Fighting Improv Smackdown Tournament, FIST, Commissioner Maggie Dempsey took some time to chat with me about her role organizing and maintaining the largest improv tournament in D.C. ever. This month, the Washington Improv Theater is having their Sixth Annual FIST with 58 teams competing and over 170 people performing. The tournament started March 8 and will be going on until April 7 where an improv trio will be victorious and a huge party will ensue; however, in the meantime Maggie is in the middle keeping everything in check.

Maggie was a big fan of the show “Whose Line is it Anyway?” and got involved with an improv team in high school. She took a hiatus from performing during college, but got the urge to perform again once she established a career as a Navy contractor. “I was just working so much and I really needed a creative output, so I found Washington Improv Theater and registered for courses. I feel that my life has a lot more balance now that I’m doing improv. You know you work and do what you need to do, but with improv you get a chance to explore and play and that’s something that is unique to improv.” FIST has been a big part of Maggie’s improv life. Three years ago some classmates from her level two class invited her to join their team to compete in FIST and now she plays with those friends in the troupe Just Moxie, which has been going on for two years. “FIST brought me to Just Moxie. It’s been really exciting. You meet so many cool people. You get a chance to be silly and crazy.” Improv not only provided the creative outlet, but also has supplied her with friends from all different backgrounds. “Getting to meet people from all walks of life that I would otherwise never run into is the coolest part. In my troupe there’s me, I’m a contractor for the Navy, someone who works in the arts, someone who works in the Air Force, a college professor, a vet tech and a software writer. The six of us we have no reason to run into each other at all in any other capacity and now they are all my best friends I’m ever going to have and I think that is pretty neat.”

Maggie was inspired to be a commissioner by Just Moxie’s former coach Justin Purvis, who ran FIST when she performed. “He did such a great job and it looked like it was a lot of fun.” She threw her name in the hat to be considered for last year’s tournament and got the job. This year is her second time commissioning “The rest is kind of history.” She enjoys the job, but it has its ups and downs “Sometimes, you have to be the bad guy and bearer of bad news, but it’s also fun. It’s so great because I get to meet so many people and all those people are really excited about improv. The kind of person that is into improv is a fun and energetic person. I meet 150 people who have that much in common in one week. What else can you do in DC that even comes close?” You can get tickets to FIST here, and be sure to use the promo code to get a discount: gofightwin2012. Don’t worry if you miss a show, because you can follow the action on Twitter with hashtag #WITFIST2012.

I had a nice chat with Brandon Wardell, a local D.C. comic who is throwing the comedy showcase, Brandon Wardell and Friends, that is happening Friday, Sep. 16 over at the Velvet Lounge. If you see him there you may notice that he will have black X’s on his hands, because he is not 21. In fact, he recently turned 19.

Brandon was born in Nebraska, but did not stay there for long. “I was there for about a week.” His father is in the Air Force, so he’s lived all over the country, but the DMV is the place where he went to high school at Robinson High. He graduated from there in June this year and is now attending the Northern Virginia Community College. “I don’t want to brag.” His aspirations are to go to college in a city where he can perform comedy. He is pondering the notion of going to New York, but for now he will be near the Nation’s Capital where he steps out on the comedy scene about five times a week. Brandon shared that he has always been a comedy fan “to the point of snobbery, because of that I kind of wanted to get into it.”

Eventually, seeing enough comedy shows inspired him to step on stage and try it for himself. Brandon and one of his friends went to check out an open mic one evening, but they had to tell a lie about where they were going. “We went to Ballston and it was the night of a school play and we told our parents that we were going to the play. Instead we went to this mic and it went fairly well.” Later that night he sat his parents down and let them know what was really going on. I can imagine the math that his parents were calculating. Two guys just went to a play together and now he’s giving them the “We need to talk,” something is going on. Then he admitted that he was…a comic. “They are ok with it, but not enthusiastic.” Brandon added further, “My parents are at peace with what I am doing.”

Brandon was seventeen when he started going to open mics and was having a difficult time being allowed to perform, because of his age. “At the Arlington Draft House I would wait in the lobby, go perform, and then go straight back to the lobby.” His age is not an issue anymore as he is well known in the area and is able to go and perform at all the popular bars that offer comedy nights. Brandon’s favorite moment in his carreer in comedy so far happened about a year into being a comic. In April this year he was in Portland, Oregon, performing at the comedy festival Bridgetown there. “I just submitted a tape and I guess some people must have vouched for me. That was super exciting, because all of the comics on the lineup were huge. Guys I really admired. It was really exciting being around them. It made me feel legitimate.”

Wardell went down to Portland by himself and roomed with Mike Lawrence, “I guess it’s a weird rooming situation. Him looking like he does and me looking like I do.” Brandon also had an interesting run in with a comic more known for his antics than his stand up. Brandon met Andy Dick at a free food place for the comics. They got to talking and shared a car that was part of a  shuttle service for the comics to go to the multiple venues that were part of the festival. Whilst on the ride, Andy asked him to do a bit with him on stage. “He wanted me to come on in an Andy Dick wig during the show, but he didn’t tell me when to come out. That was a terrible idea. The bit bombed.” The bit may have bombed, but it did serve as an interesting experience. You can check out Brandon’s show that will feature Andy Haynes, who recently performed on Jimmy Fallon’s show, as well as other DC comics. The show starts at 7 and only costs $5, which is a cheap price for some quality comedy. Brandon does not have a website up yet, but you can follow him on his Twitter.

Santana felt that he had a good run with their show and that all was lost. He had no idea what to expect next. His phone rang an hour after he found out he lost his job. It was someone from CBS who told him, “We are going to try to make you a talk show.” Apparantly, Michael Hughes, a general manager of all the stations at the time, believed in Big “O” and Dukes. The duo were offered a day time shift in Baltimore, which is an even better situation to be when you are a DJ, because you have a bigger audience.

They went to Baltimore and learned an important lesson there. “We had an amazing run; however, one thing you don’t learn when you are a young broadcaster is that you have to play by the rules. You can’t tell your general manager to ‘’F’ off,’ because they will find a way to make you leave when they can.” Big “O” and Dukes were fired again and had to split up and find different jobs. “We were on the beach.”

This is an expression that means the show is on a break. Three months later Santana and Dukes got together and decided to get their show off the beach and on a podcast. At this time it is 2005. It turns out that at that time there were not that many talk shows that were on iTunes. Today that is not the case. Their show was starting to get traction and they decided to start applying for jobs at stations all across the nation. They found an opportunity in Phoenix, AZ to do a night time show and flew down to do a three day three night trial.

“The most interesting thing about radio is that people will hire you to do a certain job and then people will ask you to change what originally made you successful. The first couple days we did what they wanted and they hated it. The last day I looked at Chad and said ‘Let’s do our own show.’ They loved it.” Santana and Dukes headed back to the East Coast and two weeks later they were offered the job. “We had a phenomenal time. We continued to carry our listeners from Baltimore to Phoenix because of the podcast. We became number 1 for the nights.”

