Sunday, October 19, 2008
Great baseball parks, rowdy football fans and some comedy thrown in:
Houston, TX:This year has been busy. BUT the month of September was by far my busiest comedy month of the year. Mitch and I started the month at the Houston Improv. We worked the week before Hurricane Ike hit. The Houston Improv was easily one of our favorite clubs ever. Great audiences, great staff, great managers. This club was at one time a Rainforest Cafe restaurant. Hard to believe people didn't want to eat overpriced nachos in a safari type environment. I will say the fake volcano is certainly tempting as a customer but I would prefer to dine and dash at Red Robin. BTW. The unlimited basket of french fries is a scam. They bring you four at the beginning of your meal and say you can always ask for more. BUT you can never find your server once the meal starts. They are in the back smoking out with the manager. Wait. Where was I? Oh. Rainforest Cafe. Houston Improv.
So these restaurants are HUGE. Maybe like 900,000 square feet. Now they go out of business and the Improv comes in and maybe uses 20,000 square feet. Which means much of the club is unoccupied and deserted. It would be a great place for a haunted house. But the club is upstairs and just beautiful. Thanks to everyone in Houston for coming out and making the week great. And thanks to Jeff for the amazing hospitality. Mitch and I were bummed because when we visit different cities we like to see a professional ball game. And this weekend the Houston Astros and Houston Texans were out of town. So no luck.
 
New York City, NY:The Houston Improv ended on Sunday night and I really wanted to see my high school buddy and his family from San Antonio. So on Monday I did something I've never done. Had sex without paying for it??? Not this time. I took a Greyhound bus from Houston to San Antonio. I've heard you can meet a ton of hot chicks on the Greyhound so I decided to take a chance on love. I got to San Antonio and spent a great evening with my buddy Greg, his wife and three great kids.
Tuesday morning I left San Antonio for New York. I was excited about this trip because I was working the week at a great club in the city called Gotham. My first time. And Mitch just bought a new place and I was excited to stay there. New York is one of my favorite cities. Fly in. Mitch and I have dinner. I see his new place. It's amazing. Such an incredible view of the city from his windows. This trip had so many great memories. Our shows at Gotham were a blast. Mitch and I did a bunch of press to promote the shows, including two on Sirius Satellite Radio. We did Maxim Radio with Covino and Rich and Raw Dog with Pete Dominick. The Sirius studios are amazing. I've been a Sirius subscriber for years but seeing the nerve center in person was very cool. And I am a HUGE Howard Stern fan. We got to take a tour of the Stern offices and studio where they do the show live. The show was off the day we visited Sirius but it was still great to see firsthand where they record. Thanks to Pete, Rich, Covino and Jason at the Stern show for a great day. Another incredible memory was my first Yankees game at Yankee Stadium. I got to see a game before they moved next spring. Mitch was suppose to come with me but on our way to the game he realized he lost his keys and he wanted to go back and find them. So I took the subway up to the Bronx solo. The stadium is old but historic. It was great to step foot inside and be part of so much history. Glad I was able to make it to the game.
 
 
 
