Newest articles on The Sacramento Press tagged as "interview"

Radio host Jeffrey Callison shares interviewing wisdom at workshop

2011-08-11T03:12:46Z

If a man is interviewed for climbing Mount Everest and the reporter fails to ask how and why he set out to climb the mountain, then that reporter has missed the most important part of the interview, said Capital Public Radio personality Jeffrey Callison during a workshop at The Sacramento Press.

Callison taught The Art and Craft of Interviewing to 41 community members Tuesday. It was a workshop intended for journalists, aspiring journalists and people who are interested in learning how to conduct effective interviews.

“You’ll get the meat of the story from ‘the why’ and ‘the how,’” Callison said. “That’s where the story starts to come out. That’s the most important stuff in an interview – the anecdotes, the personal stories, the emotions.”

Callison is the host of the daily Capital Public Radio show “Insight” – a live, one-hour program that looks into issues that affect the Sacramento region. He has interviewed thousands of people during his career, and from his experiences, Callison had lessons about how to get information out of people and how to behave in order to gain respect from interviewees.

“How should you treat the people you are interviewing?” he asked. This was a subject that Callison came back to throughout the course of his workshop.

“When you are interviewing someone, it’s not a conversation. It’s about you getting information out of them. Now, having said that, it doesn’t hurt to have a conversational feel to it,” Callison said.

It is important to get a dialogue going but not lose sight of the objective of interviewing someone. It’s not about you, he said, it’s about extracting information.

“You have to be asking a straightforward and fair question in a respectful way,” he said. “Treating people with respect is treating another person like a human being even if you think they have not treated other people like human beings. That is beside the point. Your job is to find out why they do what they do – how they do what they do.”

As an adept reader of body language, Callison shared his tried-and-true technique for politely communicating to an interviewee that he or she is talking too much. He said that he leans forward slightly and opens his mouth as if to say something. Callison said the person on the receiving end of this gesture usually gets his meaning.

He also explained the difference between being an aggressive reporter and being an assertive reporter in terms of questioning interviewees. Aggressive is imposing your will on someone.

He was critical of CBS correspondent Mike Wallace, whose style of reporting he characterized as “aggressive” and “self-serving.” He said Wallace’s barreling-in style of reporting could put people on the defensive. While Wallace’s methods are effective in his own case, it does not work for all journalists, particularly new journalists.

What happens is you put people on the defensive, Callison said. The point of the interview is to get another individual to share information, and when they feel attacked they will not open up.

Callison defined an assertive interviewer as being respectful and prepared with background research. Cultivating assertiveness will help the interviewer gain the respect of the interviewee.

“Assertiveness is about standing up for yourself and getting what is due to you. That’s the way to approach an interview. If you’re going in as an inexperienced reporter, I think it’s really important to assume a professional persona,” he said. “It’s important to go (to an interview) with self-confidence.”

The way an interviewer can gain self-confidence is by going to an interview prepared. It helps inform the questions an interviewer might ask. It also helps to figure out what is important to take away from the interview.

Callison emphasized the importance of the first question that is asked during an interview. He used the example of a chiropractor who goes overseas to treat soldiers. If he were to interview such a person, the first question shouldn’t be why did you become a chiropractor? A good question to begin with is what does a chiropractor bring to a war zone?

“Ideally it sets the tone and establishes why this person is here. You have to get right at the heart of a topic,” Callison said.

He suggested that an interviewer “surprise the person.” Do a little bit of homework on the intended subject. Find something about them that they wouldn’t expect the interviewer to bring up. It helps get them out of their groove and fleshes out the person to the audience, he said.

“You want to destabilize the interviewee,” Callison said. “You’ll see them warm up. They’ll soften.”

He also suggested that in the research process, interviewers utilize social media. Callison singled out Twitter as a tool for mining anecdotes from subjects. Twitter is revealing because it can be used as a forum to pontificate.

“I think he gave us such a good, common-sense approach to interviewing. I loved the body language tips,” said recent Berkeley graduate Caity Doyle.

Attendee Sherrie Tyler teaches seminars on mental health and came to see Callison speak because she wanted to learn how to interview people.

“I’m not a journalism major but I just love to write. I’ve never done an interview before, but after this workshop I am confident that I can conduct a professional one,” Tyler said. “It was enlightening.”

The Art and Craft of Interviewing with Jeffrey Callison from Sacramento Press on Vimeo.

Video taken by Andrew Nixon

Man on the Street: Borders stores closing – what does this mean?

2011-07-22T03:12:14Z

Floppy discs, VCRs, phonebooks and payphones – what were once considered staples of everyday life have slowly faded into the background as new technologies flourished. Are books – tangible, printed and bound pages of text – next to be added to the list of obsolete and fading trends?

After hearing the news of the Borders bookstore chain selling to a liquidator, which means the closure of all its 399 stores, The Sacramento Press went out to the streets of downtown Sacramento to ask people how they felt about this decision.

Robin Louie, 62, a retired homemaker from Roseville, said she thinks that the situation is terrible.

“We had a really big Borders and a Barnes and Noble across from the Galleria,” Louie said. “But that Borders was great. It was used for lectures and all kinds of other stuff for different groups. It’s just a bummer – it’s a shame.”

Carrying her copy of “The Accidental Bestseller” while waiting for her train at the Amtrak station, Louie faithfully remains a devotee of the paper book.

“I like books,” she said. “Real books. At Borders, there used to be a huge selection of CDs, but now there are few and fewer. And now, even if you go to stores like Target or Walmart, there are fewer and fewer books on the shelves. It’s just like newspapers.”

Louie, who just returned from a cruise to Alaska, said she noticed many people there with Kindles and other electronic books. “Too many people now use Kindles and things,” she said. “And I have to admit, they could be very handy. I read three books on the cruise, but with the Kindle, they would all be in just the one thing.”

Jonathan Su, 18, an incoming freshman at UC Davis, said that he was bummed to see the stores close but he expected it to happen. For Su, Borders was a place to hang out with friends and drink coffee at the in-store cafe.

“It was pretty expensive,” Su said. “I usually read books there, but I didn’t buy the books there. It was like a library – you just look at the books. People usually just order off of Amazon.”

Su said he doesn’t think that the books themselves will become obsolete, however.

“I think there are some things about holding an actual book,” he said. “It’s not the same when you’re reading off of the Kindle or something.”

Justin Wolf, a 25-year-old photographer from Sacramento, has been a frequent shopper at Borders.

“It’s a little disappointing,” Wolf said. “I shopped there often. I bought most of my books there, pretty much. I had the membership card and would always get emails about discounts, so I’d go there a lot.”

Wolf said he has never tried using e-readers or other devices to read his books. He added that he doesn’t think that e-readers will ever take the place of paper books.

“It’ll be like the vinyl,” he said. “They’ll always be around.”

Niki Williams, 32, an environmental consultant living in Davis, said she felt sad to hear of Borders stores closing despite being a supporter of smaller, local bookstores.

“Borders was a big-box company,” Williams said. “And even though I like to support local bookstores, it’s still really sad. It’s like removing another level of variety for consumers. And Borders wasn’t just a place where you could buy books. There’s a sort of a culture around bookstores of people who are interested in different things and in learning and expanding their horizons.”

While she said she understands the easy and convenient qualities of e-readers, Williams continues to read her books in paper form.

“I’m definitely old-fashioned,” she said. “I also like to loan people books I think they’d be interested in, and it’s hard to do that with e-readers. I think there will always be a niche market for books. They’ll be like classic cars – a select group will always follow them while everyone else is on e-readers.”

Leman Woods, a 38-year-old barber visiting from Oakland, had not yet heard about Borders closing before speaking to The Sacramento Press.

“I don’t know what to think,” Woods said. “I don’t read books – I go online to read, so I just use my computer. It’s more convenient because there are thousands of books in one place right there.”

Though Woods supports the use of electronic forms of books, he said he does not feel that they will ever fully replace the printed book.

“I don’t think everyone will start reading online or electronically,” Woods said. ”Not everybody is computer-literate.”

Christopher Ogawa, a 23-year-old cheer camp instructor from Elk Grove, said that he feels books and bookstores are very important and is sad to see Borders stores close.

“Where will people go now?” Ogawa said. “Borders was an alternative for college students to buy textbooks that were usually expensive on campus. And now it’s one less place to study. It’s disheartening because text has been there since – a long time – but now bookmakers will be out of jobs and bookstores are closing.

“Electronic books won’t replace real books,” Ogawa said. “There are so many people in the education system that support and use books. And not everyone has access or money (for electronic readers), so books will always stay around.”

What do you think? Will electronic readers and other digital forms of text replace the printed book, or are books here to stay? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.

Former President of The Wasilla Skate Park Committee: PTM Bassist Zachary Carothers

2011-05-09T18:14:40Z

After their Cinco de Mayo performance at Harlow’s, the members of Portugal. The Man were wandering just outside the club, signing posters, hugging people, hanging out. After reading through a lot of PR crap in researching the band, I was convinced they would be unapproachable.

Or perhaps, more like, I was convinced I didn’t want to approach them. Luckily fellow Sac Press contributor Lindol French and I ran into Zach Carothers, Wasilla, Alaska, native and PTM bassist. With a Pabst Blue Ribbon shoved into his shirt’s front pocket, Carothers happily offered us cigarettes and some interesting info, especially concerning former Wasilla mayor Sarah Palin and her involvement/non-involvement in the city’s skate park .

TW: Why is there a period in the middle of the band’s name?

ZC: That is to state that it has nothing to do with the country. It is actually a person’s name. Portugal. The man. Portugal is an alter ego that we created, kind of in the vein that David Bowie created Ziggy Stardust.

We liked that whole idea, but we’re not one person so we wanted to make a fake, fictional character — a fake plastic person — and have him represent our whole group of people, and we figured that a country is one name for one group of people with one voice in the world, and so we randomly picked Portugal and thought it would be a good name for a dude.

LF: Why Portugal? Why not Bolivia or something?

ZC: Doesn’t sound as good, man. Neither does Pakistan. The Man.

TW: According to a lot of random Internet information, the band's name was “an attempt to create a demi-mythic entity bigger than... "

ZC: I read that today.

TW: I hate to say this, but I was kind of put off by it.

ZC: Yeah, me too. No, I read that today, too. And I guess it didn’t sound quite as fucking epic in our mind. We just wanted to name a fictional character. But yeah, I don’t think it was demi-mythical or anything like that. That does sound pretty good, but we didn’t come up with that. Cheers to whoever did.

At some point, two women Carothers attended Wasilla High School with entered the conversation. The three began reminiscing, and Sarah Palin was brought up several times. The women mentioned that “all the skater's in Wasilla love her because she built that skate park.”

ZC: I was the president of the skate park committee, and I had to argue with her for fucking three and a half years to get that skate park! I was 14!

TW: Did you have one-on-one contact with Sarah Palin?

ZC: Yes.

LF: That sounds hot.

ZC: We argued about a skate park. Basically, the long and short of it is we went to her and we talked to her for about a year and a half. We formed a committee, all our parents were on it, all my friends were on it.

She agreed to — basically, if we raised a certain amount of money, the city would match it and buy a skate park. And we raised $85,000, and in a relatively short amount of time, too. Then we went to the city and asked for the other half and they said no, said it wasn’t in the budget anymore.

We were kinda like, you know, what the shit? We just raised $85,000, and we can’t give it back with all these bake sales and benefit concerts and raffles. What are we supposed to do? So I had to argue with her for about another year and a half before (she) agreed to give us our skate park.

But eventually, in the end, we got the park and now the Wasilla Skate Park is a beautiful place and the most frequently used park in Wasilla, Alaska.

TW: That’s a good story, thank you.

ZC: Yeah, yeah, pretty good. I like it. Thank you.

Jeff Dunham: No Strings Attached

2011-01-11T01:49:35Z

By Amy Serna

It might seem hard to imagine making a successful career with puppets, but that is exactly what stand-up comedian and ventriloquist Jeff Dunham has accomplished.

His fame, however, wasn’t handed to him from the get-go. Dunham has been working with dummies ever since he was a kid, but now the puppets he brought to life have quickly become classic comic icons.

Forbes magazine didn’t name Dunham the highest-paid comedian (along with popular comics Chelsea Handler and Dane Cook) in the United States for nothing. In the past year, the puppeteer earned up to $22.5 million, and Pollstar named him the top touring comedian for the second year in a row.

Dunham’s “Very Special Christmas Special” was the highest-rated show, making Comedy Central history, and his videos on YouTube have received more than half a billion hits (yes, billion with a “B”). While he toured the United States last year in stadium-sized venues, he made more than $38 million in ticket sales.

Dunham is definitely not your average stand-up comic. He uses the personalities and voices of five famous puppets to tell the jokes. As far as the audience is concerned, he is just the “straight man,” and his puppets are the comedians.

There is “Walter,” the grumpy old man; “Bubba J,” the NASCAR-loving redneck; “Peanut,” the crazy animal; “Jose Jalapeno,” the jalapeno from Mexico; and America’s favorite, “Achmed,” the dead terrorist. But keep in mind that Dunham’s puppets are no dummies to fame.

“The ‘Achmed’ sketch is the fourth-most-watched online video ever,” Time Magazine reported. “It's been viewed nearly 200 million times, more even than footage of style-deprived singer Susan Boyle.”

“You really are dead,” Dunham informs Achmed in his 2007 Comedy Central’s Spark of Insanity. “Are you sure?...I just got my flu shot….Wait, if I am dead, that means I get my 72 virgins,” Achmed says, excited. But he soon becomes very confused as he scans the audience and says, “Are you my virgins?”

It seemed that after almost every line from Achmed, a roar of laughter could be heard from the audience as Dunham and his puppet interacted with each other.

Dunham began ventriloquism at age 8, when his parents bought him a Mortimer Snerd dummy for Christmas. Soon after he checked out a how-to book at his local Dallas library, he tried to get as much exposure with ventriloquism as possible.

The New York Times reported that “Dunham trotted out his dummy for whoever would hire him, or at least tolerate it: doing an oral book report on Hansel and Gretel in third grade or retelling Bible stories at church; performing at Six Flags as a summer job, or at fund-raisers for the Christian summer camp his mom sent him to.”

Jeff graduated from Baylor University and moved to Los Angeles to begin his road to comedic fame. He landed a performing spot on both “The Tonight Show” and “Late Night” with David Letterman.

Before long, he landed his first hit Comedy Central special in 2006, called “Arguing With Myself.” Since his fame began to shine brightly, he has made numerous cameo roles in television and movies, including appearances on the TV show “30 Rock” and movie “Dinner For Schmucks.”

In late 2010, Dunham released his autobiography, All By My Selves: Walter, Peanut, Achmed and Me, which made the New York Times Bestseller list.