All was well but then the station flipped into a top *40 show. Once again radio proved to be a cruel mistress. Fortunatley though they were brought back to D.C. to work at WJFK. “If you are in radio you know what WJFK is. We went from market 15 to 8.” They took a night show and were doing so well that they were moved to do a day show. “We had a five hour talk show every day and just killed it and had fun. We had a great promoting staff.” By this time Santana is thirty. For his thirtieth birthday party he had a moon bounce and mini horses and they broadcasted while the party was going on. “We could talk about anything. Break ups, girls cheating on us, it was just honest and real. We did an hour on the show every Friday about snacks. We would rate and discuss new snacks on the market. It was called snacks of the round table. That’s the type of fun radio we had.”

Two years go by and then the business model for radio changed, which caused a dramatic event in talk radio world across the nation. Radio shows were being measured by how many people were listening or had their radio turned on rather than the previous way to measure  which was having people keep a diary of shows they listened to. “The stations like ours that were captivating were not mass appeal stations anymore. The mass appeal were stations that played Christmas music starting in November. A dentist can put it on and that would count as a listener, but are they really listening? I would say not. It’s background music.”

Hot talk stations were all in trouble and then it hit. A massive voice in the radio world lost his job “Adam Carolla. He was the writing on the wall. When his talk station in Los Angeles flipped, I remember taking a proverbial gasp of air that swept across the nation. If Adam Carolla is going down that’s going to come to us.” Santana and Dukes were like Tea Leoni and Maximilian Shell in the 1998 film Deep Impact. Their characters are on a beach waiting to be owned by a coming tsunami wave, because they can’t run away. “We were one of the last shows to be flipped.” Big “O” and Dukes was on the beach again.

Dukes went on to do a sports show and Santana walked away from terrestrial radio to pursue a job in marketing. It’s 2009. Santana discovers that Adam Carolla has turned his show into a podcast. “This man took his brand of radio and said ‘I’m going to try something new.’ And if you ever hear the first podcast that he ever did. It was equivalent to a man walking on the moon for a broadcaster. He didn’t know what was happening. I got chills listening to it, because I knew what he was doing. He was freeing what he did on the radio into an hour long format. We weren’t in a world of by the way you have to have a radio license or an FCC license or a studio for that matter to do this. You need a mic, a computer, audio editing software, an internet signal and some bandwidth. Adam was fired on Friday and half a million people showed up on Monday morning and crashed the servers. That’s when it started.”

Santana knew that he had to make a podcast, but couldn’t hook up with Dukes, because he had started a different job and the schedules didn’t work. “It wasn’t the right time yet.”

Photo Credit: Phil Worthington

From left to right: Robb Spewak, Buzz Burbank, Mike O’Meara, Front. Oscar Santana

He decided to reach out to his friend Mike O’Meara, who also lost his talk show, and encouraged him to get one going. “He’s a legendary broadcaster. I hounded Mike. He calls me seven months later and said ‘I want to hear about your podcast idea and the rest was history. He got Buzz Burbank, best news guy in the country, Robb Spewak, who is just a perfect flow with Mike O’Meara. The whole Mike O’Meara crew that was on terrestrial radio was back on the podcast world.”

Santana figured that he would be part of the team on the business side, but as fate would have it he was asked to do something else. O’Meara asked him, “Can you be a fourth mic on the show? I was happy. It felt like something special was happening.” Dukes reached out to Santana to see about getting their show going again. “It was like you know we should just record something and see what happens and we started and have resurrected Big “O” and Dukes. We do it once a week and I do the Mike O’Meara show that is five days a week.”

The pinnacle point for Santana was when iTunes got on FaceBook and did a vote to see what are the most popular talk show podcasts. A fan sent Santana the following picture and all was well.

If radio is a cruel mistress then I guess the podcast is a soul mate. Not that Apple needs the plug, they apparently have more money than the U.S. government, but I would advise you to get one and start checking these shows out. I personally listen to them shows everyday at work and laugh hystericaly amidst the quiet office. My co-workers think I’m insane and they are correct. Anyway, that was truly epic.

I had a nice sit down with Oscar Santana over at the Wonderland Ballroom outside on the patio on a cloudy Sunday evening. Santana’s friends dubbed him the “Prince of Podcasting” and it is understandable. He is part of the DC based Big-O and Dukes Show, The Mike O’Meara Show, and Tech 411. All of these podcasts combined have achieved over 10 Million downloads. Please be aware that what you are about to read is a tale so epic that you will never use the word ”epic” to describe how good your burrito was.

Cartoon by Strine Studios.

Santana was born in Bolivia and came to D.C. with his family when he was three years old. His father was part of the Pan American Health Organization and got a contract to work in the Nation’s capital. The contract was originally only supposed to be six months, but it turned into a permanent gig and Santana grew up in the United States. “I really grew up riding the metro hitting the city my parents. My mom got a job in the city as well. I was a D.C. kid. While I respect my roots and I love the fact that my parents were able to carry that from La Paz, it’s the best of both worlds. This is my home.”

Santana discovered his passion for radio at West Virginia University. “I loved radio ever since freshman year in college.” His parents were not too excited to hear about his dream to find a career in broadcasting. “They were super old school. Three things mattered to them. Doctor, lawyer, or engineer.” He explained that his parents did not understand any other way to make a living other than these career paths, so Santana compromised and chose to pursue a degree in marketing and get an internship in radio. “The whole time I was there I was working on my degree just as much on my radio career. I would do overnight shifts and morning show shifts.” He got a gig being the hip hop DJ at one point and enjoyed hearing from his listeners that were permanent residents at a prison near the station. “I was getting an email or a letter from someone that’s locked up for life saying, ‘Please play this song.’ I felt a connection with the audience and it was always glorious.”

Santana was about to do another summer internship at the station in West Virginia when his station manager encouraged him to try out for an internship position with WHFS in Washington. “That’s a legendary rock station.” He made the trip back home the next day to apply for the spot and got it. His role at the station turned into a part time job after he graduated, but he had to keep his dream of being a talk show host a secret from his parents. “I was studying for the LSATS, pretending that I was going to do something with law.” What he was really doing was working at the station. “I was just stacking boxes and driving vans. I wasn’t on the air. Every opportunity I had I just grinded to get one more step into that studio.”

Two years later he is 25-years-old and saw an opportunity to fill in for a evening jock that couldn’t make it to work. “I was with my assistant programmer and said, ‘I’m ready to do this.” The assistant station manager took a good hard look at Santana and then looked at his phone and quickly called two other jocks to see if they could fill in the spot. No one was available. Again he took a hard look at Santana and asked him, “Do you know who Wally Pip is?” Santana had no idea. His station manager then explained “You don’t know who Wally Pip is because Lou Gehrig stepped in his place.” Santana interpreted the story as the station manager telling him to “Go and be great!”

