Friday, February 11, 2011
End Of 2010
I realized that writing my blog might be easier once a month rather than writing it twice a year. It’s hard to go back months later and look at pictures from past gigs. But listen I get thousands of e-mails per week (play along) asking where the “F” is my new BLOG. Yes my fans use shitty language. I wish they were more sophisticated especially since my humor is smart, clever and clean. Whatever A*#holes.
So sure I wish I had done my end of 2010 BLOG sooner. But life is unfair. I mean why didn’t Brad give Ashley S a rose on episode 5 YET crazy Michelle from Salt Lake City is still going strong.
I would never watch that garbage but if I did I would want Emily to get the final rose. Brad calls her Em. Please don’t support that crap.
My fall schedule really kicked in the first part of October. I mean September was great because I did back to back weeks performing in California with my buddy Ralphie May. We started off with Irvine then went to the Ontario Improv. Local gigs like that are great because it’s nice to work a great club but it’s also nice to sleep in your own bed at the end of the day. One other cool thing happened in September. My cousin Brian got to throw out the first pitch of an Arizona Diamondbacks baseball game. He entered a contest and they picked his name. I had to go down and watch him do this. It was very cool to hear his name being announced over the sound system and seeing his face on the jumbotron. The pitch was great. September is the best time to visit Arizona because the temperature drops to a cool 112 degrees. And that’s at night. Perfect weather for baseball.
October was really a lot of fun. As a comic you start out for years doing lousy, low paying gigs simply to get experience. At the time you think why am I doing these gigs at a coffeeshop or rowdy bar with three people here. This isn’t benefitting me at all. Well years later you realize it does because the more you’re on stage in front of a variety of audiences (small and large), the more you develop your confidence and get better as a performer. It’s simple. I hate meeting new comics who feel they can do one performance a month and get good. They spend all their time writing what they think are good jokes and they’re above playing the waiting game to get stage time. Meanwhile those comics eventually disappear. And to that real comics out there working say thank you for thinning the pile of lazy people holding up the line. Back to my point. In this business sometimes the phone rings offering you a great gig. Sometimes it’s a lousy gig. Some days the phone doesn’t ring. Another example of how sitting in your bedroom doesn’t benefit you. You need to be out working, making contacts. Letting headliners see what you’re all about. I got a call at the beginning of October from my friend Ralphie May.
Every year Ralphie performs on this Carnival Cruise out of Tampa with travel to Mexico. He does the cruise for a radio station out of Tampa, a guy named Cowhead. Yes Cowhead. Well I met Cowhead in April of 2009 when I went in studio with Mitch Fatel. Mitch was promoting his shows at the Tampa Improv and Mitch asked me to come in and do afternoon radio with him. I met Cowhead and the crew. Cowhead has the most popular afternoon show in Tampa so that’s why comics go on his show. My first meeting with Cowhead was uneventful. In fact I later was told he didn’t like me all that much because he thought it was weird for a headliner’s opening act (ME) to come in studio and be on air with the headliner. I guess it never happens but Mitch and even Ralphie like when I do radio with them. And I love doing radio. So I do the show with Mitch and leave and don’t think much of it. Months later I’m in the car with Ralphie driving home from Arizona and he says let’s call the Cowhead show. So we do and Cowhead explains how I first went into the studio and he thought I was an arrogant dick for trying to get airtime. Once the interview started he admitted he enjoyed me being on air and said he loved hearing some of my stories about audience warm up on television shows. At the time I went in with Mitch I had no idea he thought this BUT now we laughed about it. And every time Mitch was on or Ralphie was on, Cowhead would call me even if I was in LA. Back to the cruise. So every year Cowhead does a cruise for his listeners. They take over a portion of the ship and they do cool things exclusively for their listeners. This was the fourth year for the cruise. Ralphie and a comic named Bert Kreischer perform on the cruise each year. Here was the great thing. I get a call from Ralphie saying Bert has to cancel last minute and can’t do the cruise this year. He said Cowhead really wants me to take the spot. He said we will fly you to Tampa and then hop on the cruise with us going to Cozumel. Everything is paid for.