AmericasComedy.Com had the opportunity to ask Dunham about his puppeteer adventures so far:

When you do radio interviews, do you bring your puppets with you?
“Yes I do. Sound guys or radio jocks will almost regularly put a mic in the character's face, forgetting for a moment or two that they're a bit misguided. Pretty funny stuff.”

You have achieved so much in your 48 years, what is still on your professional "bucket list" that you haven't accomplished yet?
“I want to be in the next Star Trek movie with Achmed as the villain and Walter as a Spock descendant. Just kidding. But that would be cool.”

“Honestly, it's just a journey and planning of doing bigger and better business in any arena where expansion and improvement can build and enhance the other areas of work. I wouldn't say I've conquered any area, but more that we've done really well in a few select areas and it makes me want to make the lesser and new areas be equally as successful.”

“I hope in the near future that we can do a couple of films and bring the characters to life on the big screen, plus continue to expand our presence world wide. Talk of China is on the table, so at this point we're just having fun filling the dance card.”

You have focused on the comedy in your performances so much. How much of your material do you write yourself and do you have a writing staff?
“I write a good share of my own material. When a good joke is written by someone else, I buy it and use it.”

You have been called the world's greatest ventriloquist. What's your reaction to Terry Fator's success?
“I think a few folks that are good performers as ventriloquists have caused a resurgence in the acceptance of vent as a legitimate form of entertainment, and that there are a couple of generations right now who up until the past couple of years, had never seen a good ventriloquist. The one thing I pride myself on, is I'm trying to put a fresh patina on and old, tired and sad art and make it hip and fun again.”

Catch Dunham’s second time performing at Arco Area in Sacramento, Thursday February 3rd. For more information on tickets visit: Click here for TicketMaster's Jeff Dunham tickets.

Photo Credits: RichardMcLaren

Amy Serna is a contributing writer for AmericasComedy.Com, (formerly SacramentoComedy.Com), the official guide to the Sacramento comedy scene. This website is dedicated to comedian interviews, comedy news, comedian biographies and videos for your convenience. You can send your questions directly to The Comedy Guy at Steven@AmericasComedy.Com.

All-Star Bartenders in Sacramento - Chris Tucker, The L Wine Lounge

2010-12-15T16:34:38Z

Ever wonder who's peer-recognized as the best bartender in Sacramento? Who makes the cocktails that scintillate the palate, dazzle the mind and always keep you guessing? Go no farther than 19th Street: we have a local treasure right here.

For the second installment on the All-Star Bartender Series, I'm speaking of Chris Tucker. Tucker has been a Northern California local for much of his life, and after working in San Francisco for a period of time, and learning a great deal about his craft, he decided there was something special in Sacramento worth coming back for. So upon returning, Tucker has been working with L Wine Lounge and moonlighting at Shady Lady Saloon ever since.

More than any other bartender I've had the privilege to drink with, Tucker can create concoctions that are constantly surprising the palette with the seasonal menus he creates for L Wine Lounge, but even with a jaded drinker like me, he constantly surprises. He's one of the only bartenders/mixologists who I can go to, name an alcohol or a style of alcohols, name a flavor characteristic (sweet, salty, bitter, savory) and have him come back with incredible flavors that don't even have a name, or a random drink he recalled from the 1950s that fell out of favor and is exactly what I described.

Innovative to the last, Tucker is currently showcasing his own take on the 12 days of Christmas with the 12 Days of Toddies. One such Toddy included Benedictine, apricot liqueur, cognac, honey, star anise, lemon peel, orange and grated cinnamon. The lemon peel is flamed with a match to bring out the essence, and the cinnamon is freshly grated right in front of you! This is the kind of attention he pays to his drinks, each one a work of art.

Now don't get me wrong, he may act like a magician, but he's still human – so if you're looking to stump him, it'll be hard, but doable. But unlike many of his trade, there is a genuine appreciation and excitement brought to every drink that the drinker can taste immediately. If I'm feeling creative, whimsical or in need of a really special concoction, it's Chris Tucker I'll hunt down every time.

The Sacramento Press: How did you get your start in bartending?

Chris Tucker: I got my start at America Live! way back in 1993. I'm a prime example of "the right place at the right time." (I) started as a door host, then was asked to train as bartender after two weeks at the door.

SP: What's your favorite drink/cocktail?

CT: The Manhattan. I prefer the Jerry Thomas recipe with bourbon instead of rye.

SP: To you, what's the difference between a mixologist and a bartender?

CT: To me, the term mixologist refers to those focused on the art of drink creation. Possessing knowledge of classic cocktails, base spirits, liqueurs, wines, beers and mixers of all types and combining with proven bartending techniques to experiment and develop new cocktails.

Bartender refers to those charged with tending to the needs of the bar and the bar patron. The skill set, knowledge and level of service should be on par with the establishment and environment and, preferably, raising the standard and guest experience.

SP: What is the next big thing to watch for in drinking/cocktails/mixed drinks?

CT: I hope the trend of drinking quality over quantity continues and that more establishments incorporate seasonal, local and sustainable products on to their menus whenever possible, if not exclusively.

SP: What's your signature recipe cocktail?

CT: I don't think I have one, and I always avoid answering that question.

SP: What's the best way to get a bartender's attention?

CT: Patience. There is no need to get a good bartender's attention. The bartender should always be aware of new patrons, drink levels of current patrons and where each patron is in the drink order lineup. If you need to get the bartender's attention, you probably need to go to another bar.

SP: Where do you drink?

CT: Anywhere, and as often as possible.

Sadly, too little time and too many brothers and sisters in the industry to support.

Next up: Matt Nurge

Paul Rodriguez - The original Latin King of Comedy at Tommy T's this weekend!

2010-09-03T01:35:27Z

By Jennifer A. Gordon
Revered as the original Latin “King of Comedy,” Paul Rodriguez has done just about everything there is to do over the last 33 years of his comedy career.

Philanthropist, actor, producer and comedian, Rodriguez has had starring roles and guest appearances in more than 40 films, as well as in countless television series and comedy specials . . . and more.

Now, catch Rodriguez’s show with opening act Dennis Gaxiola at Tommy T’s in Rancho Cordova at 8 and 10 p.m. this Friday and Saturday.

Rodriguez’s first big break
Rodriguez’s first big break came while doing comedy warmups for Norman Lear's show "Gloria."

Lear ultimately wrote and developed a weekly series for Paul entitled "A.K.A. Pablo," which is now enshrined at the Smithsonian and holds the honor of being the first television show about a Mexican-American family on mainstream American television.

A concerned citizen of the world
As part owner of the world-famous Laugh Factory, Rodriguez has participated in the club’s annual free Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners for the underprivileged for more than 25 years. And, he teaches at the Laugh Factory’s comedy camp for at-risk children.

Rodriguez's family members are farmers in the Central Valley. Rodriguez was recently honored with the Humanitarian of the Year award by the City of Fresno for his tireless work on behalf of water conservation.

As chairman of the California Latino Water Coalition, Rodriguez has been the driving force behind the recently signed water bond measure that will have a great impact on the citizens of California.

“My family is blessed,” Rodriquez said. “We were able to dig some wells over the water. It's very salty, but it still keeps the trees up and going. Without water, nothing happens.”

“Mis Videos Locos with Paul Rodriguez”
Rodriguez has a new television show, “Mis Videos Locos with Paul Rodriguez,” which debuted in July on Tr3s:MTV (pronounced “tresMTV"). Imagine videos of people from all around the world engaging in the wildest and, often, the stupidest behavior, but with (thanks to green-screen technology) Rodriguez joining in with his lively antics, sharp wit and commentary.

“I’m Not Like That No More”
Rodriquez stars in the low-budget, independent comedy, “I’m not Like That no More,” with “Last Comic Standing” winner Felipe Esparza.

“‘I’m not Like That no More’ is really one of the funniest things that I've ever been a part of,” Rodriguez said. “It's funnier than ‘Born in East L.A.’ It's really a funny movie. Somebody should find the money and release this movie because . . . he (Esparza) captures lightning in a bottle. It might get a little too coarse for adults, but the kids really get it. And they just enjoy it.”

When Rodriguez and Esparza went to the screening, the projector system broke down 20 or 30 minutes before the end of the movie. Up until that point, the audience was getting the gist and was really enjoying the film. Confused, people were saying, “Well, this is ridiculous! Is this the way it ends?”

“It was a disaster,” Rodriguez said.

Felipe Esparza, a hard guy to follow
“I took Felipe to Las Vegas, and he opened for me. He was a hard guy to follow, which is OK with me. I've never told anybody to keep it down for me. This kid is really going to go all the way. He's so talented. He's fresh. And, he knew his material. He's not common. He comes out of left field. I expect big things from him . . . I think Hollywood is going to beat a path to his door, as they should, because he has this deadpan delivery. It's hard to pinpoint to what kind of style he has, because he created this with his own style, which is really the hardest thing to do, to stand out and be unique. He has done it. If he were a horse, I'd bet on him.”

Showcasing upcoming talent Manny Maldonado
Like Rodney Dangerfield and Vince Vaughn, Rodriguez likes to showcase young, upcoming talent. One of the comedians he believes in is Manny Maldonado, a Los Angeles comic who got his start in the small, rural Central California town of Modesto.

“I really see talent in that boy,” Rodrigues said. “There's a certain energy that is not common, you know. A quick wit. Robin Williams was the same manic kind of attitude. I think there's a market for that.”

“Comedy Rehab” and Dennis Gaxiola
Rodriquez’s latest stand-up comedy concert, “Comedy Rehab,” finds the Latin King of Comedy returning to Santa Fe, N.M., where he got his start in comedy, to perform and introduce a crew of up-and-coming Latino comics.

Dennis Gaxiola, who performed in “Comedy Rehab” with Rodriguez, is another up-and-coming comedian in whom Rodriguez believes. Gaxiola will be Rodriguez’s opening act at Tommy T’s in this weekend.

“Dennis’ material is really intelligent,” Rodriguez said. “He's one of these guys I've always had belief in to the point that, in 'Rehab,' we've gotten a lot of comments. We just got our first payment. It's going slowly, but it's doing well . . . I wanted him to be more prominent on it, but I couldn't convince the producer until towards the end, when he said, ‘Boy, this guy is really going to be something.’ So now, David Valdés is trying to work with him privately. Something's going to happen. He's overdue. But, then again, if you think about it, there's a lot of people who are overdue.

“I've always thought that comedians are like popcorn. Some pop fast, and some take awhile, and some never pop at all.”

A high-pitched, distinctive kind of voice
Rodriguez has also lent his voice to several popular animated series and movies, including “King of the Hill,” “Dora the Explorer,” “The Proud Family” and “Cats and Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore.”

“Voiceover work is a blessing because it pays well, and it's a relatively small amount of time you work,” he said. “I'll take all the voiceover work that I can. I don't really change my voice too much. I wouldn't go for that. But once they hire me, they say I have of a high pitched, distinctive kind of voice, and I'm glad for that. I'll take all those jobs I can get.”

Comedy camp
At-risk students create comedy from real life at The Laugh Factory's comedy camp with volunteer comedians, such as Chris Tucker, Jamie Foxx, Shawn Wayans, Rob Schneider, Paul Rodriguez, Bob Saget and others.

At “Comedy Camp,” the children find a safe place to relax, learn the craft and discover the pleasures of performing, as well as laughter's healing powers.

Saturday trips to the Sunset Strip's unorthodox classroom focus on improving self esteem and facing life's hardships.

“Comedy Camp has really paid off,” Rodriguez said. “It's been going on for the last 23 years. CBS did a special on it. One of the most rewarding things about Comedy Camp is when you see the kids from the first classes have all grown up. These kids come from foster homes and really sad lives, but they blossom. We have a couple of pastors now. We have a bunch of nurses. Schoolteachers. We have a lot of successful young men and women who came out of South Central Los Angeles. Of course, we have a lot of sadness, too. One young man was a cancer victim and he passed away last year, but you know these kids become a part of your life. You keep up with them. All the great comics who have become their teachers feel the connection through these kids. As you grow old and they grow up, they continue to remember you. It's like adopting a whole bunch of children.”

His first love
Rodriguez’s first love will always be live stand-up.

“Everything I do, the talk show, the videos . . . everything I do, I do for one reason – so that my name will have some kind of resonance in the public so I can do comedy live,” he said. “I really jones for that. I enjoy being in front of an audience. I like being here. I'm like that kind of guy who hopes that his parachute opens. I like the adrenalin, the danger, the possibility of falling on your face, or the probability of having a great show and coming up with another angle. Doing stand-up live is the best. Even if I didn't really need the money, I would continue to do it. It's like Leno certainly doesn't need the money, but he does it. He does it every night because there is no other drug, there is no other place, where you can get that feeling of that moment. It's like actors who do television and actors who do theater. Theater is a real act because, right then and there, there's no telling the audience to get amnesia and start over. There's no doing that. You’ve got to do it light, you’ve got to do it funny, you’ve got to do it through good and bad times. And that's alive, that's stage, that's the best.”

A 401(k) plan
Rodriguez suspects that "people who laugh a lot, live longer.” Laughter, according to Rodriguez, is the perfect 401(k) plan.

“If you have the ability to laugh at yourself, or if you have the ability to laugh at each other, it's a 410K plan. You can always depend on it. They can take your house, you can go through a marriage, lose your money, you can do all those things, but as long as you have a sense of wonder – that's what I want to have my kids inherit – and a certainty that you can always laugh at ‘it,’ no matter what ‘it’ is.”

One thing left
In spite of Rodriguez’s television shows, movies, live performances and myriad other creative endeavors, there is one thing he hasn’t done . . . yet.

He has always wanted to do a play on Broadway, as well as a new talk show and some other opportunities. We’ll see what emerges for Rodriguez.

“Mis Videos Locos with Paul Rodriguez” airs at 7 p.m. every Thursday on Tr3s: MTV.

Jennifer A. Gordon is a contributing writer for AmericasComedy.Com, formerly SacramentoComedy.Com, the official guide to the Sacramento comedy scene. This website is dedicated to comedian interviews, comedian biographies and videos, and consolidation all of the Sacramento comedy events into a single comedy calendar for your convenience. You can send your questions directly to The Comedy Guy at Steven@AmericasComedy.Com.

Cedric The Entertainer Arrives In Sacramento

2010-07-27T22:38:43Z

A SacramentoComedy.Com Interview

Comedian Cedric The Entertainer is one of the hardest-working men in the entertainment business. Perhaps you love him from his roles in "Barbershop," "Be Cool" or "The Original Kings Of Comedy." You may have became a fan of his voiceover roles in "Madagascar," "Charlotte's Web" or "The Proud Family." Maybe it was his starring role in the hit "Johnson Family Vacation." Any way you look at it, Cedric IS "The Entertainer."

