Maturity? Who needs it!

Another great weekend, and here I am on Monday morning, wishing I were someplace else.

Here’s a tip: when taking children to a restaurant, make sure that the adults who accompany them are more mature than the children. Case in point: We went out for breakfast Sunday morning – me, my sloth (Evan) and my two youngest, Emily and Chris. Now, I expect for my kids to be silly, because, well, they are kids. But this was the most hysterical breakfast I think I’ve ever had. Emily decided that squeezing the jelly packets was fun, and of course her brother Chris joined in. I’m trying to make them stop; Evan decides to participate. Emily tried to squeeze one of the coffee cream containers to no avail, so Evan grabbed it and squeezed. Hard. It opened with a loud “Pop!” and cream went everywhere! On the table, on the wall, but mostly all over Emily. Now, you would think that a 13 year old girl would be angry and mortified about being covered in milk, but instead she laughed, we all laughed, and I’m surprised they didn’t ask us to leave. They will probably continue to find spots of cream for days, I have no doubt.

We then went shopping for Halloween costumes for the kids. Yes, I’m one of those people who waits until the last minute for things like this. I literally do my Christmas shopping days before the event. I’m nutty like that. So we get to the costume place, and pretty much everything is sold out at this point. Evan suggests some costumes – for Emily, a mix and match: Darth Barbie. “Like, oh my god! I am so not your father!” For Chris, and I loved this one: he found a hanging skeleton that was about Chris’s size. He told him he could just attach the thing to his sleeve and say that it was his Siamese twin – until he killed him. Brilliant! And then there was the Teenage Mutant Ninja Ninja. Don’t ask. They finally found something they each liked, and I’m out $70.00. Yeah, but I love my kids, and we do love Halloween!

Happy Halloween everyone! Hope you all get lots of candy tonite! Watch out for razorblades and poison popcorn balls!

Friday was good and thanks for asking

Hi bloggers! It's Sunday morning, and we completely forgot to set the clocks back last nite. Imagine my surprise when I turn on the computer and it says that it's 8:30 AM. 8:30? I'm up at 8:30 on a Sunday morning? What the heck?

Friday nite we had a great show. I was surprised at the size of the audience - about 20 people. Not bad for a Friday at 11:00 PM! Everyone had a good set. Thanks to Josh, Bryce, Brent, Tom and Dustin for coming. Despite earlier events in the evening, I had a good set. I try to be a professional whenever possible. And my sloth was right there with me, as always, laughing and cheering me on. It makes me happy to have him around.

That was my last show to produce for a while. Not sure what I'll be doing now. Improv open mic is on Wednesday nite, and the finals for the Dallas Funniest Person are on Saturday. After that, it looks like I have some free time. But I have plenty of things to work on, so I certainly won't be bored.

Hope you all have a good Halloween. I think I'm going back to bed now.

Show Tonite!

Hey folks. Come see the 11:00 PM show tonite at the West End! The line-up? Participants from the Dallas Funniest Person contest, including 3 finalists and one semi-finalist! And, well, me, the producer.

Brent Dawson
Tom Devenport
Me!
Bryce Richardson
Josh Wetherspoon
Dustin Ybarra

That’s not the order, I just like to list people alphabetically. OCD and all.
Doors open at 10:45 PM, tickets are $10 if you mention you’re there to see one of the people on the list. Should be a nice start to the weekend.

Hope to see your happy faces tonite!

Soda? We don't need no stinking soda!

The latest craziness in my office?

The boss is on a tear about people drinking too many sodas. We are to be limited to one soft drink per day, per person. Not terribly unreasonable, no? But, right now, at this very moment, she is having a meeting – yes, I said a meeting - with our bookkeeper to determine why we consumed so many sodas during the month of October. The poor woman (our bookkeeper, not the boss) is a wreck trying to figure out how many meetings we had in the office and how many sodas were provided during those meetings. I was able to account for at least one case of Diet Coke. I can’t believe this is an issue. Watch for the made-for-tv movie, coming soon to the Lifetime channel.

Yes, the company pays for them, and yes, we appreciate having them. But I won’t be shedding any tears if they go away. There’s a vending machine downstairs and it works just fine.

Someday I'll be famous. Someday I'll be famous. Someday....

Congrats to the Finalists!!!!