Santana stepped up to the challenge and modestly told me “I did a decent job.” He became a fill in for jockeys that could not make it to work, but then a seismic shift in jobs at the station happened and everything changed. “I was trying to keep my head above water.” After all the change he landed a full time spot on a morning show called Junkies in the Morning. He gained a new job and, unbeknownst to Santana, was about to meet a lifelong friend and radio partner. “They brought some guy that was part time. Chad Dukes. We got pinned against each other. Two guys on opposites.” I was thinking about Lethal Weapon when Santana described to me how they partnered him and Dukes on the show. It was just like Murtaugh and Riggs.

The Junkies noticed that the two had good chemistry on the air as the two worked together more and more. They became friends and just like in Lethal Weapon, one day Santana found himself on a toilet with a bomb on it. Wait. I’m getting lost in the metaphor. That didn’t happen. “We ended up putting a demo together over a dominoes bacon cheeseburger pizza in a small studio. We thought that is was great and gave it to the program director who didn’t listen to it for seven months.” After the long wait they finally got their show, which started at midnight and ended at one in the morning on Sunday nights.

They both were super excited to have the opportunity. “Wow we have a show!” Then the guy who gave them their shot was fired and a new program director from KROQ in Los Angeles took his place. “Lisa Warden came along and said ‘It’s not every day that a van driver and an intern get their own show on a major market radio station.’ As hurtful as it was it was true, because I was a promotions guy and Chad was an intern. Slowly but surely she warmed up to us and gave us direction. She was a great mentor.” Warden helped them hone their skills and then an evening slot opened up on Friday evenings. “This is our big shot.” Santana explained that in traditional radio you don’t need two people to run the evening shift, but the two wanted to work together during that time slot. Things got intense.

“They split us up and pinned us up against each other and then they made us work together. It was like you are fighting your best friend.” Meanwhile, the station tried out people from all over the country for about four months to get the evening slot filled. “We thought we’re never going to get this gig, but the one thing I learned in college is you have to make a bigger splash.” Santana got the idea to rent a mobile billboard company to promote their show. He paid for it with the little saved money he had at the time. The sign read “Big “O” and Dukes the Future of WHFS is Now!” Dukes and Santana drove to Warden’s house the day after they got the sign around 6:30 in the morning and called The Junkies while they were on the air to tell them to call Warden.

The Junkies woke her up on the phone and instructed her to look out her window. “She opened it and right outside was our two big faces.” They got the full time gig to do nights in D.C. and all was well, but in just six months the station flipped to Spanish. “I remember when it happened. I had gotten in my car and turned on the radio and it was Spanish music.” He further explained, “Radio is a cruel mistress. She will treat you well and it’s like you’re in love and you’re going to be married forever. But anybody that’s ever gotten into radio will tell you that you are not really into radio until you get fired”.”

Did I mention that this is an epic tale? That means that there is more to come. Check out “Podcasts of DC: Oscar Santana Rises Reloaded!”

I met up with Adam Ruben who is a local comic and author of the book My Stupid Decision to go to Grad School on an extremely sizzling Sunday over at Teaism in Dupont Circle. We each coincidentally ordered hot tea to drink as we chatted. At first I thought that ordering hot tea on hot day would equal a hot mess; however, my brain recalled from television that drinking hot things helps to cool the body down ironically. I don’t know if that is true. I’m not a scientist, but Adam is! His day job involves finding a cure for maleria. You want to know more about this guy? Well alright.

Adam grew up in Wilmington, Deleware and has lived in the DMV area for ten years. He started performing comedy in college at Princeton by entering in a comedy contest. His first time went well and he decided to enter the contest every year that he attended the university. He knew he was funny with his friends, but he wanted to find out if he could make strangers laugh. ”You get really spoiled. There are about a hundred people and half of them are your friends. You know what sort of things are going to make them laugh.” Adam searched for an open mic on the internet using Yahoo local, before Google took over, when he went home one summer in between semesters of undergrad and called a place that advertised it was a comedy club. “They asked me what do I do and I said I do stand up and they said ‘Oh okay. That could work.’ I should have taken that as a bad sign.” The place was in New Jersey about an hour away from his home in Deleware, so he made the trip to put his skills to the test.

When he walked in the door he found out that the place was nothing like he imagined. “It’s basically a red neck bar where people go to watch stock car racing and there is a band there. It’s an open mic where essentially if you have a guitar you can get up and perform a couple songs,  and they call it a comedy club, because they have a comedy show once a month, which was not that night.” He stayed and when the band went on break  the host said. “Please welcome the comedy stylings of Adam from Deleware” “Nobody was listening and why should they? They are there to talk to their friends and have music in the background. It was the longest ten minutes ever.” Adam learned a major lesson that helped him to want to keep pursuing performing comedy. “Now I know, no matter what, at least I know how bad it can be. It’s never going to be that bad again. That was awful, but I survived it.”

Adam began hitting the open mic scene, legitimate comedy open mics, while in graduate school at John Hopkins and learned why they are important. “I did an open mic gig one night and thought ’No one is going to be there. Who cares?’”  A comic walked up to him after he performed and recommended that he do another show at another venue that had an open mic. At the next gig he met a comic who said he should submit a tape to the DC Improv. “I did and got a phone call a few months later.” He was offered the opportunity to be part of a contest and made it all the way to the finals. He did not win the contest, but they liked him and later he was offered a spot to perform there. ”DC Improv is my favorite comedy club in the world. It’s the best place to perform there I love it. I have been performing there once a year since 2003.” You can see Adam perform at the DC Improv this month from the 18 through the 21 and if you are out in Arlington on August 11 you can see Adam perform with The Story League show “Politics of Science” that is going down at Artisphere.

I got the opportunity to sit down and chat with Kenny Lewis over at the Wonderland Ballroom’s lovely patio before he stepped onto the stage to play drums for the Harikaraoke Live Band Gong Show! We somehow started talking about Twitter before we got to the interview. We both shared the fact that we do not have accounts; however, after our discussion I’m sure that his band will have one, because they are so awesome! I may activate an account so that I can follow where these guys are playing.

Three years prior to our conversation,  Kenny was in New York city searching for a club that had live band karaoke going on one night. “It was on the lower east side on a Monday night and I saw this one that tended to be more rock and roll with two guitars and heavier stuff. The place was packed and the sign up sheet was full before it started.”  He came back to D.C. and found that nobody else was doing it here, so he met with his bass player Steve Sachse and told him “We’ve gotta do it. We got together, he made margaritas and we sat around trying to come up with a name and went back and forth and then all of a sudden he spewed it out ‘Harikaraoke!’” *

Notice that the word ”gong” was not part of the group name…yet. As fortune would have it a symphony gong was resting in a buddhist alter in Kenny’s attic. “I always wanted a gong and a couple years ago I bought it. Somewhere along the line I thought about using it to get my money’s worth rather than keeping it at my house.” He decided to make it a part of the show and wanted to keep the premise of the former seventies show “The Gong Show” alive. “I don’t find it’s a copy I just think that it’s appropriate to keep it going and it works with the name.” People get the gong whenever the audience starts motioning a one handed chop. The band instructs the audience to do a two armed chop motion that  means “Rock on!” When Kenny hits the golden metal and it takes over the entire show. It drowns out all sound and is incredible, but it also means that you sucked. However, the band has taken precautions to ensure that getting gonged is a good thing. ”We give them a prize now, so people don’t feel as bad. We try to be careful. I don’t want to make them cry. I bought some Japanese gifts.”
Kenny and Steve teaching the crowd to signal the gong.