Even with his success as an actor, producer and director, Cedric The Entertainer is coming to Sacramento's Memorial Auditorium and going back to his roots of stand up comedy.

We spoke to Cedric, (Mr. Entertainer?), by phone as he was recovering from a minor surgery performed last week.

Have you worked in the Sacramento area before?
Yeah, I was in Sacramento about three years ago at one the local clubs and then at, I think, the same venue that I am playing on Thursday, so it's been a while.

Fantastic! I know that you rescheduled from Saturday, and you tweeted out that you had some minor surgery.
Yeah, I had a little hernia I had to take care of.

Everything's OK now?
Yeah, I'm ready to get back at it, you know, I'm up moving around and doing 110 crunches a day, so I'm good. (chuckling).

Cedric, you are truly a complete package as an entertainer. You act in comedies and dramas, animated movies and plays on Broadway. You also write, direct and produce. What gives you the most satisfaction?C
I started with stand-up, and I think that probably ranks pretty high up there with the opportunity to get immediate reaction to your thoughts and commentary. Having that audience response so immediately is one of the greatest satisfactions.

I also enjoyed directing my first movie, and I look forward to seeing what people think about that when it comes out.

Have you decided on a title yet? I heard it was a toss-up between "Chicago Pulaski Jones" and "Dance Foo Fighting."
We decided that the title is "Dance Foo - The Legend of Pulaski Jones" (laughs).

So, nobody won, but you just compromised!
Yeah, (chuckling), at least that's settled.

Most people don't know that before you were Cedric "The Entertainer" you were Cedric "The Insurance Salesman." What was the big step you took that put you on the stage?
I started stand-up almost the same week that I started at State Farm (Insurance), and it was kind of weird that I felt like my life was calling at the same time I found the best job that I had ever had since getting out of college. But I worked for State Farm for over two years before I decided that I could do comedy full time, and so I just built my initial career around St. Louis then got an opportunity to tour on a national tour with the Funny Bones comedy clubs, and that's when I decided to go for it. It was a relatively short period for most comedians. I know a lot of guys that put their 13 or 14 years into their careers before they got a real break.

I always knew I was a performer. My mother was a schoolteacher and was all about the education in our household, and I remember trying to convince her to let me go to a performing arts school where I could sing in talent shows and stuff like that. I have always had a knack for it. But I didn't really try to act until I was out of college.

The story about how you got your "The Entertainer" moniker was that you wanted to charge more money so you had to do more time.
Yeah, (chuckling). You know comedy is all about time. The opener does 10 minutes, the feature act does 30 minutes and the headliner does an hour, so when I started, I wanted the money for at least the 30 minute guy.

I didn't have a lot of material, so I would sing songs, do poetry, paint pictures. I would do whatever I had to do. They said I was entertaining, and the guy (MC) kept calling me a comedian, and I said, "No, don't call me a comedian, call me an entertainer." So, he introduced me as Cedric "The Entertainer," I had a good show, the name stuck and that's what it's been.

You have a daughter who's 6 years old and a son who's 9 years old. You have done a lot of animated shows and movies including; "Charlotte's Web," "Madagascar" and "The Pride Family" doing voiceovers, and you worked with Oprah Winfrey. How do your kids react to watching and hearing their dad?
They do get more excited about the other people in the films, though I do love telling the story that my son had no idea who Oprah was. When I was doing "Charlotte's Web," we (Oprah and I) were in the studio together at the time, and I said to my son, "This is Oprah Winfrey," and he goes "And you do what? Do you know that my dad is Cedric The Entertainer?" (laughing) and I told him, "There you go son, that's telling her!"

You've worked with so many of the greats in comedy, sports, actors and even politicians. Who have you most enjoyed working with?
I guess I'd have to say that I have had the most fun working on the "Barbershop" movie with Ice Cube, who is a very interesting character to work with. We had great laughs with Jim Carrey on "Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events," and also in "Be Cool" with John Travolta. He was actually a very cool dude too. He liked to sing old Motown songs on the set, and we had a good time.

Is there anyone who you still want to work with on projects that you haven't yet?
Yeah, even though I kind of got to work with him while doing voice work on "Dr. Doolittle 2," I still would like to do something with Eddie Murphy. Something big like a comedy where there's a lot of comedic minds there and we're all having a great time. I also have the opportunity to work with Tom Hanks in his latest movie, "Larry Crowne" so that's a big deal. Eddie Murphy will probably be someone on the top of that list that I would want to have the opportunity to be around and laugh, do something funny and create something special and unique with.

Is there any one project that you have worked on that you look back and say, "I wish I hadn't done that?"
No, not really where I wish that I hadn't done it. "The Honeymooners" was something that I really enjoyed, and it was a big brand. We had another idea that we were going to do when we started off, and then the studio got involved and changed it and made it something else. It was one of those things where I wish we could have done our original ideas. It would have been a lot funnier and more true to the characters that Mike Epps and I were going to bring to it. At one point it didn't turn out that way. It was such a big franchise and we would have had the opportunity to make so many more and add to it's success. Sometimes you just look back on it and say, "Man, that was really disappointing!"

The bigger the budget the less control you have?
The less power you have. You don't have the say in the overall direction of the movie. We had a new executive come in on the movie and change the movie into something he thought would make sense. He was trying to make a name for himself at the studio. You had to deal with the politics of that and that's what was going on. You end up falling prey to studio politics.

I heard that you were interested in doing more TV. Do you have anything in the works?
We are developing a couple of different things. The title of one project is "Anger Management" based on the Adam Sandler, Jack Nicholson movie. It's a sitcom, so it would be about me as an anger management therapist who actually has anger issues of his very own. It is set in Brooklyn, New York, and I am looking forward to doing that. It is still in early development though.

I'm also developing a reality show where I show up and kick in on people's family reunions where I try to convince the families to try to eat better. We thought it would be fun to go to family reunions, Superbowl parties and anytime people are gathered together, eating wings and drinking beer and I'm like, "Alright fool, can we change this out and try something different?"

You're one of the hardest-working people in the business. Do you have any thoughts of taking a break or retiring anytime soon and just kicking back and enjoying life?
I've always kind of set my eye on being 50 years old and being able to downshift a little bit. I have about four or five years left for that. Yeah, I'm definitely planning on being able to slow down and travel and enjoy life and just do the fun things before I'm just old and gotta do it on a cruise ship. I just want to be able to still cause some debauchery and trouble, maybe get on the news!

Cedric The Entertainer is appearing at 8 p.m. at the Sacramento Memorial Auditorium, 1515 J St. Tickets Here.

If you enjoyed this interview and would like to have all of the SacramentoComedy.Com features, interviews, news and reviews delivered to your iPhone, iTouch or iPad, download the SacComedy App at iTunes.

Steven Bloom is the founder of AmericasComedy.Com, the official guide to the Sacramento comedy scene. This website is dedicated to comedian interviews, comedian biographies and videos, and consolidation all of the Sacramento comedy events into a single comedy calendar for your convenience. You can send your questions directly to The Comedy Guy at Steven@AmericasComedy.Com.

Felipe Esparza - What's Up, Fool?

2010-06-19T17:42:35Z

A SacramentoComedy.Com Interview

If you listen to comedian Felipe Esparza, you'll hear a cross between Cheech Marin from Cheech and Chong and your funniest "homeboy." They both have the East L.A. accent and down to earth sense of humor that comes from growing up in the barrio.

"I'm not a tough guy, but I can beat up everyone at Trader Joe's, but at Food-for-Less I shut up," he said. "They don‘t have aisles, they have alleys."

Sacramento Comedy spoke to Esparza recently just after his advance to the semi-final rounds of NBC's Last Comic Standing, Season 7.

"The next step is to have a big battle between the semi-finalists in New York and Los Angeles," Esparza said. We asked him if he anticipated any drive-by shootings in the heated East Coast/West Coast face-off.

"Naw, everyone is telling me to leave my Blackberry at home, though."

Apparently, one of Esparza's best friends is comedian Gabriel Iglesias, who has the distinction of being the first and only comedian kicked off the "Last Comic Standing" show in the fourth season for smuggling a cell phone into the comic's sequestered quarters so he could text his girlfriend.

"Gabriel will always represent 'Last Comic Standing' to me," he exclaimed.

The friendship between Esparza and Iglesias goes back to 1998 and we suspected that there was more to the story.

"I was running a one nighter room in Montebello called 'Gotham' and Gabriel showed up one night. He wanted to meet me but at 20 years old, he was too scared or shy so he sent some kid over," he said. "'Gabriel really thinks you're funny Felipe. He wants to do some time on stage' (the kid said).

"I just told him to tell Gabe that if he wants to perform, he needs to get his scared ass over here and ask me himself. Gabriel did get up that night, did a lot of voices and killed."

Esparza just finished a movie called, "I'm Not Like That No More" that co-stars comedy great, Paul Rodriquez as Esparza's dad.

"We shot the movie in 9 days. It's based on my stand up comedy and most of the plot comes from my CD called What's Up Fool?

"I play the lead and throughout the movie, everyone will freeze while I narrate what's going on in my head," he said. "Then the story continues almost like (the movie) 'Ferris Bueller.' It's pretty cool!"

"Then, I even got to make out with my co-star, Deborah Baker Jr.," he said. "She's a hot blond! My first sex scene!! What???"

He laughed, then paused like he was contemplating his 'next' sex scene.

The movie will premier at the New York Latino Film Festival in July. To see more information and view a short trailer, you can go to www.imnotlikethatnomore.com.

Esparza, who grew up in the Latino neighborhood of Boyle Heights in East LA and now hails from Echo Park, first performed on stage at a coffee shop in LA called The Natural Fudge, where the comics were required to buy food in order to get a chance to perform.

Along the way, Esparza got to perform and hang out with the likes of Alonzo Bodden, the "Last Comic Standing" winner of Season 3, and Freddy Soto, while eating his way to fame.

From there, Esparza began appearing at venues throughout the LA area including The Laugh Factory in Hollywood, which had a Latino-themed show on Mondays.

"Were you always this funny or did you have to work for it?" - we wanted to know.

"Back then my style was really 'deadpan' like Steven Wright. I'd talk real slow and try to enunciate but that was a really hard style in those rooms," he said. "One room I used to work also was a biker bar. We used to have the same crowd every week so we had to come up with different jokes every week and as I got better with my comedy, the crowd got better with their heckling! It was a rough room.

"I got my first TV credit in 1996 on Showtime's "Latino Laugh Festival" with Paul Rodriquez. You should have seen my hair back then, I was a 'thug.' But then I grew it out because the cops were profiling bald Hispanic people," he said. "My first (head shot) is still on the wall at the Comedy Store right next to Gilbert Iglesias' who's dressed in a sweater."

Esparza's star just keeps shining brighter. His TV credits include: ABC's "Comics Unleashed," Showtime's "Comics Without Borders," BET‘s "Comic View," and "One Mic Stand," and Galavision's "Que Locos" (where he holds the title of most appearances by any comedian) and now his opportunity to shine on NBC's "Last Comic Standing."

Some of his one-liners we had to include:

"The war in Iraq is still going on and Mexico wants to help, but they need a ride."

"I went to a ghetto haunted house and it was $10 to get in and $15 to get out."

You can follow Esparza's appearances at comedy clubs, comedy festivals, television and theaters at his Official Facebook Fan Page.

You can also listen to (and buy) Esparza's latest acclaimed CD, "Rebound Material" at Amazon and iTunes.

Steven Bloom is the founder of SacramentoComedy.Com, the official guide to the Sacramento comedy scene. This website is dedicated to comedian interviews, comedian biographies and videos, and consolidation all of the Sacramento comedy events into a single comedy calendar for your convenience. You can send your questions directly to The Comedy Guy at Steven@SacramentoComedy.Com.

Comedian Henry Cho "I Reckon So!"

2010-05-26T03:43:20Z

A SacramentoComedy.Com Interview

Henry Cho's fairytale career began in 1986 when, as a student at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, he entered a "Funniest Person in America" contest sponsored by the Showtime network.

Cho, who is a full-blooded Korean, but raised in the heart of the South, walked onto the stage and in his deepest, most Southern drawl stated, "So, I'm from the South. So I guess that makes me South Korean." It was a juxtaposition "hook" that launched his career.

"It was my first joke, so I had to explain who I was," he said. And that hook has served him well. The late Steve Allen, first host of the original "Tonight Show" and a huge supporter of Cho's, once commented that there were very few original jokes left and Cho had at least 12 of them.

"I just happened to hear about (the competition) and called to see if I could go on stage," he said. "I was on the waiting list and somebody canceled so I got the last spot. I was the last to go on and received a standing ovation. That was on Monday and the club owner immediately offered me a job for Wednesday. By Friday, I dropped out of college to do stand up full time."

Cho also had another hook that set him apart from most all other comedians. He only does "clean" comedy. Can a mainstream comedian be funny and clean at the same time? Cho thinks so.

"I pride myself on never using a cuss word on stage. Ever." Cho brags. "I headline in Las Vegas every year, and this summer I am performing on an Alaskan cruise. Not too many comedians can pull that off. Funny thing is, my show doesn't change for Vegas.

"My show is an adult comedy show, but it isn't offensive. Your kids could listen to it, even though I hope they wouldn't 'get' most of it. But I get a lot of fan mail from soccer moms saying 'I love having your CD because I can listen to it with my kids in the car.'"

That clean act is partially responsible for his early success. A quickly rising comedian named Jerry Seinfeld was performing in Atlanta and looking for an opener that would perform totally clean. Cho was the perfect candidate and toured extensively with Seinfeld.

"So, when Jerry moved to Los Angeles, he told (Gary) Shandling and Leno and these guys that I was funny so I ended up working with the top 10 comedians in the nation in my first two or three years doing stand up."

Have there been any hardships or "hell gigs" along the way?

"Well, in 1989 or 1990, Tim Allen, myself, Seinfeld, Larry Miller and Dennis Wolfberg were hired to do the White Mountain Cooler Tour. We traveled around the country and had to do eight venues. One stop was in Jacksonville, Miss., and unfortunately the comedy club there had closed two weeks before so they put us at a place called The Docks. It was actually a dock and people would come off of their boats and there was only four tables so everyone had to just stand around. That's not even the worst part. We had to do four nights there, one show a night and it was exactly the same people each night. By the end, we were just chatting with the audience asking things like, 'How's was your job interview, Bob?'"

Cho moved to Los Angeles in 1989 and then to Tennessee five years later.

"Everything was great and my career was on the upswing, but it was just making me somebody I didn't like. I'm not an L.A. kind of guy. I just have a different moral compass, so I moved back to Tennessee to buy a farm. I commuted every week for two years after that, while I was hosting 'Friday Night Videos' for NBC, I would just commute."

