Michael O'Comedy

Michael O'Connell at Jon Lovitz Comedy Club and Hollywood Improv this week!

2011-10-24T01:16:00.000-07:00

After an amazing time performing with my crew - the Comedians with Disabilities Act - at the Laugh Factory in Hollywood, I'm returning to LA again next week for two shows at two more world-famous comedy hot-spots - the Jon Lovitz Comedy Club and the Hollywood Improv.

In both cases, I'll be standing in (so to speak) with a show called The Crippled Kings of Comedy, one produced by Dante the Comedian (Last Comic Standing). It, too, will feature a group of all disabled comics. I'm very much looking forward to meeting some of the disability brothers and sisters from the SoCal area and seeing if I can represent well for NorCal (recognize!).

The first show is this Wednesday night, October 26th, at 8:00 PM, and will be at the Jon Lovitz Comedy Club (1000 Universal Studios Blvd #222, Universal City, CA 91608 - 818 824 6545) on the famed Universal CityWalk right outside Universal Studios.

Show #2 will be Sunday night, October 30th, at 7:30 PM at the Hollywood Improv (8162 Melrose Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90046 - 323 651 2583). As for the days between the two shows, I'll be hanging around LA and seeing what else I can make happen. Strange things come to pass in the magical land of Hollywood, you know...

So if you're in SoCal, come on out and see me while I'm in your neighborhood! Two chances in one week! Hope to see you there!

The Comedians with Disabilties Act at the Laugh Factory in Hollywood, October 4!

2011-09-13T02:43:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday night, October 4th, handicapped parking will be a little harder to find on the streets of Hollywood.

The Comedians with Disabilities Act, the all-disabled comedy troupe, will bringing their "special" brand of funny to the legendary Laugh Factory on Sunset Boulevard for an unforgettable night of hilarity to benefit Los Angeles City College's Office of Special Services. The fundraiser will provide funds for tutoring for LACC students with disabilities.

In their first performance since their highly successful and heralded Special Olympics fundraiser show at Napa's Uptown Theatre, the group - made up of Steve Danner (little person), Michael O'Connell (wheelchair) and Nina G (comedienne who stutters) - will be joined by special guests to provide a night of decidedly unconventional humor.

Eric Mee, the visually impaired regular on the tour, will not be performing in this particular show.

Formed in 2010, the cadre is comprised of working comedians who decided to combine their unique situations into a comedy show that fans hadn't seen before, one where they milk their individual challenges for hysterical storytelling, and at the same time take the chance to educate the public on disabled peoples and issues. Called "The most unconventional comics to pop up in 2011" by the San Francisco Examiner, the northern California-based team they are making their first appearance as a group in southern California.

Steve Danner

Steve Danner’s comedy career began as an audience member at a club. The comedian on stage that night decided to have some fun at his expense, and Danner’s skills in heckling back at him led the comic to approach Danner after the show and suggest he give comedy a try. He did so, and soon began a career as a prolific comedian and producer, delighting crowds at clubs and comedy rooms all over the west coast with hysterical tales centered heavily on his dwarfism. His comic journey keeps him on the road much of the time, but as Danner is fond of saying, “Shrimpin’ Ain’t Easy!”.

Michael O'Connell

Michael O’Connell was diagnosed with Muscular Dystrophy at two years old and went into a wheelchair full time in 1995. But it wasn’t until years later that a friend dared him to try doing comedy at an open mic night at a Sacramento club, and after ending up winning the competition that first night on stage, he never looked back. He’s played comedy clubs from Seattle to San Diego, been featured in newspaper and on radio and television, and counts several Hollywood celebrities among his fans. His business card reads “100% Comedy, 0% Stand-Up”.

Nina G

Touting herself as “the world’s only female comedian who stutters”, Nina G hails from the Bay Area and has spent a lifetime dealing with both speech and learning disability issues. A key note speaker and disability activist, Nina turned her talents to the stand-up stage to help raise disability awareness through comedy, and performs at some of the industry’s hottest clubs (the Hollywood Improv and the Purple Onion) and has shared the stage with some of its biggest names (Dave Chappelle).

Kathy Buckley and John Kevari

The regulars will be joined for the fundraiser by two special guest comedians, both Los Angeles locals. The headliner for the night will be America's first hearing-impaired comedienne, the award-winning actress, author and motivational speaker Kathy Buckley. Her list of televised appearances is overwhelming (The Tonight Show, The Today Show, CBS This Morning, Entertainment Tonight, just to name a few), her accolades are astounding (from such names as Colin Powell and Anthony Robbins), and she has touched hundreds of thousands of lives through her acting (shows such as Touched by an Angel and her critically acclaimed one woman Off-Broadway show), her writing, and her motivational speaking engagements all over the world.

Also performing is Los Angeles comedy veteran John Kevari. Born with two fingers on one hand, John grew up watching the giants of comedy on Johnny Carson and feeling drawn to stand-up "like a moth to a flame". After reading an article in People Magazine about the Comedy Store in 1986, the then-23-year-old caught a bus from his home in San Bernardino to Hollywood and did his first stage appearance there on a Monday night show. That first success has led to over 25 years of bringing laughter to LA's biggest comedy clubs, and to showing audiences how to turn adversity into hilarity.

The Comedians with Disabilities Act fundraiser show begins at 8:00 PM at:

The Laugh Factory

8001 W Sunset Blvd

Los Angeles, CA 90046

Tickets will be sold at the door. Valet parking is available.

An additional free comedy show featuring the Comedians with Disabilities Act will take place earlier in the day at 2:00 PM at the Camino Theater at Los Angeles City College, for students and faculty of LACC only.

Michael O'Connell to perform opening night at Sacramento Comedy Festival

2011-08-15T19:02:00.000-07:00

During the life of this blog, I've tried to use it to occasionally highlight more than just what I'm up to in comedy. More specifically, I've tried to use it to let people in the Sacramento area know what an amazing and thriving comedy scene is going on right here in the old home town, something I myself didn't realize until I accidentally stumbled into a comedy career.

As fans of comedy, most folks watch YouTube clips, catch specials on Comedy Central, watch Saturday Night Live or buy a stand-up CD or DVD from some well-known performer. But while this is all well and good and perfectly fine, people don't realize that they're missing out on the real energy of comedy, the raw essence of it, the laboratory where it's birthed (or stillborn). They don't realize that they have access to the very crucible where all those voices and faces from TV and the web start out and pay their dues and become the household names that go on to make movies and blow their noses with hundred dollar bills (if I was Sandler, that's what I'D do when I had a cold...).

This is the arena of live local comedy. And you don't have to go to LA or New York or Chicago to find it. It's right here in Sactown. It's in our local comedy clubs. It's in all of our many open mic rooms that you can find almost any night of the week in the area. It's in bars. Sometimes it's even in cigar lounges (thank you, thank you very much). It's traditional (and experimental) stand-up. It's improv groups. It's sketch comedy. It's every flavor of funny that your heart desires.

And the even better news is that for four days this September/October, you don't even have to look all over town trying to find it. Because it's all going to be in one place.

The Sacramento Comedy Festival is a four-day showcase of the best Sac (and San Francisco, and a little LA) has to offer. Taking place at the Sacramento Comedy Spot downtown, it will feature multiple shows from Thursday (September 29) to Sunday (October 2), allowing you to sample as little or as much as you please. Broken down by genre (improv, sketch, stand-up), these shows will range in cost from $8.00 to $12.00 each, but there are package deals available to let you get great savings for buying all-day passes or the big full-weekend pass. All told, you'll have 20 different comedy shows to choose from, all filled with some of the best and brightest talent from around the region. You like the old stool-n-mic stand-up? Come see folks like Ellis Rodriguez, John Ross and Nick Aragon (and San Francisco treats like Nina G, Mary Van Note and Marty Grimes). More a fan of SNL or Kids in the Hall? Laugh it up to sketch comedy groups like The Syndicate, Uphill Both Ways or Van Full of Candy. Or do you like the Who's Line is it Anyway? frenetic comedy style that only improv can bring you? Marvel to the lightning-quick hilarity of Sacramento's Anti-Cooperation League, LA's Bro Squad 5 or Oakland's Awkward Face.

The stand-up part of the Festival begins Thursday night (9/29) at 9:00 PM, when I'll be lucky enough to be performing with some of my favorite people in Sac comedy world - Keith Lowell Jensen, Ray Molina, Eve David, Josh Barbee and Johnny Taylor. For those of you who've been asking when I'm going to be on stage in Sac again, you now have your answer. Ten bucks will get you a ticket to see all six of us. Or, if you're REALLY smart, you'll grab up that weekend pass and spend four days laughing your arse off at all the amazing acts that Brian Crall - owner of Sacramento Comedy Spot - is bringing together for your knee-slapping pleasure.

For the full schedule for the festival, a full list of performers and a link to grab tickets, just click here for the skinny:

Sacramento Comedy Festival

If you've been meaning to delve further into your town's comedy scene, you'll never get a better chance, Sac. Come on down to midtown and see some of the folks you'll be later able to tell your "I saw them when" stories about. Hope to see you there!

The Comedians with Disabilities Act this Saturday, July 30, at the Uptown Theatre in Napa!

2011-07-27T01:01:00.000-07:00

A blind man. A woman who stutters. A wheelchair user. A little person. While this may sound like a description of a support group, it is, in fact, the lineup for the “Comedians with Disabilities Act”, a comedy tour that the San Francisco Examiner called “The most unconventional comics to pop up in 2011”. Made up entirely of performers with different disabilities, the troupe is bringing their “special” brand of humor to Napa’s Uptown Theatre on Saturday night, July 30th, for a one-night-only fundraiser to benefit Special Olympics. The foursome, all of them working northern California comedians, met each other through the comedy club circuit and decided to band together to treat audiences to a unique and unforgettable experience.

“Lots of able-bodied comedians out there tell blind or wheelchair jokes and get the audience to laugh AT the handicapped,” said Michael O’Connell, the group’s wheelchair representative. “But wouldn’t it be more fun for the crowd, we thought, to be invited to laugh WITH the handicapped instead? That’s guilt-free fun right there.”

Since their first sold-out show in Sacramento, the group has been in growing demand, getting booked at such lauded venues as San Francisco’s Punch Line comedy club and at college campuses. Their comedy comes from the lifetime of experiences each has had due to their individual challenges. They see the tour as not only a chance to entertain, but to educate people on disability issues.

“We’re all comedians first,” said Napa native Steve Danner, the comic who is a little person, “and it’s a comedy show. But who says you can’t make people laugh and send them home with something to think about too?”

Danner’s comedy career began as an audience member at a club. The comedian on stage that night decided to have some fun at his expense, and Danner’s skills in heckling back at him led the comic to approach Danner after the show and suggest he give comedy a try. He did so, and soon began a career as a prolific comedian and producer, delighting crowds at clubs and comedy rooms all over the west coast with hysterical tales centered heavily on his dwarfism. His comic journey keeps him on the road much of the time, but as Danner is fond of saying, “Shrimpin’ Ain’t Easy!”.

Michael O’Connell was diagnosed with Muscular Dystrophy at two years old and went into a wheelchair full time in 1995. But it wasn’t until years later that a friend dared him to try doing comedy at an open mic night at a Sacramento club, and after ending up winning the competition that first night on stage, he never looked back. He’s played comedy clubs from Seattle to San Diego, been featured in newspaper and on radio and television, and counts several Hollywood celebrities among his fans. His business card reads “100% Comedy, 0% Stand-Up”.

Eric Mee was only eighteen years old when, while protecting a young child, he was stabbed in the chest. Complications resulting from his injury led to the loss of his eyesight. Choosing not to let this drastic life change get him down, he began joking about his condition and giving speeches to groups that were always filled with humor. After many suggestions, he turned his talents to stand-up comedy, and now brings his manic energy and outrageous tales to the stage.

Touting herself as “the world’s only female comedian who stutters”, Nina G. hails from the Bay Area and has spent a lifetime dealing with both speech and learning disability issues. A key note speaker and disability activist, Nina turned her talents to the stand-up stage to help raise disability awareness through comedy, and performs at some of the industry’s hottest clubs (the Hollywood Improv and the Purple Onion) and has shared the stage with some of its biggest names (Dave Chappelle).

This concert features a special guest performance by Los Angeles comedian Samuel J. Comroe, a fast-rising stand-up star with Tourette Syndrome. Comroe learned back in school how to get others to laugh about (instead of at) his condition, and used to perform comedy shows on his high school campus at lunch for fifty cents a person. This love of comedy turned into career, and he’s now a regular at LA laugh spots like the Improv, the Ice House and Flappers, has won several comedy competitions (including placing 8th out of 101 in the World Series of Comedy in Las Vegas) and has taken his one-of-a-kind performances nationwide.

Produced by Big Mini Entertainment, the benefit concert begins at 8:00 PM (doors open at 7:00 PM). Tickets are $20.00 and may be purchased at the box office or through Ticketmaster.

"Smokin' & Jokin' II" this Friday, July 8, at Tobacco Road!

2011-07-03T04:20:00.000-07:00

Kick-ash comedy returns to Tobacco Road cigar lounge this Friday, July 8th, at 8:00 PM, courtesy of Ramp-Up Productions and the Punch Cigar Company.

After its monster debut, Sacramento's only comedy and cigar event returns to kick the jokes and light the smokes once more. Attendees will enjoy fine cigars from Tobacco Road's mammoth humidor while being treated to comedic sets from some of Northern California's finest comedians.

Veteran comic Kristen Frisk, winner of 2010's Tommy T's Talent Search Finals, has been dazzling audiences solo and as part of one of California's hottest comedy tours - "The Real (Funny) Housewives of Rio Linda" - and now brings her madcap skills to the smoking set. Having played such venues at the San Jose Improv and Sacramento's Punch Line, she's now the first comedienne to perform at Tobacco Road, and plans to leave her mark.

Ellis Rodriguez, the Boston-born son of Panamanian immigrants and former Marine, is a west coast comedy power player who's a regular favorite at clubs like the Hollywood Improv, the Laugh Factory, Tommy T's, Pepperbelly's and Laughs Unlimited, and recently completed taping on his soon-to-be-released comedy DVD "Go Be a Clown". Smokin' & Jokin' audience members will get a chance to see this dynamic, charismatic and much-heralded performer in an intimate (and smoky) venue.

The show will be hosted by wheelchair comedian Michael O'Connell, a regular at Tobacco Road and a player at comedy clubs from Seattle to San Diego. The creator of Smokin' & Jokin', he is also one of the founders of the "Comedians with Disabilities Act" comedy tour, a troupe of disabled comics that have brought their unique brand of funny to venues like the San Francisco Punch Line and are preparing for their July 30th blockbuster show at Napa's Uptown Theater.

The second Smokin' & Jokin' show brings a new twist as the hour before the show begins (7:00 PM to 8:00 PM) will become Amateur Hour, when audience members will be invited to come up and try their hand and telling a joke at the mic before an audience. This portion will be for amateurs only. No working comedians will be able to perform.

Handling sound and spinning Rat Pack music for the show will be NorCal's DJ Rob, whose skills and tunes will set the tone for this exclusive and unforgettable evening.

Sponsoring the show will be Punch Cigars, and Punch's representative, Ed Trevino, will be on hand with cigar deals, offers and merchandise.

Tickets for the event will be $10.00 and will be for sale at the door only. No advance tickets sales will be provided. Seating is limited due to the venue's size, so early arrival is strongly recommended. Early arrival also allows plenty of time to relax, enjoy the lounge's friendly atmosphere, and light up a stogie or two.

Smokin' & Jokin' II will go down at:

Tobacco Road Cigar Lounge

2912 Pasatiempo Lane

(at Town & Country Village, corner of Fulton and Marconi, across from Trader Joe's)

Sacramento, CA 95821

916 489 4590

Come spend your Friday night lounging and laughing at Tobacco Road!

The "Comedians with Disabilities Act" at Bunjo's Comedy Lounge in Dublin, CA - 06/17/11!

2011-06-13T00:58:00.000-07:00

This Friday night, June 17th, the Comedians with Disabilities Act will be rolling into Dublin, California to bring their "special" brand of comedy to Bunjo's Comedy Lounge.

All your CDA regulars will be hitting the stage: Eric Mee, he of the visual impairment; Steve Danner, he of the little personification; Nina G, she of the sharp (and stuttering) tongue; and Michael O'Connell, he of the four-wheelin' joke-dealin'. They will be joined by special guest performer Sandy Selvi, an MS survivor, stem cell recipient, author, speaker, and hysterical comedienne.

Bunjo's Comedy Lounge is located inside the Willow Tree Restaurant in Dublin (just minutes away from Pleasanton, Livermore, San Ramon, Fremont, Castro Valley and Hayward) and is fast becoming a major go-to spot for Northern California comedy, featuring performers from HBO, Comedy Central, Showtime, Jay Leno, David Letterman and More. Food can be ordered from the restaurant before or during the show, featuring the Willow Tree's heralded Chinese cuisine.

Bunjo's Comedy Lounge

@The Willow Tree Restaurant

6513 Regional Street

Dublin, CA 94568

925-264-4413

The show begins at 7:30 PM. Tickets are $10 and can be purchased at the event or online at www.bunjoscomedy.com.

My 1-Hour Interview on Disabled Radio

2011-05-25T01:22:00.000-07:00

I got a wee bit behind on my updating and didn't get around to telling y'all about my interview I did on the internet radio show "Disabled Radio". Oops! But don't fret. You can still hear it. And there's a LOT of it to hear.

I first met Disabled Radio host Rob Pritts when I called in to chat on the show where fellow Comedians with Disabilities Act member Nina G was the guest. Rob asked that I come back and do the show myself, and I said I'd love to, and we set a date and made it happen. I've done quite a few radio spots during my time in comedy, but about 20 minutes is the max I've done. On this show? A full hour, with just me. Could I possibly talk about myself, comedy and disabilities for a full hour?

You've met me, right?

So Rob and I did the show, and it was a blast! We talked about a whole range of subjects related to both comedy and disability, as well as my life in general. We also got to interact with some cool folks via Disabled Radio's chat room, including my pal Martin who was catching the show live. I was really pleased to be a part of something like Disabled Radio, which works as a fantastic venue to bring disabled people together and to educate the "abled" at the same time. Big thanks again to Rob for having me on. And we're talking about getting a show together with all four members of the Comedians with Disabilities Act soon, so looking forward to that quite a bit!

If you'd like to hear my appearance (the whole damned hour of it), just click here:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/disabledradio/2011/05/19/enter-laughing

Davis gets schooled this Thursday night with "Comedy Binge"!

2011-04-12T19:43:00.000-07:00

Davis is about to get a whole lot funnier.

This Thursday, April 14th, stand-up drops on Davis in a big way with the premiere of "Comedy Binge" at the Graduate, a new monthly showcase featuring some of Northern California's best comics.

Davis local comedian Cory Guebels, producer and host of Comedy Binge, has pulled together some of the best working comics from Sacramento, Stockton and Lodi to launch the endeavor. The comics include Nick Aragon, Jason Armenio, Michael O'Connell, Josh Barbee, John Ross and Keith Lowell Jensen.

Noting the lack of stand-up in the city of Davis, Cory took it upon himself to change that. As the title of the show suggests, instead of bringing in just a headliner and an opener, he wants to over-stuff the audience with multiple comedic courses, giving the crowd a variety of styles to sample and a cross-section of what the NorCal scene has to offer. The next show is already booked for May, with a new roster of exciting young comics ready to joke it up for the Graduate.

Doors will open at the Graduate at 8:00 PM, and the show starts at 8:30. The cover charge at the door is $5.00.

The Graduate
805 Russell Blvd #A
Davis, CA 95616
530 758 4723

NOTE: Comedy Binge comedians Jason Armenio and Michael O'Connell will be appearing the day of the show on the "Radio Parallax" program on KDVS 90.3 FM to promote the event. The program runs from 5:00 PM to 6:00 PM, and can be streamed live off the web here.

"Smokin' & Jokin'" comedy show at Tobacco Road on Friday, April 8th!

2011-03-18T23:48:00.000-07:00

Like a good cigar with your punchlines? Then this show was designed for you. Seriously. I was thinking of you when I designed it. Honest.

Ramp Up Productions proudly presents Smokin' & Jokin', a night of cigars and comedians at Tobacco Road Cigar Lounge in Sacramento, Friday night, April 8th, from 8:00 PM to 10:00 PM.

The show will be hosted by comedian and cigar enthusiast (and not necessarily in that order) Michael O'Connell, and will feature the double-headlining talents of two of northern California's finest stand-ups, Keith Lowell Jensen and Sean Peabody.

Sean Peabody is a veteran of the stand-up circuit and has headlined comedy clubs and colleges all over the west, as well as shows for the troops overseas (Sean being an ex-Marine himself). Known for his crowd interaction and extroverted style, Sean always leaves audiences dazzled, and is considered by many a California stand-up to be the "comedian's comedian".

Keith Lowell Jensen gained fame as part of the "Coexist?" comedy tour and as a solo comic has played clubs from L.A. to New York, opening for some of the biggest names in the business (like Norm MacDonald and Robin Williams). He also directed and starred in the documentary film "Why Lie? I Need a Drink" and is set to release his second comedy CD.

Michael O'Connell is in a wheelchair and makes jokes about being in a wheelchair and therefore people laugh because they're afraid to hurt the feelings of a guy in a wheelchair. In other words, everybody wins.

Tickets for Smokin' & Jokin' are $10 at the door, and those attending are encouraged to show up early, as seating is limited. A couple of Tobacco Road notes:

This will be a smoky room, as audience members will be lighting up and smoking cigars and pipes. It's recommended that only those who feel they're okay with sitting in a smoky room for a couple of hours attend this show.

Cigarette smoking is not allowed in the Tobacco Road lounge. Cigar and pipe smoking only. Cigarette smokers and can step outside to smoke and head back in at their discretion.

Bringing one's own cigars is not permitted, much in the same way bringing one's own bottle of vodka is not permitted at bars. Tobacco Road has an enormous walk-in humidor with a vast range of cigars to suit any cigar fan's tastes, so you're sure to find just the right stogie (or two!) to suit you as you enjoy the show.

Tobacco Road is located at Town & Country Center at the corner of Fulton and Marconi in Sacramento, right across from the Trader Joe's. The address is:

Tobacco Road
2912 Pasatiempo Ln
Sacramento, CA 95821
916 489 4590

Be sure to tell all your friends who enjoy cigars (and comedy), and we look forward to seeing you there!

2011-03-04T21:49:00.000-08:00

A Magical Place presents a night of comedy (and a wee bit of magic) featuring three of Northern California's finest, together on one stage.

Michael O'Connell, the self-described "wheelchair comedian", has been taking his hilarious tales of disabled living to comedy clubs from Seattle to L.A. He counts Hollywood celebrities among his fans, has worked with some of the best in the comedy business (including Bobby Slayton and Will Durst), has appeared on the Dennis Miller Radio Show and is the headliner on the "Comedians with Disabilities Act" comedy tour.

