The New Shayne-Michael.COMedy

The Comedy News For 01/28/12

Comedy Fan Corner [+]

Tomorrow At The Palms In North Hollywood

Comedy is not just specific to comedy clubs like the Comedy Store, the Improv, the Ice House and the Laugh Factory. Every day hundreds of smaller venues put on great shows with quality comedians on stages that often rival the set up of the very best comedy clubs. The Palms Bar is one of those clubs. The Palms Bar is deeply rooted in Los Angeles history having been a hang out for many performers like Ellen DeGeneres, Jim Morrison, Wynona Judd, Lea DeLaria and it is argued that the mullet trend began right here in this Los Angeles hot spot. Still a West Hollywood staple after nearly 40 years, It has weathered the storm of moody LA nightlife to endure as the trademark locale for the community. Tomorrow you can catch comedians: Joel, Bergen Matt Ralston, Caryn Ruby, Bryan Perkins, Aaron Putnam, Jim Coughiin and guest host Tracie Walker. Check out the Facebook Events Page for details. 

Posted November 10, 2011 by Shayne Michael under Comedy Shows for All | No Comments | Bookmark

The Saturday Stand-Up Spotlite: Week 24: Natalie Gray

By Shayne Michael:

I actually knew who Natalie was long before she graced my Long Beach room. Natalie hails from England and moved to Canada in her teens. There she spent two years training with Second City before moving to Los Angeles where she continued her improv training with the Uptight Citizens Birgade. After equal time in Canada she recolated to LA, where she teamed with another British comic Jason Canning penning a film about British performers trying to make their way through Hollywood. The film entitled No Talent Required would also eventually turn into a production company of the same name. Natalie is an accomplished artist in addition to being an exceptional stand-up comedian. You can find her on Natalie's own person website, Facebook, her Facebook Fan Page, Twitter and MySpace. The MySpace link of course does require access to H.G. Wells Time Machine. 

Posted September 10, 2011 by Shayne Michael under Stand-Up Spotlite for All | No Comments | Bookmark

Ten Awesome Comics Who Didn't Feature Of Headline iCandy

By Shayne Michael:

Whenever a room doesn't last as long as it could have, you always will have a list of people you wanted to play the room but didn't get around to it. Here's a list of some of LA's best performers. The ones that really stood out, that there just wasn't enough time to book. Given enough time, each would have been asked to feature, headline the Comedy Etc Show in Long Beach, or possibly both. #1 Beach Eastwood. Beach is an incredibly original performer. Not only that, the night he stopped by, he was accompanied by his wife who is also an amazing singer. #2 Chris Adams. Chris is a Long Beach regular. He's incredibly adept at being honest and upfront. He was actually scheduled to headline a show, but as it happens so often, a day job got in the way. #3 Jason Canning, extraordinary British comic, often seen with the exceptionally funny Natalie Gray. #4 Jerry Brandt, Jerry is both supportive and very funny. He's the former host of the Long Beach Puka Bar, and all that stage time has clearly served him well. #5 Kat Radley. Kat is a comic I know from the Spot Cafe in Santa Monica. She is unique and sharp witted. #6 Kris Rubio. Kris is an exceptional comic and a former Long Beach regular. He also has so much energy he could be a walking poster for caffeine. #7 Ryan Reaves. I had no idea what this guy could do until he played Johnnie Flower's room in Garden Grove. He was delaying until headliner Rodger Rodd showed up. I'm greatful Ryan was good enough to keep that from feeling like a Delay. It ended up being an exceptional show from beginning to end. #8 Scott Yarborough. I did have Scott open a special show called the Thinker in 2010. I felt his brand of Seinfeldish comedy would set the right tone for the show. Eventually I would have loved to have him back as the official feature for a similar show. #9/ #10 Bernadette and Michael Batts. When I was fortunate enough to get Matt Iseman from Clean House to headline, I would have loved to have these two exceptional comics back on the line up as a special guest. It would have created the kind of show worth paying three headliners for.

Posted September 9, 2011 by Shayne Michael under Upcoming Comedians for All | No Comments | Bookmark

The 100 Greatest Stand-Up Comic Trends

• George Carlin: New Rank 5 +
• Steve Martin: New Rank 6 -
• Bill Cosby: New Rank 23 + / Showdown
• Eddie Murphy: New Rank 24 -
• Tim Allen: New Rank 41 +
• Milton Berle: New Rank 42 -
• Shelly Berman: New Rank 49 +

Comedian Corner [+]

The Value Of Throwing Everything Away

Louis C.K. is often compared to George Carlin. Why? Like Carlin he has a similar skill, or shall we call it a game plan. Louis C.K. tends to throw away everything he writes and start over. Of course the challenge is, throwing everything out will cost you your best material. The advantage is, it forces you to constantly write from a deeper place. Once you say everything you can about your relationship with your mom and dad, you must move further up the family tree. The more disconnected you are from the subject matter, the harder it will be to write about. That said, the harder it is to write about, the better writer you will become.