Even though Cho appears on television and in movies, including the 1996 movie "Material Girls" with Hillary Duff, Cho has lived and owned a farm in Tennessee raising Black Angus cattle with his wife and three kids since 1994. Since it was a working ranch, we asked him if he raised anything else.

"Nope, kid's and cattle. That's enough!"

Cho works on the road about eight to 10 days a month and shares his child-raising and family duties with his wife.

"I take time off through the holidays and the summer so we can hang out with my boys."

"There's no down-side to my life," he said. "If my television show (currently being marketed) doesn't get picked up then it's no big deal because I get to stay in Nashville and do what I do. I have a blessed life."

It is also a good thing that being a comedian doesn't have an age requirement.

"My wife asked me how long I am planning to be a comedian and I just told her that George Burns was performing until he was 100."

Since Cho has performed with many great comedians, we asked him if he would give us some quick thoughts about some famous people he knows. He agreed.

Bill Envall: "One of my best friends! His son is one of my godsons. Great mentor."

Jeff Foxworthy: "Another great mentor and dear friend. I have so many stories with him about working back in the day before the 'Blue Collar Tour.'"

Tim Allen: "Tim and I go way back from our time on the road. I see him occasionally."

Phil Nee (the only other Korean comedian performing nationally when Cho was beginning his career): "I hear that he isn't doing comedy anymore. Some of the young Asian comedians nowadays find that between Phil and I we have done almost every Korean joke there is, so it's hard for them to find their own version."

Craig Ferguson (co-Producer of Cho's comedy pilot): "Most producers of television shows just put their names on there like a vanity plate. Craig went to the meeting with Paramount with me, the meeting at CBS with me, and is a class act."

Jerry Seinfeld: "Seinfeld set me on the right track. He told me, when I had been doing comedy for less than a year, 'People are going to throw all kinds of stuff at you, they may want to give you shows with a stand up theme, but don't stop doing stand up because very few people can do it as well as you can do it."

Cho admits that he made a decision early on that he would choose to be successful over being famous.

"You know, I stay right under the radar and I get all the great perks that go along with where I am. But when opportunities arise, like doing a television show, my wife and I talk about and pray about how that exposure affects the entire family and our lifestyle. Early on, I wanted to be an actor, but it just isn't conducive to my raising a family. I can't go away for six weeks to do a movie in Australia, no matter how much they pay me."

With over three television pilot scripts to his credit, Cho is a member of both the Writers Guild and Screen Actors Guild.

"Today, it is hard to get a show that is created by the lead actor. Shows like 'Rosanne,' Tim Allen's show 'Home Improvement' and even Ray Ramono's 'Everybody Loves Raymond' were 'based on the stand up of..." and not created by the comedians themselves. To be able to get a "co-created by" gives you the control over the show, which is what I have to have. I want to control what my show is going to be."

What can the audience expect to see next month at the Cache Creek Casino?

"I usually know what kind of show that I want to do when I get up on stage, but it often doesn't work out that way. I have a God-given talent for thinking fast and ad-libbing on the fly, and so a percentage of my act is "riffing" with the audience and I usually have a question-and-answer segment that I do toward the end of my show. I like to interact with the people and know what they think."

Cho will appear Friday, June 18 at Cache Creek Casino. Follow this link for more information about Cache Creek Casino Entertainment. Must be 21 or over. Admission is free with a Cache Creek card or $20 at the door. A Cache Creek card is free and can be obtained at the Customer Service desk on the day of the show.

Comedian Ralphie May Is Living The Dream

2010-05-10T03:44:52Z

A SacramentoComedy.Com Interview

You may not think that the name “Ralphie” is something you would call a390-pound man. But, in the case of comedian Ralphie May, it's just fine. May, 38, who was named one of the "Top 10 Comics To Watch" in 2008 by“Variety Magazine,” was given that nickname as a young boy growing up deep in the heart of the south.

May, who will be performing his two-hour show Thursday at The Crest Theatre, likes to tell people that his shows are about two hours in length for a reason.

"My average fan works for about $20 per hour, if they are lucky enough to have a job," he chuckled, "and then factoring in insurance, taxes and such, they're maybe bringing home $15 per hour. If my tickets are just under $30, it took them about two hours of their life to make the money to come see my show. Why shouldn't I give them two hours too? That way I am not any better than anyone else."

Born in Chattanooga, Tenn., Ralphie didn't have it easy. Like so many famous comedians, May knew he wanted to be a stand-up comedian by the time he was 9. He performed at talent shows at 13, and before he could establish himself as a serious performer at 16, May was involved in a life-changing automobile accident.

"I broke 14 bones in 64 different places and was in a coma for 10 days," he explained. "Yeah, it still hurts! Now, whenever it gets cold or it's about to rain, I think I'm gonna die."

But can May usually turn any personal challenge into part of his act?

"Without a doubt. More importantly, it has provided me with empathy. I think that that is a necessary trait to being a great communicator, and to be a great stand-up you need empathy for others. Put yourself in different people's positions, that way you can see the angle from inside the joke rather than from the outside."

May learned his craft by performing at open mics and showcases throughout the southern states. Was that “southern” environment different from, say Los Angeles, Chicago or New York?

"Oh yeah, without a doubt. There was a lot less competition. I started doing stand-up in 1989 in Arkansas. I was only 17, attending both high school and college at the same time. I was doing open mics and showcases when I won a radio talent show and got the opportunity to open for Sam Kinison. It was on Sam's advice that I moved to Houston to pursue my career." He then added,

"When I performed in Houston, I realized that it wasn't really a 'southern' town. It's a Texas town and has a different feel. It's a melting pot and one of the most diverse cities in the world. It was great just being a kid from Arkansas to be around so many different types of people.

"What was weird, though, was that when I got there, I was still only 18, (and) the white clubs wouldn't really work me that much. I started my stand up at mostly 'urban clubs' like the Comedy Showcase and the Hip-Hop Comedy Club, opening for people like Steve Harvey. It was crazy."

One of May's most recognizable physical features is his weight. From a top weight of almost 800 pounds, May has had gastric bypass surgery and is committed to diet and exercise to keep his weight under 400 pounds.

"I'm half the man I used to be..." May sang as I pointed out that he has lost more than another person in body weight.

May appeared on the VH1 reality fitness show “Celebrity Fit Club” during its first season. During the two months he appeared on the show, May lost 78 pounds of fat, 18 inches around his waist and gained 24 pounds of muscle.

Those impressive numbers came with a certain amount of physical damage, however.

"I tore two tendons in my foot, and I gave myself an eight-inch hernia, but still it was great. It hurt, and the subsequent surgeries weren't fun, but it really helped me and gave me a lot of new (nutritional) information that I never had before. As soon as my foot heals up, I am going to hit it again and lose more weight in 2010."

May had stated when he was hovering around the 600-pound mark that there were two goals he had had regarding his weight loss. Riding a bike with his wife (then girlfriend) and going surfing. We asked how he was doing on attaining those goals.

"I ride a bike with my wife at our home in Memphis Nashville, and I am about 150 pounds away from surfing."

May and Lahna Turner, his wife of five years, both perform stand-up. They have homes in both Los Angeles and Memphis Nashville. I wondered whether he stays home to take care of their two young children, a daughter, age two and a half, and a son, almost 1, when his wife was working and he wasn't.

"We have a nanny, and she usually goes with Lahna because our son is still breast feeding. But most of the time, we like to tour together."

May and Turner's senses of humor didn't stop when they had kids. Their daughter's name is April June May, and their son is August James May. We wondered whether those names corresponded to the months that they were born.

"No, August was born in June, and April was born in September."

Does having a family and two young kids affect your material now? Does it keep you from being as edgy as you have been? I guess what we are asking is, are you making diaper jokes now?

"NO! If anything, I am probably edgier now. People always ask me if I am going to be a family comic now and tone down my rhetoric and my bullshit. But I'm like, 'Why?' First of all, I can't do family jokes like Mr. Cosby. Mr. Cosby has been doing that family shit for fucking 40 years. He's covered every fucking angle on jokes that deal with the family. When a comic is talking about family, if you don't think you are ripping off a joke that Cosby has done over the years, then you have to be retarded. Bill did it all."

May exploded in popularity in 2003 after taking a highly protested and controversial second place behind winner Dat Phan on NBC's freshman season of "Last Comic Standing."

Many people believed May was ripped off for the title win because he and fellow comedians Rich Vos and Dave Mordal were very mean to Phan when they were all cooped up in the “comic house.”

May laughed. "I don't think that Dat Phan robbed me of anything. NBC picked the winner. You can spin it anyway you want to. You can say that the people picked the winner, but what they were shown was at NBC's discretion. NBC chose to show Rich and I busting Dat Phan's balls, but we busted everybody's balls because we're ball busters. That's what we do. But Rich is one of the sweetest people on the fucking planet.

"Dat Phan kept on wearing the same fucking clothes over and over and over again. Rich finally asked him, 'Don't you have any other clothes?' and Dat, very meekly said, 'No, I don't.' Rich was mortified and just said 'Holy shit! Are you serious?' and then Rich passed the hat and we all pitched in and collected $100 and bought Dat Phan a new set of clothes. Nobody ever said that, and NBC never showed that. It would have made great TV, but nobody shared it because they wanted to control the outcome.

“I was told by Jay Mohr, (the MC for the first season) that if I didn't get a standing ovation each week that NBC would throw me out. They didn't know what to do with me. You never see anyone at 650 pounds on TV. But, in trying to finagle the competition, they actually did me a favor. They galvanized my fans to be loyal and fight for me and become active and motivated and buy my albums to prove everybody wrong. And it worked. That is why my first album, 'Girth of A Nation' went platinum."

We wanted to know how the opportunity to do “Last Comic Standing” came about.

"I had worked with Jay Mohr at ESPN Sports, writing and producing his show, 'Mohr Sports' in 2002, and Jay said, 'I've got this show called 'Comic House' I'm working on, and you should do it.' Then, 15 months later, I was working in Honolulu at The Laugh Factory when he called me on a Thursday. He said, 'Dude, I need you to audition for this show called “Last Comic Standing” on Saturday.' Hey! I'm working, I told him. You don't need me to audition, you know my work. But he told me that everything had to be above board with no favorites because NBC was involved.

"I looked up the cost of the flight back to Los Angeles, and it was over $800, and I didn't have it. I was broke. My girlfriend said, 'I believe in you, and I think you can do this. You should just go and do it.' So when I told her I didn't have the money, she just said, 'I'm not going to let you miss this
opportunity just because you don't have the money. Here, put it on my Dad's credit card.' Now, her rent was $900 a month, and she just spent almost an entire month’s rent on a charge card because she believed in me. The funny thing also was that her parents hated my guts!"

You married that woman, right?

"Yes, she is one hell of a woman. I would be worthless if I didn't have her in my life. I would be a piece of shit. She had my best interests and believed in me when no one else would, including me. She's amazing!"

That belief paid off. After his "Last Comic Standing" participation ended, May appeared on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” and was the first comedian in more than 10 years to receive a standing ovation. He also appeared on most every late night show to rave reviews.

May has released three comedy albums to date, with his most recent, “Ralphie May: Austin-Tatious,” released on DVD and CD in May 2009. It was recorded live to a sold-out crowd at the Paramount Theater in Austin, and May is due to appear with Neil Patrick Harris and Amy Sedaris in the new movie, "Best and The Brightest," later this year.

But you don't have to wait. Watch May perform live May 13 at The Crest Theatre . Showtime is at 7:30 and tickets are $29.75

Editor's Note: The Sacramento Press editorial department made changes to this article after publication.

Kevin Pollak Is Ridiculously Talented!

2010-05-03T15:39:39Z

A SacramentoComedy.Com Interview

From his start telling jokes at family Passover dinners at age 10, to catching hell for doing impressions of his high school coach, Kevin Pollak was meant to perform.

Comedy

"I was born in San Francisco but moved to San Jose when I was young. When I began performing, it was in venues that were designed for music. There were no comedy clubs then in San Jose. I would go on between the bands breaks when nobody really wanted to listen. When I moved to San Francisco, I was amazed that people loved going to see comedy and would actually pay to see it!"

Entering the San Francisco comedy scene in the late '70's, Pollak was the youngest performer in the San Francisco Comedy Competition in 1977 and finished in the semifinals. In 1982, he took second place behind Jim Samuels and placed ahead of Sacramento's Jack Gallagher.

Pollak is famous for his spot-on impersonations of Christopher Walken and William Shatner. We asked which one he preferred and whether there were some voices he would like to do but hasn't mastered.

"Yeah, there is no contest in that they both (Walken and Shatner) serve me incredibly well, so no, I really couldn't pick one over the other. I'm asked quite often if there are people that I can't do and the answer to that is that there are always going to be people outside my wheelhouse. But the truth is, it's like being asked 'Why can't you hit the curve ball?' Why is that? I don't know, but I hit the one down the pipe out of the park. How do you talk about the things that you can't do other than to say that you can't do them?" He added, "I'll play with a voice and if it falls into place I'll do it. If it doesn't, I let it go as easily as a glass of water. It's not something that I dwell on."

Acting

Pollak has appeared in more than 60 feature movies ("with four or five being really good ones"). He has called stand-up comedy his first love, what "feeds the beast." We asked him to elaborate.

"I think the reason that stand up is so powerful for the performer and why many try to recreate that 'high' using drugs or alcohol is that there's nothing else in the performer's life that matches that ridiculous energy of the live performance and the immediate, instant response, either good or bad, to your own thoughts or musings. It's a magical thing.

"When I started off in movies, all that was gone. If you did something funny during a shot, the crew was not allowed to laugh for fear of ruining the take. In terms of the acting, it was always fairly frustrating. So, as much as I love acting, it is that desire for that live experience that draws me to stand up. That need just doesn't stop when I do movies."

Pollak has worked with some of the greatest actors and under some of the finest directors.

"My first really large role in a large, dramatic movie was working with Barry Levinson in 'Avalon.' For a comedian who had no formal training, this was a bizarrely huge opportunity. Because Barry had just won awards for his last film 'Rain Man,' everyone in Hollywood was watching 'Avalon' to see what he would do next. Because of that, I got the opportunity to audition for more serious acting roles."

"The next giant movie was 'A Few Good Men,' which was like being brought up to the majors. This juggernaut studio movie where I am one of the leads and everyone else in the film is ridiculously famous and I'm not. After that was the goal line that you cross as an actor between auditioning and getting offers. And that was 52 movies ago."

One of the films Pollak is most remembered for is "The Usual Suspects." We asked him about that experience.