Keith Lowell Jensen is a veteran of comedy stages from coast to coast, and has shared those stages with the likes of Norm Macdonald, Doug Stanhope, Neil Hamburger, Tim Meadows and Robin Williams. Perhaps best known as the Atheist comedian on the "Coexist? Comedy Tour", Keith has appeared on "Lopez Tonight" on TBS, directed and starred in the documentary film "Why Lie? I Need a Drink", and his anxiously-awaited second comedy CD ("Cats Made of Rabbits") is about to be released, much to the delight of fans of his outlandish observational humor.

Mark Pitta came out of the San Francisco stand-up scene in the 1980s, and soon found LA calling. A national headliner, Mark has appeared on the Tonight Show under both Johnny Carson and Jay Leno, was the host of Fox TV's "Totally Hidden Video" and hosted NBC's "Friday Night Videos", appeared on NBC comedies "Mad About You" and "Third Rock from the Sun", and has been featured on several Comedy Central programs. Mark has also opened for such famed musicians as Chris Issak, Celene Dion, Vanessa Williams, Smokey Robinson and Big Bad Voodoo Daddy. Mark hosts "Mark Pitta and Friends" at the heralded 142 Throckmorton Theatre each Tuesday night in Mill Valley, a showcase for up-and-coming talent that's been known to have drop-ins like Dana Carvey, Richard Lewis and Robin Williams.

Doors open at 7:30 PM, and the show begins at 8:00 PM. Seating is limited. Tickets are $10.00 at the door. The show is for 21 and older only.

A Magical Place

85 Enterprise Court Ste D

Galt, CA 95632

209 745 2850

To hear this show discussed on the Don Geronimo Radio Show, click here, go to the first show segment, and go to 31:50 in.

Mike Betancourt, Michael O'Connell and Sam Bruno - This Tuesday at the Rose Room!

2011-02-11T20:50:00.000-08:00

Are you ready for this, Roseville? I don't think you are!!

This Tuesday, February 15th, I will be hooking up with full-contact headliner Mike Betancourt and the inked one, Sam Bruno, at the Rose Room in Old Roseville for an 8:00 show. The doors open at 7:00 for dinner specials, so come early to get your pizza on (along with your drink - we encourage early drinking at our shows). The tix are $10 per person or $15 per couple. Way too cheap for this kind of triple-threat comedy onslaught, you say? You're RIGHT. And you're WELCOME.

Sam (he of Sam Bruno Entertainment, the biz putting this show together) will be opening things up, and if things go like they often do, someone will end up punching him in the head before his set is over. Sam continues to defend his crown as Sacramento Comedian Who's Spent the Most Time in the ER. Jokes will fly. Fists might, too. One way or the other, Sam will knock you OUT.

I'll be dropping somewhere between 20-30 minutes up there, and while I don't want to get your hopes up too much, I MAY be telling some wheelchair jokes. Don't hold me to that. But keep hope alive.

Finally, your headliner for the night will be Mike B., whose last trip the Rose Room not only tore the joint up, but somehow ended in a still-talked-about Dirty Dancing finale reenactment. Every comedian gets hecklers. Not every comedian lifts their hecklers up to the heavens like Swayze. You never know what's going to go down when Mike's on the mic, so don't be the poor sap who misses out on his latest breakdown. You'll have the time of your life. And you've never felt that way before.

Come one, come all, come early! And come to:

The Rose Room

314 Lincoln Street

Roseville, CA 95678

Thanks for the memories.

2011-02-09T02:56:00.000-08:00

When I did that first video slideshow showing my 2010 in comedy month to month, I was agonized by how many photos I had to leave out with me and people - people like the friends, fans and family coming out to all the shows.

So instead, I've done a second video with just shots of me and all the many people in my comedy universe, from spectators to fellow comics to celebs. And even now, I was STILL agonized by not being able to fit everyone in! If you know you're in a pic with me and don't see yourself in this, my apologies. Fall Out Boy just need to write longer songs in the future. Either that, or I have to get a lot less awesome people in my life.

Thanks, everyone, for making this past year so unforgettable. But be sure to stick around! More excitement is on the way in 2011!

The "Comedians with Disabilities Act" Hits San Francisco Punch Line 02/01/2011!

2011-01-19T01:30:00.000-08:00

With their sold-out debut performance behind them, the "Comedians with Disabilities Act" is bringing their "special" brand of humor to the Punch Line Comedy Club in San Francisco on Tuesday, February 1st, at 8:00 PM.

The trio of Eric Mee (sight-impaired), Steve Danner (little person) and Michael O'Connell (wheelchair) will be rocking the Bay for one night only, joined by special guest Nina G, San Francisco's renowned stuttering comedienne, and producer/host Keith Lowell Jensen of the heralded "Coexist? Comedy Tour". Covered in print (The Sacramento Bee), on radio (Capital Public Radio's "Insight") and on television (CW31's Good Day Sacramento), the comedy group is about to storm the San Francisco media, and plans to drop another standing-room-only performance on the California comedy world.

"There's a big difference between laughing at someone with a disability and laughing with them," says O'Connell, the show's headliner. "We have a great time poking fun at our disabilities, at ourselves, at the absurd and hilarious things that happen to us in our lives. And even at each other. And we invite the audience in on the joke with us. While we're there to make people laugh, we also give the crowd a chance to look inside our worlds and learn a few things they wouldn't have otherwise known. There are a lot of things people don't know about disabilities just because they don't happen to know anyone with a disability. After our show, they feel like they do."

Tickets are on sale through LiveNation or half-priced through Goldstar. While tickets are also available at the box office, advance purchase is recommended.

The Punch Line Comedy Club

444 Battery Street

(Between Washington and Clay)

San Francisco, CA 94111

415-397-PLSF

Spend an evening with the "Comedians with Disabilities Act" and find out what happens when adversity meets hilarity.

2010 - My Year in Comedy

2011-01-10T01:35:00.000-08:00

So...THAT was a good year...

2010 is now behind, 2011 stands ahead, waiting with promises of new adventures, new surprises and new people. But before I start the major forging ahead, I thought I'd pause to take a look back - via musical photo slideshow - at my year in comedy in 2010.

And let me apologize to all the people who should have been in this thing that may not have made the cut. I put together a timeline of photos that did a pretty good job covering the whole 2010 experience, and then realized I had right about twice as many photos as I could actually fit with one song. My choices were to either make a video with two songs (which is not kind to ask people to sit through) or make the painful decisions and create the best map of my comedy year I could in the time available. Had to go with pain. But it breaks down the month by month pretty good. I do now, though, want to make another video that's just photos of me with people, because it's the people - fans, friends, family, fellow comics, the occasional famous person - that made 2010 the most exciting and fulfilling year of my life to date. I will get around to that dedication, f'sho.

Maybe after LA. And San Francisco. :)

Please take a little time travelin' trip with me (and that's high quality video, so go ahead and use the option to view full screen for best watching), and if you were in any way a part of it with me (whether you pop up on this video or not), thanks for everything. And let's do it again...all 2011 long!

'Ello, LA! Michael O'Connell one night only in LA on Tuesday, 1/11!

2011-01-04T21:03:00.000-08:00

Say "hello" to Hollywood.

Well, to Burbank, at least.

LA peoples, you will be able to find me perched upon a stage at Flappers Comedy Club in Burbank on Tuesday night, January 11th, at 8pm. I'll be appearing a part of "Bobbie Oliver's Too Funny Tuesdays", a show hosted by the lovely and hysterically talented Sally Mullins, and will be rocking it SoCal-style for one night only. Not two nights...ONE!

I, with a selection of LA's finest comics, will be doing the funny for your delight. Drinks will pour, lines will be punched, a good time will be had by all. Not some...ALL!

Tickets for the show are $15.00. If you're a fan and plan to be in the house, please contact me directly about getting tickets from me, either via Facebook or by email at michael@michaeloconnell.com. Please feel free to spread this news far and wide to friends, family and Farmville buddies in the LA area, as I'd love to meet them all. I do hope you can make it out yourself!

Again, that's:

Flappers Comedy Club

102 East Magnolia

Burbank, CA 91502

818 845 9721

And Happy New Year to all. No wait, not all...ONE! No, "all" was right in that case, wasn't it?

(Click flyer for larger view)

2010 Tweetrospective

2010-12-29T06:04:00.000-08:00

I noticed another comedian or two ending the year by putting a selection of their tweets from 2010 in their blogs. While this at first seemed redundant, I recently read some disturbing statistics on how few of one's tweets actually get seen. Since there's a good chance that someone reading a copy-n-pasted tweet of mine here is reading it for the first time, I figured I might as well get in on this.

So here's a (wide) selection of my tweeting from the past year. If you don't speak Twitter and therefore don't know what hashtags or trending topics are, some of it may confuse you, but I think you'll muddle through okay. And if you feel, after reading all this, you (for some reason) want to read even MORE stuff I write, feel free to use the link at the right to click your way to my Twitter page and follow me.

Let the nostalgic tweetfest begin. And in case I don't get to say it before the big ball drops, Happy New Year everybody, and thanks for a fantastic and fun year.

*************************************

Fact of the day : If you say the words 'beer can' in a British accent, it sounds like you're saying 'bacon' in a Jamaican accent.

Is it Kardashians or Cardassians? Which are the Star Trek aliens and which are the whores again?

"And bay-bay...talk dirty to AAAAGGHHHH!!" That was my impression of Bret Michaels' brain hemorrhage.

I can't decide whether to watch "Nine", "9", or "The Nines" tonight. Solution: Watching Blake Edwards' "10".

If my toilet was the stone and my plunger was Excalibur, tonight I would have become king.

If you ever meet Eddie Vedder? Don't call him "daughter". He just doesn't like that.

I just had Lasagna and German Chocolate cake. If I'd have had sushi, too, I'd have had the whole Axis.

10 years ago today the final Peanuts strip was published. Knowing the internet, I'm sure the characters live on in erotic fan fiction.

Winter Olympic sport I want to see introduced: Urinary Penmanship. Obviously the men would have an advantage in this event...

Had to get a pulmonary function test done at UCD Med Center today. So I spent the afternoon doing what all comics avoid: sucking and blowing

The problem I have with these rest stops on I-5 is that there's no charge for the gay sex. It's a free exchange. That smacks of socialism.

I have string cheese, microwave rice and frozen dinners. I live like my mom went out of town and left me food I couldn't screw up.

Michael Jackson totally molested children! Am I right? (This is what comedian writer's block looks like).

Where have all the flowers gone? Seriously...where the $#@% are they? What are they planning? I've seen "The Happening", dammit!

For the record? I'm an Ultimate Lover, not an Ultimate Fighter.

I'm smoking a cigar that my grandmother bought me in Mexico. I'm hoping if I'm really good she'll bring back some black tar heroin next time.

Have you ever wanted to slap a song in the mouth and revel in its look of shock and betrayal?

King Kong...ain't got NUTHIN on me! So since you lack any clear evidence, I think I'm done answering your questions, Detective Kong.

Dear internet: if you pluralize one more word by use of an apostrophe, I swear they'll find your body in the #$%$ desert. Thank you.

This is so weird. I just saw a movie where Michael Cera wears a hoodie.

I wish one of my junior high friends was here to see what I was watching and say, "Pssh! More like 'Nick & Nora's Infinite GAYlist'!"

Whenever I see the clock hit 12:34, I always feel like yelling out "1, 2, 3, *4*!" and jamming out a power chord.

Netflix says if I like "The Road", then I'll also like "Cider House Rules". Were there cannibals in "Cider House Rules"?

This one time? At MDA camp?

I'm watching a DVD on how to inject myself with this medication. It's like a Video Professor course for junkies.

I like it when basketball commentators talk about "dribble penetration". Because I'm twelve.

Awesome iPod moment: music on shuffle, My Chemical Romance's "I'm Not Okay" followed directly by Styx's "I'm Okay". I heart life.

Pet peeve: drinking games created by people who understand neither drinking games nor drinking.

Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah...blah blah blah blah blah blah blah...blah blah blah blah blah blah ST. EL-MOS FI-EE-YUH...

Crowd chants at prison b-ball games: "Here we go, car thieves, here we go (clap clap)!" "Here we go, rapists, here we go (clap clap)!"

”All humanity is passion; without passion, religion, history, novels, art would be ineffectual.” Honoré de Balzac. (snicker...."Balzac"...)

In socialist countries, is it called an "ourPhone"?

Why comedy is better than my old job: in comedy, my job is to say all the things that would have gotten me sent to HR in my old job.

"If it feels nice, don't think twice" - James Taylor (helping the spread of venereal disease for over 40 years)

Do vuvulezas make you horny, baby? Do they?

There are key similarities between Conan's prayer to Crom in "Conan" and Cerrano's prayer to Jobu in "Major League".

Wow! There's a new Goo Goo Dolls song out?! I could SO not give a $#@%!

Facebook just recommended that if I like "Twin Peaks", I might also like "Twin Peaks". (?). That's a statement worthy of Lynch.

Did anyone hear that? It sounded like the wind whispered "Mary". That was weird.

I'm shaving. That announcement was for all the Twitter/Facebook haters out there who ask "Why would I care to know if someone's shaving?!"

I hope you have a big trunk, 'cause I'm puttin' my wheelchair in it.

Yo momma so wonderful, you should buy her roses and a gift card for a day spa. #yomommajokefail

Yo momma in such good shape, she don't look a day over thirty-five. #yomommajokefail

In the kingdom of the blind, the one-eyed man is king. In the United Kingdom, the one-armed man drums for Def Leppard.

I've decided the Encore Action Channel is the male equivalent of the Lifetime Movie Network.

I've decided the new censor replacement for "sh*t" will be "A SyFy Original Movie". E.G.: "Holy [A Syfy Original Movie], I won!"

I just saw Michael Madsen punch James Woods in a Dolly Parton movie. You're KILLING me, Encore Networks...

"American Me" is the "Gone with the Wind" of prison rape films.

Do people in Kentucky snicker every time they see their state's abbreviation? They must just be in a good mood all day long.

Dwight Schrute is my ambassador of kwan.

I'm beginning to suspect that all of Madonna's songs are about intercourse.

I need to add Tyler Perry's "I Wonder When Satan's Coming to Collect that Soul From Me?" to my Netflix queue.

Ran into the same possum outside overnight. If he returns again tomorrow night, I will name him Two Socks.

Just playing the double rainbow video and had to turn down the volume, because it sounds like I'm watching porn.

I don't think "Radio" was acting. Based on his career choices, I'm starting to think Cuba Gooding Jr. is actually retarded.

Netflix streaming now on iPhone. I'll miss you, bathroom reading...

"The Situation" and Bristol Palin both on Dancing with the Stars? Suck it, America haters. This country is AWEsome!

I just brushed my teeth with sunglasses on. Don't think I've ever done that before. I shall write of this in my diary.

"Smurfette? *I* smurfed her! Ohhhh!" -- Andrew Dice Smurf

"Transformer blew? He needed the money....OHHHHhhhhh!" - Optimus Dice Clay

Know how I know you're straight? You like Nickelback. #KnowHowIKnowYoureStraight

Know how I know you're straight? Your jean shorts go down to your knees. To your knees!! #KnowHowIKnowYoureStraight

Know how I know you're straight? Two words: Golf Channel. #KnowHowIKnowYoureStraight

I just ate ice cream sitting in front of a laundromat. Don't think I've done that since I was about 8 years old. #PoorMansTimeTravel

Ever notice Jackson Browne starts playing whenever Jennifer Jason Leigh has sex?

THIS JUST IN: yo mama's so skinny, Bobby Brown slapped her and then said "Oh, sh**, I'm sorry, I thought you were someone else."

I've just thought up a super-villain. He's half pig, half tree, all evil! Can our heroes face the terror of...Porky Pine?!

Good Oprah final season opener: "We're all going to Australia!". Great final season closer?: "We're all going to Hell!" - blows up studio.

One's a tribe of Israel. One's a folk singer. Together - they solve crimes! #SimeonAndGarfunkle

Left a ridiculously big tip for a haircut tonight because I showed up 5 minutes before they closed. I consider that "paying the douche tax".

"Will you repost this? 95% of people won't". Um...you ever consider if 95% won't, maybe they know something you don't?

I've decided that #@$%ing you like a vegetable or a mineral would be more likely to improve my bond w/my creator. #rockretractions

Just call my name. And I'll be somewhere else. #rockretractions

Stacy's mom is old. Ew. #rockretractions

Did you ever know that you're in no way a role model for me? #rockretractions

Now that I think about it, maybe it was the summer of '68. #rockretractions

Girls just prefer to do bland, uninteresting things that they don't find enjoyable. #rockretractions

I was not working as a waitress in a cocktail bar. That much is false. #rockretractions

Billy Jean? Okay, yeah. I actually did hit that. #rockretractions

The time has not yet come, Sister Christian. Please continue holding. Thank you. #rockretractions

After reconsidering, I've decided that rock and rolling all night and partying every day isn't my cup of tea. #rockretractions

You don't have what I need. And you've made it clear that your relationship with him is more than platonic. #rockretractions

Neither your mother nor your father are all right. And neither seems weird at all, actually. #rockretractions

You're not a rich girl. I had no idea your old man had fallen on such hard times. #rockretractions

Contrary to previous claims, I was actually born outside the borders of the United States. #rockretractions

I was mistaken, based on a typo. "Geese" is actually the word. #rockretractions

"Dude, it's not 'Pizza and Understanding'. It's 'Peace, Love and Understanding'. You thought the song was about pizza?" #DialogueIJustMadeUp

I get knocked down. But I get up again. Then I sue the guy who knocked me down, settle out of court, and retire to Fiji.

Now witness the power of this fully armed and operational adult contemporary station!

Do redneck androids dream of sexy electric sheep?

"Greed, for lack of a better word, leads to shitty ill-advised sequels."

I just watched six Vietnamese guys climb out of one BMW. So that's what the circus looks like in Saigon...

Hey, want to hear my impression of me eating at a Vietnamese restaurant? "Viet nom nom nom..." Thank you, Internet, good night!

I smell sex and candy here. #MarcyPlaygroundSongsAboutMichaelJacksonsBedroom #ImSoSorry

I'm off to shave. You can watch live on my web cam for just $1.99 per minute. Platinum members will have stubble mailed to them.

Know when to walk away. Know when to run. If there's no time for either, learn how to fake a seizure. That usually clears the room.

From a neuro-linguistic view, 4g phones are an easier sell than 3g phones because "4g" sounds like "orgy".

Sweet, it's a Cops "Grand Theft Auto" episode! That's almost as good as Shark Week!

The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. But they don't outweigh yo momma. 'Cause yo momma so fat.

I'm envious of guys named Scott, so I'm founding my own country and naming it Mikeland.

Things TV has taught me: 1) All handicapped people work as computer hackers, 2) all gay people work at galleries.

"The cow says, 'AAAAAAAGGGGHHH!!!'". #SeeNSayPetaEdition

When captured by police, Randy Quaid tried to deny his identity by doing a Schwarzenegger voice & saying "My name is not Quaid!"

The Sting In My Pants #moviesinmypants

The Longest Yard In My Pants #moviesinmypants

Raise the Titanic In My Pants #moviesinmypants

Batman Begins In My Pants #moviesinmypants

The Battle of the Bulge In My Pants #moviesinmypants

Clear and Present Danger In My Pants #moviesinmypants

The Firm In My Pants #moviesinmypants

Glory In My Pants #moviesinmypants

Not Without My Daughter In My Pants #moviesinmypants

Gross Anatomy In My Pants #moviesinmypants

Hot Fuzz In My Pants #moviesinmypants

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang In My Pants #moviesinmypants

Lethal Weapon In My Pants #moviesinmypants

The Long Kiss Goodnight In My Pants #moviesinmypants

A Mighty Wind In My Pants #moviesinmypants

Outbreak In My Pants #moviesinmypants

Stop Or My Mom Will Shoot In My Pants #moviesinmypants

Scent of a Woman In My Pants #moviesinmypants

Looking for Mr. Goodbar In My Pants #moviesinmypants

Searching for Bobby Fischer In My Pants #moviesinmypants

That Thing You Do In My Pants #moviesinmypants

Biggs: "Luke, at that speed you're not going to be able to pull out in time." Luke: "That's what SHE said..."

This evening I ate a Lunchables, drank chocolate milk, then took a nap. I'm back in kindergarten.

"The joker is the only foo' who'll do anything for you!" -- Mr. T singing Juice Newton at a karaoke bar.

"Oh, Vladimir Putin THIS somewhere tonight, baby..." #RussianFederationBedroomTalk

3 things better with the volume muted: CMT, Telemundo, the Star Wars prequels.

Best I can figure, George Lucas was molested somewhere between Empire and Jedi. Everything since 1980 has been a cry for help.

70s humor: "Fill it to the rim." "With Brim?" "AAAAAHHHH ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!!!!!"

I'm writing a new romantic comedy called "Sleepless 'N Cialis". Maybe "romantic" is the wrong word...

I just killed a mosquito by swatting it with the book "I Killed". #ironykicksass

Kid at the DMV mimed a gun & pretended to shoot out my tires. So I mimed a guy flipping off a kid at the DMV.

Drinking a Guinness and eating cookies. This is what snacktime is like for schoolchildren in Ireland, btw.

#rememberwhen you made that inevitable life transition from Tonka trucks to jerking off?

If you can read this, thank a teacher. iff u cn reed this thanck teh enturnett.

When I think about you, I sext myself...

There's a homeless guy wandering through my complex with a full garbage bag slung over his shoulder. I've named him Recession Santa.

I am Sarah McLachlan of the Clan McLachlan. I was born in 1518 in the village of Glenfinnan on the shores of Loch Shiel. And I am immortal.

"You down with AT&T? (Yeah you know me!)". #bandsellouts

"Light Beer right now. There is no other beer I want to drink". #bandsellouts

Passing Arco Arena on the way to the airport. It's so empty and quiet. It's like a Kings game is going on.

Just passed a sign for McGeorge law school, wondering if Spanish-speaking law students call it McJorge.

The two old ladies I rode with in the shuttle spent the whole drive talking about casinos. Slots are the new grandkids.

On a Super Shuttle headed home. Does this mean if we see any crime going down on the way we have to stop and fight it? #SaveUsSuperShuttle

The Boy in the Stryper Pajamas #FailedRockBandMovies

Hannah and her Twisted Sisters #FailedRockBandMovies

The Bridges of Megadeth County #FailedRockBandMovies

Faster Pussycat and the Furious #FailedRockBandMovies

Mr. Dio Goes to Washington #FailedRockBandMovies

The Bad English Patient #FailedRockBandMovies

Up in the Aerosmith #FailedRockBandMovies

Night of the Living Ranger #FailedRockBandMovies

Grateful Dead Man Walking #FailedRockBandMovies

Dokken Hollywood #FailedRockBandMovies

The Whitesnake Stuff #FailedRockBandMovies

The Who's Life Is It (Anyway?) #FailedRockBandMovies

Children of a Lesser Godsmack #FailedRockBandMovies

Saving Private Rihanna #FailedRockBandMovies

Cinderella #FailedRockBandMovies

I just got three stars on every level of Angry Birds! I'm like a f***ing Korean kid on this bitch! Woo!