 
I mean the trip to New York is the top highlight of the month. Even when I wasn't doing anything specific, just being in New York is awesome. I remember on the first day of my visit I was eating lunch in Central Park watching kids play soccer. Just a nice memory.
I had to fly home from New York because we started filming the new season of Last Call with Carson Daly on 9/15. We are into the show's 8th Season. I've been with the show since 2005. Everyone at the show is fantastic. It's a fun group to work with. We tape on Monday and Wednesday. So I did the shows and took the red eye flight from LA to Cleveland for our next set of shows. Mitch and I did shows every weekend in September. I arrive in Cleveland on Thursday morning. I asked Rob (the guy who picked me up) if he knew of a local Dunkin Donuts. I love their coffee and donuts but the DD doesn't exist in California. So whenever I hit the road, I always try and find one. Well Rob didn't know of one but said he would stop if he saw one en route. I feel asleep in the back of the car and woke up in a haze to see us pulling into a Dunkin Donuts. I was in heaven. I jumped out and grabbed coffee and donuts. So good. Alright, so at this point in the BLOG it seems as though the month of September has been a blast. Here is where things change. ENJOY.
Cleavland, OH:So most clubs I work I stay at the hotel with Mitch. But sometimes the club will put up comics at a condo. Fortunately I've only stayed at a few condos in my career (most pretty good). Most comics will tell you that you aren't a road comic till you've stayed at some of these shity shitty comedy condos. What makes them shitty? Well furniture from the 1950's, one plate in the entire condo, disgusting carpet, a bed you would rather not sleep on, broken everything, no internet, nothing nearby in walking distance, urine smell. But many comics coming up would LOVE to have a place like this because they are on the road getting paid to do comedy and the club is actually giving them accommodations. Well I don't feel that way since I've already paid my dues. And like I said, normally I stay with Mitch at the hotel. Sometimes even when the club has a condo, he pushes for me to get the hotel with him. But since this was our first time in Cleveland, he couldn't pull me in the hotel so I stayed at the condo. So let's back up. Fly from New York back to LA. Work at Carson Mon/Wed. Take the red eye Wednesday night. Arrive Cleveland Thursday. Dead tired. Walk into this condo. I'm miserable. I try to fall asleep on the sofa but apparently the condo windows face a road where salt trucks and various other (18) wheelers drive to access the freeway nearby. Needless to say it was so f'ing loud I could fall asleep. So I went to the club for our first show tired and grumpy. Now please don't feel sorry for me. I'm sure a lot of people are reading this like, "Man. This guy knows what it's like to be a prisoner of war... No internet. WTF???" But seriously. It's hard for me to explain. I will schedule us a trip next year and we will visit the condo. Then you can apologize to me.
What can I say about the Cleveland Improv? Great staff. Very nice. Great people. But the crowds were by and large disrespectful. I had a couple making out right in front of me one night. Not just a little kissing. Full on making out. Front row. These people are big Cleveland Browns fans. So any mention of an opposing city got huge groans and them yelling obscenities. Our last night was Sunday and the Browns lost that afternoon so as I was walking to the stage a guy yelled "Browns lost. This guy better be funny." That summed up the week. But the highlight was Mitch and I going to see a Cleveland Indians game at Progressive Field formerly Jacobs Field. The Indians played the Tigers. And since I'm from Detroit I was excited. This was my first time at Progressive Field. Great stadium. I think if the Indians had been out of town this weekend and we couldn't see a pro game, we would have been bouncing off the walls. But again, thanks to everyone at the club for being so great. Especially Lee for giving us the Indians tix.
 
Pittsburg, PA:So I fly home Monday morning. Work at Carson again Mon/Wed. Take another red eye from LA to Pittsburgh. I arrive Thursday. The Pirates are out of town this weekend and the Steelers are playing on Monday night. So again. No sporting event this time. The Steelers fans could be even crazier and more die hard than those in Cleveland. People in Pittsburgh hate people in Cleveland. And vice versa. Did I forget something. It's just a game right? The week was non-eventful but fun. Aimee is the GM. I've known Aimee for a long time. We first met when she was a manager at the Irvine Improv. Just a sweetheart. She moved to Pittsburgh to be close with her family and new baby Kaleb. We didn't get to meet Kaleb because he was sick the weekend we were there. But Pittsburgh was fun and would definitely go back.
A great run of shows this month. Great memories. I think I will be back at Gotham in December. Would love to do Houston sooner than later. And Cleveland later rather than sooner. October brings a casino in Laughlin, NV with my old bud Ralphie May. Then back to working with Mitch in Philadelphia and Atlanta. Can't wait to see my good friends Eddie and Irina in Atlanta. Look for info on these shows in my October BLOG... hitting newstands and porn sites early November. Happy Halloween everyone.
posted by Gary Cannon at: 4:56 AM 
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