"It was 'lightning in a bottle' like I have never experienced. In terms of an utterly unknown writer and director, Christopher McQuarrie and Bryan Singer, it was amazing. McQuarrie went on to win an Academy Award for best screenplay and Singer went on to 'X-Men' and other great movies. But at the time, they were just these young punks that hadn't done anything and the cast was relatively unknown, other than Gabriel Byrne. We debuted at the Cannes Film Festival, which was otherworldly. It was another milestone. That same year, I was offered the role in 'Casino' by the great master director Martin Scorsese. Then, of course, there were a few more."

We asked how Pollak chose his parts and whether there was one he liked best.

"I like working," he deadpanned. "It's really about the script. I long for great scripts."

Kevin Pollak Chat Show (KPCS)

"Kevin Pollak's Chat Show" debuted in April 2009 and has become an award-winning entry in the rapidly growing field of Internet-only entertainment.

"Just last month we won a 'Streamy Award" and that was a big thing as it is the highest award to having original content online," he said. "That was pretty awesome."

The show has featured Seth MacFarlane, Kevin Smith, Matthew Perry, Jim Gaffigan, Joe Montegna, Bobby Slayton, Adam Carolla and many more.

"We book this show ourselves, without a marketing department or a publicity department. I don't deal with agents. I just reach through to friends and friends of friends. It's an every week process that is sometimes easy and sometimes not. We have been incredibly fortunate in that we have had FIVE Academy Award winners and Grammy winners and some of the greatest comedians alive on our show.

"We also have had captains of industry such as Tesla Motors founder and CEO, Elon Musk."

We asked why he chose an "Internet-only" format.

"The Internet is the ultimate 'if you build it, they will come' model. It not only allows complete creative freedom, it also means that you can't force your audience to watch anything. You have to just put it up there and wait for the results. There is no big, splashy advertising campaign like a network television or broadcast television in general would have. It took awhile to get used to the 'be patient' aspect of letting the audience find you, which is part and parcel to the original content online process."

Did he consider putting the show on broadcast television?

"No, I designed it to be Internet only. That is how I could do two hours of Seth MacFarlane, and Eddie Izzard holds the record at two hours and 30 minutes. There isn't a network that is going to give me that much time. We are averaging 90 minutes to two hours with every guest. It is a real conversation as opposed to a talk show with commercial breaks.

"So, here we are a year later and we are up to about 68,000 live viewers every Sunday afternoon and over a million and a half have seen our show. Amazon just 'knighted' us by being our partner in offering the show in downloads, DVDs and Video on Demand. So, that is unbelievably and insanely rewarding and exciting and validating our 'if you build it they will come' strategy."

One of the games Pollak plays with his guests is "The Larry King Game." Guests are asked to imitate talk show host King, tell something revealing (and usually humiliating) about King and then take a call from someone in a little known town.

We asked him to demonstrate using a theme suggested by the local comedy troupe "The Real Funny Housewives of Rio Linda."

(In his best Larry King voice): "I just had sex with the real funny housewives! ...Rio Linda, you're on the air!"

"That was invented by my partner in life and crime, my better half and head writer on the show, Jaime Fox (Pollak spelled the name to make it obvious she wasn't the African-American Oscar winner). She also came up with the Twitter game. If you go to the website kevinpollakchatshow.com, these are actual interactive games you can play on the site. But we also have our guests play them each week."

Vamped Out

Pollak's newest venture on the Internet premiered April 12 as a six-episode series called "Vamped Out." It features a real-life vampire who also is an actor who keeps getting turned down for vampire roles. Pollak is the creator, executive producer, writer, director and has a featured role as well. It runs on Mondays on Babelgum.com.

"This level of creative freedom and control I have never experienced in decades of writing, producing and acting in movies or television. Suddenly, it was opened up to me in original content through the Web."

How did the concept develop?

"Jaime and I were meeting some friends for lunch, one of which is a very talented character actor like myself, named Jason Antoon. We sat down bemoaning this billboard that we saw driving to lunch advertising the TV show 'Vampire Diaries.'

" 'Can you fucking believe that there is another vampire TV show?' Then Jason asked, 'Can you imagine being a vampire right now and you can't get hired to do any of these movies or TV shows because you are not skinny or pale or handsome?' Jaime thought that it would be a good bit for my comedy act, but I immediately thought of it as a Web series. I had not thought prior to that moment about a Web series but it just sort of came out of me. Before I knew it, it was too late and Jason and I were in my living room writing episodes for the show. Babelgum.com was one of the first places we pitched it and they gave us all of the freedom to produce it as we needed."

SacramentoComedy.Com Viewer Questions:

Christopher Hampl wanted to know if Pollak had done his 'Columbo' impression for Peter Falk, the actor who played the role in the television series.

"I did that impression one night on the 'Tonight Show,' sitting on the couch next to Johnny Carson. Peter say me on television doing that and the next time we met, he referenced that by saying, (using his best Columbo voice), 'How do you do that with your eye? Me, I understand, but how doyou do it?' "

Svitlana Kurylo asked if there was were an actor or comedian with whom he wanted to work.

"Oh yeah, I can't really answer that. There is an endless list of people I would love to work with. I think Johnny Depp and Leonardo DiCaprio are as good as it gets, in terms of their generation. I would certainly kill to work with either of them, but there are so many others. I have been insanely lucky to work with many of the most brilliant people; there are hundreds more, I assure you."

Kurylo also asked if Pollak ever got stage fright or was starstruck.

"Stage fright, never have. Like a lot of comedians, some get nervous every time but the rest of us were just born to do this. We suffer from what I call 'Hey, look at me' disease.

"Star struck? Definitely. Just like a normal human being, I am blown away by any actor or actress that I see or meet in person whose work that I admire. I am no different than anyone else."

Walter Kawamoto asked if Pollak was upset when another actor was cast as Captain Kirk in the "Star Trek" movies.

(Sarcastically):"Yeah, I cried for a couple of days. I have a good group of friends, so I was able to lean on them. Especially when I saw the ridiculously young and handsome guy they hired, I was really thrown for a loop."

Remy Gervais wanted to know if he had a favorite role.

"Not really. If there had to be one that I enjoyed doing, that nobody saw, it would be the sequel to the movie 'The Whole Nine Yards' called 'The Whole Ten Yards.' I was in makeup for three and a half hours to get into prosthetic makeup to play the role of the father of the character I played in the original. I played a 70-year-old Hungarian mobster. That was probably the most fun comedically that I have had portraying a character in movies. And about 17 people have seen it." he added.

Pollak will appear this Saturday at Cache Creek Casino. Follow this link for tickets and reservations. Must be 21 or over.

If you enjoyed this interview and would like to have all of the SacramentoComedy.Comfeatures, interviews, news and reviews delivered to your iPhone, download the SacComedy App at iTunes.

With A Name Like Ahmed Ahmed...

2010-04-30T19:27:51Z

A SacramentoComedy.Com Interview

With a name like Ahmed Ahmed, in this day and age, you might think that it could lead to some mishaps with law enforcement agencies. If so, you'd be correct. Ahmed's family came to America when he was just a month old, and he grew up in Riverside, right in the epicenter of Southern California, so misconceptions aren’t uncommon but, in retrospect, the name has served him well.

We caught up with Ahmed by phone in New York, having just completed his first appearance at the Tribeca Film Festival, premiering 'Just Like Us,' his freshman directorial debut earlier in the week. We decided to start off by asking, (very politely), about his name.

"Ahmed Ahmed is my 'God-given' name. It is the name that my parents gave me. Today, as a comic, it sets me apart in the U.S., but it has also helped me a great deal overseas. My new movie, 'Just Like Us,' was filmed in four countries in the Middle East, and I doubt that it would have gone over as well if my name was Steve Jones."

With his current successes both here and abroad, we wondered whether Ahmed was recognized more here in the United States or in the Middle East.

"It's not like famous American movie directors or big comedy clubs are calling every day or I am stopped on the street here,” he said. “In the Middle East, it is a little different. In most Middle Eastern countries, if I am in a restaurant or an area where my demographic (18-24) hangs out, then I am often recognized."

Ahmed's career in the entertainment business began when he was 19 and moved to Hollywood to make it as an actor. He spent a year attending the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and studied with acting coaches Cliff Osmond, Ivana Chubbuck and Sandy Marshall.

After getting myriad small parts playing the stereotypical terrorist, cab driver or Middle Eastern prince, Ahmed's agent suggested he change his name. That agent was promptly let go. Then, working as a personal trainer and waiter while studying his craft, Ahmed decided to try stand-up comedy.

After doing comedy for a few years, one key turning point in his career was being taken in by Mitzi Shore, the legendary owner of The Comedy Store in Hollywood right around 1999-2000.

"A many great comedians had come out of the Comedy Store to do extraordinary things with their careers,” Ahmed said. “David Letterman and Jay Leno started there. Richard Pryor, Robin Williams, Sam Kinison, Howie Mandel, Michael Keaton, Paul Rodriguez and Jim Carrey performed there. A lot of comedians became who they are today thanks to being 'taken in' by Mitzi. She would embrace them in such a way, almost guiding like a mother hen.

"Mitzi also had an epiphany that something bad was going to happen in the Middle East and that Arab comedians were going to be necessary to break down stereotypes. That was her prophesy. We didn't know what she was talking about. We just wanted to tell jokes. Then 9/11 happened, and she gave us a platform to exercise our talent. And this was at a time when comedy clubs didn't want Arab comedians. That has changed over time, but it was because of Mitzi that it happened."

So, has the stigma of being of Arab descent eased up since 9/11?

"Well, yes and no. There was a lot of backlash after (9/11). I have been arrested or detained half a dozen times because of my name. It's an awful position to be put in. As an American, paying taxes, you play by the rules and be a decent human being, and society lets you be. Suddenly, that's taken away from you. You are sitting in a cell with 12 other people who are brown.

"There was one time in Las Vegas I was arrested and was put into jail. It was very unfortunate. But just telling the story is brilliant. I talked about it on the 'Wild West Comedy Tour' (with Vince Vaughn). I was placed in this holding cell for about 12 hours. You have to know that in that cell were the cast members of 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.' After about eight hours, this Mexican gang-banger walks up and say, ‘Hey homie, you arrested cause you're like Arab and shit?’ I told him, 'yeah.'

“(He went on to ask), ‘Do they think you are a terrorist and shit?" I told him, 'yeah, but just for the record, I'm not.' Then he says, ‘Hey, just blow this place up and get us the fuck outta here!’ And everybody in the cell just started laughing. Then I just thought that maybe this was God's way of lightening up the situation, because I was breaking down at that point. Why the hell am I in jail? I am just an American guy with an Arab name. So, either this gang-banger was definitely God-sent or it was just His way of telling me, 'Ahmed, write some new material!’"

Do you think that the bridge of understanding that is taking place between the United States. and the Middle East countries and the Muslim world would be happening today if it weren't for 9/11?

"Probably not as much. As much as I hate to say it, tragedy in its darkest moments eventually ends up shedding light on a situation. It's interesting that you bring that up. Jane Rosenthal and Robert DeNiro are the co-founders of the Tribeca Film Festival. Their whole reason for creating the festival was because of 9/11. When the city was at its lowest point, DeNiro and Rosenthall were wondering how they could give back to the city, how they could make a positive impact out of this negative. Now, nine years later, there are Arab and Muslim films being shown at the festival."

The film "Just Like Us," filmed documentary-style in four Middle Eastern countries, was Ahmed's first time producing and directing a movie. We wanted to know how his debut at the Tribeca Film Festival went.

"The support that Tribeca extended us has been great! We got our world premier on Saturday night, and it was sold out. It was a full red-carpet event. Vince Vaughn, who is a good friend of mine, flew in to support the film. For the 'after-party comedy show' featuring the comedians that appeared in the movie, Robert DeNiro showed up. I was hosting this show and watching him laugh so hard he had to wipe the tears from his eyes. After, he came over and provided a photo op. He was overly kind, offered his congratulations and told me the he watched the show with his wife and that he really liked it."

One question that came to mind while we were talking about the making of his movie was what inspired him to do it.

"I would come back from a doing a comedy tour overseas, and my friends would ask me if I was performing for the troops. They, and many people here, don't know that people from the Middle Eastern countries and Muslims have a sense of humor and like to laugh. Each country has different customs around it, like, in some countries, entertainment is designed for the whole family so you are often performing in front of young kids. I also learned a great deal about this format of filmmaking doing the 'Wild West Comedy Tour' with Vince Vaughn. I also had a great producer in Peter Billingsly. Yes, the same Peter Billingsly that played Ralphie and is famous for shooting his eye out in the movie ‘A Christmas Story,’" he answered to my unasked question.

We also wondered if there were any critics to the new group of Arab-Americans who use comedy to poke fun at themselves and the Muslim stereotypes.

"I never used to put my clips up on YouTube, but now I just let it go. If you Google "Ahmed Ahmed Dubai," you will see a clip of a joke that I do. I got slammed on that one. There are over 450 comments. I sometimes write them down and read them from stage. So, yes, I am often a target for my type of humor."

You will get the chance to experience Ahmed's humor May 6-9 at the Sacramento Punchline Comedy Club.

If you enjoyed this interview and would like to have all of the SacramentoComedy.Com features, interviews, news and reviews delivered to your iPhone, download the SacComedy App at iTunes.

Debbie Campo Hosts "Laugh Your Way To Love!" at the Sacramento Punchline

2010-04-27T02:46:09Z

What do you get when you mix alcohol, a singles mixer and a comedy show? You get to find out for yourself this Wednesday night at the Sacramento Punchline.

Comedian Debbie Campo is the Founder/MC/Matchmaker of “Laugh Your Way to Love,” the hybrid mashup of stand-up comedy meets “The Dating Game" meets the singles mixer.

Campo explained that "the doors at the Sacramento Punchline will open at 7 p.m., and we encourage the single people to come early to have a cocktail and meet with us and the other singles. We (comedians) mingle with everyone who comes early, facilitate introductions and see if we can spot some compatibilities early. At 8 p.m., everyone gets to see a very funny comedy show featuring headliner Sal Calanni and co-features, Maggie Newcomb and Jason Armenio. Throughout the show we are chatting with the audience members and getting to know them better."

What happens after the show?

"In the last part of the show, we do audience interaction and have a short 'Dating Game' segment where we match single women and single men up from willing participants. Then, after the show, we continue to mingle, exchange info and…well, occasionally, 'hook up!'"

Have there been any successful matches?

"There have been a couple of them that have been great, but one in particular is a standout. In one of our first shows, we matched a couple where he lives in Los Angeles and she lives in San Francisco. They write me all the time and tell me that they are having a good time. She was one of the women that we pulled onstage, a very cute British girl who announced that she 'wasn't wearing any panties' at the time. No wonder she got the guy!" she laughed.

What about us non-single folk. Will we be out of place?

"No, by wrapping this around the comedy show, we want to make sure that even if they don't meet someone or are not in the market to meet anyone new, that you come away having a great night of being entertained by a spectacular comedy show. So, even if you are a married couple or bringing your date, you find a cozy, loving and fun environment."

