Attn: All my homies in Jersey!!!

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I’ll be making my triumphant return home to New Brunswick this weekend July 16-18 to perform at the Stress Factory Comedy Club! I’m so looking forward to it — I’ve been dying to get work at this club for years and I’m looking forward to catching up with some folks I haven’t seen in forever. My parents retired and moved away about 6 years ago so I rarely get to go home. So getting paid to do it makes it even that much more fun!

Ticket info: https://rsv.stressfactoryreservations.com/tix/default.aspx?selsh=071609

Hope some of you can make it out!

Homecoming and ‘headlining’

So I was in Jersey this past weekend working at the Catch a Rising Star comedy club in Princeton. Princeton is about 20 minutes away from where I grew up so it was amazing to be home. I get nostalgic for Jersey a lot because there’s stuff you can get there that you just can’t get south of the Mason-Dixon — like an authentic bagel shop bagel w/ cream cheese and lox in the morning, a good thin greasy pizzeria pie… and Puerto Ricans. I really miss those things. Puerto Ricans most of all ;)

I was closing the shows this weekend, which was exciting and scary at the same time. I hesitate to say that I was headlining, because until I really get the hang of the closing spot, I’m not a headliner. I’m just up last. I never feel prepared to close, but I also know that there’s no other way to figure out the art and pacing of closing a show other than to do it. There were 4 shows this weekend and I’d say that 2.5 of them went really well. It definitely helped that I was close to home and had a bunch of friends come out!

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Nothing makes you rethink your material like your former Sunday School teacher sitting in the front row ;) But I knew Mrs. Winfrey could handle it. She was like the “Scared Straight” version of a Sunday School teacher. Heart her forever.

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If it’s possible to have two sets of parents who you absolutely, positively love to pieces, then this is my second set — Charles and Ada Martin a.k.a. Jersey Ma & Pop. Through every mistake and triumph I’ve made in my entire life they’ve been there to support me. From sliding me money when I was broke and building me a computer when I couldn’t afford to buy one, to cheering on all my successes and helping to put my setbacks into perspective, I couldn’t ask for two better people in my life. I mean, other than the fact that they’re diehard Jets fans, I’d be hard pressed to come up with one negative thing about them ;) And even then, they still root for the Green & White ;) If you’re a fan of the martial arts — karate in particular — you might be familiar with Pop. He was featured in the martial arts documentary Fighting Black Kings and he is a Shuseki Shihan in Seido Karate — which is the highest honor a student can achieve. He’s in the Martial Arts Hall of Fame and he’s like a rock star in pretty much every country in the world. So don’t mess with him… Or me… cause he’s still got it ;) Continue reading →

I love Bruce Springsteen

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I do. In a way that perhaps a 29 year old Black woman shouldn’t. Why am I writing about this now? Because I was listening to my iPod on random this morning and ‘We Are the World’ came on. Don’t you dare judge me. Anyway there’s the gong, the trumpets… Lionel Richie, Paul Simon, Kenny Rogers, Billy Joel (yeah, yeah, yeah) … but then in the second verse Bruce’s beautiful, raspy, voice comes in “We are the World, We are the children…” Game over. Bruce is killing y’all.

And it just reminded me #1 – I need to get more Springsteen on my iPod (right now I’ve only got Born to Run), and #2 – It’s time to reignite my adoration of this man.

Growing up in Jersey in the 80’s and 90’s, I had no choice but to love him — and by extension his band. Big Man Clarence Clemons (I saw you working it out on The Wire last season), Stevie Van Zandt (I still remember thinking wth is he doing on The Sopranos?), his ‘Red Headed Woman’, Patti. Love ’em all. To this day, my mother still buys every single thing he puts out, buys his concert videos, and we love him just the same as we always did. Real blue collar (or no collar) music for real people.

And I mean, The Boss. What an awesome nickname. Not too many recording artists have them. In the rock/paper/scissors game of entertainer nicknames, Bruce trumps all y’all ho’s. Plus, Springsteen barely even opens his mouth when he sings. How the hell does he do it? I swear, I don’t even know. And I don’t need to know. He is perfection in every sense of the word. Remember the cut off flannel shirts. The headband. HWWWHAAAT? (in my best Dave Chappelle imitating Lil’ Jon voice). He is so awesome. And I know that this may sound a little patronizing and you may be wondering whether I’m mocking or if I’m serious. Well please believe that I am serious. I love Bruce. I love Bon Jovi. I love Redman, Queen Latifah. Lauryn Hill (yes, still), and even Naughty by Nature. I have an unhealthy devotion to any and all artists from New Jersey — even though as you can see my musical tastes changed over the years. I was definitely white in the 80’s, but as you can see I ‘found myself’ in the 90’s. (BTW, I think that if there is an award for most parenthetical notes in a blog entry, this one should be the champ.) Out.