Their first gig was playing at The Wonderland Ballroom’s Sundress festival in May of 2010 and Kenny told me about the most memorable singer that has ever graced their stage. “We had this one woman came in, did her thing, and disappeared and I’ve never seen her again and I wish I could see her again. She was out of hand. She rolled on the floor. She was saying crazy foul stuff that was funny and her timing was perfect. I want to say her name is Rebecca and we would love to find her again, because she was just such a star. Steve told her ‘I think you need to learn how to break out of your shell’ The people were going nuts. Then she left like it was nothing. It was beautiful.”

Click on this link to see where you can catch the Harikaraoke Band Live Gong Show! happening in your neck of the DMV. I highly recommend checking out the show if you ever want to rock out of your everyday routine . It’s a blast to watch people get into it and if you love to sing then it’s a great experience to sing with a live band. There are wigs, hats, and costumes for people to dress up with before stepping into the spotlight, which Kenny has had to start repurchasing, because people tend to take their stuff. “People steal man. Especially hats. It just cracks me up. It doesn’t put a damper on anything. I’ve been writing ‘I stole this’ on the back of the nicer hats.” When you step on stage you will have Dave Ylvisaker on the keys behind you. Steve Sachse will be beside you on the bass and he also helps guide you through the song if you get lost. I know from experience. Then you will have Robert Sullivan or John Lee on the guitar to your stage right. Kenny will be behind you with the gong and playing the drums. They have around 250 songs to choose from that range from Lady Gaga’s ”Born This Way” to the ever legendary Journey song “Don’t stop believing.” ”We have two notebooks full of songs and we keep growing.” When the song is done you get a temporary tattoo with their signature character committing harikari with a mic stand. The tattoo may only last about three weeks, but satisfaction that you sang in a rock and roll band lasts forever.

*Committing “Harikari,” or Seppuku was a samurai way of killing yourself by slicing your abdomen with a sword. Warriors were encouraged to do it to prevent enemy capture, or as a way for disgraced warriors to regain honor.

**I got gonged before. I tried to sing “Like a Prayer” and got lost in the words. They gave me a Japanese dolphin eraser. However, I did not get the gong when I sang later the night I did this interview. I sang “You’ve Lost that Loving Feeling.” A guy came up to me after it was over and said “We didn’t think that you were going to be able to pull off the song, but you did.” I felt like a rock star. Now I think I’m good enough to go solo.

I had a beer in a coffee shop with Chris White who will be recording his second album at the DC Improv this month and is the creator of the DC open mic website DCStandup. You may be curious as to why we drank beer at the coffee shop. Well, it’s an amazing story. You should be sitting down to read this. Anyway, I drank a pot of coffee before I left my house and was on the verge of a nervous attack. When I made it to the coffe housee I saw that they had beer there, so I ordered one. Then Chris appeared and said “I’ll have one too.” Then we sat down and had a nice conversation. Wasn’t that awesome!? Anyway, let’s get to know Chris.

Chris with the guys that first conquered Mt. Everest

Chris, 34, grew up in Philadelphia and moved to DC in 1998 months after he graduated from the University of Richmond. He got into comedy when he was 25 and did his first open mic on August 8, 2002 at the Wise Acres comedy club in Tysons Corner. He is a very precise guy and he said that his first time going up was well planned out before he stepped into the spotlight “I practiced a lot. I didn’t wing it. I had the week of work off  before and all week long I kept writing jokes and practicing them in the mirror. I went on a hike one day and practiced over and over for four hours so that I could do it from memory.” Chris decided to make a website that listed all the open mics in DC after being establshied in the comedy scene for about five months. He noticed that it was really hard to find out when and where open mics were going to happen. “It was like pulling teeth.” He asked his brother to teach him some basic html coding and then presto. The site has been up and running ever since and has helped DC comics find places to master their craft. “It’s more for performers then I think it is necessarily for audience members.”

Comedy has taken him all over the country and has lead him to find the love of his life. He met his future wife at an stand up comedy contest. “If I never do comedy again tomorrow I can say well I got something out of it. I got married. That’s probably the coolest thing.” His most memorable performances have been the shows with the least amount of people. “I did a show at a marina at Clemson in South Carolina. It’s a stupid memory but I showed up at this lake marina and it got to be showtime and the headliner wasn’t there. There was like twelve people and I was like I guess I could put on a show. I was only supposed to do twenty minutes and performed for an hour and had a real good time.”

Chris was a full time comic for about seven years and during that time devoloped an interest in learning about dead presidents.”I traveled around so much that I started visiting hisorical sites. At first I would ignore stuff, but when you’ve driven through Ohio for the thirty seveneth time you’re like, ‘I guess I should check this out.’ So I went over to Rutherford Hayes’ house.” He started learning interesting facts about past presidents and writing them down on his website. He sent in one of his columns to the humor website McSweeneys for a contest and became their U.S. president columnist. “I have written about 19 or 20 columns exclusively about various questions about the presidents.”

Chris will be recording his second comedy album at the D.C. Improv on June 18. The show will be unique in that all the subjects he will cover in the show will be about subjects that people have challenged him to make fun of. For the past five years Chris has been asking friends, family and anyone that visits his site to challenge him to be funny about whatever topic they chose. “I thought it would be a fun thing to do. A challenge for me. Then I found these jokes that I was kind of doing on a dare were working in comedy clubs really well. Then I thought  that it would be kind of fun to put all these subjects of what people have dared me to do and figure out how to weave them all together, because it’s such a weird group of topics.” He’s collected about 25 bits from topics such as “quadratic equations” to “fishsticks.” The doors open at 6:30 PM and tickets are $10.

I spent last a nice weekend afternoon getting to know Eli Sairs who is a former DC comic and the producer of the upcoming 3 Chords Comedy Show that’s happening at the Velvet Lounge on June 3. We had a fun chat over at the Tastee Diner in Silver Spring. I got to say that that diner has what I call “Good Joo-Joo.” I trust a place has good food if they still have the same furniture from twenty years ago. It says to me, “Hey, I don’t have to change, because I’m fine the way I am.” An example of “Bad Joo Joo” is this other place I went to the day before that had over priced Mexican food. The furniture was modern and the place looked fancy; however, the food was not given as much care as the decorating. My stomach was killing me during our conversation. Anyway, I’m going to shut up now and let’s learn about Eli.