Campo, who was twice married and now single, came up with the idea as a unique way to meet more eligible men while performing her stand up. We wondered how that was working for her.

"Everyone hooks up but me!" she exclaimed. "I saw it as a way to 'fish' for single men using a large net rather than a pole, but everyone seems to hook up but me. Every young comedian wants to do these shows because they invariably end up getting dates. Alas, I seem to just be the matchmaker."

Campo is originally from Philadelphia, grew up in Las Vegas and has performed coast to coast over the last six years. She has performed with the “3 Blonde Moms” comedy troupe and performs with three other male comedians as the baby boomer-themed, “Not Dead Yet” tour.

For tickets, visit the Punchline Ticket site.

If you enjoyed this interview and would like to have all of the SacramentoComedy.Com features, interviews, news and reviews delivered to your iPhone, iTouch or iPad, then download the free SacComedy App at iTunes.

Steven Bloom is the founder of SacramentoComedy.Com, the Official Guide to Sacramento Comedy. This website is dedicated to comedian interviews,comedian bios, videos and consolidating all of the Sacramento comedy events to a single comedy calendar site. You can send your questions directly to The Comedy Guy at Steven@SacramentoComedy.Com

Jennifer Coolidge is Sexy Funny!

2010-04-20T02:28:23Z

A SacramentoComedy.Com Interview

Jennifer Coolidge is beautiful. Whether you wish she was your best friend's mother, your manicurist/advocate, your messed-up friend or just your date for the evening depends not only your age, but what movie or TV show you saw her in last.

Coolidge, who has been a leading character actress for more than 20, years is tackling a new segment of her creativity – that of a stand-up comedian.

We met in the green room at Tommy T's Comedy Club in Rancho Cordova before her final show for the weekend. Looking just like I and a million other boys and men imagined her a decade ago when she played Stifler's mom in the ‘American Pie’ movies, Coolidge is a striking beauty.

One of the things that became apparent within the first minutes of our conversation is that Coolidge, for all of her fame, is very down-to-earth and gracious. And funny. When her co-star, Jason Dudey, phoned their agent before the show and got voice mail, Coolidge took the phone and, with an impish grin and in her best diva voice, began to complain that someone threw out her fancy coffee drink and she insisted that she wasn't going to be able to go on without it.

What made you decide to become a comedic actress?

"I was trying to do the dramatic thing early on in acting class but no one was responding to that. The minute I took the comedy route, it seemed to take off."

"I used to imitate everyone in my acting classes, and there was a girl that would cry doing every scene. It didn't matter that the scene didn't call for crying, she would cry nonetheless. One of my friends, an actor named John, saw me do my imitation of her and announced that he thought I was in the wrong class and took me to Gotham City Improv in New York City to audition.

"When I started out, I wasn't very good. In improv class you had to do "space work," and all I could think of to do was to stir a pot, no matter what the scene was. ‘Yeah, the golfing was good today…’ (Coolidge stirred her imaginary pot)."

Didn't you also perform with the Groundlings Improv group in Los Angeles?

"I was in that group (Gotham City Improv) for about a year, then I went to Los Angeles for a vacation and visited the L.A. Groundlings. I happened to catch Julia Sweeny, Kathy Griffin and a number of incredibly talented people in a show that week, and the weird thing was that the women happened to dominate this show. I had never seen that before," she said incredulously. "It just blew me away!

"Now I had seen Catherine O'Hara on SCTV and Gilda Ratner on SNL, but this was live. I was only two feet away from them and somehow seeing girls live, being better than the guys, changed my life.

"The Groundlings were great, and I was there with Kathy Griffin, Lisa Kudrow, Will Ferrell, Chris Kattan, Will Forte, Ana Gasteyer (and) Cheri Oteri. It was an incredible group of people!”

Because the Groundlings is considered the “Harvard” of improv, this is where Lorne Michaels came to recruit new members for NBC’s ‘Saturday Night Live’ in the mid-’90s. Though many of her troupe-mates were cast in SNL, Coolidge, unfortunately, was not. “What was that like?” we asked.

“He (Michaels) flew a lot of us in for the audition, and I had one of the best auditions of my life. But, for whatever reason, Loren didn’t choose me, and I went back with my tail between my legs,” she recalled. “I felt that because ‘Saturday Night Live’ didn’t want me, Even though I had already done an episode of ‘Seinfeld,’ I felt wasn’t going to amount to much career-wise. I had resigned myself to that when, shortly after that, Christopher Guest was in the audience. He was looking for people for his movie ‘Best In Show.’ I think that when I resigned myself to just being myself I became more attractive to the opportunities around me. Then the good things started happening.”

How is your stand-up comedy career going?

“I’m really enjoying myself,” she said, smiling. “I am still developing my act and persona on stage. I tell (true) stories about my life which are funny, but I am never sure if the people have come to see Paulette from the ‘Legally Blonde’ movies or the MILF from the ‘American Pie’ movies. I am still exploring how far I can go outside of those preconceived stereotypes in my act without offending anyone while developing myself as Jennifer Coolidge – Stand-Up Comedian.”

At this point, it was time for me to get a picture with Jennifer so she could get on stage and share herself with the crowd. As I watched her go, all I could think of was how I just got to put my arm around Stifler’s mom. My life is now complete!

The Comedy Guy

Steven Bloom is the founder of SacramentoComedy.Com, the Official Guide to Sacramento Comedy. This website is dedicated to comedian interviews, comedian bios, videos and consolidating all of the Sacramento comedy events to a single calendar site. You can send your questions directly to The Comedy Guy at Steven@SacramentoComedy.Com

Laughter - The Breast Medicine!

2010-04-07T00:59:48Z

A SacramentoComedy.Com Interview

What do you call four male comics packed into a pink van, touring the country for four months performing stand-up comedy and raising funds and awareness for the Susan G. Komen for the Cure?

I guess you could say that we are just "boobs for boobs," laughed Brendan T. Gleason, one of the four comics coming to the Sacramento Punchline April 14. "We thought about naming the tour that, but decided that the subject deserved a little more serious demeanor."

Gleason, Law Smith, Nick Hoff and pretty pink van owner Kevin Richards are on the last legs of this 57-show tour. After Sacramento (performance No. 55), there are two performances in Fresno, and then the tour is complete.

"It will be a nice sense of accomplishment to finally present the check to the Susan G. Komen for the Cure when we get done," Gleason said.

The troupe is donating 30 percent of its earnings to Komen for the Cure and had promised a guaranteed minimum of $10,000. "We are well over that now at about $16,000 to date," Gleason said.

Gleason also said that all of the performers are looking forward to some relaxation time after more than three months on the road.

"This is our second tour together. We performed a 43-performance tour last spring," Gleason explained when asked if traveling in such close quarters tended to put a strain on their relationships. "Luckily, the four of us are good enough friends to get over our disagreements quickly.”

"Our comic outlooks and styles might be very different on stage, but we are very similar in temperament. Plus, Nick's wife is traveling with us on this tour, so we have to behave ourselves!"

What prompted the four guys (and a gal) to paint up a van and take up this noble cause? Had breast cancer touched the members?

"Law, Nick and I are all comics from the Los Angeles area, and we met performing at the same venues. Nick met Kevin at the Seattle Comedy Festival and became fast friends. So, when we went looking for the fourth for last year’s Walk of Shame tour, we immediately turned to Nick. Plus, he had the van!" Gleason said.

"After our tour last year, we just decided to do it again and see if we could do something to help someone else along the way. Breast cancer can strike at any age, and the women who come to our shows generally don't get checked. Awareness is extremely important, and the Susan G. Komen for the Cure was a perfect fit," Gleason said.

The irony of it all is that Richard's mom was bragging to her doctor about the wonderful things her son was doing with the Pink Ribbon Tour when the doctor persuaded her to have a mammogram of her own. The results came back positive that she has had breast cancer for up to five years and was immediately referred for treatment. She is in remission now, and the comics, performing in Seattle over the Easter weekend, got to spend some time with her.

"This is the awareness that we hope comes from our tour,” Gleason said. “We want everyone to laugh and have a great time but walk away knowing that knowledge helps in catching this disease early while it can be treated.

"Every single show has been fantastic, and people have left loving the show and loving the night. That's all we can ask for: that whoever shows up gets the best show we can do. We are proud to have done it every single time out."

What's next for the merry men?

"Well, Kevin is going to take the tour bus back to Seattle after dropping us off, and we all have some feature work lined up after a week or two of rest,” Gleason said. “Nick is going to take six months with his wife and tour the country doing comedy. The four of us are planning on meeting up in certain cities at the same time so we can do some shows for the local Komen for the Cure offices in Boise and Aspen in the next couple months."

Click here for reservations and to buy tickets.

If you can't make it to the show, you can donate directly to the Sacramento Valley Chapter of the Susan G. Komen for the Cure.

The Comedy Guy

Steven Bloom is the founder of SacramentoComedy.Com, the Official Guide to Sacramento Comedy. This website is dedicated to interviews, comedian bios, videos and consolidating all of the Sacramento comedy events to a single calendar site. You can send your questions directly to The Comedy Guy at Steven@SacramentoComedy.Com

Darren Carter - That Ginger's Crazy!

2010-03-26T04:07:48Z

An American Comedy.Com Interview

When you meet Darren Carter for the first time, you notice that there is something different about him. Your eyes focus on his short red hair and his engaging smile, and then it hits you. This man looks happy!

I was fortunate enough to meet up with Darren recently for breakfast, having just completing one of his many radio interviews to promote his weekend show at Pepperbellys Comedy Theater in Fairfield, Calif. It's just not natural for a comedian to be awake before noon, but for the next three and a half hours, Carter and comedian David Lew recited story after story about life on the road.

Carter, a freckle-faced, red-headed, pasty-skinned youngster, was raised in a predominately Latino area of Fresno, Calif. As he points out in his act, put a pair of dark rimmed glasses on the redhead, and he was quickly dubbed "the Rooster," and the name followed him throughout his childhood. It was there that Carter learned to rap, break dance and use comedy as his method of acceptance into the neighborhood. He knew early on that intimidation just wasn't going to work! "Hey homie, whatcha gonna do, peck me to death?"

He also knew that making people laugh was what he was meant to do. "I gave a humorous speech in my speech and debate class in school and got so many laughs, it gave me goose bumps! I am very lucky that I have never had to get a 'real' job since then."

"In the early days, living in San Jose, Calif., and doing as many shows as possible, I would gauge my level of success based on how many roommates I would have. I started off with four roommates, and then the next year I was down to only three. That alone meant that I was becoming more successful."

However, things seem to going in the opposite direction lately. After Carter got successful enough to live without roommates, he fell in love, married and now has a 2-year-old son.

"I met my wife at the Improv in Hollywood. She was sitting in the back of the room where the comics sit, and she waved like she knew me. We exchanged some witty banter, well, at least I thought I was witty, and though she was only visiting southern California, we dated for only 10 months and then got married. We will be celebrating our 13th anniversary this summer!"

"We were a little nervous when my wife got pregnant. I am a redhead, and my wife is Armenian. We were afraid that the baby would come out angry with an orange unibrow!" Carter joked."

For the last 20 years, Carter has been constantly working on the road, on television and at the movies. His credits include "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno," a featured role with John Travolta in the movie "Be Cool," his own Showtime Comedy Special and hundreds of headlining gigs at comedy clubs, theaters and college campuses throughout the country.

Carter's uniqueness is personified by the fact that he is one of the only comics performing today with his very own theme song.

"It's awesome, man! There's a rapper, Big Fluff Nickolantern who has been of fan of my comedy since he was in eighth grade. He found me through MySpace and wrote this song about me and my comedy. It's phenomenal! I have used it for my CD and Showtime specials."

Carter's vocal range is extensive and a mainstay of his high-energy show. Whether impersonating his Latino "homies" or doing his urban rendition of "I like my women like I like..." routine, he is silly, fun and irreverent. Known for his 'spot-on' imitation of Snoop Dogg, he attracted the attention of Snoop's family members and was invited to perform at their annual family reunion for four years running.

Another perk of his vocal capabilities was doing the voice of "Useless Dave" and four other characters on extreme sport idol Tony Hawk's popular video game "American Wasteland" in 2005.

"I have never actually heard it, though. I am not very good at video games, and my characters don't appear until the more advanced levels!"

Crisscrossing the country, always being on the road gets lonely for many comics, but not Carter.

“I use Twitter extensively. I take pictures of things I see in my travels that appear funny to me and post them for my fans.”

If you are not already following him, you can start by going to Twitter.com/DarrenCarter.

"In the old days, you tended to get lonely when you were working on the road. This way, I am able to keep a conversation going with my fans, and besides, I am always seeing things that I think are funny, and I just want to share them."

When I asked him about his current projects, Carter was excited that his newest CD, called "That Ginger's Crazy!," is now available on iTunes and CDBaby. It is 26 hilarious tracks of pure Carter madness.

Check him out at his website, DarrenCarter.Com, and get to one of his shows. Trust me, that ginger's crazy!

The Comedy Guy

Suzanne Westenhoefer - Funny AND Lesbian

2010-03-15T01:56:37Z

"Does sexuality matter in the comedy business?" I asked Suzanne Westenhoefer, who has been credited as the first lesbian comic to come "out" in mainstream comedy.

"I started my career as a lesbian before I was a comic," she said, "and started as an activist before I was a lesbian. I was one of those people in high school who would get into arguments with the sociology teacher and stand up for the 'misfits,' of which I was one of." Making a stand was what seemed to drive her forward.

Westenhoefer did not always identify as a lesbian, however. Early on she felt that she was out of the mainstream but it didn't occur to her that she was gay until she was 19. "It was such a shock when it occurred to me, and then I thought, 'Oh! Totally awesome!' and that led to 'Oh, my God, I'm gay and we're not equal to other people! Where's the protest marches?'"

After college, Westenhoefer went to New York to pursue an acting career. "Did you always want to be an actress?" we wanted to know.

"I never wanted to be anything else. Ask my mother or my sisters and they will tell you that. I went from walking and talking to wanting to be an entertainer. I was that kid that would sing a song or do something funny at family gatherings. I remember early on performing and getting really positive responses." She added, "I have always wanted to sing and act and tell jokes and be the center of attention for as long as I can remember."

As strong as the "entertainer" urge was, it wasn't clear to her that comedy would be how it would manifest. "My mom knew, however. She just recently pointed out that as a child I would memorize bits and pieces of comedy albums like George Carlin, Lily Tomlin or Robert Klein and then I would add lines to their bits to make it 'more.' "

In 1990, Westenhoefer was in New York, tending bar, performing at some small comedy clubs and talking about being a lesbian in her act.

