It's been a while! 5/8/17

I like to read a lot of blogs. Wrestlers, musicians, comedians. I think it's really cool to get a glimpse into someone's life and thought process when they're away from work, or the pubic or whatever. And it used to really bug me when someone wouldn't blog for a long period of time. "I've been too busy to sit down and hammer one of these out." How can you possibly be too busy to take 15 minutes and write a blog?

I've been too busy to take 15 minutes and write a blog.

Well, probably not. But between comedy, work, the podcast (which I've also struggled to keep up with), and selling our house (which potentially sold last week!), the blog has just fallen down the depth chart. I'm sure all 15 of you that read it have survived, and maybe even thrived, in it's absence.

It has been a busy couple months. On a personal note, Shay and I just got back from a vacation in Florida, which was awesome, outside of the sunburns we both brought home with us. My end goal is to be a full time comedian, and there were a few instances during our trip where I left guilty about taking time off from stand up to go on a trip like that. But finding a balance between transitioning into a new career at thirty-three, with maintaining a long term relationship, means splitting your attention between both sides. Life is about having fun, after all. And I don't get to see a ton of Shay during a normal week anymore, she leaves for work before I get up, and I'm usually out at a show in the evening, with her in bed before I get home. So it was really nice to get away and actually hang out together for a few days.

Speaking of me and Shay, we finally sold our house! Pending a couple things this week, we'll have until the end of June to find a new place to live. We're excited to start a new chapter, but both a little sad to be leaving these place. When we bought it 5 years ago, we thought we might never move again. Priorities change, though. I'm sure we'll be happy wherever we end up, and we'll find something that fits with our current lifestyle a little better.

As far as comedy goes, things have been going pretty good as well. I've been part of some fantastic shows, in front of some great audiences. I got offered my first opportunity to middle at the Comic Strip a couple weeks ago, working with Kathleen McGee and Josh Wolf. Unfortunately, we ran into an Oilers playoff game, so our late show had a smaller crowd, but they were still fun nevertheless. I'm legit happy for SOME of my Oiler loving friends, but the Oilers playing hockey in May for the first time in 11 years doesn't do stand up comedy any favours...

Speaking of the Comic Strip, I also took part in one of the prelim weeks of their annual "Funniest Person With a Day Job" competition a few weeks ago. I got into the semis, and have a shot at moving on to the Finals on May 16th. This is the biggest comedy competition in Edmonton, and almost every comic that has won it in the past has used it to help take the next step in their career. I'm really excited for the opportunity, it's something I've been looking forward to since I started telling jokes last January.

I've had more and more opportunity to get on the road as well, primarily with Mike Dambra. I really can't thank the guy enough for taking me under his wing and showing me the ropes. I feel like I've gotten much better at transitioning in and out of my usual material, and joking around with the crowd,  and a large part of that has been working with Mike. The guy makes it look so god damned easy! I've set my camera up to record a few of my sets lately, and while I still see a TON of stuff I need to improve, I feel like there's a pretty big gap between video I took last fall, and my sets now. That's all I'm asking of myself, is to just keep improving. Frankly, I never want to watch one of my sets and just be happy with everything. I think the moment you don't think you can get any better at this, you should quit. Why keep going to the gym, if you don't think you can get any stronger?

I also finally got some professional head shots done, so I don't have to just use cell phone pictures of me on stage for promotional material anymore. I learned that Photoshop can do a lot of things, including help a man see straight, but it can't make a stupid looking man look less stupid :)

My whole wheat side...

...and my frosted side.

All in all, life is pretty good. I have big plans for comedy over the next year, things on the business side of the industry, that I think/hope will help me get ready to try and make the leap into becoming a full time comedian. I hope to be ready to post about them on here in the upcoming months. In the mean time, I just want to stay focused on getting better on stage, and writing more jokes. I have a goal of having an hour + of material by my 2 year anniversary in January, and I'm comfortable hitting the 35 minute mark right now. I think I could push for 40, if the opportunity presented itself. I'm not 100% happy with everything I have right now, but I know it keeps improving, and that's all I can ask from myself.