Good morning! The semi-finals were great last nite. Here is your list of finalists for the Dallas Funniest Person contest!

Brent Dawson
Tom Devenport
Brandon Enriquez (Yarko)
Anthony Perez
Corey Sutton
Dustin Ybarra

Congratulations guys! It was a good show and everyone did well. I was nervous for you guys, just like a den mother should be. It was a tough competition for sure. Seth Cowles originally placed as a finalist, but he stepped forward and gave up his spot as he will be out of town the day of the finals. Damn jew.

Final round will be on Saturday, November 5th at 9:00 PM. Watch for emails from me soon.

Thanks to everyone who participated. I hope you guys had as much fun as I did. Yeah, so, I may look a little stressed, but I'm fine, really. Thanks again to our judges: Andrea Grimes from the Observer, funny man Robby Bowen, and Richard Schiller, owner of Comedy Defensive Driving. Thanks to Dixon Wiles, our host, and Chris Dodgen for entertaining. Did I leave anyone out? I feel like the freaking Oscars here, and the music is about to cut me off.

Have an awesome week!

Semi-Finals TONITE!!!!

I am so looking forward to this show, it's gonna be great! Please come and support the awesome funny folks who are competing tonite!

Dallas Funniest Person Semi-Finals
Tonite at 8:00 PM at the West End Comedy Theatre
Tickets are $10.00

Best of luck to everyone! I'll be there early, and, probably late too.

Yep. It's Tuesday.

Howdy and stuff. Feeling good today, just a couple of things/events to mention.

Wednesday, October 26th:
Dallas Funniest Person Semi-Finals

This is gonna be a great show! Please come out and support your favorite locals. The audience will have a say in the voting this week, so the more the merrier!

Please give a big hand to your contestants:

Shaun Arredondo
Michael Cochran
Seth Cowles
Brent Dawson
Tom Devenport
Johnny Elbow
Brandon Enriquez (Yarko)
Beth Featherstone
Billy McFarland
Anthony Perez
Bryce Richardson
Corey Sutton
Dustin Ybarra

If you see any of these funny folks around town, give em a big pat on the back for making it this far!

Friday, October 28th:
Late-nite Stand-up Show at the West End

Come see some of our semi-finalists on Friday nite! The line-up includes: Brent Dawson, Tom Devenport, Bryce Richardson, Dustin Ybarra, Josh Wetherspoon, and more! (The 'more' is me.) Tickets are $10.

Wednesday, November 2:
"Is this thing on?"
Open Mic at the Addison Improv

This is the big stage, folks. We all want to be up there someday, and now we have our shot! Come see us get our 4 minutes of fame at the infamous Addison Improv. Admission is $10 and the show starts at 8:00 PM.

That's it for now. Hope to see you at a show!

Love the weekends, hate the Mondays

Good morning bloggers. It’s Monday, it’s cold outside, and I hate my job. But what else is new?

Had a nice and productive weekend. We had an awesome script meeting, the project is coming along nicely. Needs a lot of re-writing, but we have a good team assembled and funding to shoot the film. I’m really excited about this one. This will be my first writing credit.

I helped my sloth clean his place up a bit. Why? Because I’m the nicest chick ever. No ulterior motive at all, it's just that my OCD doesn’t permit me to sit there and do nothing while clothes are in need of folding. Plus, I feel partly responsible for the fact that the place is a mess, because he spends most of his time with me and has little time to take care of those things. As a bonus, I walked away with a handful of t-shirts that I can add to my nite-time rotation. We didn’t get it completely finished, but we made a dent, and I know he appreciated the help. Meanwhile, my room is still a mess. :)

After the cleaning, we went to have dinner with my mother. Yes, the crazy one. He’s heard all about her and still, he didn’t run away screaming. Yay! I wasn’t sure that he was quite ready to meet Flo, but it went fine. As crazy as she is, she’s actually pretty damn cool. I hadn’t planned for the cold weather yesterday. When we left my house at noon, it was still a little warm, so I was wearing a skirt and sandles. But by the time we finished cleaning and scripting, it was quite chilly. When we arrived at my mom’s place, the first thing my mother says to me is, “Why are you wearing a mini-skirt?” Mind you, the skirt came well below the knees, but anything above the ankles is a mini-skirt to my mother. And that pretty much set the tone for the evening. He got to witness her road rage first hand, while she discussed with us why she chooses not to take her medication. She regaled him with stories from my childhood, and I sat there, mortified. I’m an only child, so all of the stories she has are about me. Sometimes I wish I had grown up with siblings.

