Media Roundup

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!

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

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

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!

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

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!

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.