"The first time I ever got up on the comedy stage was July of 1990. I had entered a comedy contest and I was doing it openly queer and there was nobody doing it in any of the straight clubs at the time. I really thought I was bad ass."

Six months later, in January 1991, Westenhoefer was approached by the producers of the "Sally Jessie Raphael Show" to appear in a segment called "Lesbians Who Don't Look Like Lesbians," which in the early 90's was still a pretty shocking subject. Though she didn't do an act on the program, she was introduced as the first openly lesbian comic.

When it was pointed out that a title like that would never fly today, Westenhoefer responded, "We were breaking the stereotype back then so we weren't offended. Today, nobody would ever do it, but back then, we were saying, 'This is how we grow, this is how we change minds, this is OK." Westenhoefer continued, "It was historical. Look at us 19 years later, still talking about it."

After being introduced as the "openly lesbian comic," Westenhoefer was inundated with mail and requests from comedy clubs and talk shows. She appeared on shows such as "Geraldo" and "Ricki Lake."

"Today, it wouldn't be much of a story, but again, 19 years ago it was insanity that someone would say that they're gay, joke about it, laugh about it and say, 'Too bad for you that you're not. That's why I am so special.' "

"Is your act directed toward the gay and lesbian community," we asked.

"Not at all," Westenhoefer she answered. "If a Caucasian watches a black comedian like Chris Rock, we can still laugh our asses off even though his jokes talk about life as a black man. A black person may identify with the joke premise, but it is still universally funny."

We asked her if she thought society was coming closer to a sexuality-neutral world.

"Equality is going at a snail's pace. It is for the blacks, Asians and other minorities but being a 'straight white male' is still the accepted norm in this country and still the ruler. Nowhere in the world is there a perfect gender or color equality. We still are fallible human beings that are scared of things that are not like us." But Westenhoefer said she does see signs of change especially in the realm of religion. "Even though the church tends to propagate an 'us and them' stance, I do shows all over the country attended by hundreds of gays, where after the show, they hug and tell each other, 'See you at church tomorrow.' So there are some changes being made."

Westenhoefer was asked how she felt when Ellen Degeneres "came out" and why everyone thought it was such a controversial move when Westenhoefer had done it so many years before.

"The path we took was very different. Ellen's coming out was much more of a risk as she already had a very successful career that was at stake when she announced that she was gay. Comics like Kate Clinton and I did the 'scary, brave thing' by telling everyone in the beginning of our career, but we didn't risk an established career and power base. We didn't put anyone's job on the line. What Kate and I did allowed Ellen to do what she did, which allowed Rosie [O'Donnell] and so many others, which ultimately led to Wanda Sykes getting her own show without much fanfare."

Westenhoefer married her longtime partner, Jennifer Houston, in California in 2008 and includes her in much of her act onstage. We wondered if that bothered Houston.

"Anyone who knows me as intimately as she does absolutely has to know that there is no assumption of privacy," she said with a laugh.

"I think if you are going to be involved in my life, especially at that level, it doesn't take much to know that you have no privacy. So, those that are close to me, including my family and friends, aren't afraid that I would say something totally inappropriate. The only ones close to me that would have a right to protest would be my family and my first partner during the first year because they didn't know that this was a possibility early on."

Westenhoefer will appear March 19 at 8 p.m. at the Center for Spiritual Awareness, 1275 Starboard Road, West Sacramento. For more information, call 916-374-9177.

The Comedy Guy

Steven Bloom is the founder of SacramentoComedy.Com, the Official Guide to Sacramento Comedy. This website is dedicated to interviews, comedian bios, videos and consolidating all of the Sacramento comedy events to a single site. You can send your questions directly to The Comedy Guy at Steven@SacramentoComedy.Com

Dat Phan - From Homeless to Headliner

2010-03-11T06:03:22Z

A SacramentoComedy.Com Interview

From homeless to headliner, Dat Phan knows what it means to work hard to achieve your goals. His story is another "American dream" come true for someone willing to put it all out there.

Phan, the youngest of 10 kids, started in Saigon, Vietnam, and landed in the ghettos of San Diego with his mother. There were times when they slept on bus benches.

"I credit my mom for keeping me out of gangs as a child,” Phan said. “My babysitter was Cox Cable, and it kept me off the streets."

It was during this period that he was inspired by the celebrities he watched on TV.

"It was during the time that Michael Jackson was still black and awesome!"

This all was happening as the ghetto violence surged around him, and it propelled him to get out by any means and not look back.

"When you grow up poor, you have to either work really hard to try and get where you want to be, or you'll just stay put," he said.

Even though Phan took a drama class while in high school, he admits to being shy and introverted until after he graduated and enrolled in Grossmont Junior College in San Diego. After leaving school at 21, he decided to make his mark in the comedy world.

For the next seven years, Phan worked tirelessly at his trade as a starving artist, driving from one gig to the next, taking odd jobs, (he was once robbed at gunpoint while working as a doorman at the Improv in Irvine, Calif.), sleeping in his car or on friends’ couches.

All that time, he was working on his writing, graphing and charting each sentence and keeping his notebook with him because, as he said, "I was too poor for a laptop, and the notebook was all I had."

"I'm still am very obsessed with my techniques as I am writing my material. I analyze where the beats are, the wording and how many syllables," he continued. "Movies are never done without storyboards, timelines, formulas and equations. They are engineered for success. James Cameron didn't make Avatar without a plan!"

In 2003, while no longer homeless, but renting a space so small that there was only room to sleep under his desk, he continued to pursue any opportunity that presented itself.

While living on cheap ramen and generic Red Bull, Phan scraped together enough money to send a demo in to NBC for an experimental reality show they were looking at. That experiment was the inauguration of "Last Comic Standing."

After auditioning in person, he was chosen by the talent scouts for "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" to be a part of the show, beating 2,000 other comics.

On the show, his obsession with verbal technique brought him ridicule from other comedians, as the nation watched more experienced comics like Ralphie May, Rich Vos and Dave Mordal verbally abuse and taunt Phan for his inexperience and his "Zen-like" approach to comedy.

Through it all, Phan kept his cool, and his technique proved them all wrong as he took the top prize in the show, beating each one of them week by week until he was crowned "Last Comic Standing."

"Was the meanness depicted on the show accurate?” we wondered.

"If you are going to throw a steak (development deal), into the middle of a pack of wolves (comics) that are hungry, you are going to turn a lot of comedians into animals,” Phan said. “Stick all of them all in the same cage (house) for a month, and you get the madness that is a reality show."

With the national primetime exposure the show provided, Phan landed a part in the Kim Basinger movie, "Cellular," did voiceover work for "Family Guy" and began touring the country.

"That's my movie claim to fame right now. Five minutes as the only Asian character in a movie full of Caucasians!"

Phan went on to be named by the Smithsonian as one of the "Top Ten Most Influential Vietnamese-Americans" and frequently assists Stanford University's The Jade River Campaign, which provides research and assistance to Asian victims of hepatitis B and liver cancer. Phan's mother suffers from a form of the disease.

"How's life today?" we asked.

"Well, I am in a relationship now so my life is a lot more boring than before,” Phan replied. “I used to be the guy out on the hunt for girls – now I just hunt for Girl Scout cookies. How does it define you when you are trolling supermarkets for Girl Scouts like you are looking for your crack cocaine dealer?"

“Do you know ‘Flight of the Conchords?’ ” he responded when asked about his next projects. "I am trying to add the guitar to my act to accent the Asian material that I do."

Going back to his technical and perfectionist outlook, Phan said, "If you look at music theory and comedy theory, they have a tendency to contradict each other on beats, counts and callbacks. Because of this, I am working with a team of people to get this right. It's fun, and it has refreshed my enthusiasm for writing comedy as well."

Will he be performing music at this Sacramento appearance?

"Not this time,” Phan said. “It just isn't ready. I will, however, be slipping in some new comedy material. I am constantly trying to keep my act fresh."

Phan has a DVD he recently released called "Dat Phan Live" and his first R-rated CD called "You Touch, You Buy!" Both are available on Phan's website: www.DatPhan.Com.

Dat Phan will be appearing at the Sacramento Punchline this week, from Thursday through Sunday for five shows.

The Comedy Guy

Steven Bloom (a.k.a. The Comedy Guy) is the founder of SacramentoComedy.Com, the Official Guide to Sacramento Comedy. This Sacramento comedy website is dedicated to interviews, comedian bios, videos and consolidating all of the Sacramento comedy events to a single site. You can send your questions directly to The Comedy Guy at Steven@SacramentoComedy.Com

Doug Stanhope - Rogue Comic Appearing at Marilyn's on K

2010-03-05T03:44:01Z

A Sacramento Comedy.Com Interview

Getting to the essence of veteran comedian Doug Stanhope is both easy and difficult at the same time. He's so simple, yet so complex. Because of that, he is also completely controversial. Actually, to say that Stanhope is "controversial " is a vast understatement.

Many people only know Stanhope through his short-lived hosting of "The Man Show" with Joe Rogan and his participation in the late-night, titillating "Girls Gone Wild" infomercials, which he said was only for the money.

Stanhope's true fans know him as an outspoken, uncensored, honest and libertarian comic who looks at the world and questions aloud how we have turned a blind eye to how we are manipulated on a daily basis by the government and the media.

When Sacramentocomedy.com spoke to Stanhope by phone, he was home at his small two-bedroom house in the teeming metropolis of Bizbee, Ariz., with a population of maybe 6,000 people, hanging out with his dogs and his long-term girlfriend "Bingo." Don't make the mistake of calling their relationship a marriage, Stanhope tells the world, ’cause "why would anyone would want to invite the government to share in the blessed union?

"If you could invent marriage today, would you say, 'Hey, let's invite the government to get involved!' or not?" he mused in one of his libertarian rants.

We asked Stanhope, who is appearing at Marilyn's on K March 12, why he is performing at such a small venue when he can draw a much larger crowd anywhere.

"Many comedy club audiences are like seat fillers for ‘Dancing With The Stars.’ They are both benign and banal. You might as well do comedy for your pets. My audience is a giant 'sausage festival' with would-be school shooters. That's why rock-and-roll clubs are fun. They allow for a kind of chaos and an audience that doesn't just sit with hands folded with a tablecloth and a candle. It feels real and alive."

So against the status quo, he has become both a curmudgeon and a contrarian. His anger took root in 2008 by planning to run for President under the Libertarian Party though he later decided against it and gave his support first to Libertarian candidate Ron Paul and then finally to Barack Obama.

"I would have had to count the income from all my appearances as fundraising and the campaign rules are so complex that if I made one simple mistake, the cost in fees were outrageous! And, I am not smart enough to not make mistakes!"

His confessions of "I'm not really that bright" and "I experience periods of self-loathing" put him into a class of comic that is both brilliant and to any exploitative, commercial or corporate type with a need to control him, a bomb just waiting to go off.

Stanhope, who began performing standup in Las Vegas in 1990, said that it has been an adventure. Starting as a "road comic" going from one gig to another fueled by drugs and booze, often sleeping in the car, propelled him forward.

Through the trek, we asked him how prevalent the drugs and alcohol were then and now.

"Honestly, alcohol is the Abbott to my Costello," he responded. It was reported that in 2006 he took ecstasy on opening night at the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland, that was handed to him by a member of the audience. He got rave, 5-star reviews.

Fans love him for his edgy, outspoken rants. So edgy in fact, Stanhope was booed off a stage in Ireland after stating that "Irish women were too ugly to rape," and in the United Kingdom for making derogatory statements about the Royal Family. The British GQ Magazine wrote an eight-page feature asking the question: "Is This America's Most Depraved Man?"

Though Stanhope eschews rehearsed, memorized and overly produced comedy passed off as spontaneous, he has done Showtime and Comedy Central specials, has appearances on stage and TV, produced numerous successful CDs and DVDs and appeared the comedy documentary, "The Aristocrats," where he held a young child and proceeded to tell one of the dirtiest industry jokes.

Love him or hate him, Stanhope is going to bring it March 12th to Marilyn's on K, 908 K St., Sacramento, CA 95814 at 7:00 PM. You can get more information or buy tickets (it is expected to sell out early) by clicking here.

The Comedy Guy

Steven Bloom is the founder of SacramentoComedy.Com, the Official Guide to Sacramento Comedy. This website is dedicated to interviews, comedian bios, videos and consolidating all of the Sacramento comedy events to a single site. You can send your questions directly to The Comedy Guy at Steven@SacramentoComedy.Com

Paula Poundstone - Wait, Wait.. OK, Tell Me!

2010-02-14T01:38:12Z

A Sacramento Comedy.Com Interview

Steven Bloom, aka, The Comedy Guy, spoke with Paula by phone recently at her home in Santa Monica. Traveling almost every week of the year, the amazing part is that she was at home.

When asked if Poundstone enjoyed all of the extensive travel, she just replied that because she spends so little time at each location, that she calls herself, "a lazy traveler," and that she mostly works or sleeps in the hotel room. In the old days when she would perform at comedy clubs and be there four of five nights, Poundstone used to go exploring. She even reminisced about the Sacramento Railroad Museum when she performed at the historic Laughs Unlimited in Old Sac.

One of the more amazing facts about Poundstone is that she wrote her first book "There's Nothing In This Book That I Wanted To Say" long hand. With a pen. No computer. "It took me 8 years to write it that way." Poundstone is currently working on another book but using a computer for this one. "I am now writing on a computer but I can't tell you that it is going any faster" ".. and I am distracted by the computer!"

When asked about her use of social media to keep up with her fan base, (Poundstone is on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and YouTube), she replied "It's a tremendous amount of work and that is where half of my time is spent now. There has to be a way to finesse this where you do just enough that works and then you stop there, but I haven't been able to do that." When discussing Twitter, she commented that she prides herself that she has never tweeted that "I'm in the shower.."

Poundstone, who began her comedy career at 19 in Boston often jumped on a Greyhound bus in those early years to tour cities to see what their open mics were like. In the 80's she moved to San Francisco where she befriended and performed with Robin Williams, Whoopi Goldberg and the like. "One of my early road jobs was performing in Sacramento at Laughs Unlimited."

Paula excused herself from the interview and took a moment to help her oldest daughter with some questions. Poundstone is a single mother of three.

When we resumed the interview, it was pointed out that Poundstone is very much a trailblazer for women. First woman to win a Cable ACE award for her HBO Special, first woman to be invited to perform at the White House Correspondence Dinner, first time Harvard University ever allowed their name to be used in the title of a television show (her second one hour special for HBO, "Paula Poundstone Goes to Harvard") and it was quipped that she was the first person to ever be sent to Alcoholics Anonymous on television, a reference to her very public arrest in 2001 for child endangerment and misdemeanor child injury.