I love my mother. In spite of the embarrassment. And I'm not quite convinced that all her stories are true, I think she's making some up as she goes. :)

I am miserable today. A good cry and some chocolate should do nicely.
Someone make me laugh, dammit!
NOW!
Please?
Ok then.

Will tell jokes for beer

I had the pleasure of performing at the Delta lodge last nite in Denton. My first time ever in a frat house, and I had a blast! Five comics, including yours truly, performed for these guys. I was a little nervous because the crowd was so young, but now that I think about it, my humor is pretty young too. Doesn’t even have it’s drivers license yet. Freeloading sense of humor.

Bryce had told us that it was an ‘independent’ fraternity. As in, they have a house, they live near campus, but are not affiliated with the university. Think “Old School”. The guy in charge had to be at least 30, I swear. But what a fun night! There was even a band! Ok, well, there was really just this one dude, Joe Tucker, and he’s a one man band of sorts. He did country-ish versions of Radiohead, Sublime and The Cars, just to name a few. It was amusing.

I’m quite certain that Evan and I were the oldest two people in the room. The dirty jokes went well. Stuff about the teenager, not so much. Evan says I didn’t sell it. He’s right. But the end result?

Frat boys love me.

Oh yes.

Congrats! Round 3

Hi folks! Another great show has come and gone, Round 3 of the Dallas Funniest Person contest. Four more of our funny friends will be advancing to the semi-finals:

Shaun Arredondo
Mike Cochran
Johnny Elbow
Brandon Enriquez (Yarko)

We had our first comedic injury, I’m sorry to say. God bless ya Shaun, I hope you’re ok. The guys were kind enough to get Mike’s wheelchair up the steps backstage so he could actually perform on the stage instead of in front of it. Apparently Shaun popped something out of place and had to go to the ER. He wasn’t even there when we announced the winners, and he was one of them. Take care of that arm, Shaun. Thankfully we’re not playing baseball. But Mike appreciated, I hope you guys know how much. Most comedy clubs don’t have handicapped access, and he said it was awesome to actually be up on a stage for a change. Cool. I’m glad we could do that for him.

So the semi-finals are next week. Contestants who are reading this: watch for an email from me today on preparations and such.

Thanks again to our judges: Andrea Grimes, Paul Varghese, Chad Cline. We love you guys! Thanks to our host, Dixon Wiles. Thanks to all the comics who came to support. Thanks to Chris Dodgen and Ken Mathias for entertaining the crowd while the scores were being tallied. And thanks to our bartender, Sean, who's services kept me from smacking anyone upside the head. :)

Congrats again to all the semi-finalists. This is going to be one hell of a competition. Be prepared to bring it!

My Space and Peer Pressure

Ok, so I finally set up a MySpace account. Damn you, peer pressure! DAMN YOU!

http://www.myspace.com/jennhoff

I doubt you'll see anything new and exciting on my profile, but you never know. I will do different blog entries there, but probably not many. I only have 2 up so far. I do like the networking aspect a lot, there are tons of pro comics who have accounts there. Jon Lovitz and Doug Stanhope are now on my 'friends' list. How freaking cool is that?

Round 3 - Dallas Funniest Person Contest!

Tonite is Round 3 of the Dallas Funniest Person contest! We've had a great turnout for the past 2 weeks, and I'm excited to see who will move on from this round!

We have a huge list of comics going up tonite, very similar to last, so I'm not going to list them all here. Best of luck to everyone! Bring your "A" game, people, you're gonna need it!

Ok, Beth, are you happy now?
;)

Religion Quiz

I found this on someone's blog and I thought it would be interesting to find out where I fall in the religion spectrum.

You fit in with: Humanism

Your ideals mostly resemble that of a Humanist. Although you do not have a lot of faith, you are devoted to making this world better, in the short time that you have to live. Humanists do not generally believe in an afterlife, and therefore, are committed to making the world a better place for themselves and future generations.

20% spiritual.60% reason-oriented.