Eli, 25, grew up in Alabama and went to college at Ohio University where he got his first taste of comedy by being part of a sketch and stand up group. He had no idea what stand up comedy was all about until college, because “There was no stand up in Alabama. When I realized that it was possible to make  a living being a smart ass I was like ‘Yeah, I’m on board.’” A friend from the sketch group who had moved to DC later told Eli that it is a good city to do comedy and invited him to crash at his place. He moved over to the Petworth area and dove into the comedy scene. “I did this thing where I made a pact with myself to do comedy seven days a week for a year straight. That kind of killed me, but was almost definitely worth it.” All his hard work got him invited to be part of The Bentzen Ball Comedy Festival and he got a gig opening for Maria Bamford at The Arlington Drafthouse. ”Those were the big things for me so far and that’s small in the big scheme of things but for just few years in it makes it totally worth it.”

Eli started his own comedy showcase called 3 Chord Comedy Show before he made the big move to the Big Apple. He produced ten shows up until October of last year and then he unexpectedly made the move to New York City. It happened so fast that he never got to have a formal final show and will be returning this week to showcase comics like him that got their start in the DMV, but have moved on to other places to become career comics.  June 3 is the date to mark on your calendar and the final show only costs $3.

I got to know Sheng Wang over the phone recently and found out who he is and what to expect when he headlines the Cool Dudes Hanging Out Show happening at the Velvet Lounge this Friday from 7 to 10 PM. I don’t like to give excuses, but want to let you know that my trusty I-Pod that I use to record my conversations failed to record and I do not have a lot of quotes. What I do promise you though is that I can tell you his story using the very ephemeral storage space in my brain. In fact I am scrambling to disseminate as much information as possible right now so that the story is fresh in my mind.

Sheng was the final boss in Mortal Kombat and is the sworn enemy of Liu Kang.

Wait…that’s Shang Tsung. Forgive me.

Sheng Wang is a Taiwanese Texan who made his first attempt at comedy in college at a talent show. He had a notion of what stand up comedy was like and decided to go for it and said that the experience was “amazing.” He decided that he had three life directions to choose after he got the degree. He was either going to be a poet, a photographer, or a stand up comedian. He chose stand up comedian and it’s worked out pretty well.

He just had a half hour special that debuted on Comedy Central in January and he has gotten a chance to travel the country and enjoy all types of food. He went from Texas to San Francisco and is now residing in New York. He admitted that he is a foodie and that he also tells a lot of food jokes. ”One time a friend found one of my set lists and thought that it was a shopping list.” Sheng has been to D.C. before and confirmed that he ate waffles here one time. I don’t know where he ate the waffles and neither did he. I encouraged him to check out Ben’s Chili Bowl for some greasy goodness after the show over at the Velvet Lounge.

The show will cost either five individual George Washingtons or one Abraham Lincoln paper. That’s just another way of saying $5.

The Cool Dudes Hanging Out Show
the Velvet Lounge
915 U Street Northwest
Friday, May 20 · 7:00pm – 10:00pm

Vijai Nathan. Photo credit: Alexander Morozov.

Recently I had a fun chat with Vijai Nathan, a local comic who has performed across the planet and is the creator of the monthly comedy party “Fan-Freakin-Tastic” at Chief Ike’s Mambo Room. Vijai is a first generation Indian American and grew up in Rockville, Maryland.

How did you get into performing comedy?

I was a journalist working at the Baltimore Sun at the time, and I was engaged with someone I thought was perfect for me, my college sweetheart, and I had a great job and I was never more miserable. I just had always wanted to be a performer growing up and it was something my parents never encouraged me to do, because it’s not like Indian immigrant parents who are going to be like, “Yeah, here’s something where you are guaranteed not to make any money for the rest of your life.”

So, really what happened was I was just so stuck in my job and stuck in my relationship, and just stuck in my life and I saw this adult class to learn to be a standup comedian in two sessions. So I took that with First Class in Washington, D.C. with this guy that was funny, and when I took the class I was still a journalist during the day and just trying to do something to fill this performance dream that I had. The other people in the class were accountants and lobbyists, just kind of normal D.C. people who worked in the government. When I had my graduation class I was the funniest person there. Someone said, “Oh my God, you should be a comedian. You’re going to be the next Margaret Chang” and I was like ”It’s Margaret Cho, but thanks!”

So that was October of 1996 and in April of 1997 I gave my notice to the Baltimore Sun. I quit my job and started doing stand up and started not making money. I shortly canceled my wedding and used the money I saved for the wedding to start my career in stand up.

When did you start getting paid to perform?

I got my first paid gig at a place called something like the Washington Tavern and it’s near the Capitol. I remember when I got the gig they were like, “Ok you are going to get twenty minutes and you’re going to get twenty dollars” and I was really excited that I was going to get paid and then the guy said, “You’re not going to get paid again.” Not because of my performance, he was just trying to say that in comedy you are not going to get paid usually. I actually have that twenty dollars in a frame, because I thought I should save this, because I got paid for doing comedy. That was my first time after I had graduated from my class and one thing I’ll say is why I do stand up as opposed to acting. Growing up I was trying out for all these plays and musicals and I never got the parts. Standup was something that I was drawn to because no one could tell me that I couldn’t be myself. I wrote my own material. I got up on stage and said it, and no one could say I’m doing it wrong, or that I’m not right for that role because I was just me. That was really why I was drawn to stand up as an art form.

Where has comedy taken you?

I performed in South Africa, I performed at the Montreal Comedy Festival, and I have performed in England a couple times. I am going to be performing in Trinidad in July and Vancouver in June and Hollywood in June too.

How did you get to perform over in South Africa and those countries?

Through word of mouth. I worked with Russell Peters. I had met him years ago in Toronto and he actually recommended me for the Cape Town Smirnoff Comedy Festival in South Africa and said that they should take a look at me and they were only taking two comedians from America. So it was me and this other guy Ros Bennet. We were the American representation, and I was one of two women in the entire festival.

What have been your most memorable show experiences?

I opened for Russell Peters last year at Constitution Hall in April. That was just insane, because there was one point where just to have that many people cheering you. That you can control a crowd that size. I don’t know how many people it seats. I think it’s around 2,000.* It feels like more when you are on stage. That was when I felt like a rock star. There is this joke that I said how men should always pay for dates. So I started saying that and the men in the audience were just booing me. All the people were just booing me and then the women were like, “Shut up!” and they were cheering for me and I actually was like, “Let me break it down for you mother fuckers” and they stopped booing and the entire audience laughed when I finished my joke. It was just insane to have that many people respond to me and also to be able to control that many people as well.

That was probably my most memorable performance. My other most memorable is the polar opposite when I performed for my mother’s Hindu temple, and I had been doing stand up for years in comedy clubs, bars, and colleges and then finally I had to create this act that was really really clean and I won’t say I’m super dirty, but I’m not the cleanest person ever. So I had to do this thing for her, because she asked me to do a show for her at her temple and it was amazing to write jokes that were geared towards Indians. Their ages ranged from 3 to 93 and I had to make sure that all of them could understand it and like me and relate and that was actually really fun. Everybody laughed and that was the first time I had this giant range of people laughing at my jokes. So that was really fun and it showed me I could work clean when I need to.