Do teenage elves go to Rivendell High? #ElrondsPalJughead

"I will tumble for you. I will tumble for you. I will tumble for you, I will tumble for you." #MrDataKaraoke

The "Comedians with Disabilities Act" Sells Out Sacramento Debut!

2010-12-03T03:23:00.000-08:00

The debut of the "Comedians with Disabilities Act" at the Sacramento Comedy Spot played to a sold-out, standing-room-only audience on Friday, November 26th, and was an undisputed hit.

When we first booked the date, we had some concerns about drawing a crowd. That Friday was, after all, the day after Thanksgiving, so we figured a lot of people would be out of town or occupied with all their guests. To make matters worse, that was also Black Friday, the busiest shopping day of the year, and countless thousands would be getting up before dawn to go line up outside stores all day in search of holiday bargains. The odds were against us.

We kicked the odds' asses.

The media we managed to get - during a holiday week, no less - was a big factor. First we pulled the radio interview with the three of us on Tuesday on Capital Public Radio's "Insight" show with Jeffrey Callison. Then, the day of the show, we had the double TV/print whammy. This was all Eric Mee. First, the article on Eric Mee in the Sacramento Bee came out in the weekend "Ticket" magazine insert, both detailing his story and talking about that night's upcoming show. Then Eric appeared on Good Day Sacramento on Channel 31 to push the show with morning TV viewers. You never know how much of a difference this kind of stuff is going to make. In our case, though, it was a big one.

We arrived at the Sacramento Comedy Spot just thinking we'd be happy if we could manage a half-full house. Then we watched as more and more people started flooding in. And these were not people I knew. For all the Thanksgiving/shopping reasons mentioned above, most of my people were unable to attend. Seven folks in my circle were able to make the scene. The rest were all strangers to me, which is such a treat in comedy I can't tell you. That's the vast majority of the house never having heard any of my material before. That's comedian gold, folks. Much of the draw was to see Eric after so much focus on his story, and I was extra pleased to see several canes and sight dogs with audience members entering the place. Word had gotten out - Eric's people were, for a chance, getting some long overdue representation in comedy circles.

Quickly, we realized we had a sellout. More chairs were brought out from the back to seat more people. Those filled. The last few people (including a relative of mine) who showed up bought their tickets and had to stand in the back of the room and watch the show. And not a one of them complained.

Our producer, Keith Lowell Jensen, was the host for the show and got the crowd warmed up. Then Steve Danner hit the stage and lit the place up. As I said elsewhere, this whole thing really started because of my seeing Steve on stage for the first time a few months ago, and being blown away by his comedic talent. He was true to form. Steve slayed the crowd with his tales and observations, and being the kinetic performer that he is, never stopped moving for more than a couple of seconds during his whole set. He was all over the stage, and the crowd loved him.

And then came Eric Mee. Eric is the youngest of the three of us, at twenty-one, and is a cyclone of energy. His natural and ever flowing comedic senses combined with brilliant physical comedy and blaring outbursts blew the place up. The crowd adored him, and he worked them like a maestro. Eric Mee's talent is raw, infectious and addictive, and it was a pleasure to see him work - since this was, it turns out, my first time to actually see him on stage. Keith took my word on Steve's abilities since he'd never seen him live, and I did the same with Keith's glowing review of Eric. We both ended up looking really, really smart.

I headlined the show, being the wily veteran of the group (I've been doing comedy a whole two months longer than Steve), and I can't tell you what a pleasure it is to have a warm-up like Steve and Eric. Not just because of what great comedians they are (though that's a big part of it), but because one of the things I normally have to deal with in my comedy is getting the audience over their initial discomfort of the disability situation. Some audiences never quite get over it, resulting in the occasional tepid set for me, and the frustration of knowing that the same material that killed two nights before didn't fly as well for this reason that's out of my control. It didn't even occur to me until I hit the stage that night that that issue was moot. They were ready for me, and for once, I could just kick back and do my thing without having to win them over first. It was liberating. I had a fantastic time with my set, made more fun by being able to slide in jokes about Steve and Eric, something we all ended up doing in our material without discussing it beforehand. The crowd loved this, too.

So our inaugural show - our test run for this concept - turned out to be a smash. We couldn't have asked for a better night. We now know that people are ready and quite willing to laugh at the off-beat rantings of a little person, a blind kid and a wheelchair guy. Our "laugh with us" instead of "laugh at us" concept seems like a winner, so it looks like the "Comedians with Disabilities Act" is here to stay. We're already in talks for future bookings (announcement on one of those coming very soon), and have high hopes of turning our show into a tour.

So watch here for more details on the CDA, and make plans to catch our act yourself! You may have seen comedy shows before, but I guarantee you, you haven't seen it done OUR way. We'll see you there.

The "Comedians with Disabilties Act" this Friday at Sacramento Comedy Spot!

2010-11-24T02:18:00.000-08:00

I think it was around March of this year when I went to check out the monthly open mic at Laughs Unlimited in Old Sac. I hadn't realized you need to bring audience members to get stage time . I was still pretty new to comedy and didn't know the local ropes yet. So I wouldn't be getting on stage there that night (good news is that now, months later, there's a cartoon of me, autographed by me, framed behind the bar at Laughs, so I did eventually make my mark there), but I wanted to check out the HUGE pile of comics that were fighting for mic time that night (I counted 24). Some of them I knew from other open mics or from comedy shows I'd seen around town. Others I was seeing for the first time.

Steve Danner was one of the latter. Steve, a little person comedian, completely blew me away with his performance. Great stage presence, crack comedy timing, fantastic writing. I liked his work even more because he was doing a lot of what I was doing - talking about the thing that made me obviously different - and he was doing it so well, telling the truth from his experiences, not pandering or going for the obvious joke, and owning the crowd. When you're a comic and you see another comic you really dig, the first thing you think is "Man, I totally have to work with that guy/gal". That was my thought with Steve. That was just because of his comedy skill. But after that, it occurred to me that it'd be a really cool pairing if he and I did a show together due to both of us being "different" comedians. I thought, further, that a show with a trio of us "special" people would be awesome and unique. A title for the show even popped into my head - "The Special Needs Comedy Tour" - but I didn't go much further with it. I didn't know of any other challenged local comics, save for a couple of NorCal wheelchair guys (neither of which I'd seen perform at the time), and I felt such a show should only have one wheelchair guy in it anyway. I remember thinking at the time, "If only there was a blind comedian we could use...".

Cut to early fall. I got a text from Keith Lowell Jensen. He was at a comedy show, and had to let me know about this fantastic young comedian he'd just seen. This comedian - Eric Mee - was blind. And due to that, Keith got the idea that he wanted to put a show together with the two of us.

Oh, destiny. How tasty you are.

I told Keith about Steve, and the rest fell into place, with Keith putting the show together and booking it for the Sacramento Comedy Spot. My first time meeting Eric - a college student who lost his eyesight two and a half years ago when he was stabbed down by the river - was a couple of weeks ago when we all met at the Spot for our photo shoot with photographer Cynthia E. Jones. I understood immediately why Keith liked him. And his comedy skills were apparent just from chatting with him for a while.

So this Friday is the debut of the Comedians with Disabilities Act (my new title for the show that I liked better), and we're doing it at one of my favorite venues in town. The media blitz is in full swing, even though we're competing with Thanksgiving. The three of us did a radio interview together this morning on Capital Public Radio on their show "Insight", hosted by Jeffrey Callison. You can listen to that show here:

Comedians with Disabilities Act on "Insight"

We close out the show, so our bit starts right at 39:00. This Friday, the day of the show, is the double TV/print whammy. First, Steve and Eric will be appearing to promote the show on Channel 31's Good Day Sacramento show (I won't be appearing because I just appeared on that show recently, and there's a rule about that), and the Sacramento Bee will be publishing a story on Eric that also plugs our CDA show. We're hoping that the saturation brings in some Black Friday shoppers who are tired of fighting the malls and would like a little comedy to brighten up their day.

And we would love to see YOU there! This should be a fantastic night of comedy, made more special (but the normal kind of "special") by the hosting of Keith Lowell Jensen. The show info is as follows:

Earth's Best Comedy Show Presents:

The Comedians with Disabilities Act

8:00 PM

Sacramento Comedy Spot

1050 20th St.

Sacramento, CA 95811

916 444 3137

Tickets are $12.00 for the show, and you can use the link to buy your tickets in advance if you prefer.

Be sure to check the Bee on Friday, watch Good Day Sacramento, and come on down to 20th Street (between J and K) to see the show live! WARNING: all the good parking spots will be taken up by the performers. HAH ha.

Meet the Press

2010-11-14T02:54:00.000-08:00

I always meant to post up the scans of my Sacramento Bee article from back in April. Never did. I just remembered. So here they are. Click each for the bigger image. Ah, the memories.

Keith Lowell Jensen and Michael O'Connell Storm Pacific Northwest 11/17 - 11/21!

2010-11-10T18:03:00.000-08:00

The Pacific Northwest jokefest of Sac's own Keith Lowell Jensen and Michael O'Connell is coming! Oh, they THINK they know what annoying displaced Californians are like up there, huh? WAIT and see...

This little mini-tour is composed of two shows and two cities (unless other stuff pops up while we're there, as "stuff" is wont to do). First, we're on a plane on Wednesday, November 17th, and will be doing the first show THAT VERY NIGHT. This is the Seattle date, a show at the Laff Hole (located at Chop Suey) where Keith will be headlining, I'll be featuring, and we'll be joined by two of Seattle's finest funnymen, Kevin Hyder and Emmett Montgomery. Plus, it turns out...a band. Diminished Men will be tearing it up there as well. We'll try to tear harder, though.

And then on Saturday night (the 20th), we'll be down in Portland for the big hoo-haw, where we'll be performing with the amazing and legendary bi-partisan stallion (I just made that nickname up just now, so don't call him that, please) himself, Will Durst! This will go down at the Bagdad Theater, and will fulfill my comedian fantasy by finally letting me perform somewhere with balconies. We all have our little kinks.

So if you're in or around either Seattle or Portland, we would LOVE to see you at one (or both) of these shows! Or if you're not, but KNOW people up that way, we would LOVE to see them there, even though we don't know who they are or what they look like so wouldn't actually know them if they stood right in front of us and tap danced.

The shows go like this:

WEDNESDAY, 11/17/2010

9:00 PM

Keith Lowell Jensen with Michael O'Connell, Kevin Hyder and Emmett Montgomery

(Band: Diminished Men)

The Laff Hole at Chop Suey

1325 E. Madison St.

Seattle, WA 98122

206 324 8005

Tickets: $7.00 (advance through link above, or at box office)

SATURDAY, 11/20/2010

8:00 PM

Will Durst featuring Keith Lowell Jensen and Michael O'Connell
Bagdad Theater

3702 SE Hawthorne Blvd

Portland, OR 97214

503 467 7521

Tickets: $20.00 (advance through Ticketmaster via link above or at box office)

Hope too see a few of you there! And the rest - we'll tell you all about it when we get back. Promise. Bring on the rain!

"The Last Stand" DVD Taping This Friday Night!!

2010-11-03T01:49:00.000-07:00

It goes down this Friday night, everybody! 10:30 PM, November 5th, Sacramento Comedy Spot. "The Last Stand" is happening, and it needs YOU!

This evening of comedy is the DVD taping for comedian Ellis Rodriguez. The show will be filmed and later sold to millions (or maybe dozens, but we like to be optimistic). The 10:30 show will also include about 25 minutes of performance from me, and sets from comedians Michael Broussard and Hunter Hill. While the three of us won't be on the DVD, we still get the awesome professionally-shot video footage for our demo reels, so this is a pretty rockin' deal for us, too.

But none of it works without--as I said, and also in all caps--YOU! For an effective, usable performance, we need the house to be full. Butts in seats. ALL the seats. So we would so, so appreciate you taking part of your Friday night and letting us entertain you while you help us make a killer comedy DVD happen!

As the poster above says, there IS an 8:00 PM show, but, frankly, I'm not in that one. :) There are three other comics opening for Ellis in that slot, and it's their responsibility to fill it. The 10:30 PM one is the tougher one, obviously, since it's a little later, so that's what we're really working on. But it is a Friday night, so hopefully no one will need to get up too early the next day. And this way you've got time to get out and have dinner beforehand, AND you'll still have time afterward to go out clubbing if you choose! I'd say that makes 10:30 the AWESOME slot, doesn't it? Woo hoo!

So we would need to have people there by 10:30 PM (preferably by 10:15 PM) so we can have everyone seated before taping begins. And then, we would need to ask that everyone stay for the entire show. I can TOTALLY understand if you'd just want to come see ME, for example, as that's the part of the show that REALLY matters (ahem), but we need that full audience for everyone, particularly for Ellis, who closes out the show and who's the actual star of the thing (though you may continue to think of me in that role if you choose). His set will be the DVD part, so this is where your laughter and enthusiasm will make this DVD shine for the eventual home audiences, and where you will forever be a part of Sacramento comedy history! If you've seen Ellis perform before, you know what a treat you're in for. If you haven't? You will thank me after. You may even want to kiss me. I reserve the right to be selective on who I accept this gesture from.

So please, come on down and join us for this, and please feel free to pass this invitation to EVERYONE YOU KNOW! The more the merrier! This is going to be an amazing show, and we all thank you in advance for being a part of it. It all happens at:

Sacramento Comedy Spot

1050 20th St.

Sacramento, CA

916 402 4757

The club's located on 20th between J and K, right next door to Mr. Pickles. There's parking across the street (behind the brick building that used to be the News & Review building) for $5. You can buy your show tickets at the door, but in case of sellout I'd advise getting them in advance online, which you can do here:

http://saccomedyspot.com/shows/last-stand-comedy-show/

See you at the 'Spot, comedy fans! Let's DO this!

"Who Got Jokes?" Comedy Competition Featuring Michael O'Connell

2010-10-13T06:08:00.000-07:00

I'll be competing in the "Who Got Jokes?" comedy competition this Thursday, October 14th, at Laughs Unlimited in Old Sacramento. The show begins at 10:30 PM and ticket cost is $5.00.

This morning was the warm-up for that contest when I appeared and performed on Channel 31's Good Day Sacramento Show along with fellow contestants Anthony Zimmer and Daunte Burks. We had a great time hanging out at the studio and performing 2-minute sets for the anchors and for the home audience to vote on. Video clips of our sets went up on the GDS web site and viewers cast their votes, and in the end, Anthony Zimmer came out victorious (I pulled second).

Thursday night is the real event, where a group of us will be competing both for a cash prize and for a paid hosting job and Laughs Unlimited. The complete contestant list is not available, but I know that in addition to the three of us, Willie Mac and Queenie TT will both be hitting the stage. It should be a fantastic time.

So if you're up for a little late night competitive comedy (where your vote by applause decides the winner!), head on down to Old Sacramento and join us Thursday night! Hope to see you there!

Laughs Unlimited
1207 Front St.
Sacramento, CA 95814
916 446 5905

Michael O'Connell on Good Day Sacramento this Tuesday, 10/12

2010-10-11T12:40:00.000-07:00

To promote this Thursday night's "Who Got Jokes?" comedy competition at Laughs Unlimited Comedy Club, comedian/contestants Michael O'Connell, Anthony Zimmer and Daunte Burks will be appearing and performing live on Sacramento Channel 31's "Good Day Sacramento" show. The comics will performing 2-minute comedy sets before an audience and a panel of judges during the show's 8:00 AM hour. Their video clips will then be put up on Good Day Sacramento's web site, and home viewers will be able to vote for their favorite. Winners will be announced during the 9:00 hour, and there will be both a judges' choice winner and a viewers' choice winner.

The clips can be seen and/or the show watched steaming live at the show's web site:

http://gooddaysacramento.com/

Sacramento Comcast Cable viewers please note: Channel 31 is NOT the channel number on your cable system, it is the station's name. You can view the show on Comcast channel 12 or channel 712 (if you have an HD cable box).

So tune in to check out this preview of the competition, and come down to Laughs Unlimited on Thursday night at 10:30 PM to watch all the comedians battle it out for cash prizes and a shot at a Laughs show hosting gig!

Michael O'Connell Joins Big Al's Big Ass Comedy Show Wednesday Night at Punch Line Sacramento

2010-09-26T19:51:00.000-07:00

California's comedy show sensation - Big Al's Big Ass Comedy Show - is coming to the Punch Line in Sacramento this Wednesday, September 29th, at 8:00 PM. And Michael O'Connell is coming with it.

O'Connell will join other comics such as Mike Bettencourt, Alex Fuchs and the show's creator himself, Al Gonzales, for a night of razor-sharp alternative comedy on the Punch Line stage.

Big Al's Big Ass Comedy Show has been a touring hit from one side of California to the next, regularly selling out venues and delighting crowds. The show completes its performance at the Improv in Hollywood tonight before heading back to Northern California.

The show originated in The Bay Area, is produced by the likeably funny Big Al Gonzales, and features the best in Latino/Alternative comedy. Big Al Gonzales has been doing comedy for 7 years. He has become a well know fixture in the Northern California comedy scene. He has appeared in commercials and local television. Big Al started out his comedy career doing improvisational comedy where his troupe (Big City Improv) was noted as Best Of The Bay 2002, after which he broke away and went solo, doing stand-up comedy.

Tickets are available online or at the Sacramento Punch Line box office.

Punch Line Comedy Club

2100 Arden Way (corner of Howe & Arden)

Sacramento, CA 95825

916 925 8500

I'm at the Rose Room this Wednesday, 09/15/10

2010-09-13T20:46:00.000-07:00

Prepare yourself, Roseville! The Tommy T's alums are coming to your side of town to burn this mother down!

This Wednesday night (the 15th), I'll be reunited with two of my fellow finalists from the Tommy T's Finals championship round - Kristen Frisk and Willie Mac (we tried to get Joey Gonzalez as well to get the whole final four, but alas, he'll be out of town) - as we bring the funny to the Rose Room in old town Roseville.

Headlining for this show is the legendary Sac comic and comedy instructor, Del Van Dyke (also a Tommy T's alum), and a guest set will be coming from local Roseville comedian Brian Jagger. This is the second comedy showcase to go on at the Rose Room, and the first one nearly filled the house, so you might want to call ahead for a reservation.

The show starts at 8:00 PM and the cover is $5. If you do the math, that's only $1 per comedian! Wotta steal! It's going to be a great night of comedy and cocktails, and we'd all love to see you there. So drop in and let us entertain!

Again, that's at:

The Rose Room

314 Lincoln St.

Roseville, CA 95678

916 768 6958

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Jerry Lewis Labor Day Telethon Appearance

2010-09-05T21:58:00.000-07:00

Heads up, Sac area peoples! I'll be on TV for a good cause on Labor Day!

I'll be on cam on the local broadcast of the Jerry Lewis MDA Labor Day Telethon on Monday, September 6th, between 3:30 PM and 5:00 PM on KQCA Channel 58. This'll be the final leg of the Telethon broadcast before sign-off, so it'll be crunch time to get those last dollars from helpful viewers. They've got me set up to do some comedy, and probably some on-mic other stuff. I'll find out when I get there for sure, but I'm up for whatever they've got for me.

I've been watching the Telethon my whole life (having MDA myself, in case you didn't know...), and have always wondered when I'd get my chance to get on the other side of the camera for the event. That time has come. So tune in and be a part of it...and take the opportunity to pick up the phone, pledge a little money, and help out a fantastic cause. I already can't thank you enough!

See you on Channel 58!

The SoCal Adventure!

2010-07-20T21:28:00.000-07:00

As of Wednesday the 21st, I'm outta here, Sac-Town. My two weeks in southern California begins, and what a trip this is gonna be. Movie stars, comedy and motivation! I'm in the middle of all the pre-trip prep (wondering if I'll get it all done in time) and wanted to fill y'all in on where I'll be and what's gonna be going down.

PART ONE: COMIC-CON

I'm not just a geek...I'm a professional one. No, seriously. My creative life before comedy was as a comic book writer. I've been going to Comic-Con International in San Diego for years, both to pimp my comic and just to check out the GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH. Seriously. If you're unfamiliar with this event, let me sum up.

Over 125,000 people show up for this 4-day convention (this year tickets sold out months in advance) and fill the ginormous San Diego Convention Center. What's inside that center? Sights like you wouldn't believe. When this convention first started, it was pretty much what its name implied - a convention about comic books. That's changed over the years to include the film industry, television, videogames, books, and just about anything that falls under the banner of "the popular arts". Hollywood has taken this thing over. I mean the REAL Hollywood, dude. Just a few of the people showing up this year? Bruce Willis. Sylvester Stallone. Jeff Bridges. Will Ferrell. Tine Fey. Seth Rogen. Michael Cera. Kevin Smith. That's just some of the movie people. TV's everywhere. Fan of the show "Community"? The whole cast will be there (Chevy included). This thing's become like a second Sundance. Studios show up to pitch their upcoming product directly to fans. It's amazing. You see big names like those above, yes, but even more fun is bumping into your favorite less famous (or formerly famous) celebs, who are much more accessible (as in, you can bump into them and chat while they're having a cigarette outside).

There are panels from morning to late at night, and next door, at the Marriott, there's even films showing all night long (for those people much younger than me who can do four days of this stuff on, like, zero sleep. I used to be that guy...). Every kind of merchandise you can imagine (and some you never thought of) is available for sale on the convention floor. Comic fans can meet and chat with their favorite artists and writers directly and get autographs and sketches. There are people walking around the place in costumes ranging from ridiculously good to brilliantly awful. Every kind of fan is represented and appeased here - film geeks, TV nerds, animation types, Trekkies, Star Wars die-hards, Twilight fanatics, (Lord of the) Ringers, Browncoats, etc, etc. It's a wall-to-wall senses-overloading carnival, and it's so worth the trip.

So me and my artist/homey Tim Watts are catching a plane and using our pro credentials to take in the whole thing. Should be a blast.

PART 2: COMEDY

As this is my first time back to southern Cal since starting comedy, I'm excited to FINALLY be able to get some SoCal stage time in! I'll be hitting the mic at the Comedy Store in La Jolla on Sunday night (the 25th) at 7:00 PM, and also at the Comedy Palace in San Diego on Tuesday (the 27th) at 8:00 PM. I've got some built-in audiences for both shows. Sunday night looks like it's going to be friends, as this is a return to San Diego for me (I lived there for almost 7 years). Old pals are coming and bringing friends, plus a Twitter fan of mine who's only seen me on YouTube is going to make it and bring a group, too. Awesome! Whereas Tuesday night is going to be family, as my folks are going to be in San Diego on that day, and they, my step-sis and all her family are coming out to catch the Palace performance. Big fun all around. Cool.