You can take the quiz here:
http://www.quizgalaxy.com/quiz.php?id=47

Throwing Rocks

My friend Karen and I spend a lot of time together. She’s one of my very best friends and she helps keep me grounded. I love visiting her apartment. It’s a quaint place, perfect for a single gal. I hate that it’s on the third floor; I’m not a big fan of stairs. But she has this amazing patio that overlooks a creek, and it’s always worth the climb.

The patio is such a nice place to be. It’s calming, relaxing, and the view is stunning at sunset. We have this thing that we do. It’s kind of silly, but at the same time, it’s slightly therapeutic. We gather a bunch of rocks from downstairs and throw them into the creek from the patio. With each rock, we throw away a negative trait or issue in our lives. We’ve thrown away rage and jealousy. We’ve thrown away anxiety and sadness. We’ve thrown away guilt. Sometimes the rocks are people, sometimes they are emotions. Not that those feelings or people won’t return, because, of course you can’t throw them away permanently. But, just for a little while, we feel a bit better about whatever is bothering us at the moment.

What rocks would you throw?

The Big 3-7

Wow. Today is my 37th birthday, and I really don't want to be at work, but here I am. Not that I'm actually doing much work so far.

Happy birthday to Beth, too, my unrelated-but-we-shoulda-been sister.

I've gotten a few calls this morning, Sloth was the first to wish me a happy b-day at 12:01 AM, (thanks for that :) followed by my friend Karen at 8:00 AM and, of course, my crazy mother when I got to the office. Let's talk about my mom today, since she was the one who nearly died giving birth to me 37 years ago today.

I love my mom. She's completely insane, but I love her. I blame her for my OCD, because she constantly made me second guess whether or not I turned off the oven and the curling iron - even when I hadn't used them. My son says that I've now passed this craziness on to him. I told him I was sorry, and he said, "Sorry doesn't make me the crazy go away, does it mom?" No, Chris, it certainly doesn't.

My mother - what can I say about Flo. I credit her with my sense of humor and my ability to laugh when things are horrid. Of course, I also blame her for any genetic issues that I'm not happy with. She's been single since the 70's. She has a pet bird who's almost as old as me, and just as crazy and cranky as her. (The bird's name is "Mork", if that gives you any indication of how long he's been in the family). She likes bad Westerns, Judge Judy, and pretty much anything that John Wayne ever did. She has serious road rage and thinks everyone around her is a moron. She yells at strangers, she really doesn't like people, and she works in a customer service job. She thinks the gypsies are robbing her store, which is weird, because she doesn't even have a store. She chopped off her cousin's finger on a dare when she was 12.

And she's my biggest fan.

My mom has been cheated on, beaten up, broken and bruised, and she was always a rock for me. Not once did she tell me that I couldn't accomplish something. She has kept every piece of baby clothing I ever wore. She has all of my awards and certificates from school. She even has tapes that I made, back when I had a singing voice. The first time she heard me sing on stage, she cried. She laughs at every joke I ever tell her, even if they aren't funny, because that's what moms do. She'd offer to beat up anyone who made me cry, and that offer still stands today.

So here's to that crazy woman I call 'mom'. Thanks, and I love you. You nut.

Very random things...

A couple of my co-workers have expressed an interest in reading the crazy shit that I write here. So I obliged and gave them the link. Welcome to my world, guys.

Cynthia is upset with me because I didn’t thank her here in writing for her assistance with the large mailing project earlier this week. Thank you, Cynthia. I know it’s not in your job decscription. Not certain that it’s in mine, either, but we do what we have to do. Get a sitter for your damn kids and come see a show.

Hello to Brian, a former co-worker and lucky SOB who doesn’t work here anymore. I hope you enjoy reading what’s going on here, even though you lived it for a lot longer than me. Enjoying your new job? How could you not? We hate you.

My daughter wants a cat, and I can’t decide if I’m willing to be a pet owner again. I have enough living creatures depending on me to feed and take care of them at the moment.

I just found out that our buddy Bryce Richardson will be doing a guest spot for Kathleen Madigan at the Addison Improv this month. Way to go, Bryce! Seth did his spot last nite and was asked to come back. I’m so damn proud of you guys. A little jealous, yes, but happy for you.

Speaking of the Improv – they’re having another Open Mic soon. Wednesday, November 2nd. I’ve sent off my email, begging for a spot. Last time I was there, I was very last, out of 30 comics. I want to go up earlier this time, and I’ll drop names if I have to. (Cough – Paul Varghese – cough). If I get on the list, I’ll let you know.