What is Fan Freakin Tastic and how long has it been going on?

Fan Freakin Tastic is just about a year old and what I really wanted to do with that was that to me, really great comedians are story tellers, and I have been doing storytelling with SpeakeasyDC and I wanted to create a space where comedians could tell funny stories and help develop that, because I think that that’s hard to develop in most comedy rooms in D.C. at open mics. I think it’s hard to do and it’s not something that a comedian might want to do if they’re having a set at the Improv. So that’s why I wanted to create that space and I think it’s working great. I have storytellers, I have standups, I have slam poets and they all work off a theme and the only rule I have is “just be funny.” The theme on Saturday, April 30 is, “Up to No Good.”

Do you have any other shows that are coming up?

I’m doing my one woman show on May 21 at The Atlas Theater called, “Woman on Top“ that is being produced by SpeakeasyDC and I am also a staff teacher for SpeakeasyDC for storytelling classes as well.

If you are interested in finding out more about any of the fine shows this hard working comic has to offer, please send her an email at Vijai@vijaicomedy.com or friend her on her Facebook page.

* 3,702 seats according to The Wikipedia.

I somehow managed to remain coherent enough after my day job to have a conversation with Mike Lawrence. He is coming down to DC this Friday to be the headliner for Cool Dudes Hanging Out at the Velvet Lounge starting at 7:00 and ending at 10:00. Mike, 28, is originally from Florida near Ft. Lauderdale and has been living in New York for the past four years.

His first experience with comedy was watching his mother perform when he was growing up.  They both make people laugh, but from different parts of the heart. I asked him what makes his comedy different and he said that she is the light and he is the dark. “I’m a lot sadder and angrier and she’s a lot happier.” His first time expressing himself through the mike was with poetry, but he transitioned to comedy, because all he cared about when he read his poems were the parts when people laughed. ”I think my goal is to do this on a bigger level. I like what I do I want to do it more. My heart is really into live performing. Stand-up is great. It’s you getting paid to be yourself, which is awesome. I’m a nerdy kind of uncomfortable guy with anger issues and I get to be that for money. That’s awesome.”

This week has two legendary performances of his that I think you should be aware of. Not only will this Friday be the first performance he has ever done in the nation’s capital, but also this Thursday he is making his television debut on John Oliver’s New York Stand-Up Show on Comedy Central. Oliver approached Mike after he performed one night and offered him the opportunity to be on his show. Mike recorded his set in January, on his birthday. When you see him on TV this week know, that he probably had some cake afterwards. I like to think so anyway. Birthday without cake is like a birth without the baby.

Anyway, Mike has never been to D.C. but he is  presently collaborating with a comic from the area. Formerly-of-DC comic Jake Young is a good friend of Mike’s and they have a podcast on iTunes called Nerd of Mouth. Now you have three different mediums to consume his comedy. What else can I say? There was something else that he told me. Oh yeah. Mike is a non drinker yet comedy has taken him to places filled with yes-drinkers. “Comedy has taken me to every single bar I would have never been otherwise. I’m a non drinker in a bar every night.” He will be in a bar yet again this Friday, and if you wish to join please bring $5 and make your way to The Velvet Lounge.

I spent a cold Spring Sunday with Allyson Jaffe, the co-owner, manager, and prinicipal of the comedy school at the DC Improv. We met up over at the Caribou Coffee near the club. I was little upset that I had to wear a jacket that day. The planet is definitely taking its sweet time adjusting to the warmer weather. What’s the deal Earth? I put my recyclables in the blue bin. Let’s step it up! Anyway, the conversation I had with Allyson warmed my day.

Allyson, 32, came to DC from Queens, New York and studied visual media and theater at American University. She enjoyed being part of the performance world behind the scenes at the college, but shared that things were not going well with what she was studying. This fueled the motivation to perform stand up. “I figured the best way to get my foot in the door was to sling drinks at the Improv.” The motivation to pursue comedy sparked during her college days, but comedy was something that she enjoyed all her life. “I just loved it always, growing up. I’m still kind of a comedy geek when it comes to just the art. I just think it’s so important to laugh.” She was 19 when she applied to be a waitress and pursued an internship at the club her senior year. She worked during the day for her internship and then served food and beverages at night. Jaffe got into performing stand up during that time, but discovered that she did not want to become a stand up comedian. “I just did it for fun it was one of those things where humor in general helps you with things that are going on with your life” 

Allyson graduated in 2000 and applied at the Improv again only this time she was hired to work in marketing and promotions. She may have found that performing was not her bag, but she found a passion to produce shows. “My big thing is you see a person walk into a show and you can tell they had a shitty day. Then you watch the show go on and it’s an hour and a half and you see that same person forget about all that stuff in their life for that hour and a half and laugh and then leave the club like ‘That was so much fun!’ They have this total new life to them. That’s been a really motivating thing for me just the ability to get people out  of their life and problems and just laugh relax, and have fun.”

The story of how she became an owner really is proof that hard work pays off.  She volunteered extra hours for a year to help start a second theater in Arlington. “It was exciting. I was involved with booking shows, coming up with marketing campaigns, helping them figure out how to do the lights right, how to organize the shows.” Unfortunately, the project wasn’t a success, and the theater closed down; however, Jaffe was offered the opportunity to be an owner of the Improv as a thank you for all the hard work she put into the theater in Arlington. The club may have closed down but the DC Improv gained a comedy school and a headmistress. Allyson met the future teacher of the improv class, Shawn Westfall, by booking his sketch troupe to perform at the Arlington theater for one of the shows there. Shawn was already teaching an improv class on his own at the time but asked Allyson if they wanted to start a class at the Improv.  

As we sat and talked, two students that have taken the improv courses walked by the cafe. They stepped into the coffee shop briefly and chatted about their expieriences taking improv classes. They were really excited to share their positive opinion about the school. The Comedy School got its start in May of 2003. “I wanted people to come and take classes and feel like they are part of something. I really wanted to create a community of people.” Since 2003, more than 1,500 students have passed through the doors of the Improv for classes*.

Another project that Jaffe and the Comedy School have going on is The District’s Funniest College Finals that will be start on April 14.  “When I was in college I wanted to stand up but didn’t have the balls to do it. I came up with idea eight years ago to do the funniest college competition. I know there’s more people like me that want to do it, but are scared to do it.” Allyson explained that she goes to each university and holds preliminary rounds to find the students that will be performing in the finals. “It’s just for fun! It’s interesting what the college kids want to talk about…partying..masturbating. You’re 18, you talk about what you know.”

*One of the students was me. I did the Five Minutes to Funny course with Chris Coccia. The experience was superb.