Carlin did this every year starting with his first HBO special. He spent a year honing a new act. Then he would bring it to a major stage, tape it for HBO and then throw out everything and start over again. This is part of the reason you look at Carlin awe-struck. How did he tackle subjects everyone else forgot about and do it so well? Every time Carlin threw out everything, he was forced to write from a deeper place. He was forced to look at older places from new angles. This made him so prolific his life-time of comedy had so much left-over material, that he was able to compile it into three books and one autobiography. No other comic has accomplished so much in one life-time, and it's doubtful any comic ever will.

Posted November 10, 2011 by Shayne Michael under Writing for All | No Comments | Bookmark

On Stand-Up Comics Playing A Senior Center

By Shayne Michael:

Today I had the best set I've ever had at a senior center. So I wanted to share some things I did differently before I forget about them. First most of the first few comics were just screaming into the mic. There was no variation in their tone and pitch. Don't walk into any show assuming people can't hear you. Listen for feedback first, make eye contact and then decide if you need to raise your volume and adjust. Second because eye contact is so important when people have vision and hearing problems, I didn't use notes. I connected on a personal level from the first line. I opened by asking the guy who interruprted everyone's set if I was doing alright so far. I was connecting to the audience on a more personal level from the opening line, a lesson I learned when playing for kids. I could do this because I paid attention to every comic who asked an question before and what their answers were. This allowed me to connect on a more personal level with every bit I delivered. My story about being born on Cinco De Mayo wasn't just my material, it was how I connected with Anna who was celebrating her birthday at the show. When I noticed the Hispanic staff saw where the bit was going, I delivered the closing lines of that same bit to them. There are times when you just do your material and their are times when you talk with the audience through your material. This was the latter, which is why the set went well. Of course, it's also my fourth time playing a senior center and I seem to have a three show learning curve for new experiences. By the third or fourth show, I usually get it right.

Posted September 10, 2011 by Shayne Michael under Older Audiences for All | No Comments | Bookmark

The Great Thing About Open Mics That Suck Out Your Soul

By Shayne Michael:    

The Unurban Cafe is one of the few remaining open mics that dates back to when I came out to Los Angeles. It's a small hole in the wall of Bundy Drive in Santa Monica. It's possibly the worst place performers can get stage time. Yesterday, I went anyway. The room the open mic starts in is a long hall way. Of course there is a back room which they don't use. Why do something that might cause a positive enviornment. There are screens on the windows that look like they're meant to keep the animals from Jumangi out of the building. The open mic itself is lottery. That means you could show up at 9pm and not leave until 2am, which has happened to me before. Brett Gilbert's review at Bad Slava calls Unurban, "The WORST open mic in open mic history! It's a snake pit of horrendous despair. It's anti-comedy dark matter that will infect your very soul and vomit demons of dejection all over your set list... For the love of all that is decent and holy DON'T GO." Then his opinion is seconded by at least five other comics. That's why I went. Real comics aren't formed by easy rooms. What did I get out of driving forty miles to do five minutes at one of the most notoriously difficult open mics in LA? It's the same reason I've played prisons, laundry matts and Michael's Pub. When you have that audience engaged with 60 percent new stuff: you get a level of faith you will never understand if your biggest accomplishment to date is killing at a Comedy Store Bringer Show. As my friend and fellow stand-up comic Tracie Walker replied to the original post, "I feel you Shayne any real comedian would get it."

Posted September 9, 2011 by Shayne Michael under Hard Rooms for All | No Comments | Bookmark

Upcoming Stand-Up Comedy Seminars

• Kurtis Mathews: San Francisco, CA on 09/13/2011 6pm / FREE / Visit The Class Website
• Greg Dean: Los Angeles, CA on 09/26/2011 7pm / FREE / Visit The Class Website
• Joe Falzarano: Los Angeles, California on 11/03/2011 10pm / 325 / Visit The Class Website

Recent Articles For Comedians [+]

Pending Comment: Promotions 202

    Way back when, Joe Braza wrote an article called Promotions 101 for Rob Twohy's LAugh Support. You can find all the back issues of that magazine on my old site. But I always wanted to expand on it for bookers who were really serious about promoting their shows. So here's some of the tools I've learned about while promoting the show at iCandy. Most who have headlined can attest, we're trying really hard to drive the audience to the room. And more often than not, we do. Before I lay down my strategy, here's the link where you can find Joe's original article on promotion. http://www.shayne-michael.com/laugh_support.php    ... [Read Entire Article]

Posted August 24, 2011 by Shayne Michael under Promotion

Recent Biographies [+]

Lewis Niles Black was born on August 30th, 1948 in Washington DC to a middle-class Jewish-American family. He is a Grammy winning stand-up comedian, author, playwright most known for his appearances on Comedy Central's The Daily Show called Back in Black. He was raised in Silver Spring, Maryland. His comedic influences included George Carlin, Lenny Bruce, Richard Pryor, Lily Tomlin, Bob Newhart, and Shelley Berman. His father was an engineer who built sea mines for the government during World War II and the Vietnam War. He quit ten years earlier than he planned after reading the Geneva Accord and deciding there was no justification for the US occupation of Vietnam. He then dedicated his life full-time to art including stained glass and painting. As an artist, he introduced his son to the theater and play writing which would eventually become a staple of Lewis’s comedy career. ... [Read Entire Bio]

Posted 01/28/12 by Shayne Michael under Stand-up Comic

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