I'll be hanging with my kids this weekend, as usual.
My birthday is Monday and I want cake.
Gifts are not necessary.

My horoscope today:

"You've finally realized that it's not your imagination. Someone who's famously better at keeping everything buried really has been sending out some very direct hints. Now that you've put two and two together, what are you going to say?"

I'm going to say, where's my cake?

Congrats! Round 2

Good morning! We had an AWESOME show last nite – Round 2 of the Dallas Funniest Person contest. The crowd was amazing and the comics brought their A game.

Who’s your producer?

That’s right. I am.

Congrats to the following comics who are advancing to the semi-finals:
(These are in alpha order, not score order.)

Brent Dawson
Tom Devenport
Billy McFarland
Bryce Richardson
Dustin Ybarra

We ended up with a tie score between two comics, so the judges decided to move forward with 5 finalists instead of 4. I was happy with their decision. Everyone did well and it was a blast. Rich Estrada had the best set I've ever seen him do, I'm surprised that he didn't make it into the final 4. We also had a few new comics who are just getting started, which is great to see. And I was way more organized and relaxed this round, I think it showed.

And now for the Thank Yous: Thanks again to our judges: Karen Crowell, long-time stand up comic, comedy defensive driving instructor and cool chick; Chris Dodgen, a funny, funny dude who appears at Hyena's and the Improv; and Andrea Grimes from the Dallas Observer was back with us again. She’s a hoot. Don Lokke was in the house, the Comedy Critic himself! Great to see him and his funny freaking son Eric Lokke. Haven't seen Eric since he moved to LA! Thanks to Doug and Rob at the West End for hosting the contest at their club. And finally, a big hug and thanks to all the comics for participating and for following the very minor rules that we've set forth. So far, only one comic has gone under the time limit, and only one has gone over. Not bad, considering how many people we have scheduled.

In other news….Our good buddy Seth Cowles is doing his first ever guest spot at the Addison Improv tonite. Yay Seth!!!! Show starts at 8, and I know he would appreciate as many of us there as possible.

Grins and giggles!

Open mic and Round 2!

Hey folks. Tonite is round 2 of the Dallas Funniest Person contest. Should be tons of fun. I have so many things to do to get ready for it and no time, as usual, but I’m sure I’ll figure it all out. We got a brief mention in the Quick today, check it out if you get a chance.

Open mic at Scooter’s was pretty good last nite. My boss was there, so I couldn’t use any of my boss-related material. That was just weird. Did she come to see me and support the local comics? No. She came to pick up a project from me that I worked on until 8:30 last nite, which, of course, made me late for my hosting duties. (BIG THANK YOU to my buddy Karen for helping me get those press releases stuffed, sealed and stamped. I know you had NO idea what you were getting into when you offered your assistance! I owe you dinner for sure.) You folks who know me know that I HATE to be late. Hate it, hate it, hate it. But, I got there finally, took the large mailing project out of my car and put it into the boss’s trunk, and she decided to stick around for the show.

Now, I think she had a good time. We had drinks; she laughed at the jokes and asked me questions about how we write our material and what the writing formulas are like, that sort of thing. She left when we were done, and several of us stayed to do karaoke after the show. Yes, I sing on occasion. Not as good as I used to, but I can still carry a tune. But I digress. My friend, (formerly known as FWB, who will now be referred to as Sloth because FWB just sounds stupid) was there and I made him sing too. It’s amazing what a couple of drinks will do for you. He even helped write a couple of jokes for me and Corey. (I can't wait to see Corey do that one on stage, it's so hilarious!!!)

So, I get to work this morning, a little late, yes, but whatever, I still get there before the boss, and I brought donuts. Yay me. The boss comes in the door, I say good morning, did you have fun at the show, blah blah blah. Yes, she did, we were all funny, etc. But here’s the thing that will make me laugh for the rest of the day: She proceeded to tell me how one of the comics should set up and/or re-write one of her jokes.

Hello?

Seriously. She went into great detail to explain to me how this one joke should be placed in the set of this comedian, and how it should be preceded by at least 2 other jokes of the same nature. Yes, among the many other self-proclaimed skills my boss possesses, now she thinks she can write jokes for comics.

If that’s not funny, I don’t know what is.