There’s a 99% chance of a good time happening this weekend as Vijai Nathan will be throwing the monthly show Fan-Freaking-Tastic over at Chief Ike’s Mambo room this Saturday. The theme for this party is “Freaks & Geeks” and will  feature performances by top DC stand up comics, storytellers, and slam poets for $15. The show starts at 8 PM, but I would advise getting there an hour early to take advantage of the happy hour deal going on before the show.

I got a chance to speak with Nikki Glaser on the phone while she was cruising over to Sara Schaefer’s apartment to record their hit podcast, You Had to Be There. If you haven’t heard about them then you should go to the Velvet Lounge this Friday and see them perform live for the Cool Dudes Hanging Out Comedy Showcase to get a taste of what you are missing. This weekend’s entertainment got started at a party in New York not too long ago, because how else do you find a creative partner but with food and alcohol? The two comics got to talking while a little buzzed (as one does), had a good conversation, and said to each other “We should do a podcast.” In the scheme of ideas-you-get-while-drinking, it was a pretty good one. Nikki had tried doing podcasts in the past, but they didn’t work out. She’s not good with technical stuff, but Sarah has the skills and handles that aspect of the show. As an avid conusmer of comedy podcasts I highly recommend checking it out. It’s like being in Sarah’s apartment with the snacks, beer, and good times flowing.

Nikki, 26, was encouraged to do comedy when she was in high school, but didn’t get the nerve to go on stage until her first year of college at the University of Colorado for a talent showcase. It went so well that she felt the desire to pursue comedy full time when she transferred to the University of Kansas during her sophomore year. Pursuing her dream has lead her to being a top contestant on NBC’s Last Comic Standing and being in the documentary by Jordan Brady and Rich Shydner, I Am Comic.  Her favorite career moment was when she got to perform on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno in 2009. She found out she was performing three hours before the show, which is unusual because ordinarily a guest is booked two weeks in advance. Originally, Paula Abdul was going to be the guest but something happened. (A hit and run perhaps? Sorry to break out of narration but I just Googled that song right now and turns out she was in a hit and run one time. Irony.) Anyway, Abdul was out and Nikki got the phone call.

It should be fun to see Nikki and Sarah on stage this weekend. This is a really sweet opportunity to hear some quality comedy and it will be Nikki’s second time in DC. She perfomed in the area years ago with Doug Benson at the Arlington Draft House, so this is a unique chance to see her up close before she’s being booked over at DAR Constitution Hall. Tickets are $5 and the show starts at 7 PM.

I thought that you all might be interested in listening to Brandon Wetherbee’s latest You, Me, Them, Everybody show, because I was the comic for the evening. Which means I am interested in you listening to it…

It was the first show that I did outside of open mics and it was super fun. I also learned about DC Bocce. It’s a game that you play with balls. What games don’t have balls? Let’s see, there is the hockey puck and the shuttle cock, (heh, shuttle). Anyway, the main musical guest was the lead singer for typefighter. Overall it is just a fun moment captured in sound. I appreciate Brandon taking a chance on me and hope that you enjoy!

I braved the cold last Wednesday evening and found refuge in Dupont Circle’s Teaism to meet with DC comic Jessica Brodkin. I was there pretty early and had a pot of World Peace tea. I must say that Michael Jackson’s “We are the World” started playing in my head. Once all seven of my chakras aligned, Jessica arrived and we had a pleasant dialogue.

Jessica, 29, was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, speaks Russian, and has been living in DC for the past seven years. She loves this city and said that her favorite parts are Chinatown and U Street. “There’s a lot going on and I like the vibe. All the people you run into.” She likes that DC is full of intellectual people and enjoys the smart crowds. “Lots of people here are really educated and trying to do good things.” She’s kind of educated too. She went to M.I.T. in Boston. Maybe you’ve heard of it it? I think smart people go there. Anyway, she said that she was raised in Brooklyn, but DC  is where she became an adult in her own right.

Jessica’s first experience performing comedy was at age ten while attending elementary school with an all-kid sketch group that did commercial parodies.  She got back into the comedy scene years later in college performing in an improv troupe, and when she made the move here she became active in the all-female local improv troupe Red Dragon. The group’s career highlights so far include performing in the Washington Improv Theater’s Final Improv Smackdown Tournament (FIST),  and they did a comedy festival in Philadelphia. When asked about why they are called “Red Dragon” she replied, “It felt very competitive to be red and a dragon, or a Chinese restaurant.” I was curious if she has had any problems being a female comic, but she said that the scene is like family and further explained that “It’s the best time in history to be a female comic.” When she turned 28 she envisioned herself as being fifty asking herself why she didn’t do stand up and decided that she wanted to try something different.

She went to the stage solo for the first time in December of ’09 in New York and described the angst she felt before she went up. “I couldn’t sleep for a week. I got about two hours of sleep every night. I lost a couple pounds and I couldn’t eat.” She said that her show went well and that she still tells jokes from that night, “Fortunatley.” Jessica has been doing stand up for a little over a year and presently gets on stage about five times a week. This year has been pretty exciting for her as she has been performing all over the country.  She was in a comedy festival in Florida called Laughing Skull, went to North Carolina, will be at the Boston Women in  Comedy Festival from March 9 till the 12th, and then will head to the “Big A” a.k.a Atlanta in April to do a couple showcases. Her website is under construction but you can catch all her specific dates on her Facebook. Just type Jessica Brodkin in the search box. Seriously, you don’t know how to use Facebook? I applaud you, and we need to talk.

As our conversation progressed I learned that Jessica has another person living in her head. She introduced me to Ludmilla. “She’s a tacky Russian lady that does the news. She’s kind of ridiculous.” Ludmilla is a character that Jessica has been working on for a while and recently started performing live. Her family is from the Former Soviet Union and the character is an exaggeration of what immigrants think of the good ole U.S. of A. ”I like her more than I like myself.” Performing the character on stage has opened her up to more ways to express her comedy. “This art is so free flowing it’s so exciting.” She likes that she can mix her stand up and theater expierience.

If you would like to see what I’m talking about then you should go see Ludmilla in her upcoming burlesque show Juice Box over at the Comedy Spot at the Ballston Mall on March 26.

I was almost swept away by the wind on Saturday as I trekked down the curvy streets of Adam’s Morgan to meet up with SM Shrake , one of the founders of Story League, and attend their second workshop.  I had a flash of the opening scene to Shutter Island when I was walking up the driveway of the mental institution-like structure. As I got closer and closer to the front door, I heard heavy strings getting louder and louder with each step I took. Fear was trying to take control, but I knew I had to get in there. There was a question that infected my brain with obsession. “What is Story League?”

To get to that answer I first had to learn about the man with the idea of Story League. I had a nice chat with SM who has been a Washingtonian for four years. He grew up in Detroit and lived in Philadelphia before making his way to the District.  He would visit the nation’s capital to hang out with a friend while living in the City of Brotherly Love. (I googled that nickname about Philadelphia. I can’t confirm if people say that, but it sounds nice.) Anyway, he realized that he had so much fun here that he wanted to make it his new home. “What I find fun about it is there’s a camaraderie. The transitiveness of the people. To me that gives it a different feel. It’s almost like hotel bars are sexy. People are passing through.” I totally understand what he means by this. D.C. is a place where people relate instantly, because they are not from here. Fortunately for SM, he was able to bond with people that are not only not from here, but have a passion for live storytelling.