Thanks for reading, and supporting me, as always. It really means a lot to me.

Adam

Just Keep Showing Up 3/1/17

It's been a while since I posted on here. I hate it when I get into someone's blog, and then they never post. And now I'm that guy. I'm not into my own blog, but I never post. Just the worst. Things have been awesome, but busy. Between comedy, trying to get into some kind of shape, and getting our house ready to sell, there isn't much time to spare these days.

I love it.

I'm sure I've said it on here before, and I know I've brought it up on the podcast (Comedy Odyssey on iTunes & Podbean!), but I'm as focused as I can ever remember being on anything. I love being in this mindset, where you have the blinders on, you have goals in front of you, and you just grind as hard as you can. The last time I remember being this dialled in on something was probably when Shay and I were saving up to buy our house, and we were working a couple jobs each and just chipping away. It's hard at first, but once you buy in and start seeing results, you look forward to the grind each day.

Every month, I feel like I'm taking another step toward my eventual goal of being a professional comedian. I'm getting more out of town work (probably 2 out of every 3 weekends see me on the road these days), and opportunities are starting to pop in within the city limits, too. I've started closing out some of the local shows, and getting spots at the 2 major clubs in Edmonton (Yuks and the Comic Strip). I was just offered my first weekend at the Strip (end of May, if you want to come!) It's really exciting, and very, very motivating.

If I'm here after putting in *this much* work, how much further can I get if I work harder?

Obviously, I've been very lucky. Headliners in the city have, for whatever reason, decided they like having me around, and have been offering me chances to get on the road, make a little money, and most importantly, learn. I feel like my crowd work abilities have really started to develop thanks to working with Mike Dambra as much as I have, and I'm getting more and more comfortable on stage. That said, I still hate watching/listening myself. All I see or hear is what isn't working. But that's how you get better. I think....

I titled this blog "Just Keep Showing Up". I heard Joey Diaz say it on Joe Rogan's podcast, and I really liked it. If one of the comics in the city that's even newer than I am asked me for advice, I think that's what I'd say. Just keep showing up. That's what I've done. Establish your work ethic, let people know you take the art seriously. If you work hard enough, good things will happen.

Next weekend, I get the chance to go back to Cold Lake (where I grew up), to do a Friday and Saturday show. When I started taking comedy seriously, I wrote down some of my goals. One of them was to get the chance to go home and tell some jokes. I cannot wait for those shows. And then when I get back to Edmonton, I have the Joke Of Thrones and (hopefully) Funniest Person with a Day Job competitions to look forward to. March is going to be an awesome month.

I'm going home :)

I try not to focus on what other people think, but there's a big part of me that just wants to earn the respect of the other comedians. That's one of the things I've wanted the most since I did my first set. I saw the comics I liked and looked up, and the respect the other comics had for them, their talent and their work ethics. I don't actually know what most of the comedians in the city thinks of me, but I like to think I'm on my way to earning that respect. That alone keeps me going.

And it all comes down to just showing up. Just Keep Showing Up.

Thanks for reading, and supporting me.

Adam

Sunday Ramblings 1/8/17

It's about 4 pm on Sunday, January 8th. It's about 30 below outside, and I'm camping out on my couch with my dog. So far today, we've churned out a podcast, (painfully) listened back to the week's sets, worked on some new bits, and now we're blogging out a blog. All while doing laundry. Not to blow my own horn, but damn.

It's been a fun week. Anyone that listened (or is going to listen to my podcast, which you can find HERE) knows that is was my first week back at the grind after a couple weeks off for Christmas. I got to do a couple shows at the Comic Strip in West Ed, tried out a bunch of new material (mostly successfully) at Underdog, and got to do my first show in Morinville, which was an adventure in itself. But it's good to be back at it.

Click here to see a clip from my set at the Comic Strip on Tuesday.

I'm as focused as I've been in months, the new stuff is coming along great, and I've hit the ground running on my goal of reaching 60 minutes of material (that I'm happy with) by the end of 2017. I have a long way to go, and a lot of polishing to do, but it's a really satisfying feeling to see that I'm making progress.