PART 3: TONY ROBBINS!

On Wednesday the 28th, I'll be catching a ride with my folks to Long Beach, where they'll be dropping me off at my hotel. Starting the next day, I'm then going to be spending four days attending one of Tony Robbins' seminars. Yeah, THAT Tony Robbins! Tony read my Quest Magazine interview online and got in touch with me through Twitter. He told me how much he enjoyed the interview and asked if I wanted to be his guest at one of his seminars. Uh, you THINK? I'm a total Robbins nerd! I actually did the whole 30-day Personal Power program a couple years back. I'm a huge fan of his stuff, and now I'm actually getting to go to one of these things live! And as the big man's GUEST, no less! Woo hoo!

So I'm planning to come back really, really motivated, so you might want to stay away from me for a few days after I return, as I may annoy the hell out of you trying to tell you how you can achieve your dreams. Oh, but after that, I'll still find you and tell you...

So yeah...big trip! Lots of good stuff. I'll write about the whole thing when I return, but before I left, just wanted to let you all know where I'll be. If you're in the San Diego area on the 25th or 27th, drop in to one of the clubs listed above and check out the show! As for you Sac fans - see y'all when I'm back! Hold the fort down while I'm gone. For those of you not from Sac, that wasn't a cliche...we actually have a fort here...

SoCal here I comes!

The Girl All the Fanboys Want

2010-07-03T00:04:00.000-07:00

Anybody remember that Bowling for Soup song, "The Girl All the Bad Guys Want"? I came across that the other day. If you're unfamiliar with it, it's basically the story of a not-so-cool guy who's in love with a cool bad-girl chick. She, of course, is just into guys who drive Trans-Ams and have mustaches. It's an uphill battle for our hero.

This got me to thinking of a different story. What if this was the tale, instead, of a "cooler" guy who fell in love with a geek girl? Same basic set-up, but he'd be shut out of her world for his lack of nerd knowledge and ability to speak fluent Klingon. Instead of being blocked by muscle-bound fratboys, he would, instead, be losing her to Jedi-loving fanboys.

I wanted to hear this song. So I wrote it. Over the top of BfS's original song, of course.

These things usually go better if you play the song along while you're reading the lyrics, so I recommend using the handy video below.

THE GIRL ALL THE FANBOYS WANT
by Michael O'Connell (by way of Bowling for Soup)

Coffee shop, Monday night, and I’m waitin’
To finally talk to a girl who seems so different than me
Her name is Nona, she’s a Trekkie with a com badge
She is a Browncoat but I’m not quite sure what that means

And when she walks
All the wind blows and the wood elves sing
But she doesn’t notice me

‘Cause she’s watchin’ X-Men
Creamin’ over Twilight
Listenin’ to Warp 11
Transporters in her eyes

It’s like a bad movie
Like SyFy produced me
If you were me then you’d be
Screamin’ “Greedo shoot me”
My roll fails miserably
Tryin’ to get the girl all the fanboys want
‘Cause she’s the girl all the fanboys want

She likes B5, I like How I Met Your Mother
Her PS3 is rockin’ Final Fantasy all night long
She writes fan fiction about Legolas and Frodo
I tried to read it but it’s just disturbing and wrong

And when she walks
All the wind blows and the wood elves sing
But she’ll never notice me

‘Cause she’s watching X-Men
Creaming over Twilight
Listening to Warp 11
Transporters in her eyes

She likes ‘em with a goth look
Readin’ comic books
She’s a Klingon dude fan
Does a Bat’leth make a man?

It’s like a bad movie
Like SyFy produced me
If you were me then you’d be
Screamin’ “Greedo shoot me”
My roll fails miserably
Tryin’ to get the girl all the fanboys want
And she’s the girl all the fanboys want
And she’s the girl all the fanboys want
And she’s the girl all the fanboys want

There she goes again
A corset on, and green dye in her hair
She’ll be my Rogue if this goes like I planned it
All I want is just to be her Gambit

Now I’m watching X-Men
Trying to read the Twilight
Listenin’ to Warp 11
Transporters in my eyes
I don’t have a goth look
And I ain’t read no comic books
But I know what soap is…soap is…soap is…

It’s like a bad movie
Like SyFy produced me
If you were me then you’d be
Screamin’ “Greedo shoot me”
My roll fails miserably
Tryin’ to get the girl all the fanboys want

‘Cause she’s the girl all the fanboys want
‘Cause she’s the girl all the fanboys want
‘Cause she’s the girl all the fanboys want
‘Cause she’s the girl all the fanboys want
(Boldly go again)
‘Cause she’s the girl all the fanboys want
‘Cause she’s the girl all the fanboys want
(Boldly go again)
‘Cause she’s the girl all the fanboys want
‘Cause she’s the girl all the fanboys want

You always remember the ones you lick (eventually)

2010-06-20T17:50:00.000-07:00

So on June 11th, Sacramento comedian Keith Lowell Jensen posted on his Facebook page that he's heading down to San Francisco to go see Bobby Slayton play at Punchline, and wanted to know if anyone wanted to join him. I wished I could have, but I was fresh out of the hospital. So I commented on his note, telling him to say "hi" to Bobby for me, as, you know, Bobby and I go waaaaay back.

That night I got a voicemail from Keith, from there at the show. He said that Bobby had just finished his first set, had just gotten off stage, and was all hyped up. Keith had stopped him as he came down and said, "Hey, Michael O'Connell said to say hi."

Bobby, quite loudly (and if you've experienced Bobby Slayton, you can hear the voice in your head right now), said, "Who the $#@% is Michael O'Connell?"

Keith answered, "Uh, you worked with him a couple of weeks ago, wheelchair comedian...?"

Bobby then replied, just as loudly, "Oh, yeah! I #&%@ing LOVE that guy!"

One of the many perks of wheelchair comedy, folks. They may not remember the name, but they always remember the chair. Hear endeth the lesson.

Media Roundup

2010-05-29T15:42:00.000-07:00

Man, it has been a long week of promotion for the MDA event. Flyer posting, emailing, blogging, phone-calling, and dealing with radio, TV, newspapers, etc. It was a lot of fun, but it's nice to be able to just kick back and relax on a sunny Saturday without running through a checklist of contacts needed to be made. So I'm blogging this on my laptop on my patio, enjoying both the gorgeous weather AND the second cigar that the MDA gang gave to me at the show. I am officially in chill mode.

Thought I'd put up some links to the other media that happened over the week, besides this "Insight" radio interview I already linked for you. Let's take a look, shall we?

There were two articles on SacramentoComedy.com about the event. The first came out about an hour before the Bobby Slayton news went down. So a second follow-up article went up about the Slayton stuff.

Pre-Slayton article here

Post-Slayton article here

Always a big fan of SacramentoComedy.com, and big thanks to Steve Bloom over there for the coverage. This is always your best place to head to to find out what's happening in the Sac comedy world. Well, there and this blog, of course...

I'll go ahead and repost the link here to my "Insight" radio interview, just to keep everything in one handy place. Again, host Jeffrey Callison and all the folks down at Capitol Public Radio (KXJX 90.9 FM) made the whole thing a lot of fun to do, and were awesome to get me on there so quick to pimp the event. Thanks again, guys. Sorry we didn't get the Bobby Slayton news until AFTER your show wrapped. :) My interview is the last segment on the show, so it's about 37 minutes in.

"Insight" radio interview (pre-Slayton)

My second radio interview was done with the show "Radio Parallax" on KDVS 90.3. I met the show's host, Doug Everett, at the Will Durst show at the Crest, and he took my card and said he wanted to follow up with me to come on and do some comedy talk. When he heard me on the "Insight" show, he gave me a call and wanted to know if I wanted to come on his show and plug the Tommy T's event. Uh, you THINK? Funny side story - my comedy partner Vladimir and Doug are good friends, and Vladimir has been on Parallax several times as he's their official aviation correspondent. And yet, Doug and I met and then hooked up for an interview, all without realizing we both knew Vladimir. Great of Doug to throw this together for me! Sounds like I'll be going back on Parallax to chat with him for longer pretty soon, so I'll keep you posted.

My interview is about three minutes long, and starts at about the 11 minute mark. Go to the link, look for show #415, and you'll want segment #1 there. You can either click on it and listen to it right there in the browser, or right-click on it and choose "save link as" and save the MP3 file to your hard drive, or you can click on the "iTunes" button on the left-hand side of the screen. If you choose the latter, your iTunes software will come up and take you to a list of Parallax podcasts. You'll want to go to the 5/27/10 show and listen to/download "Segment A".

"Radio Parallax" interview (post-Slayton)

Now this is pretty exciting stuff to me. Quest Magazine has been on my radar since I was a kid, since this is the official Magazine of the MDA. I still get it in the mail. After my comedy stuff started and word started getting around the national MDA office about me, Bill Norman called me up (after getting my info from the local MDA office) and asked if they could do an interview with me. This one's about me and not about the event, but it posted online the day after the event so they added a blurb about it at the end.

Quest Magazine interview

That's it for now. If TMZ starts following me around, I'll be sure to link you up on that when it goes down. Why can't these people give me a moment's peace?! And why did they have to publish my cottage cheese bikini pics?!

Tommy T's MDA Fundraiser Rocks the Hizzouse!

2010-05-28T02:02:00.000-07:00

Now THAT was a night.

Back home now from the MDA Fundraiser at Tommy T's. Still wired. I wanted to get the facts out while they're still fresh in my head.

So, in case you missed the lead-up, this show has been planned for a while, and up until two days before the show, I was the only real selling point. This was a show to raise money for the MDA, set up by Tommy T's. I was the featured act, and other comedians were going to be doing it with me. As the date got closer, I (and my awesome support team) have been busting humps to get the word out. Cynthia E. Jones put together some beautiful flyers for me, and Vladimir and I got them posted up all over midtown. Oh, fun story about that - I was in a Mexican restaurant down there, asking if I could put a flyer in the window, and the guy behind the counter recognized me and had seen me perform before. He was a bartender at La Casa when I opened for the first comedy showcase there. Cool.

So flyers were flown, and not just be us but by other helpful "flyer buddies" who downloaded the PDF and put it up in their offices and other locales. I also got on two different radio shows to promote it (and allllllmost on a third, but got bumped by American Idol. Long story...). Tried for a couple of TV options, too, that didn't pan out, but gave it a shot.

But things changed on Tuesday as soon as I finished my first radio interview at Capital Public Radio. I went outside just after getting off the air, and my cell rang. It was Lou calling from Tommy T's. Lou wanted to know if I wanted to know who was going to be doing the show with me. I said sure.

Lou said Bobby Slayton.

Wow.

I'm a big fan. This is BOBBY SLAYTON, man! The legend! He's been around doing this for over 20 years. He's a comedy TANK. Suddenly, this benefit had just gotten a WHOLE lot more juice. And all I could think of was...I couldn't have gotten this information BEFORE I went on the radio to plug it?! No, I couldn't have, actually...Lou found out while I was in the middle of doing it.

So this was really exciting, not just for how much more this could mean to the fundraiser, but that I'd get to do a show with BOBBY SLAYTON. Now I was really psyched. And better yet, the show now kind of sold itself. All I had to do now was let people know about the Slayton thing, so I hit the web, the phones, the texts, and the radio (for interview #2) to do just that.

So today was miserable and stormy and rainy, and I thought, great, THAT'll encourage people to come out. But the rain stopped and things cleared up before showtime, so WHEW! I got to Tommy T's about a quarter after six. Some of my people were already there, having dinner and watching the Laker game (Tommy T's has two big screens they can let down, and had the game on while people waited), and my support team had just arrived - Tim, my "lifter", and Vlado with the tee shirts, and Arianne on the camera. Vlado went upstairs and get the tee shirt sales area set up. I had a bunch of shirts made up (thanks going out to my pal Aaron for hooking me up on the deal through his guy) and shipped in, ones with my logo and my web address on the front.

I hung outside for a while since we got there so early, and greeted people of mine as they came in. Pretty soon, as I chatted, Bobby Slayton came walking up with his comedy partner (the name is escaping me, and I'm feeling terrible about it) and an armload of his DVDs for post-show sale. He spotted me and asked if I was "the guy", and I said that I was. We shook hands and I thanked him for doing this for the cause. We talked for a couple of minutes there and then he headed up to the club to set up his stuff.

Soon the awesome folks from the MDA office came by, as I knew they would be. Andy Sheehy and Chastity Madison from there have coordinated with me and Tommy T's on this show. Andy even brought me the gift of two cigars! Sweet! See what your MDA donations go to? Jerry's Kids get tobacco, dude!

After finishing chatting with some more arriving guests, I headed back upstairs to talk with Lou and with local comedy master Ruben Mora, who was there to assist Lou for the evening (Ruben runs the open mic room at T2's on Wednesday nights). I found out I'd be going first, then Bobby's opening act guy, then Bobby. Cool. I could get my set out of the way and then order some dinner, because I hadn't eaten all day and was feeling it. I went to the bar to order a Guinn, at least, and hung out there for a bit with Bobby. I NEARLY had a drink bought for me by Bobby, in fact, as he was ordering his. He asked me, "You want something, kid?", and then someone else started talking to him, so I paid for my own drink and felt better about that. But still...kind of cool to almost have a celeb pay for your booze. And Bobby Slayton called me kid! I felt like I was in Vegas in 1962!

Really fun crowd there. We had a good showing. I had a good number of friends and family there, some of whom I hadn't seen in quite some time, so I was having a ball just rapping with everybody. But soon it was time for the show to start. I grabbed Tim and we headed backstage, where he got me up the steps. I waited there. Tommy T's has this video that plays on the screen before big name shows start (I didn't know this because I'm never at Tommy T's for any of the weekend shows), so that went on. Bobby came backstage, told me good luck, and headed up into the green room for a bit. Lou came up and waited with me until the end of the video, then went out on stage and did the bit they do where they bring people up on stage who have birthdays (or are close to birthdays) and make them dance or do other stuff to get free Tommy T's tickets. He also brought Andy up (who's the executive director of our local MDA office), and Andy said a few things about the MDA and thanked everyone for showing up and supporting the cause.

I hit the Twitter one last time to let folks know I was about to go on, then I got my intro. Went out and did my set, a mixture of old and new stuff (I wanted some new stuff for my people who were coming out to see me again and had heard it all before). Had a great time with it. Did my bit and headed for the bar and ordered food right away, as I was really feeling the lack of energy. Hung out back there with Arianne and Vlado and watched the guy who's name I can't remember (I suck) who was really awesome. Crowd loved him. And I loved my burger. It was all a big love-fest. I hung out with Bobby a bit more at the bar, and got some compliments and good advice. He felt I had "killer" stuff. I told him how I'm trying to get on the MDA Telethon, and he felt that my stuff would "kill...KILL" on the show. I'm passing that info along to the MDA, thank you very much.

After that, Bobby went and took the stage. In typical Slayton fashion, his first words up at an MDA fundraiser were insulting both the MDA and Jerry Lewis. And it was glorious. As was watching him work. Like many of the great ones, you get the idea that he has about ten minutes, maybe, of set material up there, and the rest is all just working the crowd. And he did. His set ran somewhere between 45 minutes and an hour, and it just flew by. He ripped it up, worked every corner of the crowd, offended all equally, and had everyone in stitches. The audience loved it. And I loved watching and learning from someone who's do this so well and has been doing it for so long. I'm telling you, if you're in Sac and you weren't there tonight? You ought to grab some tickets and catch him there over the weekend. He's playing Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

After the show was, I think, my favorite part. That was when I got to hang out and meet people and hook up with friends and family that showed, and got to get pictures taken with a lot of folks. While I did this (with Arianne working the camera), Vlado was working his arse off at the tee shirt table selling off fine Michael O'Comedy fashion. Vlado also wisely brought a Sharpie for me, as people did come up to me and ask to have their tee shirts signed. Sadly, no bosom signings. I'm not THAT big yet.

Bobby was at a table greeting fans on their way out and selling copies of his DVD (and five bucks of every purchase (as well as a portion of his payment for the night) was going right to the MDA). I got some photos taken with him and I there. They were interesting. Bobby's a unique individual. Bobby's also one hell of a classy guy, and really showed it all night (off-stage, of course...). He bought one of my shirts and put it on, too. He also gave me one of his DVD's with this signed on the front:

"Mike -
You were great!
Good f***in' luck!
Your pal -
Bobby Slayton"

I also got a pic with the whole MDA crew, and was really glad they were able to make it out to share in this. I was also happy that so many of my people were able to break free on a Thursday night (right before a holiday weekend) to be there for the benefit - some of whom drove here from as far as Redding and Modesto! Very, very grateful to everyone who showed, not just for being there for me and for me having the pleasure of their company, but for helping raise some solid cash for the MDA. This mission was a success.

So thanks to them, thanks to my awesome support team, thanks to my fellow comedy peeps who made it out (like Ty Anderson, Cheryl the Soccer Mom, Queenie TT and Samantha Hickey) when they could been somewhere else getting stage time instead, thanks to Bobby Slayton for bringing the power cred to the night, and thanks to Tommy T's Comedy & Dinner Theater, the folks who came to me with this idea in the first place and let us use their club to bring it to life. Once again, Tommy T's is in my corner and has got my back. You guys are the bestest.

And now...I am done with comedy. For a while. Surgery is Tuesday, recovery comes next, so I wouldn't expect to see me in the month of June (unless I recover quicker than I think). But I'll be back before you know it, and you'll probably be hearing plenty from me online in the meantime. But I'll probably be so doped on painkillers that I won't be making much sense. See you when I see you, Sac comedy scene!

Bobby Slayton and Michael O'Connell Join For MDA Fundraiser

2010-05-26T11:55:00.000-07:00

From SacramentoComedy.com:

The big news today regarding the Tommy T's MDA Fundraiser ("Comedy Made Accessible") taking place this Thursday, May 27th, can be summed up in two words.

Bobby Slayton.

The legendary comedian/actor known worldwide as the "Pitbull of Comedy" will be joining the benefit Thursday night to help raise funds for the Muscular Dystrophy Association. Slayton is booked to play Tommy T's all this coming weekend, but has added an extra night to take part in the MDA event.

Slayton will join Sacramento wheelchair comedian Michael O'Connell in a show where 100% of ticket sales will be donated by Tommy T's to the MDA. Michael O'Connell tee shirts will also be sold to raise monies for the charity, a charity near to O'Connell as he suffers from Muscular Dystrophy himself.

Per his bio, Bobby Slayton "has been performing his own intense style of stand-up comedy for over 20 years, becoming one of the best known, respected, and energetic comics working today. Audiences around the country may recognize Bobby from his scene-stealing roles in movies such as 'Get Shorty,' 'Ed Wood,' 'Bandits' and most recently 'Dreamgirls.' He's been seen on dozens of television shows including 'The Tonight Show' and 'Politically Incorrect.' Bobby's many appearances on HBO have included 'Comic Relief '& his own stand-up special. He was a series regular on the HBO series 'Mind of a Married Man,' and played 'Joey Bishop' opposite Ray Liotta and Joe Mantegna in the critically acclaimed film 'The Rat Pack.'

Slayton's distinctive gravelly voice has often been heard on animated shows like 'Dr. Katz' and 'Family Guy,' as well as many popular radio shows across the country including Howard Stern, Kevin & Bean, and Tom Leykis.

The NY Daily News called Slayton 'Armed and Dangerous' and the Las Vegas Review Journal pointed out that 'Slayton's refusal to comprise his art has always made him worth a special trip.'"

Michael O'Connell is a comedian new to the comedy scene, but has achieved much notoriety in his young career for his unique disability-themed humor. After winning an open mic night at Tommy T's his first night on stage, he went on to compete in the Tommy T's Talent Search Finals, advancing to the final round and finishing second overall. He's gone on to play clubs and comedy rooms all over Sacramento, has been featured in the Sacramento Bee and local radio, and is in talks to appear on the Jerry Lewis Labor Day Telethon in Las Vegas. His comedy has caught the attention of such celebrities as comedian/singer Dan Finnerty (of "The Dan Band") and actor Adam Baldwin ("Chuck", "Firefly"), both of whom have linked his videos on their Twitter pages.

Tickets for the event are $10.00 and are available at the door or through the Tommy T's web site. The show begins at 7:30 PM.

"Insight" Radio Interview

2010-05-25T22:37:00.000-07:00

Had a great time this morning doing my interview on Capital Public Radio, KXJZ 90.9 FM, for the show "Insight", to promote the big MDA Fundraiser show on Thursday night at Tommy T's.

Got up WAY too early for this today. Well...early for me. And it wasn't so much that it was early as that I was a bit ill last night and didn't get to sleep until late. So after about 3.5 hours of sleep, I was up and ready to launch! Groggy, but ready to launch!

I went first and picked up Vladimir from his place, as he was coming along to take photos. After getting ourselves a little lost, we made it to the station in time, and even found out I was to be the last segment, so I was plenty early. We got guided back to the green room (how many times in the average human life to you get to be in someone's green room? AWEsome), but were offered pink cupcakes along the way by station employees who were having a birthday party. Do pink cupcakes and green rooms mix?

In the green room (after I signed the "Insight" guest book per request), we met a writer by the name of Eric Volz. We asked about what he wrote, which he described as "memoir and true crime" (?). After getting more info, we found out he wasn't a fiction writer, but wrote a book about his experiences being framed and jailed in Nicaragua for the rape and murder of a local girl that he'd been involved with. This is a messed up, all true story. And it turns out Vladimir had read about it in a magazine around the time it was all going on. It's an incredible (and horrifying) tale, and I, myself, can't wait to read the book. You, too, should try "Gringo Nightmare", and you can order it up right here.

As as we sat in the green room, comedian Nick Brunner dropped in and joined us. I'd totally forgotten he worked at the station! We got to rap for a while and talk about "The Wire" (greatest TV show EVER. Yes, fellow "Lost" fans, I said it!). Good seeing him outside the walls of Luna's Cafe.

They called me in to the booth soon enough, and Vladimir went into the sound room to watch through the glass. I got to meet the show's host, Jeffrey Callison, a fantastic (and Scottish) guy who made me feel right at home. We got started, and I got to talk about the benefit, about Muscular Dystrophy, about my comedy, and about wheelchair living in general. I even got to name drop a little (threw in plugs for Ellis Rodriguez, Keith Lowell Jensen, Luna's Cafe, and, of course, a lot about Tommy T's. I was hoping to be able to pimp a lot more folks and comedy joints, but you can only force that stuff into a 12-minute interview so many times). Really enjoyed the experience! And very grateful to Jeffrey, and to show producer Jen Picard who set the whole thing up for me on such short notice. Thanks for the help getting word out on the event, Capital Public Radio!

If you missed the show, you can listen to it right here:

http://www.capradio.org/programs/programdetail.aspx?showid=7889

When you click on the "Listen" button, a media player window will pop up, and you'll be given the option of playing it through that or right-clicking the link to download the MP3. I highly recommend the latter, so you can enjoy it right on your iPod. My interview begins right at 38 minutes in.