Have a wonderful Wednesday y’all, and come support the contestants tonite at the West End. Comics, as always, can come watch the show for free. Cover is $5 for everyone else. :)

Sharing the Cake

Just so you folks don't think I've lost all hope...here's a little something.

Amidst my long days with my horrid boss, my sometimes half-hearted attempt at a comedy career, and the many demands that are made of me each and every day, there’s a little light at the end of that oh so large and busy tunnel:

There’s someone there who always puts a smile on my face.
And I just wanted to say thank you.

I’ve been on an emotional rollercoaster for a while, sometimes due to this person, often times not. But even when we’re angry, he can still make me laugh. And that’s a rare gift indeed. When I feel like crying, he’s there. When I feel like talking, he’s there. And when I feel like I just want the world to stop and let me off, there he is again. A good friend, but more than that, and hard to define, so I won't.

Thank you. Yes, you say that I tell you that too often, but I hope you truly know how much I appreciate you. Knowing that you're there makes all the bad stuff seem like a piece of cake.

Mmm. Cake. Chocolate is my favorite. Thanks for that too. :-)

(Jenn's feeling sappy today. Take cover.)

Howdy and Hello

Good Monday morning to you blog folks. Hope everyone had a great weekend. Mine was really good, the kids and I spent the majority of the weekend hanging with FWB. We did a lot of grilling and movie-watching. Lots of fun and got to catch up on movies that we hadn't seen before.

My new favorite zombie movie - Shaun of the Dead. I've always been a fan of zombie movies, but that one was so funny! I know, it came out like a year ago and this is the first time I've seen it. Told you I had some catching up to do. I don't get out much.

I've been doing a lot of reflecting lately and I've made a decision - after the Dallas Funniest Person contest is over and done, I'm going to take a break from comedy for a while. I need to re-evaluate my feelings towards being a stand-up comic. Having dealt with a plethora of issues that have both saddened and disappointed me in the world of comedy, I think I just need to take a brief hiatus. I take things far too personally, we all know this. And I'm just tired. But I'm surprised by how not nice some people can be in this business. I don't know why that surprises me, I mean, it is the entertainment business afterall. But I've done a lot of hard work to make these things happen for the club and for the comics, (like putting together the contest, and producing stand-up shows for the last two months), and I'm feeling less than appreciated for my efforts. I can count on two hands the number of people who've bothered to say 'thanks'. You really find out who your friends are in this business, although it takes a while.

And No, it's not a pity party. Just a realistic view of things and the realization that it's not making me happy anymore. Not that it won't again.

But, taking a break will give me some time to work on my writing, which I haven't touched in some time. And FWB and I have some projects we're working on, and I want to be able to devote my full attention to those.

So, I'm looking for someone to run the Tuesday open mic for me for a couple of months. I've been running that room for nearly two years now. I can't believe it's been that long. If you're interested, email me. I don't want it to go away, but I also need to get away from it for a little while.

Have a great Monday, and enjoy this wonderful October weather, and please remember that, at some point, I was funny and made people laugh. :)

Cell phone sadness

I am without a cell phone, for the first time in several years. It's freaking me out a little. I hope to be back up and running by Monday, maybe sooner. So if any of you kids are trying to reach me, it's not gonna happen. And I'll probably have to get a new number. Dammit.

I never realized just how much I use that damn thing. And of the 100+ entries I have stored in the phone, I have approximately 4 phone numbers memorized. Wow. Remember the good old days when you had no choice but to memorize that stuff? I guess I could just carry it around and use it like a portable phone book.

Out of touch, and not happy about it! :(

Observer Blurb

Here's the mention the Dallas Funniest Person contest received in this week's Dallas Observer:

Great stand-up comedy feels so good when the gut laughter wells up within your stomach and you release a hearty chuckle from the depths of your funny bone. Of course, for the more sadistic funny bone, bad stand-up comedy can be just as satisfying. What's better than knowing that some poor fool is not only less funny than you, but willing to demonstrate this fact in public? All the better if we get to watch the sink-or-swim spectacle in a conveniently located downtown venue such as the West End Comedy Theater, 603 Munger Ave. in the West End Marketplace, which, if we attend the Dallas' Funniest Person amateur stand-up competition, we will surely get to do. Every Wednesday night for the next five weeks, Dallas' comedy amateurs compete for a performance slot at the 2006 Dallas Comedy Festival and a fabulous cash prize. Doors at 8 p.m.; tickets are $10. Visit ww.westendcomedy.com. --Andrea Grimes

http://www.dallasobserver.com/issues/2005-09-29/calendar/performance.html

I heard some comics were offended by this. I thought it was pretty cool.