I have less than 2 weeks to go until my 1 year anniversary (Jan 21), and I plan to write a specific blog about that when the time comes. As I've said a million times over the last 50 weeks, this has probably been the best year of my life. I just wake up in the morning full of positivity, it's like an energy I can't explain. I'm just ready to go and see what's going to happen today. There's no stress, nothing to be upset about. This is how life is meant to be lived.

I have a bunch of out of town shows coming up that'll see me traveling to Kelowna, Penticton, Cranbrook, Bashaw (I don't know where that is), Lethbridge, and the one I'm most excited about, Cold Lake. I lived there for about 10 years, and I can't wait to go home, see some old friends, and tell some jokes. I know it isn't New York or England, but it still seems pretty surreal to me that someone would pay me to go somewhere and make fun of myself.

Shay and I are taking off to Vegas for a few days, too. We've never been, and I'm looking forward to getting away from the Edmonton January weather and playing some poker. We've reached an agreement that a January vacation should become a household tradition moving forward.

The podcast is coming along, I'm getting better at sticking to a strict schedule. I still have intentions of upgrading my equipment in the next few months, the only thing slowing me down right now is doing my homework on what I want to get, and I plan to have it all up and running by spring. I want to start shooting video of my recordings as well, to get them up on Youtube. I don't know if the podcast will ever be anything other than a hobby for me, but I'm excited about it nevertheless.

And finally, some of you that know me know that for years, I've had an idea for/have been casually working on an animated show. That's *very* slowly coming along. Much like the podcast, I have no idea what I'm doing, it's just something I've always thought would be a fun project. The concept has changed several times, but it's been a cool side thing to work on when I have time. I like doing it solo and not having any deadlines, there's no pressure and I can do it when I want to. Growing up a huge Simpsons fan, I'm really enjoying my attempt to create something like that of my own.

I guess that's it for now. Thanks as always for reading and supporting me. I can't wait to see where 2017 takes us.

Adam

Sunday Rambling 11/20/16

Random Sunday night thoughts;

I've hated Sundays for most of my life. It feels like the countdown to the start of the new school/work week. I always found that after about 3 PM I couldn't enjoy the rest of the day, because I knew I had to go back to the grind in the morning. Since I started changing up how I live my life, I've found that feeling slowly starting to go away. I spent 33 years letting my brain program itself like that, it's going to take a while to reset.

I turned 33 on Thursday. I kind of wanted to go to a couple comedy shows and see if I could land a spot, as I wasn't booked anywhere, but my girlfriend convinced me to stay home. We had some friends over, ate a bunch of food, and just played video games and hung out. It turned out to be a really good time. As you get older, the amount of time you have to spend with people gets smaller. Be selective about who gets your time, but make time for the people that don't suck.

I thought 30 kind of sounded old, but 33 doesn't seem like a big deal. I don't think the numbers will really sink in until 40 now. All things considered, I think I'm pretty happy with what I've accomplished since 1983. I'm not a Ghostbuster like I originally planned, but things could be a lot worse. I have a great girlfriend, a house, good friends, and a supportive family. I could count my real problems on one hand. Life is good :)

Things are going way too well for me in Fantasy Football this year. I'm in 1st in both of my leagues, and right in the hunt of my two pick 'em pools. I expect the boom to drop any day now....

I don't spend much time watching sports anymore. I still catch Sportscentre almost every morning (NOT Sportsnet Central, seriously, how much does Sportsbet suck?), but I stay too busy to have any time to sit down and watch a full game these days. Luckily, Carey Price makes it so you don't have to watch the Habs games anymore. I'm embarrassed to admit  I was pissed when the Habs traded Halak for Eller instead of Price....

I published episode 5 of the Comedy Odyssey today. Listenership has been up and down, I'm still really trying to find my way with podcasting. I really enjoy recording them. Editing them kind of sucks. The feedback, good and bad, from those of you that listen has been very much appreciated. I don't plan on quitting anytime soon. It's really a different experience learning how to do something in front of people instead of in the privacy of a classroom or your house. I think, like stand up, it motivates you to work harder at it, so people can see you're improving. Or at least trying to, anyways.