So I finished up, rolled outside the building, and my phone rang. It was Lou with Tommy T's. Lou had some pretty big news for me (that of course had to happen AFTER I got off the radio). What was it? Read the next blog for details!

5/27/10 MDA Fundraiser needs your help, comedy fans!

2010-05-22T00:00:00.000-07:00

This is going out to all my peeps in the 916, yo! Sac fans, check this out!

Okay, the big MDA Fundraiser at Tommy T's - you know, the one where I'm headlining? - is coming up THIS THURSDAY, 5/27! As you may recall, 100% of ticket sales (and tickets are ten bucks) go right to the MDA. So to make the top dollar for the MDA, it would help to sell this monkey OUT!

This is where you can help.

Of course, you showing up is a fantastic start, and I'm dying to see you there. But to make sure we hit the big numbers, it would help if some other folks came along, too.

Soooo...

We've got a couple of promotional flyers for this show (designed by photographer Cynthia E. Jones), and it would be a HUGE help if you could take one of those and paste it up in your office...or in the window of your favorite coffee shop...or on the windshield of every car at Arco Arena. Whatever works for you. The more people that hear about this event the better, and with your help, we can make that wee dream of sellout dolla come true!

There are two versions of the flyer. The first is the standard one, and comes in both color and black and white versions. The second is the awesome fancy one, which you can use if you don't mind using more of your color ink (it's much more colorful). You can find the PDF of each one at these handy links:

** Click on the text link (not the thumbnail) to go to the full-size PDF **

VERSION 1: COLOR

VERSION 1: B&W

VERSION 2: FANCY COLOR ONE

Just choose whichever your printer likes better (not everyone has a color printer. Many offices are still way too cheap), pull up that PDF, print it, and stick it somewhere where folks can see it. With any luck, Operation: Flyer Buddy will be a spectacular success, and there will be happy comedy fans wall to wall at Tommy T's!

Thanks, everybody. This is a really good cause, and I really appreciate your help on this. Let me know if you have any questions or problems. And seriously...I hope to see you there!

Countdown to Assimilation: the Cardiac Adventure

2010-05-20T00:09:00.000-07:00

I've been trying to fit in as much comedy as I can in the month of May. Because as of June 1st, I'll be taking a little break from the comedy world. For kind of not-really-much-choice reasons.

At 7:00 AM on Tuesday, June 1st, I'll be wheeled into an operating room at UCD Med Center for some heart surgery. Specifically, to get my pacemaker replaced/upgraded.

I've had a pacemaker since 2001. Heart problems are one of the fun things that come with my particular kind of Muscular Dystrophy, and it was pretty much understood that one day I'd end up getting a pacemaker. Well, that day came kind of all of a sudden. Things started going wrong one evening with my heart (I could clearly tell), so I got into my van, drove myself to the emergency room, and found out my heart was basically slowing down and trying to stop. I was checked in immediately, and 24 hours later I had a pacemaker in my chest.

At the time, the pacemaker was top of the line. Really snazzy tech, this stuff. It has a computer chip in it that records everything my heart does, and I go in to my cardiologist every three months or so so they can put this wand thing over my chest, and that wand pulls all the data (in a very wi-fi kind of way) and puts it on a computer that they then review. It also shows them how much time is left on my battery in there. The estimate for battery life was about seven to eight years. I've managed to make it for almost nine. But it's now down to less than two months left, so it's time for a replacement.

While they could just replace the battery in it, that's just not going to cut it. Think about the cell phone you had in 2001. How many generations removed is it from the phone you have now? Think about how much the technology has changed since then. Now apply that thought to my pacemaker. I can't even text with my pacemaker! It doesn't surf the web, doesn't have GPS, you can't play Tetris on it... It's now old and lame. So it needs replacing anyway, but now I'm also in need of a combo pacemaker/defibrillator unit. Which, unfortunately, is quite a bit bigger than the one I have, so it's going to be sore as HELL when they cut my shoulder open on the 1st of June and jam the thing in there. I am officially geared up and ready to start my prescription painkiller dependency. THEN I'll really feel like I'm on the road to celebrityhood.

This is what I will look like to Superman.

I'll be in the hospital for a couple of days, then home recovering. The recovery part is mainly just recovering from the wound itself. Hopefully that'll be mostly handled within a couple of weeks, but then I'll have the added time needing to not move my left arm very much, because the leads that go from the pacemaker into the heart aren't really locked into place (there's a certain amount of scarring needed) for about 8-10 weeks. Not sure yet how down I'll be for this period of time, but hopefully not out of it completely for the WHOLE time. We'll see.

So that means a break from comedy for a while as the summer begins. But hopefully I'll make a triumphant return soon after. But that's the final step. First step is getting the surgery done and getting the new cybernetic implant up and running.

And to that end...

Prayers and happy vibes are, of course, welcome. But as a special boost of good will, I have a request. It is this. On June 1st, at 7:00 AM (when surgery is scheduled to begin), I would like as many people as possible to play a song. MP3, CD, record, whatever. The choice of song is up to you, with this condition: it needs to have the word "heart" attached to it. For example, any song from the band "Heart" will do. You can even push it and play something by Corey Hart. You can find heart-titled songs, such as Don Johnson's big 80's hit "Heartbeat", or Don Henley's "The Heart of the Matter"...or Stacey Q's "Two of Hearts" if you roll that way. I won't restrict you on the song (I just had to stop myself from banning that song from Titanic), whatever floats your boat (or in the case of Titanic, sinks the #$@% thing), as you'll be the one listening to it, not me. I'll be quite unconscious at the time.

And after you've played your song, I would ask that you please post up somewhere what you played, just so everyone can see where everyone went (so creativity and obscurity is encouraged). That can be either here on this blog entry under comments, or on the Facebook event page (I'm about to make one of these when I finish this entry), or right on my Facebook wall. This will make it fun. In my opinion.

So the countdown to my assimilation begins! Hope to see all of you in the comedy world a couple more times (definitely at the big MDA Fundraiser at Tommy T's...right?) before it all goes down, but after that, I wanted you to know where I disappeared to. And when I return, I hope to have a whole slew of hospital/surgery/pacemaker jokes ready to drop on stage. This is the great thing about being a comedian. The more things that go awry during my hospital stay and the recovery after, the better the jokes. Woo hoo!

Again, your last chance to see me make jokes powered by the old pacemaker is Thursday, 5/27, at 7:00 PM, and your 100% of your ticket money will go right to the MDA, thanks to Tommy T's! Hope to see you there!

And thanks, all. From the bottom of...

I can't do it. It's just too obvious.

Me and Joey G at Luna's Cafe Wednesday night!

2010-05-17T23:56:00.000-07:00

The reunion that Tommy T's Open Mic Finals (Season 1) fans have DEMANDED! DEMANDED, I say!

It'll be a dream come true this Wednesday, May 19, at Comedy Night at Luna's for those happy souls. Joey G and I will be rocking the same mic again for the first time since the Final Four round at Tommy T's, as we appear with other comics (some of them even almost as funny as us) and host-having-the-most Keith Lowell Jensen.

Show starts at 8:00 PM, and it's six bucks at the door. That's only three bucks for each of us, and you get all those other comedians and a headliner for free! What a deal! So join the fun at:

Luna's Cafe & Juice Bar

1414 16th Street

Sacramento, CA 95814

Bring a friend! Especially if it's a hot female friend. Please note that Joey is married, so the friend is strictly for my benefit. Bonus points if she wears glasses and likes Cameron Crowe films. Thank you.

This Week in NorCal Comedy (week of 05/10/10)

2010-05-10T03:54:00.000-07:00

It's a brand-new week in Northern California! One wonders what kind of opportunities for comedic delight this week to come might bring. Well, funny you should wonder. I just happen to have some suggestions for you.

(Again, this is not meant to be a comprehensive list. Just a few highlights I'm noting for y'all...).

MONDAY, 5/10

PO' BOYZ BAR & GRILLE, Folsom, 9:00 PM - Considered by some to be the best-kept secret in Sacramento area comedy, the Open Mic Night at Po' Boyz draw in the best comedians from Sacramento and the Bay, with out-of-towners carpooling together to come up to Folsom to try our their latest stuff on the local crowd. Hosted by Cheryl the Soccer Mom (best known of late as part of the highly successful "Real (Funny) Housewives of Rio Linda"), this is a room with no cover and no minimums, and a great place for comedy fans to check out the up-and-comers, and even the occasional big-name special guest dropping in. Come hang with the Boyz.

TUESDAY, 5/11

TOMMY T'S, Rancho Cordova, 7:00 PM - It's not only Open Mic Night at Tommy T's, but also Taco Tuesday! Comedy and tacos...that's a magical combo, kids. Comics of the brand-new and on-the-rise varieties will be hitting the mic for a shot at getting into season 3 of the Tommy T's Talent Search. If you think you have what it takes, head down to Tommy T's and put that money right about where that mouth sits. And if you just like to watch (you KNOW you do...), you and your tacos will witness a fantastic variety of comedians lightin' up that mic. Two-drink min.

WEDNESDAY, 5/12

Wow. Big day. Take a deep breath, and...

VICE ULTRA LOUNGE, Walnut Creek, 7:00 PM - Well, comedy is hitting Walnut Creek in a BIG way. Ambitious comedy nights going on at Vice, folks, and they smack of "can't miss" to me. Comedy JAM Wednesdays include Open Mic and Showcase from 7:00 to 8:00, then the Headliner (with openers) from 8:00 to 9:30. This particular Wednesday looks awesome for the listed Showcase comedians alone, because that list includes my boys Willie Mac, Mac McDonald and Roland Mothershed (as well as Melanie Bega, Jesse Elias, Tamarah Masdon and Chris Schiappacasse)! As if they weren't enough of a draw ALONE, the Headliner for the eve is Candy Churilla, she of the Last Comic Standing fame and one painfully funny lady on stage (as I witnessed at Luna's a while back). Opening for Candy are Susan Maletta and Liz Grant. The show is run by TV's Mark Roman and comedian Kelleen, and celebrity guests are brought in each week representing their favorite charity. This week, the celebs include Jacqueline Williams (Miss 2010 California Gold Coast) and Frankie Simmons-North (Mr. US, former Armani Model of the Year). Did I say ambitious? Do you get why now? The party's in Walnut Creek, ladies and gents! No cover.

TOMMY T'S, Rancho Cordova, 7:30 PM - Season 2 of the Tommy T's Talent Search continues as the next finalists take their shot in round 1 of the competition. Which ones will advance to round 2, and which will go home? Got to show up at Tommy T's to find out! Finalists in this round include Jake Ward and Queenie TT. And for all you stalkers out there, this is where you'll be able to find me Wednesday. Five bucks at the door, two drink min.

LUNA'S CAFE, Sacramento, 8:00 PM - It's another fantastic Comedy Night at Luna's, and state-hopping, dangerously funny comedian Jason Resler is headlining the fun. I just worked with Jason last week, and have confirmed - you're in for a big treat with this show. The usual quality selection of local comics will be cracking you before Jason hits the stage, hand-selected by your host, Keith Lowell Jensen. And as it's been standing room only lately at Luna's on Wednesdays, you might want to show up early to get a table. Six bucks at the door gets you mucho comedo. That's not a real Spanish phrase. I just made it up. I think. It might be right, for all I know...

PUNCHLINE, Sacramento, 8:00 PM - Assuming they can manage to keep the parking lot from flooding this time (last week's busted fire hydrant at the Howe 'Bout Arden center yielded awesome Noah-like pics), Punchline is set to knock you OUT Wednesday night. It's that time of the month (not THAT time...), and that means Sacramento Comedy Showcase! Seriously, if you look around you on Wednesday night and notice you can't seem to find any comedians in sight? Chances are that's because they're all HERE. This is always an amazing night, bringing the best in Sac and the Bay on stage together. And your host is one of California's funniest, the amazing John Ross. Ten bucks will get you through the door. Two drink min.

T2'S, Sacramento, 9:00 PM - Itching for some Wednesday night open mic action, Sacramento comics? Then why the hell aren't you at T2's? Maybe it's because you're used to that open mic being at Trino's, and you haven't figured out yet that it's the same building but with a new name. Come toss your best punchlines with Sac-Town faves at the room hosted by Ruben Mora. No cover. Many laughs. Good times.

THURSDAY, 5/15

TRE NIGHTCLUB, Sacramento, 7:00 PM - After its big debut last week, the funny continues at Open Mic Comedy Night at Tre, Sac's newest open mic alternative. Tre is quite posh and comic-friendly, with great service and really rockin' food (the burger is to die for), and Sac's favorite boys and girls of ha-ha will be hitting the mic on the Tre dance floor (don't worry...no dancers until after the comedy, so the comics will not be injured). Host Jennifer Rutherford will be making it all happen, and rumor has it I'll be there dropping some comedy my damn self. Sign-ups for comics start at 6:00 PM, show starts promptly at 7:00 PM. No cover, no minimum. And hang around for the after-party and dance (and drink) the night away at Tre!

TOMMY T'S, Rancho Cordova, 7:30 PM - Originally from Detroit but a Californian now, Tony Roberts has been all over TV comedy - from HBO to BET to his lastest Showtime special. One of the funniest guys currently in the biz (I have seen him live and speak the truth), he'll be bringing the roof down at Tommy T's on both Thursday (7:30 show only) and Friday (7:30 and 9:30 shows). Tickets fifteen bucks. WORTH it.

FRIDAY, 5/16

SACRAMENTO COMEDY SPOT, Sacramento, 9:00 PM - Your Friday night comedy needs are handled. In fact, here's MORE than you can handle. It's double improv action! The Comedy Spot improv shows start at 9:00 PM with the Anti-Cooperation League ($8 tix). Then, at 10:30 PM, you've got the 3 On 3 Improv Tournament ($5 tix). You can save some scratch and increase your chuckles by spending $10 on an all-night pass and catching both shows. Local comics...crazy make-em-ups! Check it out!

SATURDAY, 5/17

CAFE NOSTRA, El Dorado Hills, CA - Holy smokes, what a lineup! Appearing this weekend at Comedy Night at the fantastic venue at Cafe Nostra is a trio of comedy KAPOW! Your headliner is the aforementioned Jason Resler. Your feature set is the amazing Joey Gonzalez, who's been lighting it up around the state since his Final Four showing at the Tommy T's Talent Search got him so much notice. And your special guest host for the evening is the woman who's bringing sexy back to comedy, Jennifer Rutherford. This is worth the trip up the freeway, people! What a way to spend an S-A-T-U-R, D-A-Y, night! No cover, no minimums, just good times and one tasty-ass sandwich.

SACRAMENTO COMEDY SPOT, Sacramento, 11:00 PM - Oh, it is finally HERE. You've heard the rumors. You've dared to dream. And now, finally, The David Lew Experience premieres at Comedy Spot. This late night event described as an "R-Rated Variety Show" will happen every Saturday night, and will be a different show each week. Hosted and enabled by the amazing David Lew himself, the "Experience" will apparently involve contestants winning cash and prizes. So you could be going home with some fetti if you check this show out...by the big question in your mind should be, "What am I going to have to DO to win that cash?". It'll cost you five bucks to get in the door and find out. Be there and be able to say you were at the first David Lew Experience EVER!

REVIEW: Keith Lowell Jensen - "To the Moon" - Comedy CD

2010-05-10T01:04:00.000-07:00

He is Sacramento's own Keith Lowell Jensen. We embrace him with a kind of pride usually only reserved for the likes of Tesla...Cake...or Molly Ringwald. But while all of those just mentioned can sing, Keith, instead, croons a song of sarcastic mirth. Comedy is timbre of his vibrato. His lyrics are the observations and experiences of his life that speak to the shared existence of us all. And through his serenade, we find that there's a little bit of Keith in all of us.

Or at least those of us who are consistently mistaken for being gay, like to watch our porn backwards, and don't get along very well with our imaginary friends.

You might know Keith as the Atheist on the Coexist Comedy Tour, or might have seen him back when he toured with Spike & Mike's, or might have even see him on Lopez Tonight and asked, "Why is that skinny white boy on TV impersonating Chris Rock while standing next to Chris Rock?". But those of us in the Sacramento comedy world know him best as the founder and host of Comedy Night at Luna's, the every-Wednesday comedian showcase that takes place in Midtown at Luna's Cafe. It's fitting to us, then, that Keith chose to record his newest comedy CD - "To the Moon" - at Luna's. He performs all over the country, but if anywhere is his comedic home, it's Luna's.

What makes this CD such a pleasure, even before Keith takes the stage after the introduction, is the audio environment. The recording perfectly captures what an evening of comedy at Luna's sounds like, a small but enthusiastic venue that many Sacramento comics find to be their favorite room to play. The CD takes on the same personal, more intimate ambiance one finds on any given Wednesday in this artsy juice bar, as opposed to the impersonal overwhelm of a large club.

Jensen connects immediately with his audiences, and does so once more with this taping. His particular charm is a combination of boyish enthusiasm, indignation, and subtle self-deprecation. His years of experience at the game have taught him how to come off as speaking with the audience, not to it. There's a genuineness in his performances, which is helped by drawing much of his material from his own life history, as the best in the comedy field always do.

Leaving his Atheism material behind (that which delights crowds on the Coexist tour or local shows like the recent "Ha Ha Heathens" night at the Sacramento Comedy Spot), Keith focuses, instead, on a range of subjects from touring stories in small towns, fatherhood, computer tech support, high school nightmares, his own oft-mislabeled sexual orientation, the history of pornography, Jenny McCarthy, dumb people, and his own evil, evil brother. The crowd is with him, and loves it, with numerous laughter and applause breaks. Once more, the familiar sounds of Luna's are captured, including the distinctive (and always appreciated by us comics) laughter of Babalou (she who takes the money at the door) and even the barely-heard ringing of the Luna's phone. I like to imagine that the call was from someone asking, "What time does Keith Lowell Jensen go on?" halfway through Keith's set.

I had a number of laugh-out-loud moments during my listening of this CD, which is unusual for me, as I'm more of a laugh-on-the-inside kind of comedy fan. I noticed this mainly because I was listening on my iPod out on my patio, and each time I laughed I surprised myself and looked around to make sure none of my neighbors were walking by and thinking I'd gone mental. I've seen Keith on stage many times now, and was pleased to find most of "To the Moon" was material I'd not heard before. And it was really good material. Keith's writing and comedic timing sync together perfectly in this hour-long set, with all the right surprises, expert pauses, and inflections of his voice that he wields like a sword (if swords made people laugh instead of bleed and die). Keith is the journeyman comedian who knows his craft and knows his audience, and exudes a confidence that never comes off cocky. It's the confidence of a comedian who's seen it all, who's played every kind crowd on every kind of stage, and lets nothing shake him. He carries just the right dosage of fearlessness that makes his words and tales impossible to ignore, and makes us grateful to be on the ride he's taking us on.

"To the Moon" is a winner, a perfect starting point for the KLJ-uninitiated and a treat for long-time fans. It's available on Amazon for $14.99 for the CD, or an $8.99 MP3 download. If you're up for an auditory trip to downtown Sacramento, an evening amongst close tables and friendly company (and a very tasty turkey melt, my personal favorite on the Luna's menu), and a lot of laughs at the expense of a man who truly knows how to pull them from you, then pick this one up. Keith Lowell Jensen, the pride of Success High, is saving you a spot up front.

"GET WELL SOON" ALERT: Carlos Rodriguez

2010-05-04T20:28:00.000-07:00

If you're in Sacramento comedy, you know comedian Carlos Rodriguez. Carlos is all over the state in his performances, and it's not hyperbole to say he's easily one of the funniest comics in the California scene. And one of the coolest, too.

Last night Carlos ended up in the ER after apparently losing a fight with a spider. A bite on the hand led not to him gaining super-powers and webbing his way across the city, but to him getting a GIANT EFFING HAND. It hurts just LOOKING at the damned thing. I can only imagine what it feels like wearing it.

Whatever they did in the ER clearly wasn't enough, because by today, Carlos reported via Facebook that he was back at the hospital and about to go under the knife, so some kind of surgical remedy was needed. Hopefully that'll be the thing that returns his hand to normal instead of the giant red sausage monster it transformed into.

So if you're one of Carlos' many Facebook friends and/or fans, why not drop in and post a "get well" to the man on his wall? Or at the very least, a joke about how much this injury is going to affect his sex life.

Deflate soon, Mr. Rodriguez, and we'll see you on the mic.

This Week in NorCal Comedy

2010-05-04T16:28:00.000-07:00

I'm always keeping an eye on what's happening in the comedy scene around Northern Cal, just to see what all my other comedy peeps are doing, and I like to point these things out from time to time so others might share in the fun. I thought this week I'd just put all these in one place to reference. Note that this is not meant to be a comprehensive list - just the stuff I've found, and mostly stuff involving folks I know.

TUESDAY, MAY 4

TOMMY T'S, Rancho Cordova, 7:00 PM - the second season of the Tommy T's finals has just gotten started (congrats to Sunday night's winners who moved on), so now's the time for the new hopefuls to hit the Open Mic Night to try to qualify for the season three finals. It's Taco Tuesday at Tommy T's, so good eats and up-n-comin' comedy hopefuls showing their stuff. If you think you got it in you, get up on the stage at Tommy T's and find out! Limited to 12 comics only, so show up early if you're hitting the mic.

LAUGHS UNLIMITED, Old Sacramento, 8:00 PM - It's time for Shane Murphy's Funky Mad Fresh Comedy Show, the once-per-month open mic host by the Irish car bomb himself, Shane Murphy. And it is ALWAYS full. Lots of comics, new and vet, all hitting the mic and blowing the roof off the place. Oh, and a special 21st birthday celebration will be happening for local comic Anthony Zimmer. If you want to hit THIS open mic? Show up and sign up early (signups start at 7:00), and bring people with you - "bringers" get priority on the list. You want to try doing comedy in this town, Tuesday night's your night! Double open mic ACTION, baby!

WEDNESDAY, MAY 5

TOMMY T'S, Rancho Cordova, 7:00 PM - Oh, baby! A comedy BOMB is dropping on Rancho! And just in time to rock Cinco de Mayo! The Real (Funny) Housewives of Rio Linda are bringing it to Tommy T's! You might want to call for reservations, as this group has been known to sell out shows. Watch Cheryl the Soccer Mom, Kristen Frisk, Stephanie Garcia, Sinderella and Kimmy Kay work their domestic mojo and rock the joint. DAMMIT I wish I could make this one...

LUNA'S CAFE, Sacramento, 8:00 PM - This is where I'll be (to witness, not to perform). The Comedy Night at Luna's weekly show, brought to you by Keith Lowell Jensen, will be headlined by Brendan Lynch this time around, and will feature a selection of awesome comics including Caitlin Gill, Miles K. Stenhjem, Nick Brunner and Zack Parrott...and the usual tasty Luna's chow (I'm partial to the turkey melt). Six bucks gets you in the door. Hilarity then ensues. If you drink too much, Keith will be happy to drive you home. He's just that kind of host.

