Very Funny Weekend — a photo essay

06202009_6_1

Just letting you know up front — this one’s an epic ;)

I just got home from Chicago and the inaugural TBS/Just For Laughs Chicago Comedy Festival. I wasn’t in town long enough to catch most of the shows I wanted to see, but from what I hear the shows were great. I went there and came home in less than 24 hours. Here’s a recap of what went down… :)

06202009_7 06212009_23 06202009_161

Patron and Grey Goose bottles just chilling on the dresser — the hotel they put us up in was way nicer than anywhere I should ever be staying. I did my best to ignore all the fancy liquor and yummy treats, but I did take full advantage of the fluffy robe! ;) Check out the thumbnail on the far right… TBS gave us a swag bag that contained — among other things — a bottle of Remy and a flask shaped like a cell phone. It even came with a cell phone carrying case. Perfect for sneaking alcohol into sporting events and concerts carrying small bits of water to the gym. BOY do they know comics!!!

Me with Wendy Liebman

Me with Wendy Liebman

The show taped at Zanies Comedy Club in Old Town Chicago. During our downtime, I got to spend some time with the hilarious Wendy Liebman. I’ve been a huge fan for years, and it was a pleasure to be working on the same show with her. When I first got into comedy I sent her an e-mail thru her website just introducing myself and telling her what a big fan I was and how excited I was about stand-up, and she wrote me the nicest e-mail back and was so encouraging. I’m relatively sure I printed it out and have it somewhere… I should try and dig it up!

This was the show set

This was the show set

As far as the actual show and taping, Murphy’s Law was in full effect — as it often is on big days in my life… Continue reading →

Just for Laughs Chicago and I heart TBS!

tbs-image1

So… YAY! I just got the word that I’ve been invited to perform at the Just for Laughs Chicago Festival! This is the American sister to comedy’s premier festival — Just for Laughs in Montreal — which I didn’t get into… But this is no NIT. This is the inaugural year of JFL in the US and as you can see it’ll take place June 17-21. So many big names — the fabulous Ellen DeGeneres, George Lopez, Louis CK, Lisa Lampanelli, Patrice O’Neal, Jimmy Fallon, Russell Peters…

What’s even cooler is that I’ll be participating in a TV taping while I’m out there. The festival will be broadcast by TBS and so I’ll have the opportunity to do some new stand-up on their network again! I am so loving TBS right now!!! Also I’m super excited about the location. After 31 years of never visiting Chicago, I get to go twice within a couple of months. I really liked it there. Can’t wait to go back.

Festival tickets are on sale now! You should totally buy some ;) My taping will be at the Zanies Comedy Club. More info as I receive it! Yay! ;)

I’mma be on TV, Jazmine Sullivan, and is this shirt the devil?

Sorry in advance for the epic. Eat some now, save some for later

So, I went up to NY yesterday for what I guess you would call a ‘commercial shoot.’ It was a project for TBS where instead of having their corporate advertisers run 30-second commercials, they ask comics to write bits around the products and perform them in comedy club settings. I guess it’s a more subliminal type of advertising and the spots air primarily during the weeknight comedy block. Not sure if I did a good job of explaining this, so here’s one that cutie patootie Jeff Dye did last go-round:

That make sense? So our companies were Pop Tarts, Cici’s Pizza and I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter. It was a challenge to write jokes that portray all these products in a completely positive light because my instinct as a comic is to poke fun at things, point out what’s bad or dumb about them…  Strangely, that doesn’t seem to work when you’re writing ads for a product. Imagine that. ;)

We shot in Brooklyn and I headed right back to DC as soon as I wrapped the shoot. I hate driving on bridges but in order to get home I had to drive the Verrazano and the Goethals. I was OK on the Verrazano…

Verrazano... I'm doin' OK

Wide lanes, I didn't feel constricted...

But that damn Goethals Bridge… OMG!!! It was smooth sailing leaving Brooklyn and all the way down the Jersey Pike, but as I’m merging onto 95 South after crossing the Delaware Memorial I hear a loud CRACK! I can tell whatever it was happened to my car, but I had no idea what it was. As I slowed down I heard a crunching sound and thought that I had run over a bottle or something. But my tires seemed to be OK… I had to cross 4 lanes of traffic to get to the shoulder and when I finally parked the car and turned around I realized that my rear driver’s side window was completely blown out. That crunching sound was the glass falling out onto the highway. Continue reading →