Signed my first "contract" (?) for stand up tonight. It's just for a one off spot at a show in December, but I still thought it was pretty sweet. Every month it seems one or two cool things happen to me in the comedy world. Not knowing what's next keeps you moving forward when things go wrong. 

I've had a couple rough nights in the last month. Nothing crazy, but I've lost my focus on comedy, and had a couple moments where I caught myself asking, "why am I doing this?" I take it really seriously, and sometimes I think I let myself forget that it's supposed to be fun. I need to remember to just take a step back and look at it as an adventure. Not knowing what's around the corner is what makes it so fun. When I hit a point where it isn't fun anymore, I'll quit.

If you've ever sent me a nice message, come out to one of our comedy shows, listened to my podcast, or read this blog, thanks for supporting me. I don't know if or when this ride will end, but I'm glad you want to take it with me. I hope we end up somewhere nice.

Adam

Put in the work 9/17/16

Stand up comedy is hard work.

But like anything in life, I think you get what you put in. If you work really hard at something, you'll eventually get rewarded for it. I firmly believe that. I've spent the better part of 15 years working in warehouses, and as much as I hate it, I've always worked really hard, and it's usually turned into promotions and opportunities. The problem is they were just opportunities I didn't really want. I've always thought "what could happen if I put this much time and energy into something I actually wanted to get good at?"

So that's what I've been trying to do with comedy. More than just going to open mic and shows now. I try to write as much as I can, and as I mentioned a blog or two ago, I have a few new ideas I really want to get off the ground.

The podcast is happening. I have the mic and everything I need now, I'm just playing with settings, recording and editing right now. (Massive thanks and shout out to my friend Patrick for the recorder recommendation). Now Im just trying to decide on a final format for the podcast. The world needs more podcasts people don't listen to. I also have a camera on order right now to start playing with Youtube. I have a couple ideas for that channel as well. As of now, I think the plan is for the podcast to be co-hosted by my friend Dave. It'll be just the two of us talking about anything we want. I'm going to touch on stand up and what I have going on as well, but I don't want to dedicate the podcast to it. The Youtube stuff I want to get going will deal more with that, along with my personal opinions on things. An open mic comic doesn't have a ton to talk about. But to me it's partially about just having fun and trying something I haven't really done yet, and partially about trying some of this stuff now, and working on getting better at it so that if I ever hit a point where any of this stuff could help my career as a comedian, I've already gone through some of the growing pains. I fully expect the podcast and video to suck, at least at the beginning, but you have to start somewhere. This kind of stuff has fascinated and interested me for a long time, so why not?

And I'm going to try and post on here more often as well. I think my end game is a hopeful weekly podcast, a couple youtube videos a week, and a blog every 7-10 days. I'm still working some long hours at work right now, and most of my evenings are dedicated to actually writing and performing stand up, so I don't know if those goals are realistic, but I'm excited to try.

I've been told that to make it in comedy, it's going to take a ton of hard work. Sacrifice. And I understand that. Maybe I don't know what exactly that's going to entail, but I know that I've spent about 1/2 of my life working at something I don't really want to do. So if I'm going to have to put in some hard work anyways, why not put it toward doing something fun? If I can't make a career out of this comedy thing, it isn't going to be because I didn't try hard enough. I'm having more fun with this comedy stuff than I have doing just about anything. I look back at my first couple sets of comedy, and Im proud of how far I've come. My early jokes and sets that seemed good at the time suck now. I hope in a year we can all look back at my jokes, blogs, podcasts, and videos, and agree they sucked, too. It means they're getting better.

If you come out and support our comedy shows, thank you. If you decide to follow the podcast or youtube channel, thank you. And if you're reading this, thank you. I'm doing all this for me and my happiness. But knowing someone else out there is enjoying it too makes it 100x better

Adam

I love this quote.