T2'S, Sacramento, 9:00 PM - Speaking of open mics, here's your Wednesday option. At the lounge formerly known as Trino's, host Delfino Reyna brings you the special Cinco de Mayo Comedy Competition. Lots of comics (maybe you!), including Willie Mac and Joey G. Winner gets a bottle of tequila, AND gets to host next month's comedy night at Delfino's comedy room (Club Evolution) in Los Banos.

THURSDAY, MAY 6

TRE NIGHTCLUB, Sacramento, 7:00 PM - The newest open mic in town premieres this Thursday at Tre (on Howe Avenue), hosted by Jennifer Rutherford. Signups start at 6:00, the show at 7:00. Come to watch hot young comedians (that sounded sleazy, didn't it?), or get on the list and try your game. Be here for the opening night!

PUNCHLINE, Sacramento, 8:00 PM - Big hitter playing at Punchline Thursday night...none other than Ahmed Ahmed, world-touring comic seen in film (Iron Man, Swingers, You Don't Mess With the Zohan), on TV (Roseanne, JAG, Tracy Takes On, Jay Leno) and on stage (The Comedy Store in Hollywood, The Comedy Cellar in New York). He's bringing it to Sac this week, and it should be a hell of a ride.

FRIDAY, MAY 7

THE STATE THEATER, Modesto, 7:00 PM - Heads up, Modesto...there's some MAJOR comedy going down at the State! The 1st Annual Modesto Comedy Festival lights it up and brings the megafunny. Headlining will be the amazing Mike E. Winfield (as seen on Showtime, BET, Last Comic Standing and Comic Unleashed), one of the fastest-rising and hysterical comics in the biz (I know...I've both seen him and shared the stage with him). Is if that wasn't enough, the night's going to get warmed up with some amazing local comedy faves - Kabeezy, Cheryl the Soccer Mom, Anthony K and Chris Teicheira. You're a lucky, lucky town, Modesto.

SACRAMENTO COMEDY SPOT, Sacramento, 8:00 PM - Okay, IMMA be in the crowd to watch THIS one. The Stand-Up Shoot-Out goes down Friday night, where local awesome comics are going to be facing off in competition. Ben Shields, Nick Pettigrew and Noel DeWitt are going tear the Comedy Spot a new one! Assuming it has an old one to begin with... Doors open at 7:30, tickets eight bucks.

CLUB EVOLUTION, Los Banos, 8:00 PM - Seriously, if I wasn't spoken for and I could afford the gas money right now? I'd be in Los Banos Friday night. The Los Banos Comedy Night (run by Delfino Reyna) is not only hooking you up with headliner Ngaio Bealum (seen on BET, Comics Unleashed, The Sarah Silverman Show...and by me at Luna's Cafe a while back), but some of my favorite guys in local comedy - Chazz Hawkins, Ray Molina and John Ross. And not only all this, but the show's being opened by none other than my fellow Tommy T's finalist Joey Gonzalez! I KNOW how many Joey G fans I have among my peeps. So if you're going to be near Los Banos, check these brothers OUT!

SATURDAY, MAY 8

THE CREST THEATER, Sacramento, 8:00 PM - The New York Times has called Will Durst "The best political satirist working in the country today". This legendary performer is hitting the Crest for what's sure to be a night to remember...and not only this, but opening for him is our own Keith Lowell Jensen! Wotta deal! Go, and you will thank me!

BAY TERRACE THEATER, Vallejo, 8:00 PM - My man Raj Dutta (of Tommy T's Finals fame) has been working his mojo all over NorCal. Saturday night he's doing a feature set at the Bay Terrace Theater, along with Ryan McFadden, Emmanuel Baja, and headliner Kevin Munroe. If you're down Vallejo way, don't miss the Raj!

So that's the scoop. So get out there and enjoy some local comedy, folks! If you don't think NorCal's got the goods in the funny department, you need to check out more of these shows. Enjoy!

Michael O'Connell Headlining MDA Fundraiser Show at Tommy T's

2010-05-03T20:29:00.000-07:00

Just got the official word today. On Thursday, May 27th, Tommy T's Comedy & Dinner Theatre will be putting on a night of comedy to benefit the Muscular Dystrophy Association, featuring Sacramento's favorite Muscular Dystrophy comedian (and there were so many to choose from)...me...as the headliner. This is like the easiest job I've ever had to apply for...

Start time and full details will follow, but want to get the word out as soon as possible so we can fill this place UP for a good cause! Tickets will be $10.00 each, with 100% of the ticket proceeds going to the MDA, courtesy of the awesome folks at Tommy T's. It'll be a great night of comedy, with delicious food and tasty beverages to choose from, and you'll be doing your part to help out the MDA, an organization that's been there for me the whole of my life.

So don't wait for the telethon to get your altruism on! Come on down to Tommy T's and get a lot of laughs - and possibly an impressive hangover - for your buck! Hope to see you there!

Stay tuned for more details...

The Michael O'Comedy Store is officially open!

2010-05-02T23:58:00.000-07:00

Did somebody say "swag"?

For all of you who have been (I like to imagine) begging for it, your wish has come true. There's now a whole store filled with merchandise that has my logo all over it! The Michael O'Comedy Store is now open over at Zazzle.com.

Goodies within range from tee shits to hoodies to hats to magnets to buttons to mugs to mousepads to lots of other stuff! If you like what I do and want to turn yourself or your fridge or your car into a billboard for me, I am, like, TOTALLY behind that idea.

Zazzle has been really good for me in previous times (in my Dr. O's House of "T" store I ran), and ordering is nice and easy and shipping is really fast. A couple things I'd advise, though, if you're ordering tee shirts or hoodies - make sure you select the right size for you (I think I have XL on the default for dudes, L for the ladies), and be careful if you decide to start customizing and changing colors. This stuff was made to work on white tee shirts. The white you see within the logos is actually just transparent, showing the color of the shirt its printed on. So if you decide you want a red tee shirt, you'll get it, but that little wheelchair guy will be all red, not white. Just warning you so no one's disappointed. Besides, it's almost summer! White tees are cooler! Woo hoo!

You can click that link in the text above to get there, or you can use the new link over on the right-hand side of the screen that will now always be there. Hope you all enjoy! Still time to get Mom that Michael O'Connell beer stein she's always wanted before Mother's Day if you hurry!

One Week in Comedy

2010-05-02T01:07:00.000-07:00

Hit the stage five times in the last six nights.

MONDAY. Po' Boyz Bar & Grille. Good set, good crowd response. All good.

TUESDAY. Tommy T's, Open Mic Night. Iffy set, just so-so, less of the "all good".

WEDNESDAY. Luna's Cafe. Killed it, great crowd, new fans converted, offer for possible future comedy job. Awesome night.

THURSDAY. Sapporo Grill. BOMBED. Horrible. Not so much disliked as almost completely ignored. Tanked badly. Crickets brought their relatives.

SATURDAY. Cafe Nostra. OWNED the room. Big win, huge response, management informed me at the end that I'm "the funniest guy we've ever had in here".

One night it's, "Man, how come you're not on TV?". The next night it's, "Why did they even let you up on this stage?". Yet each of those nights? It's the same comic, and the same jokes.

Welcome to comedy, boys and girls.

Why would I want to be anywhere else?

Cafe Nostra Triple Feature this Saturday night!

2010-04-29T02:22:00.000-07:00

Per SacramentoComedy.com:

Triple Feature Event at Cafe Nostra in El Dorado Hills

Enjoy a triple feature event at Café Nostra this Saturday night. Local comedians Mac McDonald, Roland Mothershed and Michael O’Connell will give your funny bone a workout.

McDonald and Mothershed have been tearing up the bay area comedy scene. They have the experience and stories that will let you know you found the funny. There is no need to go to the bay area for comedy, when it’s in El Dorado Hills.

Michael O’Connell is taking the comedy scene by storm. His recent successes have been the talk of the town and covered in the Sacramento Bee. Whether you found O’Connell as a finalist at Tommy T’s Comedy Competition, or working out at any of the great comedy venues, you are going to love this guy. 100% Comedy, 0% Stand-up That’s Michael O’Connell.

Enjoy the area’s greatest coffee, beer, wine, treats, and comedy! There is no cover charge.

Host Willie Mac has invited Mac, Roland and me up to play in his comedy room in El Dorado Hills...one I've been dying to play, because every comic I know whose performed there has loved it. I'm especially excited for the chance to work with Mac McDonald and Roland Mothershed. Yes, they're both great comedians, but my memories of them are of more than just their work. One Monday night not long ago up at Po' Boyz, after Open Mic Night ended, me and my pal A.T. hung out at the bar and talked and laughed and story-told with Mac and Roland until we closed the place down. Two awesome guys who'd I'd love the chance to hang out with again even if they WEREN'T hilarious. I've shared the stage with Mac before (just did so again at Tommy T's on Tuesday night, in fact), but haven't gotten the chance to pass the mic with Roland, so this ought to be a blast.

If you don't mind the drive up to El Dorado Hills, this could be an awfully fun Saturday night for you. Show doesn't start until 9:00 PM, and there's no cover charge to worry about. If you're free, and you're feeling the comedy vibe, feel more than welcome to join us at:

Cafe' Nostra
3907 Park Drive
El Dorado Hills, California 95762
(916) 933-3110

Me (and lots of others) at Luna's Cafe tonight!

2010-04-28T04:03:00.000-07:00

Big comedy night at Luna's Cafe in downtown Sac tonight!

Comedy Night at Luna's (which happens every Wednesday night, in case you're not hip to the news) proudly present headliners "Smooot Valley High". Enjoy some "teen-friendly" musical comedy and wisdom from "fellow teens" (who happen to be, like, 30 years old, but who's checking ID, right?). It's all wholesome and just gosh-darned American!

But before the big fun begins, you'll be treated to comedy sets from a number of local favorites, including Nick Aragon, Khulani Malone, Keith Lowell Jensen (your host), Zack Parrott, Nate Darling, Derek Byrne, and even yours truly (Michael O'Connell...nice to meet you). It's comedy magic, I tell you!

So drop on in by 8:00 PM at:

Luna's Cafe & Juice Bar

1414 16th Street

Sacramento, CA 95814

Six bucks at the door gets you all the hilarity you can stomach, but help digest it better, you can also sample some of the many fine eats and juices (and beers) that Luna's has to offer.

Come on in and join us! Limited seating, so come early!

Tommy T's Open Mic Finals - DECIDED!

2010-04-22T03:54:00.000-07:00

After two months of grueling (yet hilarious) competition, the whole field of competitors for Season One of the 2010 Tommy T's Open Mic Finals came down to a final foursome - Willie Mac, Joey Gonzalez, Kristen Frisk and Michael O'Connell (pictured at left, minutes before showtime). And the whole thing was decided tonight.

I came in second.

And I couldn't be in a better mood right now.

Three and a half months ago, I got up on stage for the first time ever to try comedy. That stage was at Tommy T's. Tonight, I returned to that same stage and, while waiting to go on, was able to reflect on how much my life has changed since that night, and how great of a night this truly was for me.

Tonight I returned to my comedic home, showing up extra early for the interviews to be done with each of us for the videotaping of the competition - something that's being packaged to be sold as a reality show. I met up upside with my parents, who had driven all the way from Arizona to be here for this. Also outside was my best friend Tim, who's my official stage-lifter (and has been lugging me up stairs for over 30 years), and my brother Tam, his wife Pam, and their son Patrick, the latter three of whom I haven't seen in almost three years. They were the first of a herd of family and friends that would start showing up as the evening went along. Some were folks that have been showing up to root me on in the previous three rounds of this contest. Some had not been able to attend before, and were there to see me perform for the first time (my parents included). Old, dear friends appeared. Former co-workers showed up. Buddies of mine from my cigar lounge made the scene. And my newer friends - my comedian friends - also came to watch. People like Jason Tate and Sam Key, who had been in the competition in earlier rounds. Like Mac McDonald and Samatha Hickey. And Ellis Rodriguez, who would be hosting the night, just as he did the previous round, and just as he did my very first night on stage. And - of course - three of my best comedy friends...Willie, Joey and Kristen.

My fellow comedians.

Because tonight, at the end of this journey, I feel like I can finally call myself a comedian.

Things have moved very quickly since that first night. I went from open mics to my first booked shows, and the Tommy T's competition forced me to step beyond the standard 5-minute set much earlier than expected, and to see if I had 10...15...20 minutes in me. I had to find out...and I did. This contest pushed me right beyond a comfort zone that I wasn't even fully comfortable in. I learned fast - thanks to both onstage experience and the invaluable advice of so many helpful Sacramento comics - what it truly takes to put it all up on that stage, to trust yourself, to bounce back when it doesn't quite work, to push your limits, to face your fears, and to rewrite, rewrite, REWRITE! My comedy education was an accelerated course. Oh, it's far from over, to be sure. But tonight, I have this feeling that I just graduated. At least from comedy high school.

The four of us who went on tonight chatted online between last round and this one, and agreed that 1) we were all rooting for each other, and 2) we all just wanted to go out there and give them the best show we could. And so, once more, we all faced the mic. And due to the video/photography limits, we will sadly not be able to share any YouTube footage of what went down (but hopefully you'll see it on TV one day). But by the end of things, we were all back on stage together, after the group of judges backstage once more (just like last round) had to debate much longer than they thought. And in the end, it was the amazing Kristen Frisk who pulled out the win...and earned every once of the trophy she was handed.

I pulled the second place spot, and was thrilled to have it. Thrilled because I went up on that stage tonight and did somewhere between 23 and 25 strong minutes of comedy - including about 3 minutes of all-new, untested material - and didn't choke. I didn't leave the stage feeling I'd let myself down, as I have in times past. I was very happy with my performance, and knew right when it was over that whether it was the top spot or the last that I walked away with, I'd done my best. And, I should add, I did this not having eaten a bite of food for 24 hours (don't ask). And with a sore tooth. And in the middle of it, I came to realize how far I've come in my performing as I found myself making minor adjustments on the fly...like knowing when to walk away from a bit on the strongest laugh and moving on to the next one instead of forcing the follow-up joke that would bring it down. I realized in the middle of my set that I've actually come far enough to learn when to do that, and to trust my instincts, which are starting to mature with each new performance.

I had a great night of comedy, personally, and got to spend it on stage with some of my favorite comedy people. And in the audience were relatives from all three sides of my family (I have a complicated family), friends from every part of my life, and even my housekeeper - all people that mean so much to me and that I couldn't have been more pleased to have there to share the night. And perhaps the best part of all? The six different people who came up to me and introduced themselves, telling me that they were there that night because they had read the article about me in the Bee. And the people who made that possible - Randall Benton and Darlene Ott - showed up to watch me close out this contest, too.

This was a perfect night.

And for me, the night was not and end, but a beginning. Stay tuned here for details of a lot of new bookings that are about to start coming my way, as discussed with me this evening. And for news of the status on the reality show being made of the 2010 Tommy T's Open Mic Finals (with two more sets of finals still to come before year's end), and whether it gets sold, and where you'll be seeing it. The filmmaker behind this is going to be contacting me, as he's going to be filming me for a day or two to flesh out my "story" in this show. And also stay tuned to find out the day and time next week when me and tonight's other three finalists will be appearing on KFBK Radio here in Sacramento. Tonight was the end of chapter one of my comedy story. The rest of the story? Oh, it's just gettin' good.

Thanks, Willie and Joey, you funny, funny sumbitches. Thanks Ellis for lighting up the show for us once more. Thanks, Lou, and the whole gang at Tommy T's for giving us this chance to do our stuff and share it with Sacramento (and perhaps the nation...). Thanks to everyone who made it out tonight to cheer us on.

And congratulations to Kristen Frisk - she who is the whole comedy package, and the funniest, classiest lady I know. There's a reason why I've been such a big fan since the first night I saw her on stage. Because she's everything every comedian should aspire to, and she's my idol. You ROCK, Frisky...and your rise is only just beginning. Go forth and do that voodoo that you do, and make us proud.

And I am officially emotionally spent. Good night, comedy fans. More to come.

Meet the press! Me in today's Sacramento Bee

2010-04-20T02:24:00.000-07:00

If you open up your copy of the Sacramento Bee this morning (which pre-assumes you're in Sacramento), chances are you'll come across a little article on yours truly.

The sitch: a while back, while hanging (as usual) at my cigar lounge, Tobacco Road, I met a guy by the name of Randall Benton (a.k.a. Bentoni). It turns out Bentoni used to be a Sacramento stand-up comic, and did it full-time for a good two-plus years before turning back to the day job. We talked for more than an hour about his experiences in comedy, and about my experiences just now breaking into comedy. Bentoni had lots of great advice to offer up from his years on the road. It was a great talk, and I learned a lot.

It wasn't until the end of the conversation that I found out that Bentoni's day job is being a staff photographer for the Sacramento Bee. He decided that I might make a pretty interesting story for them. So he started coming to my shows and taking pics of me, and managed to sell his editor on the story, which ended up written by the woman who interviewed me, Darlene Ott (who also happens to be Bentoni's wife). The hope was to get the story in the paper prior to the big final round at the Tommy T's Open Mic Finals. Mission accomplished. Today is the day, and the online version of the article is already up and posted.

So feel free to check it out here:

http://www.sacbee.com/2010/04/20/2690307/sacramento-stand-up-comic-sits.html

...and don't forget to use the "slide show" button beneath the photo, which will let you see all 16 shots and get more of the story.

So hope you enjoy. And thank you, so much, Bentoni and Darlene, for thinking me newsworthy, and thank you, Sacramento Bee, for agreeing with them. My media blitz has begun!

Tommy T's Open Mic Final - The Grand Finale! - Wednesday, April 21st!

2010-04-16T17:54:00.000-07:00

It all comes down to this.

This is it, Sac comedy fans. It's been a long road getting here, but finally, the winner of the Tommy T's Open Mic Finals will be decided on one night - this Wednesday, the 21st.

That's when me, Willie Mac, Joey Gonzalez and Kristen Frisk will by slinging our best on stage to see who emerges as the open mic champ. If you've been to the other rounds, you already know what a great night of comedy you're in for, and I consider myself damned lucky and fortunate to be up there amongst such an amazing collections of comics. And even luckier that the show will be hosting by none other than Ellis Rodriquez, all the way from L.A.!

For me, this is the culmination of a journey that started on January 5th of this year - the night I got on stage to do comedy for my very first time. I was the winner of that night's competition, and there officially began my fledgling comedy career. And what a journey it's been. In the three-point-five months since, I've gone from open mic newbie to getting booked shows around Sac, from an outsider in the comedy world to making so many fantastic new friends with comedians all over the NorCal scene, from local wannebe to having my comedy videos watched and reviewed by some of my favorite TV celebrities. Comedy has gone from being an occasionally-remembered personal dream to becoming my whole life (thanks, unemployment!).

And Tommy T's has made that happen. The competition has not only given me the stage time and the exposure, but pushed me in ways most comics have to wait so much longer for. How many comics have a twenty-minute set together within their first couple of months of starting? I can tell you...it's not that common. This contest made me step up and meet that challenge early, and that's given me so much more confidence and experience than I should reasonably have by now. Whatever happens from here on in, Tommy T's will always be my home. Thanks, guys.

And as I said, I couldn't have asked for better company to be with in this final chapter. Along the way I've not only become friends with Willie, Joey and Kristen, but have had the honor of sharing the stage with them in a number of venues, and have become lifelong fans of all of them and their work. And I'm so grateful that all my wonderful people coming out to see me have had a chance to see them all and what they do, and have become big fans as well. Anyone's who's seen them on stage knows exactly what I'm talking about. These guys are all amazing, and have more than earned their place in this final stage.

To those who've been out to see me before, I sure hope you're able to make it for this final chapter in this saga. For those who haven't, your chance is finally here to be a part of fun, and to see how it all finally plays out. And if indications are correct from how the voting went down last round, it's going to be anybody's game. But by the end of the night, the judges will be deciding who wears the crown. Who will go home with the victory? Well, my advice is to show up and find out. I guarantee that you won't regret it.

So let me take this last pre-competition moment to thank everyone who's supported me - and by proxy, Sacramento comedy - along the way. Thanks to all my friends and family who've taken their time out on weekdays to come and cheer me on. Particularly, thanks to the members of what Ellis Rodriguez called my "entourage" - Vladimir (my comedy partner, my instigator, my coach, my photographer, my (his words) minion), Tim (my "lifter" of so many years, and my creative partner for as many), and A.T. (my booster both physically and spiritually, my big bald muse). You guys are the greatest. And thanks to all the long-distance friends and family who aren't close enough to make the shows, but have provided encouragement and love all along the way. To all my fellow comics who've provided insight, motivation, inspiration and friendship. And to Lou and everyone at Tommy T's for giving this chance to all of us to show what we can do, and to help make our dreams come true.

So don't miss out! Be there at:

Tommy T's Comedy & Dinner Theatre

12401 Folsom Blvd (Hazel & Folsom, right above Spaghetti Factory)

Rancho Cordova, CA 95742

(916) 357-LAFF (5233)

7:30 PM

Get ready for the final round! The whole enchilada! The final chapter! The mother of all comedy nights! Come early (because it's looking this one may actually be a sellout!), and come ready to laugh. A lot! We'll see you there!

Willie! Joey! Kristen! Let's DO this thing!

Tommy T's Open Mic Finals - Round 3! - OVER!

2010-04-06T05:51:00.000-07:00

The Tommy T's Open Mic Finals competition has been moving steadily along, with Open Mic Night winners all going up against each other in elimination rounds. The field has been shrinking as comics advanced through the first two rounds, throwing their best comedy bits out to packed audiences throughout.

Tonight, it was time for Round 3, the last of the semifinal rounds. The list of comics was down to just six - myself, Kristen Frisk, Joey Gonzalez, Sam Key, Willie Mac and Jake Ward. Tonight we each had to do 10-minute sets before yet another near-capacity crowd, and, more importantly, before a panel of judges who would decide which of us moved on to the final round, and which of us went home.

Willie Mac

The first thing that made this evening even more special was that the host for the night was comedian Ellis Rodriguez, back in town from L.A. for a few weeks. Aside from the fact that Ellis is one of the funniest comics to ever come out of Sac, he was also hosting the Open Mic Night on January 5th of this year when I got on stage for the very first time. He was the guy who introduced me then. And now, on April 5th, he'd be doing so again, giving me pause to look back and reflect on all the amazing things that have happened in the past three months as I went from "I should try comedy" to becoming an actual working comedian.

I was also psyched because, once again, a lot my people showed up to see the show and cheer me on, as they have throughout this journey. As ever, there were a few folks I knew were going to be showing up, but then a number of surprise appearances, too. Friends (older and newer) and family started filling up my reserved tables, and this just put me in a fantastic mood.