Let me think about this. UMMMMM hell yes. A few days later I’m on a plane to Tampa . The cruise was amazing. We left Tampa on Thursday. We were at sea Thursday and Friday. Saturday the boat docked in Cozumel and the Cowhead listeners enjoyed the day at a private beach club with tons of food and drink. It was just for the listeners so that was awesome. And Cowhead fans are great. I decided to do a little snorkeling during our stop in Cozumel. Cowhead’s wife Amanda came. She is so awesome.
Cozumel was great. We were back on the boat Saturday evening heading back to Tampa. Sunday night we did our comedy show. It was me, Ralphie and a local Tampa guy named Rahn Hortman. Very funny guy who was just a pleasure to work with.
The comedy show was a blast. I had an amazing four days on the boat. It was back to Tampa on Monday. Nothing worse than getting into port at 8 a.m. and your flight back to LA isn’t until 7 p.m.
But thanks to Cowhead and Ralphie for the great gig and the free vacation. Getting back to what I said earlier, it’s gigs like this that make you realize all the years of hard work pays off when you make these relationships and get to perform on a cruise like this.
Back home in LA but only for a few days before leaving to the Kansas City Improv. The last time I was in KC was a few years before. The club is in a shopping center but they moved locations since the last time I was there. The new location was right up from the old club. Weird thing was the new club was boarded up with nothing in it. It looked creepy being able to see the old club from the new club. I don’t know why. Maybe it’s like when you go back and see your old childhood house and you’re like wow I use to masturbate in there. HMMMM. KC Improv. I worked with Mitch Fatel on this gig. Had a lot of fun. Got to see my buddy Erik Lundy who is a bud of mine I met in LA. He lives in KC now. Very talented artist. And funny comic too. On the last night of the shows, the manager comes in the greenroom and says to me “are you a sport’s fan?” As a guy I’m like “hell yes.” Well he tells me Priest Holmes is in the audience. I look at him like “WTF. WHO?” It was clear I am not a sports guy because Priest Holmes is a former running back for the KC Chiefs and most everyone knows him. My 12 year old nephews knew him. Not sports fanatic Gary Cannon. We met him after the show. I played it off like I was a big fan.
On my flight home Monday from KC, the airport was bustling. I thought I was at New York ’s JFK. I was checking in and the guy at United was like “my wife and I were at your show this weekend at the improv.” I thought that was really cool. He must not have been that big of a fan. I was still sitting in coach. Dick.
From KC it was off to Atlanta . I LOVE Atlanta . I’ve said I could live in Atlanta if I wasn’t doing stand up. Some people would say, “Gary you do stand up…” Very funny MOM. Yes and I have the studio apartment to prove it. Second reason I love Atlanta is my great friends Eddie and Irina live there. I met them living in San Francisco years ago. Two of the most generous, kind hearted people you will every meet. I love staying with them because they have a beautiful house with two beautiful daughters and a great little dog. It’s the best sense of calm and relaxation I get all year. It really is so enjoyable to visit. I went over Halloweeen weekend and was able to get work at the Atlanta Punchline as well. Always good to make the visit a paid vacation. I worked at the Punchline with my good buddy Al Madrigal. Al and I started comedy together years ago in San Francisco so it was fun seeing him. During our week, we headed over to TBS and did some interviews for their website. That was fun. Last time I was in Atlanta me, Eddie and Irina went on a tour of CNN. Some 20 year old college intern took us on the tour and those interns are reading the tour dialogue right from a script. So when I asked her if Larry King ever made an inappropriate move, she didn’t know how to respond.
Luckily we were off Halloween night. No shows. So I was able to go out with my friend Eddie as he took his girls trick or treating while Irina stayed home to pass out candy. It was a lot of fun. In LA you don’t see people out just because it doesn’t have that neighborhood feel.
Thanks Eddie and Irina for not only another great weekend but for your amazing friendship over the years. I love you guys.
November started with a few benefit shows at the Improv. The first was with my friend Julia Lillis. I went to Iraq with her earlier in the year. Very funny and so much fun to travel with.
The benefit was organized by my friend Cher and was for a great cause, the Children’s Trinity Foundation. Cher does this event every year and it raises money for underprivileged kids who go without toys over the holiday season. In past years I was out of town when Cher did the show so I was very happy I could take part in this year’s event.
The second benefit was mid November and it was put on by my good buddy Roger. Roger and I have been friends for years and he is the reason I do audience warm up for tv shows here in LA.