Photo by the author

Story League was founded by SM and Cathy Alter around the fall of 2010 and is a collaborative effort for live stand up story tellers to get together, share their true personal stories, hear feedback, and then retell their stories on stage. The idea to create the project came about when SM turned 40 last fall. He asked himself “What what do you want to do?” He enjoys writing and has contributed to publications such as  The Huffington Post, but after four years of trying to get into politics he realized that “[I] was a square peg trying to get into a round hole.” He was not into politics and did not feel connected to those stories.

He decided to change directions and start sharing his own tales. He reached out to Cathy, another well established DC writer, to organize the Story League and things went on from there. “I played it by ear as I was forming the group, basically picking a few people that are experienced with storytelling in town. The big names that I met along the way, I approached them first.” SM further added that his experience being a live story teller before was very lonely and it wasn’t until the group formed that he realized others felt the same way.  “There are some people that have been doing story telling like this for years locally and they’ve been on the same stages, but they have never met until they met at my group. The camaraderie has been really refreshing.” If you think you have what it takes to share your story on a stage then I suggest you check out their website. SM said that anyone is welcome to be part of their workshops and try out for a show.

I attended their second workshop, which featured Jane Feltes, a producer from This American Life who took the train down from New York City to attend the meeting. She listened to each story and offered her professional critiques for each person. One moved her so much that she said, “This is going to be on the radio.” I’m not going to say which one, but I must say that each of the stories that I heard blew me away. The wind outside was a breeze compared to what I felt in there. “You would be surprised how hard it is to tell a story that makes sense, let alone knocks an audience on its ass,” said SM. They all made it seem like it was very easy.

Their first show ever, Sins of Youth, will be over at the Black Fox Lounge, 1723 Connecticut Avenue NW, on March 3rd at 8:00 PM. Tickets are on sale on the website for the price of $7.

Reggie Melbrough and Ahmed Huidobro are hosting the fourth Don’t Block the Box Comedy Show at the Wonderland Ballroom, 1101 Kenyon St. NW, on Friday, Feb. 25, from 7:00 PM to 10 o’clock in the evening. The show costs three dollars and is cash only. I know that cash is very medieval, but get some of change and go to a CoinStar or something. You will be fine.

Anyway, after the show the lights will go down and the dancing will begin. So get ready to laugh your ass off then put it back on and shake it off. That sounds kind of gross, but you know what I mean.

I had the very fortunate opportunity to cruise with Seaton Smith, 29, on Sunday Jan. 30, on his way to do a show over at High Topps in Timonium, MD. We chatted the whole way on the road, which was good, because I didn’t really know the guy and he had no idea who I was, but somehow we were in the same vehicle together. People should get in strangers’ cars more often. I had a blast. I was able to learn a lot about him and caught him at a time when he just changed his career two weeks prior to that day to be a full time comedian. He quoted Bob Dylan about how success is about doing what you want to do in between waking up and going to sleep. “The past two weeks have been the most successful of my life.”

Seaton was born in California and moved to New Jersey when he was twelve. He studied film at Howard University and has been a D.C. resident for ten years. I consider him a double threat, because he performs and also produces film. Since 2007 he and his friend from university have been producing web series and creating sketches. Seaton said the process of creating sketches has been a challenge, but he learns something new every time he makes one.

I personally enjoyed his reindeer sketch, but he told me that sometimes he has a hard time finishing them, because he’ll have a funny idea, but not know what the story is about the idea. ”It’s like trying to find a rhythm like a wave and that’s essentially the stupid thing, me in a costume cursing like a hood nigga. Just find that wave and build a narrative around it.”

Seaton shared with me that he met Bob Odenkirk, a former head writer for SNL and one of the creators of Mr. Show with Bob and David, who to him is one of the most respected sketch writers in the history of comedy. When he got the chance to inroduce himself to him he asked Bob the most important question ever. “I walked up to him and said, ‘Hey man. How do you write skits?’ It was literally the dumbest thing. It got to the point where he grabbed his wife and said ‘Here, talk to my wife.’ and walked away.” He understood Bob, because he kind of feels weird when people ask him how to write jokes. It’s a process that is really hard to describe.

The first time he did stand up was at a talent show when he was ten, but it wasn’t until he turned 21 that he started going to open mics and dedicated himself to doing three shows a week and then gradually moved up to averaging about five to six. He thinks D.C. is a great place to do comedy. “It’s fun, it’s like the minor leagues. You just go up there and find yourself.” He went on to explain that being a comic in D.C., you have the opportunity to discover what kind of comic you are and build a foundation whereas in other cities comics are encouraged to find that quick five minutes and run with it. “Here it’s cool, because you’re trying to find yourself before you try to sell yourself.”

People have gone up to him and offered their critiques about how he should perform; however, he said that he has failed so many times at performing in different ways that he knows what works and what doesn’t. “People said I should talk slower. I tried that. I bombed alot. It didn’t work. I’ve done everything and worked as hard as I can. This is it.” He’s like Popeye who says “I am what I am.” However, Popeye had to consume spinach to really kick ass. So was he  juiced on spinach? I’ll stop right there. So where was I?

Ah, yes. Seaton’s career highlights so far include performing in Montreal Comedy Festival in 20o8 and performing in front of 7,000 people at a stadium for the Opie and Anthony Traveling Virus Tour in 2007. The stadium experience was different for him because he had to gauge how well he was doing by reading people’s faces rather than by sound because there is a bit of a delay for him to hear the crowd. ”The laughter you hear in a room in a comedy club is instantaneous, but laughter in a stadium comes in a wave.” So it’s like seeing lightning strike and then hearing the crack a couple seconds later. If you’re at a safe distance, of course. Anyway, he got the gig through winning a contest at the DC Improv called Car Crash Comedy. How the contest worked was each comic would get a chance to perform and if they made a bad joke you would hear a car crash sound. If there were three car crashes in a set then the comic was eliminated from the game. “I didn’t get any crashes and it was cool.”

On the ride back we listened to T.V. on the Radio. Seaton met one of the performers in the group who went to see Seaton do stand up in Brooklyn, N.Y. Our cruise on the highway was a symbol of where he is in his life, which is in transition. Five days from our chat he would be packing up his stuff to move to Brooklyn, the place where the best salsa is made. “I’m a little annoyed that I have to go. I’m just kicking and screaming… I’m not saying I’m afraid I’m just asking myself, ‘Am I leaving something good here?… It’s taking the next step in life and you hope that it’s fun. That’s what you can hope for that it’s worth it. That there’s a point to it.”  I think that he’s going to do great and know that D.C. will miss having him around, but I’m sure that he will always have a home here to come back to if he wants.