Joey Gonzalez

As did hanging out and chatting with my fellow finalists before the show started. We all know each other, not only from the Finals, but from other open mics and different shows around we've either worked together or just hung out together at. They're all great people, and all very, very funny people. We knew that not all of us would be moving on by the night's end, but that really didn't matter there in that pre-show time. We all just got to relax, joke around, and wait for the fun to start. And wish each other luck. And mean it...I swear!

Finally it came time to draw the names for the performance order. Lou (the manager there at Tommy T's who runs all the open mic stuff) brought out the bucket, and as we all circled 'round in the back of the room, host Ellis drew the names. The order ended up Kristen, me, Willie, Joey, Jake, then Sam. Which meant that somehow Kristen had now drawn first spot in all three rounds (!). But that was okay this time - Ellis would be going on first to do a set and warm the crowd up, so that wouldn't be all on her shoulders. And so, the lights dimmed, Ellis got up and took the mic, and the show began.

Jake Ward

And what a show it was.

Couldn't have been prouder of this group of comics, man. And couldn't have been happier for the assembled audience, because they got treated to a hell of a show. Everyone brought their best stuff, and they played it to win. There was loads and loads of laughs as each of us took our turn in the spotlight. I got to hear people's familiar material - that I've heard multiple times on different stages around town - take on a whole new life and magically ignite the crowd. Pride, again, is the word for what I was feeling. Seeing favorite comedians of mine prove on stage what I've known since first seeing each of them made my heart swell. I felt lucky to be a part of such a group. I felt honored.

After we had all finished, and the judges went backstage for their deliberations and to compare the score sheets, we got treated to a guest comedy set by Sacramento comic (and one of my favorite Sacramento comics) Carlos Rodriguez, doing his usual job of winning the crowd (and with no cocaine, honestly...it's just the way he talks, I swear...). Between his guesting and Ellis's bits between comics, it was just a damned fine night of comedy. I almost hated to have to get to the voting part. Almost...

Sam Key

That time did come, and Lou asked us all to return to the stage, where we all shook hands and exchanged hugs one last time before the news. With results in hand, Lou explained that it was the prerogative of the panel of judges to either add or subtract a finalist from the originally-planned "Final Three". It ended up being an addition. Apparently, the judging was so close, in the end they decided the only fair way to work it was to turn the "Final Three" into a "Final Four". Which they did. And that foursome ended up being Joey, Willie, Kristen and me. We will now be moving on the the Final, where - after we each do our best 20-minute sets - one of us will be crowned Open Mic Champion.

It appears the date of that final night is going to be Wednesday, April 21st, but I don't want to make that an official announcement until it's confirmed and put on the Tommy T's calendar (and it should be in the next day or so), so stay tuned here for news on that. It's not only going to be a big night, but it's also going to be filmed for a documentary. We're all going to have to come in for on-camera interviews before that night. As I get more details on this, I'll be letting you know. Sounds pretty exciting.

Kristen Frisk and me

So, I've made it out of Round 3, and I'm going to the show. And it feels good...particularly for someone who's been doing this for a total of three months, you know? The old "just happy to be here" cliche really does apply in my case. I'm learning as I go and still have a lot to figure out, but I'm really grateful to have made it as far as I have as fast as I have. But mostly what I'm grateful for is the people I've met along the way - the comics that I've shared the stage with, hung out with outside of clubs after shows, watched on stage or gotten advice from. Since I've begun all this, many people I know have been surprised to find out that there's actually a big, thriving comedy scene in Sacramento. Well, there is, and it's filled with hilarious, remarkable, friendly and captivating personalities, and the best part of this comic odyssey of mine has been to make their acquaintance, and become part of this little world that I'm trying to share with the rest of Sacramento.

My congratulations to everyone who's been in the Open Mic Finals along the way, because you all got there for a reason, and deserved the recognition. And congratulations to Kristen, to Joey, and to Willie, for making it all the way to the mountaintop...no small feat considering the competition you've had every step of the way. Well done, my friends. And I know no matter what happens in the big Final, we're all going to have one hell of a good time being there.

Party at Willie's after. I'm bringing the Guinness.

Tommy T's Open Mic Finals - Round 3! Monday Night!

2010-04-03T00:00:00.000-07:00

It is ON.

Finally, Round Three of the Tommy T's Open Mic Finals goes DOWN! And it goes down this Monday night, April 5, at 7:30 PM.

The field is down to six comics: me, Willie Mac, Sam Key, Jake Ward, Kristen Frisk and Joey Gonzalez. We'll each be getting up on the big stage to do our best 10-minute sets. And at the end of the night, the judges will send three of us home...and three of us on to the final round!

There's some added fun to this round, as there's going to be a film crew there recording the competition. I don't have the full details on that, but they'll be shooting it and doing interviews with all six of us, plus continuing to follow the competition all the way to the end, when the Tommy T's Open Mic King/Queen will be crowned.

Who

Will

It

Be?

(I just felt like writing a Michael Bay film trailer there for a sec).

So once more, I would LOVE to have any and all of you there for all the excitement! And to assist with that, I've got a whole big bunch of free tickets to make available TO ya! Instead of trying to get them to people ahead of time (which got a little complicated last time I tried that), I'll just be handing them out to arriving pals and fans at the door. Just let me know that you're coming, and I'll have a ticket ready for you. If you're a last-minute show...that's cool, too...just look for me at the door (or tell 'em at the door you're looking for me to get your ticket).

We're almost at the end! This is a big night! So don't miss out! Come on down to:

Tommy T's Comedy & Dinner Theatre

12401 Folsom Boulevard
Rancho Cordova, CA 95742-6416
(916) 357-5233

7:30 PM. Monday night. Some will laugh. Some will cry. Some will burn the roof of their mouth on delicious chicken tenders because the batter-rich coating is deceptively cool.

And at the end of it all, three will move on.

Who

Will

Oh, you get the idea...

653-3*** / Geordi

2010-03-30T22:43:00.000-07:00

So in case you missed the news on this today (and if you're not a big nerd like me, you might have), actor LeVar Burton, best known as Geordi La Forge from Star Trek: The Next Generation (do I really have to write that out as if someone out there DOESN'T know that?), apparently meant to send a private message via his Twitter account to someone--a message that included his cell phone number--and accidentally posted it on his public Twitter page. Did I mention that LeVar has 1.6 million fans on Twitter? D'oh!

I got this news via a retweet from a buddy of mine, and sure enough, there was the number. And after JUST a moment's decision regarding my self-respect, I asked myself which I'd regret more in life - having LeVar Burton's phone number and calling it like a fanboy, or having had my hands on his number and NOT calling it?

I'm a big fan of the guy and his work, so I figured what the hell and gave it a call. But, of course, when I did call, his voice mail box was full (remember that 1.6 million figure I mentioned?). LeVar had quickly removed the tweet with the phone number on it (and my buddy, I should mention, removed his retweet right after that, too), but the number was out there. So, figuring he'd be changing that number real quick, I figured I'd at least send him a quick text, letting him know how much I appreciate what he does. He's one of those genuinely awesome people in Hollywood, and has more than earned his 1.6 million stalkers and more. I'm sure my text was one of hundreds, if not thousands...but I was happy I got it out there, anyway.

And so, Mr. Burton, in honor if your giant internet "oops" today, I wrote you a little song about it. Works better if you actually listen to the music while reading it. Hope you enjoy. And thanks again for being awesome, LB. We dig you always.

653-3*** / Geordi
by Michael O'Connell
(to the tune of "867-5309 / Jenny" by Tommy Tutone)

Geordi, Geordi, tell me is it true?
You hit a button you didn’t mean to
Next thing you knew your phone got hundreds of calls
You’d Tweeted your cell number on your wall

Geordi, I got your number
As do your fans worldwide
Geordi, don’t change your number
6-5-3-3-*-*-* (6-5-3-3-*-*-*)
6-5-3-3-*-*-* (6-5-3-3-*-*-*)

Geordi, Geordi, answer my hail please
You don’t know me but I’m such a big Trekkie
I tried to call you but your voice mail box was jammed
So I sent an SMS text – please don’t think it’s spam

Geordi, I got your number
As do your fans worldwide
Geordi, don’t change your number
6-5-3-3-*-*-* (6-5-3-3-*-*-*)
6-5-3-3-*-*-* (6-5-3-3-*-*-*)

I got it, I got it, I got it!
I got your number off a Tweet!
I got it, I got it, I got it!
Please don’t turn my ass in to Starfleet

Can we get one more number?
How ‘bout Seven of Nine’s?
Loved you on Reading Rainbow
6-5-3-3-*-*-* (6-5-3-3-*-*-*)
6-5-3-3-*-*-* (6-5-3-3-*-*-*)

Geordi, Geordi, thanks for all you do (6-5-3-3-*-*-*)
It’s because of our love that we’ll keep on stalkin’ you
(6-5-3-3-*-*-*)
6-5-3-3-*-*-* (6-5-3-3-*-*-*)
6-5-3-3-*-*-* (6-5-3-3-*-*-*)
6-5-3-3-*-*-* (//fade out//)
6-5-3-3-*-*-*
6-5-3-3-*-*-*
6-5-3-3-*-*-*

La Casa Comedy off to a powerhouse start!

2010-03-28T19:18:00.000-07:00

Last night was the first official night of comedy at La Casa Restaurante, and it looks like the newest spot for Sacramento comedy is here to stay.

With the weekly Open Mic Nights set to begin this Thursday (April 1st), the room launched with the first of its monthly Comedy Showcases, which will feature both local comedian favorites and out-of-town talent, hand-picked by the room's founder and host, comedienne Jennifer Rutherford.

Jennifer has already proven her ability to select only the best and brightest, because she wisely chose ME to open for the first Showcase. It was quite the honor, not only because I got to be the very first act at the new room, but because I'd get to share the stage with three of my favorite comics in town - Jennifer, Kristen Frisk, and Cheryl the Soccer Mom. I'll be the "Charlie" to their "Angels" any day.

Turned out to be a fun and fantastic show. I had a few of my folks show up who hadn't gotten to see me perform before (who've been waiting for me to finally book a Saturday night show, so I was grateful to Jennifer for that as well), and that was really awesome. And in an interesting twist, a former co-worker showed up with a date who had just seen me perform at Luna's Cafe last Wednesday. She had no idea we were connected. Small world. We all got there nice and early, so we had plenty of time to relax, hang out, socialize, drink, eat, and enjoy the fantastic restaurant/bar experience that is La Casa. For the record, the staff there couldn't be more fun and gracious, from the servers all the way up to the owners. They made us, and everyone who showed up to see us, feel right at home. Top notch.

Cheryl the Soccer Mom on the mic

The show itself was a huge hit. After Jennifer warmed things up in her usual spectacular Jennifer way, I got up and did my set. Jennifer doesn't really "time" your sets like a lot of comedy rooms (fewer comedians in a show means that's not as important to do), so I'm not sure exactly how long of a set I did, but I think it was right around 15 minutes. Had fun with it. And then came Kristen and Cheryl. Wow. Both totally brought the goods. I'm big fans of both of them and have seen/shared a stage with them before, but it was serious out-of-the-park time for both. The room acknowledged that...quite loudly. Jennifer kept the levels high with her between-comics bits, and the end result was a glorious inauguration night for the room.

Jennifer Rutherford. HOSTIN' it.

And the party didn't stop there, as the after-party moved to the bar for karaoke. We packed the place. Everybody knocked 'em back and belted out the jams. Big fun, and a fitting celebration for the beginning of what's sure to be a must-hit spot for the Sactown comedy community (I predict a very big line for the open mic this week).

Kristen Frisk tellin' it like it is.

My thanks to Jennifer, again, for letting me be a part of the whole experience. Thanks, too, to Budweiser for sponsoring the event for us, and for sending the friendly and really hot Heather out with her bag of cool freebies for all. Thanks to Eric Tillotson for all his organizin'. Thanks to the Brothers Jin and the whole awesome staff at La Casa Restaurante for making it all possible. And thanks to all my peeps who showed up and made the night so much fun!

Oh, yeah, and I was there, too.

Comedy fans: please take note that the next Showcase night, on Saturday, April 24th, is going to feature David Lew, one of my FAVORITE dudes on the stand-up circuit! All KINDS of hilarious, so if you missed this first showcase, do yourself a favor and be there for the second!

Comics: Thursday night, April 1st. Let's bust the cherry on this open mic right! Be there! (Oh, and we'd like it if comedy fans showed up for that, too...)

Budweiser Presents: Spring in to Spring at La Casa Restaurante

2010-03-26T22:06:00.000-07:00

Your official reminder! Tomorrow night (Saturday, March 27th) I'll be the opening act for the first official comedy showcase at the newest room in town - La Casa Restaurante.

Not only will I be opening for three of the funniest ladies in town (Jennifer Rutherford (pictured), Kristen Frisk and Cheryl the Soccer Mom), but turns out the show will be sponsored by Budweiser, who will be on hand for free samples and prize giveaways throughout the night. So laughs AND Bud! Win!

Show starts at 7:30 PM (I'd be a little early were I you), and again, the joint can be found at:

La Casa Restaurante

2310 Fair Oaks Boulevard
Sacramento, CA 95825

Get Directions
(916) 641-8880

So be there and brag to the world that you were present for the very first comedy night at La Casa EVER! Oh, the many verdant shades your friends will turn...

Upcoming Shows

2010-03-22T04:00:00.000-07:00

Thought I'd put my upcoming stuff in one convenient post, for those who don't feel like digging through old ones. And really, who has the time to do that while we're all busy either cheering or cursing our health care legislation?

MONDAY, 03/22/10

9:00 PM

Po' Boyz Bar & Grill

9580 Oak Ave Pkwy #8

Folsom, CA 95630

(916) 987-2886

Going to be doing open mic night here tonight, dropping a 5-minute set. If you've never been to this open mic, you're missing a hell of a good time. Loads of the funniest comics in Sac (and quite a few from Fairfield) show up every week to test out their latest stuff. Always a blast. Consider it!

WEDNESDAY, 03/24/10

8:00 PM

Luna's Cafe

1414 16th Street (16th and N)

Sacramento, CA 95814

(916) 441-3931

I'll be doing 10 minutes, one of a small handful of us that will be opening for headliner Natasha Muse. Never a dull comedy night at Luna's. Awesome, intimate atmosphere for some up-close-n-personal comedy.

SATURDAY, 03/27/10

7:30 PM

La Casa Restaurante

2310 Fair Oaks Blvd (right near University)

Sacramento, CA 95825

(916) 641-8880
I'll be the opening act for the first night of comedy EVER at La Casa Restaurante, the new debuting comedy room hosted by comedienne Jennifer Rutherford. I'll be doing 10-15 minutes, and then will be quickly forgotten as the crowd is overwhelmed by the comic genius of Jennifer, Kristen Frisk and Cheryl the Soccer Mom. But at least I'll always be the very first comic to ever play the soon-to-be-legendary La Casa room. They can't take that away from me! Mine! Mine!

MONDAY, 04/05/10

7:30 PM

Tommy T's Comedy & Dinner Theater

Open Mic Finals, Round 3

12401 Folsom Blvd (corner of Folsom and Hazel)

Rancho Cordova, CA 95742

(916) 357-LAFF (5233)
And, of course, there's the BIG night! That's me in Round 3 of the Open Mic Finals. I, along with five fellow funny folk who've made it this far in the competition, will be doing my best 10-minute set in hopes of being one of the three finalists to move on to the big final round. What will my fate be?! You just have to show on the 5th at Tommy T's and find out! Well, okay, you could also come here and just read the results in this blog...but no one's serving you drinks and tasty appetizers while you're reading this blog, now, are they?! Or are they? Seriously? Where do you live? Are there any vacancies?

** JUST ADDED **
SATURDAY, 05/01/10
9:00 PM
Cafe Nostra
3907 Park Drive
El Dorado Hills, CA 95762
(916) 933-3110
Just found out that I'll be doing a feature set (20-30 minutes) at Cafe Nostra's comedy room! It's comedy night every Saturday night there, and the room is run by none other than Sac's own Willie Mac. I've heard nothing but great things about the venue from every comic I know who's ever performed there, so I've been itching for a chance to try it out. Now I will. Will update when more info is known (like who else will be performing that night). So for you folks up the hill, here's your chance to check me out without having to take that long freeway drive!

More dates to come. Tuned, you must stay!

See Me Saturday, March 27th, at La Casa Restaurante!

2010-03-16T20:36:00.000-07:00

Here's how fast things move in comedy. I just finished blogging about the new comedy room at La Casa Restaurante, and mentioning the "Spring In To Spring" showcase night, and now I just got a call from the room's host, Jennifer Rutherford, asking me to be the opener for the evening. Man, is my arm sore from all the twisting she had to do...

So, yeah, looks like I'll be doing 10-15 minutes there on Saturday, March 27th. The show starts at 7:30 PM, and can be found at:

La Casa Restaurante

2310 Fair Oaks Boulevard

Sacramento, CA 95825

(916) 641-8880

There's no cover charge or drink minimum. Just show up, order what you want and enjoy. And you WILL enjoy, believe me! What a lineup! First you'll be getting it from the room's host and Tommy T's Open Mic finalist Jennifer Rutherford, and then your featured comediennes are none other than Cheryl the Soccer Mom (know both around these parts as one of the Real (Funny) Housewives of Rio Linda and as the host of the popular Po' Boyz Comedy Night every Monday up in Folsom) and Kristen Fritz (pictured with me above, another one of the Real (Funny) Housewives of Rio Linda and another finalist at Tommy T's who'll be squaring off with me in the semifinals on April 5th). That's wall-to-wall comedy GOLD, baby!

So if you're one of those folks who's wanted to come out and see me perform, but have been unable to because I've always played on weeknights, here's your chance to try me on a Saturday night. Hope to see y'all there!

My Next Round - Monday, April 5th

2010-03-16T17:33:00.000-07:00

Remember when I said I was in the final round of the Tommy T's Open Mic Finals?

SLIGHT adjustment to that...

Short version is this - an extra round has been added. Where originally it was supposed to be one semifinal round over two nights, with ten finalists being voted down to four, there's now one more semifinal round. The ten have been voted down to six. Now the six of us that remain - Willie Mac, Sam Key, Jake Ward, Kristen Frisk, Joey Gonzalez and myself - will be all on stage in one night - Monday, April 5th - to do our best 10-minute sets. There will then be voting (I believe with judges this time), and three of us will then move on to the FINAL final round. That's where you'll have three comics doing 30-minute sets and seeing which one will walk away (or roll away...) with the big win.

So mark those calenders now if you want to see us all battle it out. There's gonna be a LOT of funny on that stage! Contact me if you have any questions about it.

And congrats to last night's winners, Willie, Sam and Jake! I was there for it, and everybody did a great job - a big hand for Jennifer Rutherford and Ty Anderson, who both ROCKED it but didn't get to advance. But they've both got bigger stuff ahead of them. And Jennifer does right away, by the by - just found out she's now hosting a new comedy room in town. Thursday nights will now be comedy night at La Casa Restaurante on Fair Oaks (near University), and it's a full open mic - show starts at 7:00, sign-ups for comics at 6:30. So for those of you in the Sac comedy crew who hadn't heard yet, now you know! There will also be special weekend comedy nights there on the last Saturday of each month - starting with the "Spring Into Spring" event on Saturday, March 27th, featuring Jennifer, Kristen Frisk and Cheryl the Soccer Mom! There's another good one to mark on your calendars. Give the La Casa room a try. I sure plan to.

So, okay, gang, April 5th! Would love to have your support there, and would love for each of you to see the magic everyone on that finalist list can do with 10 minutes on stage. Come one, come all!

Tommy T's Open Mic Finals - Round 2, Group 1 is history!

2010-03-13T22:30:00.000-08:00

The Tommy T's Open Mic Finals continue---d!

I'm a little behind on my blogging, but yes, last Monday, the 8th, was the big night for me in the semifinals of the competition. I'd drawn group #1 for the two-evening event, which meant I'd be hitting the stage with an amazing bunch of local comics - Kristen Frisk, Boogee, Joey Gonzalez and Delfino Reyna (misspelled in the photo above). It also meant that, assuming I advanced to the next round, I'd get a full three weeks to work on my stuff for the FINAL final. This pleased me.

After spending a very long weekend getting my first-ever 20-minute set put together, I arrived Monday night nice and early to Tommy T's. I didn't want to feel rushed, and unlike the previous week, I wanted some extra time to hang out and talk to people of mine that were showing up to see me. Some of those folks from Round 1 I didn't even get to say hello to with all the craziness going on. So I got there to find Boogee already in the house and coming up with some last-minute additions to his stuff, and Joey dropped in a few minutes later. Then my people started to trickle in, so I took a spot at the bar where I could see folks coming through the door and said my heys to them before one of the helpful Tommy T's folks guided them to my reserved section. Once again, I was really pleased to see some long-time friends and supportive family members show up to see me perform. Some had seen me on stage previously, but others never had, so I definitely wanted to give them a good show. And with that lineup of comics, I knew that even if I choked, there'd be four other people up there guaranteed to show them a good time.

Kristen got there as well, and the place started filling up. Delfino, however, was nowhere in sight. Delifino is from out of town, so that wasn't totally unexpected with the distance he had to come. So we went ahead and did the drawing for stage order. When I say "we", I mean that I sent my representative (Fist Officer Vladimir) upstairs with the rest once again to do my drawing for me. I don't expect we'll see an elevator backstage at Tommy T's anytime soon, so Vladimir's my proxy). After a few minutes, he came back down to fill me in, and to let me know that I'd drawn the third spot. Score!! Right in the middle. Just what I was hoping for.

Soon enough our host Raj Dutta (remember him from Round 1?) got things started. Kristen, for the second round in a row, had drawn first place, so she got us started, and got the room totally lit up for her 20 minutes. Next in the draw was Joey, who was not only a perfect, crowd-pleasing lead-in for me, but provided me, unintentionally, with a nice add-on to one of my opening jokes (the previous comic callback! Extra level of difficulty!).

And then came I. Like I said, this was my first time doing a 20-minute set. Know what the hardest part of doing a 20-minute set is? Remembering your 20-minute set! I have this thing where I refuse to use notes on stage, but for the first time, I did have a cheat sheet in my coat pocket just in case. I had 10 minutes of material never tested on a crowd before, which had me a bit nervous, but the bigger nerves were from all the mixing around and changing up I did on my existing stuff. Would I remember it all, and in the right order? Well, there were a couple of moments where I had about a half-second of panic on that subject, but it all came together. I was really pleased to find the new stuff playing well (whew!), and I liked how it mixed with the old. The set felt really good, and I was happy to find that I didn't feel clock fatigue (how much time left?!!) at all, but instead very much enjoyed the extra time to work with. Had a ball.