I met him years ago when he did warm up on the Late Late Show w/ then host Craig Kilborn. I saw the show tape and saw this guy come out and entertain the crowd before the show started and thought that was such a great job. I stayed after the taping and asked Roger how I could get into the business. He called security but he was very sweet as he did it. Most warm up guys are really nice and will talk your ear off about how they got started and what to do if you want to get into the business. Warm up is a very small community of people doing it. But some guys are jerks and feel like you’re going to steal away their work which is pretty ridiculous. If you’re good you’re good. So three weeks later I got Roger fired and was doing the warm up gig at Kilborn. No Roger was really helpful getting me info on what I should do. I spent months doing comedy shows where I worked with audience and would attend tv tapings all the time to see different people work. I always thought Roger was the best. Anyway months and months later Roger told me the Late Late Show was looking for someone to do a few days a month, days he couldn’t do because of other shows. Myself and two other people auditioned for the job. We did warm up on an actual show. I got the gig. And Roger and I have been friends since. So fast forward six years. Roger and his longtime girlfriend Sandra (whom he met doing warm up at the Kilborn show. She was in the audience and he pursued her). Well they love dogs. LOVE dogs. Bulldogs in fact. They adopt and foster dogs. They are amazing people. Well they wanted to do a benefit show to raise money for the southern California bulldog rescue based in Irvine . So we held a benefit show on a Sunday afternoon at the Irvine Improv. It was a huge success. People in Orange County love their bulldogs and they came out to support in full force. We plan to do this as an annual event.
Now it was off to one of my favorite gigs as a comic, the Improv at Lake Tahoe . I did this gig earlier in the year and just love it. Lake Tahoe and Sun Valley , ID are two favorites because they are ski towns and full of tourists spending lots of money and I get paid to be up there. Similar to the Carnival cruise in October. The weird thing with both Lake Tahoe and Sun Valley is you spend a ton of time outside during the day enjoying everything the city has to offer. Then around 5 p.m. you have to start heading back to the hotel and get ready for the show. It’s usually one show a night. Shows are fun and you’re done by 9 p.m. for the night but at that point everything is shut down. I’ve always said as crazy as this sounds sometimes the comedy shows get in the way of trying to have a good time. But I did Tahoe in February and just loved it. I was happy to have been asked back so quickly. And over Thanksgiving weekend and also my birthday. So that was even more fun. Howie Nave is the club manager and opening act. He also has a morning radio show in Tahoe and he always has the comics on. Great guy. Always so good to the comics. Tommy Savitt was the headliner. It was my first time working with him and I truly enjoyed his act. Weather was great. Always nice to look out your hotel window and see people snowboarding down the mountain. I usually close the curtains because that light makes it hard to take a nap at 3 p.m.
It’s December and I have no idea where the year went. I know it’s almost over because I just looked at my money earned this year and I officially broke four figures so I know the year is ready to wrap. But despite the year being almost over, December is a busy month for me.
One of the top clubs in Los Angeles, the Laugh Factory which is the place Dane Cook plays all the time when he’s in town, was putting together a show to break a Guinness Book world record for the longest running comedy show. And to raise money for Toys 4 Tots. The Laugh Factory wanted to try and put on an 80 hour continuous comedy show. It started on December 6th and would run through December 9th. The idea was a comic would always be on stage during this time. Always. So at any point during this 80 hours you could go to the Laugh Factory’s website and see a comic performing. Whether it was 5 a.m. or 1 p.m. And people could come watch the show if they brought an unwrapped toy for the benefit. A win/win right. So I got a call asking if I would participate. I was totally down. I was asked to do 7 a.m. on that Wednesday. I thought since I’m never up that early, it was only appropriate that I wore my pajams on stage while drinking coffee. It made the most sense. The club did break the record and raised a ton of toys for needy kids in the process.
In addition to doing comedy, I love watching it. Especially a few people specifically like Brian Regan. Truly one of the best working right now. Just an amazing comic.
I’ve had the pleasure of working with Brian several times and he always has a ton of new material and all of it is fantastic. I saw Brian at the Wiltern mid December and my cousin saw him the next night in Arizona and was asking me about some of his jokes. Funny a night later Brian was doing almost all new stuff than he had the night we saw him. Just an amazing person both personally and professionally. Thanks to Brian and his awesome wife Kathleen for the hospitality.