Peace and love.

Congrats! Round 1

Good morning everyone! We had a really great start to the Dallas Funniest Person contest last nite! The first four comics advancing to the semi-finals are:

Seth Cowles
Beth Featherstone
Anthony Perez
Corey Sutton

I was surprised that the turnout was so big! Thanks to all the comics who came out to support. The audience was great. And we only had 8 comics go up, a few cancelled or just didn't show, as is always the case when you plan things like this.

Big thanks to our judges: Andrea Grimes from the Dallas Observer; Paul Varghese, fabulous comedian who we all know and love; and Chad Cline, a wonderful actor/writer who performs all over the place.

I'm exhausted, but it was fun and I'm glad to be doing this. It's been a learning experience, that's for sure. Have a great day y'all.

Star Struck

Are you ready for this?

I got to meet Henry Rollins last nite. Got his autograph, shook his hand, took a photo.
I'm still in shock.

What an amazing show. I laughed, I cried. My friend (with benefits, who will from now on be referred to as FWB), even bought me a t-shirt, kind of an early birthday present. Coolest shirt ever, I slept in it last nite. Thanks, E. I aboslutely love it! :)

More details when I have more time. Getting ready for Round 1 of Dallas Funniest Person tonite, very busy getting all the last minute details together - scoring sheets, judge bios and instructions, geez, the list is endless. But I'm not complaining. You folks know how nutty I am for organizing things!

Two words - Henry. Rollins.

Oh yeah.

We’re going to see him tonite and I’m absolutely thrilled.

I’m in an enormous amount of pain which puzzles me, as I have no idea what I’ve done to myself to cause this. I feel like I have a pulled muscle in my back. And no, it wasn’t caused by a sexual encounter – at least I could brag about that. No, this is just some lame, awful pain that came out of nowhere and I can’t seem to treat it with standard over-the-counter meds. Thank goodness Henry is playing at a place that has seats. Not that I mind standing 2 hours to see that man, like we did when he was at Deep Ellum Live, but I don’t think I could do it tonite.

Oh, painkillers, where for art thou?

100th post and nothing to say....

Howdy bloggers. Welcome to my 100th post!

It’s Monday, and you know what that means. Seriously, can you tell me, cuz I have no idea.

A brief recap of the weekend….our Friday nite show was great. Good crowd, great comics, lots of fun. Big thanks to all the guys for being there. It was a nice ending to my stint as a producer. Friday’s show was one of my top 3 favorites from the last 9 weeks that I produced. The Dirty Boys show on August 19, and The Cooperation Corporation on September 16 were my other two favorites. Not that the other shows went badly. They were all fun.

Thanks again guys. And Brad, wow, who knew you had so many friends? LOL.

Saturday, well, I don’t know what to say. I had to host the showcase, and I figured out something – I don’t like hosting. I used to think that I did, but I was wrong. I’m not clever enough to come up with funny things to say between comics. Well, I think of one here and there, but I’m no Johnny or Tom, that’s for sure. I have to really tip my hat to those guys, because hosting is something that not many people are cut out to do.

So, I went up and did my 10-ish minutes. Don’t even know how long I did. It didn’t feel like very long. I introduced the first comic wrong – sorry, Corey. I got confused as we had changed the list a few times before the show. All the guys did really well. Overall it was a good show. I won’t even mention how much I drank. Geez. And hardly any of my friends came – I had all of 3 people come to see the show; well, one guy came to see the earlier show and stayed for ours; one friend came to see me, just me, then left. And finally, my ex-husband came and actually stayed for the whole show. Thanks, Ben. If I can’t pull in an audience of more than 3 people, maybe it’s time for me to take a comedy break.

This week the Dallas Funniest Person contest begins, and that should be fun. I’m organizing it so I won’t be participating. Wednesday is Round 1, starts at 8:00 PM. Comics, you can come watch the show for free.

I’ve learned a lot in the last couple of months.
Not a happy camper today. See you Wednesday.