Boogee drew the next spot, and I was totally happy when he came out throwing wheelchair jokes! He started with a "Man, how am I supposed to follow a guy in a wheelchair?" bit that let into a couple of awesome chair jokes in my direction, and the crowd loved it. I keep encouraging other comics to use me for that! Boogee, a good comedy buddy of mine, definitely did so, and it was awesome. As he worked through his set in his typically brilliant Boogee style, Delfino finally made it there (woo hoo!). Luckily, he (by proxy) had drawn 5th place. So he rounded out the evening with tales of outdated cell phones, laying down the Los Banos comedy style. And I was happy to see that we all avoided disqualification - I forgot to mention that while these were technically 20-minute sets, you had to reach a minimum of 15 minutes (which the flashing light at the back of the room signaled when you had) or you were automatically out! No one came up short. Whew!

Next stage was the voting, always the bittersweet part. The great part is when you're all on stage together before any winners are decided. The suck part is that only three of the five can move on. So after a good amount of re-voting, as things were way too close (when it got down to the final two people going for the three-spot, management had to make the call because the vote-by-applause was just going to continue being a tie) , those going on to the finals ended up being me, Kristen and Joey. It was a great night of comedy, man. I was glad to be a part of it.

So that's it for group #1. This leaves group #2 this coming Monday night (3/15), a group made up of the hi-larious cadre of Willie Mac, Jennifer Rutherford, Sam Key, Jake Ward and Ty Anderson. I, for one, will be there to watch it all go down! So if you're itching for some comedy on a Monday night and feel like joining me, that'll be at 7:30 PM at Tommy T's in Rancho Cordova. Once that night is done, we'll know who the group is for the final round. Will keep you updated, as ever!

Updates comin'...

2010-03-10T13:28:00.000-08:00

Sorry, things have been a little crazy this week with the semifinals and all, so I haven't gotten around to any bloggin'. Will get you the full story on Monday night's Round 2 excitement at the Tommy T's Open Mic Finals as soon as possible. For now? I nap.

Look, Ma! I made it past Round 1!

2010-03-04T22:34:00.000-08:00

The third and final group in the first round of the Open Mic Finals at Tommy T's hit the stage last Monday night...and I was part of it!

In case you're new to this blog, here's what's up with the Tommy T's Open Mic Finals. Every Tuesday night is Open Mic Night at Tommy T's in Rancho Cordova. At the end of each night, management selects a winner (or sometimes two). Those winners are then entered in the Open Mic Finals, and get to come back and compete with all the other winners from that period.

My first open mic there was January 5th, and I won that night. So the finals finally began a couple weeks back, with groups of comedians each Monday night facing each other with 10-minute sets to see which ones advance to the next round. When names were drawn, I was lucky enough to draw group #3, which meant I got to relax and take my time working up my set...AND get to watch the first two groups and see what each did right...and wrong...and learn from their experience.

As this first round of the competition was based on audience voting to see who advances, I learned fast the importance of bringing some of your people along. So I got the word out, and got a great group of friends and family to come on out and cheer me on last Monday. A couple of the others did the same (we all had free tickets given to us to give away), and between us all, we managed to near-fill Tommy T's. This would end up being the biggest crowd that I've played for yet. Very exciting.

So Group Three ended up being me, Raj Dutta, Kristen Fritz, Sam(antha) Key and Jake Ward...all of whom I've either shared a stage with or watched on stage before, all really funny people. My boy Jason Tate was plucked to be the host for the night, and it was great to see him get a shot at that. Knew this was going to be fun.

We drew order numbers before the show began, and I drew #2. Whew! Not #1! I hate going on first. Kristen was the lucky winner who got to pull THAT duty. After her 10 (where we learned about cats and breast-feeding...no, not with cat breasts), my buddy Tim did his wheelchair-lifting duty and got me up the backstage stairs. Jason did my intro, I got up and did my 10. Was very happy with it, mostly with the fact that the new stuff worked. Felt like I gave a strong showing.

After that came Sam Key (who taught us about aging rock stars and Slurpees), followed by a guest set by none other than Mr. Willie Mac (woo hoo!). Raj came up next ("How about Gandhi...?"), and finally Jake Ward closed things out (with some words on threesome etiquette and a song on his guitar about boners). And then it was time for all of us to get back on stage for voting.

Audience voting in a case like this doesn't involve ballots or any kind of meters. We do things the old-fashioned way at Tommy T's. Lou got up on the mic, and had each of us in turn step forward to receive applause. He did this process twice juuuuust to be sure. In the end, Sam, Jake and I advanced. However, there was also an "alternate" spot that had opened up along the way that management had the selection to fill, and Kristen ended up chosen for that, so she's going to the next round as well!

The drawings have been done for Round 2, and they break down thusly:

ROUND 2, GROUP 1

Monday, March 8, 2010

Boogee, Kristen Fritz, Joey Gonzalez, Michael O'Connell, Delfino Reyna

ROUND 2, GROUP 2

Monday, March 15, 2010

Ty Anderson, Sam Key, Willie Mac, Jennifer Rutherford, Jake Ward

Yeah...I've my work just a LITTLE cut out for me Monday night...

Thanks to everyone (no matter who you came to root for) who showed up Monday night and cheered us on! Packed house, great crowd, lots of laughs all around. Thanks to my fellow finalists who braved the night with me. Bye bye, Round 1! Here comes Round 2!

If you're reading this and thinking about coming this Monday night...stop thinking and DO IT! What a lineup! And what a chance to come and cheer for me...ME, you hear me?! I can't stress this part highly enough! Would love to see if we can pack Tommy T's to the walls again.

Support local comedy! Know what the best way is to do that? Come out and cheer for ME! This will benefit local comedy in ways I'll have to explain to you at another time, after I've given it some thought...

Luna's Cafe, Comedy, My Sex Appeal and Remote &*%$-Blocking

2010-02-25T01:44:00.000-08:00

Not long after I got started with the comedy thing, my friend RQ (not to be confused with my friend "AT" that I talk about so much. Totally different letters, people) said that I ought to check out the comedy night at Luna's Cafe right down by her place...which is the midtown area of Sacramento. I gave them a call, and the owner (Art Luna) helpfully told me that local comedy godfather Keith Lowell Jensen (he didn't actually use the godfather part in our conversation) runs their comedy night (Wednesday nights at 8:00 PM), and gave me Keith's number. I called Keith (who was very friendly and forthcoming despite the fact I was calling him in the middle of his day job. I haven't had one in so long I tend to forget others still do), who let me know the deal.

The deal is, it's not a traditional open mic night kind of thing at Luna's. And this is a good thing, for the crowd. While there's a great appeal (and sometimes darkly sick enjoyment) to seeing someone getting on stage for the first time, it's also nice to know that when you go to a comedy show, you're going to get actual seasoned, practiced comics. He invited me to come on down and check the place out, and how they do things, and we'd talk about it. Cool.

So my comedy buddy Vladimir (a.k.a. Fist Officer Vladimir. That's not a typo) and I went down a couple Wednesdays back and scoped the place. What a great room! It's a really small, intimate environment, with a small stage surrounded by tables. I noted right away that it's going to be a logistical challenge to get me and my chair up on that stage, but it's perfectly doable if we just show up a little early and set things up right. Turns out that particular Wednesday Keith was out of town, so Vlado and I just kicked back and enjoyed the show. And enjoyed it a lot! Got to see some comedians I'd already either seen before or been on stage with before (like Chazz Hawkins, Steve Ferris and John Ross), and got to see some awesome new folks that I became instant fans of.

I decided I'd head back down the following Wednesday, since I was going to be downtown anyway doing my first photo shoot with the amazing Cynthia E. Jones and her magic lens. So I had my first time as a model (I immediately started demanding things and throwing my cell phone at people), and then we went out for some dinner and drinks. Time went too fast, and soon I had to rush over to make it by 8:00 PM at Luna's, because 1) it's a small place that I can't wheel around in too well, so I wanted to be able to get an accessible table before they filled up, and 2) I had people meeting me there. I'd told RQ I was going to be there, and since she's in the neighborhood, she wanted to drop by and hang...both to see me and to see Keith, whom it turns out she used to work with. Also, I had told AT (not to be confused with RQ, because his initials have a vowel in them) I'd be there, and he wanted to check it out as well...and called during the day to let me know he'd be bringing our pal Chris with him. So I didn't just need a little space for me...I needed a table for four.

I got there and got lucky enough to find an open table just inside the door. Keith was there, came over and introduced himself, and we talked a little about what places I'd performed at, etc, and he went ahead set me up with seven minutes on stage in a couple of weeks (that'll be next Wednesday, the 3rd). Very cool.

Things were getting started, and my peeps were nowhere in sight. I was starting to get a little edgy. A text from RQ let me know she was on the way, so no problem there, but what about AT and Chris? Just as I was sitting there thinking about this, a female voice behind me asked, just over my shoulder, if the seat next to me was taken. On instinct, I apologetically said that yes, I was expecting a couple of people. And then I saw her. Blonde. Very cute. Ever have one of those moments when after so many moments of suspecting you might be a moron, you realize that you actually ARE one? Yeah. It was like that. So she went ahead and moved on, and asked another guy a couple of tables away if HIS extra seat was open. This guy was not a moron. And proved it.

Forgive the indelicacy, but you know how you know that you've been friends with a couple of guys for a really, really long time? When they can cock-block you without even being in the same BUILDING.

So, yes, I was ready to be VERY resentful if they didn't bother showing up after I'd turned down one of those "Oh, how did we first meet? It was so funny...I couldn't find a place to sit so I just asked him if the seat next to him was taken, and now we have four children and a beautiful split-level home in Folsom!" moments that just NEVER happen to me. My luck on Southwest flights is enough to prove that never happens to me. I don't think I've ever had anyone sit down next to me who wasn't either 375 pounds (and a dude) or older than Betty White. And yet, that had just happened. Why was today different, I wondered?

Right at that moment, there was a guy walking past, heading for the counter at the other end of the cafe. I happened to look up as he happened to look back. Our eyes met, and he gave me a look, and he smiled. I was confused a bit. Did I know him? Was he a comedian I'd met at another place and just wasn't recognizing? Because it was kind of a long look, which seemed odd if we'd never met each other...

A couple of minutes later, I saw him sit down with his friend. Oh, my apologies...I forgot to put "friend" in quotes. I have always had really, really crappy gaydar.

So, woah, woah... Not only had I just had a really attractive young blonde try to join me at my table, but then I immediately got a flirty look from this guy? Not only did I inspire the gay hit-on, but did so with a guy who was there with his significant other? I was the catalyst for potential gay infidelity?! Dude, was I on my game that night or WHAT? Where did this mysterious sex appeal suddenly emerge from? What triggered this amazing new power in me? I can only assume it was the photo shoot. Apparently, posing for photos and sexying it up for the camera really stokes up a "check me" vibe in you. Who'da thought?

Eventually AT and Chris did show up (and it's a good thing, too, you tardy bastards), as did RQ, and we all reclined at our completely unromantic table and had an amazing time. Awesome locals (like the hilarious Mikhail Chernyavsky), and a double-header headliner of San Francisco's Candy Churilla and PAINfully funny George Lopez staff writer Kelly Pryce. Kelly was working with the audience big-time. One of the ones she talked to was the blonde. Who, I found out through Kelly's questioning, was completely single. Rrrrrrrr. I actually considered abusing my new-found magnetic powers and catching her outside, apologizing for the turn-away and handing her a ticket to my March 1st performance at Tommy T's, but as the show ended, I found myself blocked in by exiting folks, and she was outside and gone before I left. Fair enough. I wouldn't have felt right taking my mac daddy gifts for granted like that, anyway. They're here to serve and benefit humanity, not my own personal whims.

So tonight I was back out again, solo this time, to enjoy the Luna's room. Another great night. Chazz Hawkins was back, Steve Ferris was back, an awesome dude named Khulani Malone that I just did Po' Boyz with on Monday night showed, Nick Pettigrew (who I saw and loved on my first night at Luna's) did his bit and shared a table with me, and I got to see some great new folks, like David Shuber (sp?), Marcella Arguello, and the night's headliner, the VERY up-and-coming, all-over-Cali Sammy Obeid. And Keith even got up and did a set. Good stuff! And I feel bad because I'm TOTALLY blanking on the name of the guy who hosted, who I've not only talked to twice but have now seen on stage twice. He was awesome tonight. Great guy. Clearly could use a more memorable name, but...

Oh, and of course, the blonde showed up again. This time with a date. I went outside after the show was over to talk with folks, and I lit up a mini-stogie, trying to position myself where the wind was blowing the smoke AWAY instead of RIGHT AT people, because not everyone likes the smell of cigar smoke.

Guess who DOES like it?

The blonde walked out the door, immediately stepped up to me, smiled, and said, "Mmmm, I LOVE the smell of cigars."

(Insert drawn-out, grumbled expletive and head-shake from me here).

I had time to say, "You have no idea how much I love hearing those words from a woman..." before her date stepped up behind her and said, "Okay, let's go." And they did.

I sense this story's not over. Mark my words.

The moral of this whole drawn-out story is this - if you haven't checked out Comedy Night at Luna's, you're denying yourself a fantastic comedic experience. Keith and all his special friends are there every Wednesday night at 8:00 PM, and after three visits, I can confidently guarantee you a great time. And if you decide to try it out next Wednesday, 3/3, I have it on pretty good authority that there's going to be a guy in a wheelchair there. On stage. Telling jokes. About wheelchairs.

But if you do show up? Please...don't hit on me. Frankly, it's just getting kind of old...

Hella Comedy Monday! Tommy T's Plus Po' Boyz! BAM!

2010-02-23T02:34:00.000-08:00

Rockin' night of Sacramento comedy, boys n girls. Let me tell you 'bout it.

First, the competition continued at Tommy T's as group #2 had their night to shine in the Open Mic Finals. I had told you before there were supposed to be six of them. Well, due to some of kind of issues, there only ended up being four. This part kind of sucks for the comics, because three comics advance each night...which is all fine and good unless you're that ONE comedian out of four that doesn't. Hmmm.

I hit the competition solo tonight to check it out, and took my regular table (yes, I've been there enough that they actually ask me if I want my regular table). I hooked up with one of last week's competitors, the amazingly funny Aaron Shine, who missed advancing to round 2 by Olympic-level closeness on the voting (not to start any talk, but I heard someone in the crowd gesture toward him and tell someone else, "That's that guy that should have won last week") and who I didn't realize was hosting tonight. Awesome cool. And he did a fine job of keeping the crowd pumped. And it was a BIG crowd.

See, during this first round, each competitor gets a stack of 50 tickets they can give to others to come support them. Considering that audience voting is what decides if you move on or not, getting as many people behind you as possible is the no-brainer move. Some comics don't make the most of this opportunity. Others...well, others are Boogee.

Boogee made full use of those tickets and helped pack the place. Ironically, Boogee doesn't really NEED the crowd in his corner, because he's one of those comics that can get ANY crowd in his corner. Lots of folks from Team Boogee filled the joint and made the whole thing more fun for everyone. So you had Boogee as one of the four, and he drew the first slot. He was followed by the man known only as The Nasty Polack. Joey Gonzalez hit the mic next, and Delfino Reyna hit it last. And as an added bonus (and to fill some time, since we were a couple comics short), we got a visit from the very hilarious Carlos Rodriguez, who I'm a really big fan of.

Then Lou came up on stage and brought the hopeful foursome with him, and the voting began. Sadly, as I said, one did have to go, and it ended up being the Nasty Polack (perhaps just a bit too nasty for this crowd? Or perhaps too Polish?). So with killer sets that earned them the right, Boogee, Joey and Delfino won the night and will be returning for the semi-finals. Excellent work, gentlemen. Way to own it.

This, of course, now means there's only one group left for round 1 - and that's next Monday night, March 1st, and that's MY group, people! So do puh-LEEZE make your way to Rancho next week and help a brother out with this - and enjoy what's sure to be another amazing crop of up-n-comin' Sacramento funny people (I don't have the list, so I don't even know who they are yet!).

After this, I decided, like some other people I was there with, to head on up the hill to Po' Boyz in Folsom to catch the open mic night there. This choice was made even easier by the fact that fewer comics meant an early end to the Tommy T's night, and the Po' Boyz open mic doesn't start until around 9:00 PM. I pulled in there about 9:20, and they hadn't even gotten started yet and were still setting up. Sweet. So I talked to that room's always-gracious host, Cheryl the Soccer Mom, and got myself on the list. There were 10 comics on it ahead of me, but hey...I had nowhere else to be. One of the joys of unemployment.

Kicked it on the patio and hung out with some of the regulars, like Willie Mac, Shane Murphy, Deshawn Robertson and Ellis Rodriguez, among others. Oh, and Brian Diamond, a guy I haven't seen in a while who gave me some really great advice back when I was just getting started at this. I sensed right off that it was a good crowd inside. Po' Boyz is always a fun room to play, but this time there was an extra helping of people, and these people were all wound up...in the good way. These weren't just drunks looking to be amused or to heckle. These were people that really came to see comedy, and were very into it - and that's a surprisingly rare thing at a comedy show (go figure).

I followed Ellis and did my five minutes, taking the chance to work on the new material going into my 10-minute set for next week (so if you were there tonight, and plan to be there at Tommy T's next Monday, just pretend you didn't hear it), and I really liked how it went. It's good to hear one of your new things really slay...there's that "Oh, thank God" moment, when you now know that it wasn't just funny in your own head. Everybody was doing great in that room. Part of it was the crowd, but everybody was just really on their game and having a good time. Willie Mac particularly nailed his stuff tonight. Chazz Hawkins did his usual bringing down o' the house. Anthony Thomas got it done in a bow tie, no less! Jason Armenio killed, as ever, in his brilliantly low-key style. Matthew Byrd was all Matthew Byrd, and that's all he ever needs to be. But Sean Peabody really started something special. There was a table with a couple of girls who just kept talking through everybody's routines. I didn't really notice that so much during my set, except when I heard somebody else do a big "shush" in that direction. Well, Sean was getting pissed prior to going on, and decided to have fun with them. And he did. Most of his routine was just messing with this one girl, and it was one of those just perfect moments, because she was into it, and kept giving back at him, and in doing so just gave him more ammo. Everyone loved it. And then most comics that went on after him had to bring her into things, too. Great stuff.

And the perfect ending to the night was the surprise drop-in by comedian Mike E. Winfield to try out some new stuff. Mike's a NorCal guy, but really jumping up in the national comedy scene. He's been on Comedy Central, Showtime, Last Comic Standing and Comics Unleashed with Byron Allen. He's insanely funny. He got up there with his notebook and just started trying out untested jokes, and it was amazing. The crowd was totally into it and playing back at him. The crowd, in fact, was not letting him leave, and kept wanting more. Keep in mind this is after damn near three hours of comedy when most crowds fizzle out and just want to go home. Not this crowd, baby. I didn't even time how long he was on, but it kept going for some time, and it was just really organic and connected, just this perfect magical little moment of comic-to-crowd. Mike's played a lot of crowds, and you could tell he was being very sincere when, near the end of his set, he talked about this being one of the best ones he's every had. I was glad I was there to experience that. As I said, perfect end to a near-perfect comedy night. Got to meet Mike after. Swell guy.

And I really appreciated the crowd, myself, for all the post-show handshakes and "great stuff" smiles and even a couple of hugs. That always fuels you to keep going on, that's for sure. How much do you think it would cost, you think, to hire a particular crowd and have them follow you to all your performances? Let me do some math and get back to you on that.

Said my good-byes to the gang and headed home. Not a bad way to spend a Monday night in Sac-Town if I do say so myself. Sacramento comedy kicks ass.

Tommy T's Open Mic Finals - Round 1, Group 2 - Tonight!

2010-02-22T02:00:00.000-08:00

Ooh, but it's a big Monday night in Sacramento comedy! At Tommy T's in Rancho Cordova, tonight (2/22), the battle for the big prize continues! The Open Mic Finals are underway!

This competition brings together past winners of individual open mic nights to go head-to-head in elimination competition. Last Monday night it all got rolling, with the first five comics (Jason Tate, Willie Mac, Aaron Shine, Ty Anderson and Jennifer Rutherford) hitting the stage to do their best 10-minute sets and hand their fates over to audience voting. Willie, Ty and Jennifer pulled it out, so those three are advancing to the semifinals in a couple of weeks. In the meantime, groups two and three need to go up and face a little comedic natural selection.

Group two is another tough one, bringing together local favorites Delfino Reyes, Joey Gonzales, Boogee, Raj Dutta, Mike Sinclair and The Nasty Polack. They each get their 10 to make it happen. With this group, it's anybody's guess. Should be a hell of a showdown.

I, for one, will be there (I'm in group three the week after! Gotta know who I may face in the next round!), cheering these dudes on and soaking up their comic funk as always. If you're in Rancho with nothing to do on a Monday, pop in and enjoy the show!

My first video

2010-02-22T01:33:00.000-08:00

There's a link over on the right to my YouTube video page, and I'll keep adding any new performance videos as they become available. Thought I'd go ahead and post my first open mic video here, just to get this page started right:

(Sorry the sound's not a little better. Got to crank it a bit).

Welcome TO it!

2010-02-22T01:28:00.000-08:00

Thanks for finding your way here! This would be the current web home of me - that's Michael O'Connell - a guy who does comedy around Sacramento. I hope you Googled me to get here. There's nothing I enjoy more than a good Googling. Well...except for maybe getting Binged...

A little bit about me. I'd always kind of thought about trying comedy, at least once in my life. In fact, an item on my bucket list was "Do a comedy open mic and find out if you suck or not". I've always felt that everyone should try a 5-minute set on stage just to say they've nutted up enough to it, even once. I shared this thought at one point with my old friend Vladimir (no, seriously, his name's Vladimir), and a couple of months later, he called me back (after several shots of Vodka and the transmission of vital state secrets to his handlers) and said, "Screw it...let's do it." I said okay. So we both put some material together and headed over to open mic night at Tommy T's Comedy & Dinner Theater in Rancho Cordova, CA. So I got to take something off my bucket list. But as an added bonus, I won the contest that night. And I came to realize that I really, really dig doing comedy, and now wonder what took me so long to start.

My comedy mostly centers on wheelchair living, as I have Muscular Dystrophy and have been a chair jockey for many years. If you think there's nothing funny about disability, I invite you to let me change your mind. The things, situations and people I deal with day in and day out are a constant source of amusement for me, and now I'm here to share it all with you, you lucky, lucky dogs.

If you're in the Sacramento area, please feel free keep checking this site, or my Facebook page (see the link on the right), for info on where I'll be performing next. Would love to see you there, and would love to be your gateway into the world of Sac comedy, 'cause there are a bunch of funny, funny people working the mics in this town, and you'd better see some of them now so you can say you caught their act before they left this pop stand behind. Check 'em out at places like Tommy T's. Laughs Unlimited. Punch Line. Luna's Cafe. Cafe Nostra. Po' Boyz. Stick with me and I'll be your guide to some of these joints.

Thanks again for dropping in, and I hope you'll do so regular-like.