It was time to leave the warm LA weather and make my way back east. I decided to leave for New York mid December because I love New York before XMAS. But I thought instead of making the flight from LA to Michigan right before XMAS I had the bulk of the trip down already. It’s only a 90 minute flight from New York to Detroit compared to almost five hours from LA to Detroit . So I booked a week of work at Gotham Comedy Club in Chelsea and enjoyed a little pre-holiday madness in New York . The weather was the coldest it had ever been during a visit. But it’s New York so it’s still fun. Had a great time seeing friends and working with Alonzo Bodden. Shows were fun and it was a great way to start wrapping up the year.
Heading back to Michigan for the holidays. Always nice to be home despite the travel delays and lousy weather. Always have a good time.
The great thing about this trip was I got to stay in Michigan for NYE. I’ve worked every NYE for the last ten years. As a comic it’s my favorite night of the year to work because while most people are scrambling trying to figure out what to do and where to go, I’ve already got my plans and I’m getting paid to be out for NYE so that’s why I like it so much. Well over the summer I met a guy in Mansfield, OH named Costa. Costa is from Michigan and was producing a theater show with Ralphie May in mid July. Ever been to Mansfield? Don’t bother. So Costa drives down from Michigan to set up the theater show. I’m opening for Ralphie so we meet. Costa is a good guy. He lives in Saginaw , MI not too far from where my mom lives now. We do the show in Mansfield and have fun. Never see Costa again. It’s now September and I’m trying to line up a NYE gig. Everything is falling through. I thought I was doing a gig in Florida but it fell through. I wanted a NYE gig. Any gig. So I’m in Lake Tahoe for Thanksgiving weekend working the Improv. And I get a call from Costa. On my birthday no less. He says hey I’m going to produce a NYE show at a theater in Saginaw do you want to do it. I was so excited because not only did I now have a NYE gig, it was a theater, it was close to home and I didn’t have to fly somewhere after XMAS. I could stay in Michigan for a few extra days and enjoy time with my family. Do the show NYE and fly back to LA on Jan 1st which I was excited about since I left LA for the holidays mid December to be in New York . It’s like I said earlier, some days the phone rings with good news, bad news or doesn’t ring at all. This was a great birthday gift. And here was the great thing. Costa asked who I wanted to work with. A good buddy of mine from LA just moved back to Chicago. His name is Rocky Laporte. Solid comic. Very and just a truly great guy. I called him thinking he was booked. Well he had a gig fall through just a few days before my call so he was able to do it. Everything worked out great.
Had an amazing time and kept the streak of working NYE alive.
It’s 2011 and I’m excited for the year ahead. I am excited that my buddy Steve Mazan’s film Dying to Do Letterman (which I’m apart of) is done and will premiere this year. I’m excited to be doing warm up on some new shows including Lopez Tonight and Americas Got Talent. I’m heading on the road with AGT this spring to do warm up for their audition shows. VERY excited to be part of the Dave Koz cruise heading to Alaska this summer. Dave and I met last year when I was doing warm up on the Emeril Lagasse show in New York . Dave was the band leader for the show. Well he does a jazz cruise every year for his fans on Royal Caribbean and this year he asked me if I wanted to be the comic/host on this year’s cruise. It’s a seven day cruise through Alaska and I couldn’t have been more excited that he asked me. And here is the best part. My mom LOVES Dave Koz. I remember before my dad passed they use to listen to his music all the time. So when she found out I was working with Dave last year she freaked out. She went to see him perform last year in Detroit.
And when I was told I could bring someone I know I had to bring her. She has never been on a cruise and I’ve heard Alaska is the best cruise to take. She will absolutely love it. I think she is already packing. No joke. Can’t wait till August. I’m also excited about the autism benefit show Ralphie May is doing for my sister in February. And excited for hitting all the clubs this year and seeing what happens when the phone rings next. If it rings…
And BTW my nephew Grant is out of the hospital, done with Chemo and back in school. His first year of high school. He loves it. Give him some time. That will change.
posted by Gary Cannon at: 12:49 AM 
Comments:
Cannon. What a starfucker. ;-) Great round up of your last months. Fun read.
# posted by Unknown : February 17, 2011 at 1:36 AM
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