing has changed. The world did not stop. It was just a night. I think I was just frustrated in general. Last weekend was nice. I didn't do any shows because it was Ladies Weekend. It was widows weekend so the crowd was mostly women. Drunk, middle-aged women who wouldn't show up. It was a little frustrating. Anyways, a while back I actually did a show with some quotes. Backstory, or BS as I call it. Whoever voices the show writes quotes. I actually had three in the show, including in Mime Debate I told Steve I would tie his children into knots. It has not made the big screen yet, which sucks. About the big screen, all my ideas get rejected. There is a thing called Seperated at Birth, where we get celebrities who look like people at the club. I suggested I looked like the bad guy from Chicken Run months ago. Still nothing. Dammit. I know, I sound like I am pull of myself. It's just nice to know you are an impact on something once in a while. The dating scene for me is so confusing. One day I will think the person I am going after likes me, the other she isn't. I don't want to go into details, but let's just say girls confuse me. I think I got stuck doing the nice guy approach and now she isn't interested. Well if it's meant to be, it'll happen. I have been doing a lot of fiction writing lately. I am writing 2-3 for the ScrapHeap, submitted stuff to Sheepshead, and writing other stuff. I have also came up with a concept of a play. It will be a dramedy of some sorts, about relationships. My first scene will be one of the pieces I am working on for scrapheap, then other scenes weaving characters in and out. It will basically be autobiographical, because all the dialogue basically will be coming from experiences or conversations. By the way, my life, entertainment! No idea what to call the title. Any ideas? I wish I had better relationships with some of the guys at the club. I am still at that point where you call them, after knowning them over a year, and they still go: WHo is this? It sucks. But hey, something to work on. I have no idea what I am doing after graduation. If I get a good job here, I will stay. I love ComedyCity, and even if I move to Milwaukee, my other location I am looking it, I will still come up once a month to perform. I will just have to crash places. Worzala has couches. I'm good. But other than that, no idea where I am going. Anderson comes back soon. We started talking about opening up a bar in De Pere by ComedyCity. Employee some performers as bartenders, own a bar and do ComedyCity. Sounds like a fine life to me. Anyways, that is all. I shall have more soon. Thanxgivin weekend will be reported! Keep it crazy.

My Hickish State

I was going to write an article for my newspaper about the recent elections, but I decided a blogpost instead. I love Wisconsin. I have lived here all my life, and I have traveled to other states and cities, and they are lovely. But, Wisconsin is my home. I would love to move to Chicago or NY and become a comedian/writer, but if I found the right job, and right girl, I would stay here. Well as long as she wanted to live here too. But this election mad me so angry, I had to say something. My state is full of hicks. Wisconsin recently had two super important things on the ballad. The gay marriage ban, and the death penalty. I will just go and say I said Yes on the death penalty. But ONLY, ONLY because it was for intentional, frst degree murder. It was the circumstances and I just felt like it. I might have made the wrong call. BUT, what sucked is that the Marriage Ban was passed. over 59% of people voted Yes to ban it. What the frick. Honestly, I don't think people understood what this meant. It just meant gay marriage and civil marraiges Wouldn't be banned, it wouldn't allow gays to marry. It would only give the option open. But now it is closed, making us as hickish as Alabama. We probably would have voted for slavery if we had the choice too. What was this going to hurt? No one. It would just simply going to leave the option open. I still can't honestly believe people did this. I am baffled. What the hell is wrong with people? We are so full of homophobs and hicks it is ridiculous. Well, I guess a moral Wisconsin voted Yes. Yes for being prejudice and being a redneck. Yes to no progression and step backwards. Because you are right, the country hasnt adapted to other changes, like air conditioning or glasses. Ridiculous. I don't get it. This wouldn't have done anything to hurt our state, only help it. But now, we have taken a step backwards, and it sucks. By the way Wisconsin, this ban also reduced offense on domestic abuse. So keep on hitting Wisconsin! Yeeeee haw! Time to go beat my wife and hang me some queers! WOOOOOO!!! Man. Frustrating. I thought people were more open-minded in this world. They really aren't. I love my state, just maybe not some of it's people. I guess 59% of it's people.