"I don't know if I was the first, but I certainly opened the floodgates to the televised "rehab" show which has made us all better in so many ways. How could it not?" she quipped. As public as this event was, Poundstone has never shied away from including those events in her large base of material that she draws from. She has incorporated it into her stand up, radio and television appearances (NPR and David Letterman) and has comparing these events with the trials and tribulations of other greats like Joan of Arc, Abraham Lincoln and Sitting Bull in her book. When asked if she still includes it in her act today, she says that "every now and then" but most of her material is what she is thinking about at the time when she is on stage. "My material is mostly autobiographical, but I tend to keep it mostly current," she explained. "At the time, I talked about it a lot but you move on just like you would if you were talking to a friend on the phone."

That brought up the fact that many people have commented that her act is like her having a conversation with a friend while she is on stage. When asked, she said that "I like it that way. On a good day when the stars are all aligned, it's like a really good cocktail party."

One thing that very few people know about Ms. Poundstone is that she has c0-authored not one, but three high school math textbooks with her old high school math teacher. "What was that like?" we asked.

"She kept complaining that I wasn't "timely" enough in her school-marmish way." she joked. She explained that originally, she was just going to write a few stories interspersed between some math problems but it got turned around until she was expected to write a story for each problem. "We did books for three levels; fifth [grade], sixth and seventh [grades] and eight and ninth [grades].

Poundstone is known as an avid reader, (she is the national spokesperson for the Friends of Libraries USA), so we asked her what she was currently reading. "Actually, for the first time in my life I am reading more than one thing at one time. I am reading "The Hobbit" with my daughter. We were almost done around Christmas break, then I found a book about (convicted financier) Bernie Madoff that trumped it. I am reading that now and I am stuck on the last 100 pages of "Guns, Germs and Steel" for almost five years now. I am also in the middle of an article on [Secretary of Defense] Robert Gates."

We asked Poundstone if she would mind answering some of her Sacramento fan's questions that were submitted on Twitter and Facebook prior to our interview, she graciously agreed.

A devoted Poundstone fan, Cinde Dolphin asked if she minded playing the straight man to Garrison Keillor on the show 'Prairie Home Companion" heard on Public Radio? "It is SO much fun! Garrison is a national treasure!" she proclaimed. "It is always a delight to be on that show."

Another fan, Kris Vera-Phillips wanted to know how you come up with the "predictions" on the NPR show "Wait, Wait.. Don't Tell Me?" Poundstone replied, "I am not great at that, or writing the "bluff story" which I belly ache about every time. My favorite parts are where you don't have to any preparation at all, other than I do read newspapers. Any time they ask a question and I get to just blurt my best [answer]. The more time they give me for preparation, the more it eats on the inside of my brain!"

When asked about her role as the national spokesperson for the Friends of Libraries (FOLUSA) she said that she enjoys raising awareness and raising funds about the importance of libraries and how contrary to popular belief that they are operated on public funds only.

Paula Poundstone will be appearing at The Crest Theater on Saturday March 6th. More information and tickets are available on The Crest Theater website at www.TheCrest.Com

The Comedy Guy

Steven Bloom is the founder of SacramentoComedy.Com, the Official Guide to Sacramento Comedy. This web site is dedicated to interviews, comedian bios, videos and consolidatiing all of the Sacramento comedy events calendar to a single site. You can send your questions directly to The Comedy Guy at Steven@SacramentoComedy.Com

Will Sim: The Man Who Defies the Adjective

2010-02-06T01:36:28Z

“Are you going to take my picture?” Will’s voice on the other end of the phone sounds hurried yet genuinely concerned. I tell him that I’m just going to be interviewing him today. “Alright, then I won’t wax my mustache. I’ll be there soon.”

I can only chuckle. Will Sim, a 21-year-old student at Sacramento City College, is the type of guy that cannot be defined. The word “eccentric” falls to its knees when used to illustrate his personality, and those who know him are left at a loss for words when asked to compare him to anyone or anything.

This is, after all, the man who once drunk-dialed my parents. But that’s another story.

“I don’t know. Whenever I try to describe Will – I just say ‘Will’,” Katie Kaffka, a 21-year-old student at UC Berkeley, who has known Will since 7th grade, once told me. And she’s right – I honestly have no idea how one could describe him in any other way.

Fifteen minutes after calling, he meets me at Sophia’s, a local, hip-yet-sophisticated bar that we frequent often in downtown Davis. We take a seat on the balcony outside and order two glasses of wine; He ordered the Argentinean malbec, which made my sauvignon blanc look amateurish. He begins our interview by asking something only Will would ask.

“Wait, before we start, I need to make absolutely clear that I’m not allowed to lie, right? Because I really like lying. But if you tell me not to lie, I probably won’t.”

I stare at him, wait for him to finish his long string of contradictions, and tell him that I’d definitely prefer it if he would not. He concedes and then continues with the truth.

“On the day I was born, there was a horrible storm. Fires broke out all over the place. Power was out in most of the town – winds were wreaking havoc –,” I think he senses my disbelief at this point, because he continues with, “And the best part is, I’m not making this up.”

That day was Mar 27, 1988, which, according to Will, was the most important day of his life, because in the literal sense of the word, his creation marks his greatest inspiration. However, though he acknowledges the cliché, he is driven by his desire to change the world.

“I’ve always felt that any sort of skills you have and knowledge you learn are sort of wasted unless you can apply them to help other people,” Will states confidently. “So, I think my sort of ridiculous goals of making the world nice and better are what fuel me.”

For him, the path to make the world a better place will start by transferring to Portland State – or Berkeley if he gets in – to get his degree in Middle-East Studies with a specialty in Lebanon and Lebanese-Israeli and Lebanese-Iranian interactions. He also plans on spending time studying abroad at the American University of Beirut.

“Ultimately I would like to put my learning to use in a way which will make an impact on the world – preferably a positive one,” he says as he sits up straight and eyes his pack of Nat Shermans. “I’d like to end up working for the government in foreign relations – possibly as a diplomat or in the Department of Defense.”

Will also romanticizes the thought of becoming a famous writer, and spends quite a bit of time writing short stories, plays, and music for his band, which is appropriately named Mustache. But in all truthfulness, if he could have his way, he wouldn’t be doing any of this at all.

“I’d rather be learning honest-to-god magic,” He explains, while using his glass of malbec more as a theatrical prop than anything else. “Not like Hogwarts, that’s too much boarding school for me, you know? I’d rather be having Merlin teach me how to kill dragons or something. Although he probably would stink. I mean I have a problem with B.O., that’s all I’m saying.”

He has a valid point there.

The question remains, though: Are there any people out there quite like Will Sim? And if so, would the earth implode if they found each other?

“If I met another Will Sim, I’d kiss him on the mouth. And give him a high five,” he tells me effortlessly, but then rethinks it. “Actually that might be a bit narcissistic, even for me.”

(Thanks to Andres Ruiz for the photo.)

New Helvetia Theatre's "Tick, Tick...BOOM" - Preview, interviews, and photos.

2009-10-20T05:35:31Z

Rehearsal photos by Paul Le and Tony Sheppard – taken at the Artisan, 1901 Del Paso Blvd.

“Tick, Tick…BOOM”
Book, Music, and Lyrics: Jonathan Larson
Script Consultant: David Auburn
Directed by Connor Mickiewicz and Erin island

New Helvetia Theatre officially opens its second full production on Saturday, with previews starting Wednesday, of “Tick, Tick…BOOM.” The show is by Jonathan Larson, who won three posthumous Tony awards and a Pulitzer for “RENT.” I had the opportunity to sit in on a recent rehearsal and it literally had me both laughing and crying uncontrollably (not at the same time).

The timing was also interesting after the recent movie release of Jane Campion’s beautiful “Bright Star,” a film account of the end of the life of the poet John Keats. “Tick, Tick…BOOM” chronicles a period in Larson’s life when he was struggling with little recognition, unsure of his future, just as Keats died prior to his work receiving the acclaim that was later associated with it. Ultimately, Larson died before the first full production of “RENT” and its success has rekindled interest in his other works.

“Tick, Tick…BOOM” stars Tristan Rumery, Nanci Zoppi, and New Helvetia’s Founder and Artistic Director Connor Mickiewicz, who also co-directed the show with Erin Island. Between numbers, I bounced a few questions off Connor, his deserves-to-be-proud mother Erin Mickiewicz, and Music Director and destined-to-be-legendary cabaret impresario Graham Sobelman.

Connor Mickiewicz:

SacPress: “RENT” has become well known through multiple productions from Broadway to High Schools, as well as a film adaptation, but “Tick, Tick…BOOM” is less familiar to most people. Can you explain a little about the show and where it fit in Jonathan Larson’s career?
Connor: He had started developing it before “RENT” and with the success of “RENT” and his subsequent passing – there’s this voyeuristic sentiment that drives through it. This musical could not exist without the success of “RENT” and I think if it had been the other way around and this musical had been produced before “RENT” it would have been a lovely, moving show but I think part of the reason that people are interested in seeing this show is knowing the story of Jonathan Larson and what happened with “RENT” – which is still playing in San Francisco and around the country.

SacPress: So what made “Tick, Tick…BOOM” a good choice for New Helvetia’s second full production?
Connor: One that it’s a three person rock musical – and a Sacramento premiere, which lives up to our mission. And it’s accessible for younger audiences as well as more mature audiences.

SacPress: And part of your mission is to produce shows that are less well known – and this would fit that bill.
Connor: This would fit that bill, definitely.

SacPress: You produced the extremely well reviewed “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” earlier this year, and you got to sit up in the booth and watch every performance, but you are producing, co-directing with Erin Island, and also acting in “Tick, Tick…BOOM” – how has the multitasking experience been different?
Connor: It’s completely different and I was so nervous going into it and just working on the show with Erin and Caitlin [Caitlin Sapunor-Davis], the stage manager, we knew from the beginning that the piece was going to have to be more collaborative because I was going to on stage. So it was almost more like a scene study and the actors, Nanci and Tristan, could suggest something – or if something was not right we would get together rather than them being on the outside. That has made…the show that I had in my mind three months ago is not the same show that we have today and we’re all the better for it. So it’s been stressful but also more rewarding.

SacPress: “Hedwig” may well have been the best reviewed show in town – I don’t think I saw anything that was less than the highest possible rating or commentary. Does that make coming out of the gate the second time easier or does that make it harder?
Connor: For a minute I thought that it was going to be harder – but in the end, the respect that the audience has now for the company from “Hedwig” and from “Celebration” [an earlier one-night, semi-staged production and fundraiser] - that’s what I’m interested in, watching the audience grow and develop. I stopped thinking what the critics are going to say about this production – I don’t know if they could have…or if they can top “Hedwig.” If they do, that’s amazing for us but I’m more interested from this point on in just growing the audience and growing the audience’s trust in the company, more than the critics at this point.

Erin Mickiewicz:

SacPress: What and when was Connor’s first foray into theater?
Erin: I love this story: He played competitive soccer for a number of years and when he was 12, he had to try out every year and he didn’t make and we got the news in the mail and he was devastated. So Kiera [Kiera O'Neil], his older sister, said I’m doing “Music Man” why don’t you do [that] – it’s a children’s theater company. So he did it and that was it, he just fell in love with it.

SacPress: This is a silly question that occurred to me – kids transition from being child actors with varying degree of success, or not. How is the transition for the stage mom – do stage moms ever “grow up” or is it much the same, albeit with less carpooling?
Erin: That’s such a good question [laughs]. Because I was involved before Connor was involved with Kiera mainly and then I was the Director of the Arts of St. Francis High School, so even when my kids weren’t involved I’ve stayed involved. So I have a passion for it myself. It’s a fine line though when to back off and with Connor going professional, with his own company, the whole family has been involved - but we still respect the fact that he has to make decisions that we need to stay out of.

SacPress: With Connor as a fifth generation Sacramentan, what does this mean to you and the family to see him doing this here?
Erin: In Sacramento? Oh, I just love it. Selfishly I love him being back from New York – I love that my other son’s here and he can be part of it – he’s a total jock but he really loves his brother. I think it’s fun for us because we didn’t get to see much of him in New York and I think this is really his calling. He’s always an actor first to me but I really do think he can pull this off.

Graham Sobelman:

SacPress: Your main project for most of the last year has been the cult hit midtown cabaret Graham-A-Rama. That’s on hiatus for a couple of weeks for “Tick, Tick…BOOM” so does this feel like a vacation or like work?
Graham: Work - but I love my job so…. [smiles].

SacPress: You work with a lot of the same people in multiple projects….
Graham: That’s why it doesn’t feel like…well, it’s a job but it’s also hanging out with my friends.

SacPress: How do you balance multiple projects in production and development?
Graham: A very detailed calendar and very little sleep!

The last few questions with Graham were squeezed into an extremely short break in the rehearsal, with about one minute to talk and we were walking back into the theater by the end of the third answer, but they still illustrate one of the secrets to the success of these productions: Not only is this a very talented group of individuals who have the skills and vision to pull these things off with great success, but they are doing what they love with people they love. Not all of us have the opportunity or benefit of a workplace environment like that, but at least we can witness it in action – and it certainly shows in their work.

“Tick, Tick…BOOM”
October 21- November 14
Performance Times:
Thursdays and Fridays at 8 pm, Saturdays at 2 pm and 8 pm
All performances at the Artisan, 1901 Del Paso Blvd., Sacramento, CA 95815
Gallery and café open 1 hour prior to show

Associated links for more information:
New Helvetia Theatre: www.newhelvetia.org
Paul Le’s photography and design: www.paperwhitedesigns.daportfolio.com
Graham-A-Rama cabaret: www.grahamarama.com

Interview: Trash Film Orgy's Co-Producer Christy Savage

2009-07-10T21:36:26Z

Trash Film Orgy
Saturdays, Midnight (doors open at 11:30pm), July 8th – August 15th
Crest Theatre

By Tony Sheppard
Capitol Weekly

As well known to the veteran loyal fans (many of whom routinely wear zombie makeup) as it is completely unknown to more formal film festival goers, the Trash Film Orgy (TFO) opens its 9th season this Saturday, at midnight at the Crest. Every week of the season, TFO showcases a cult or B-movie offering with audience participation, in the form of competitive loud witty banter during the movie, not just permitted but encouraged. I asked TFO Co-Producer Christy Savage a few questions about the concept and this season’s lineup:

Tony: Could you explain the basic concept behind TFO?
Christy: The Trash Film Orgy is really all about fun. We embrace the sensationalism of the old Grindhouse movie shows, the fun of the Drive-In experience and the no-holds barred attitude of the Midnight Movie. We strive to give our audiences a truly unique, enjoyable theatre experience, while presenting the best in 35mm cult and exploitation cinema.

Tony: You’ve clearly had a taste for Trash Films for a long time, how did that first translate to the TFO festival idea?
Christy: Back in the late 90’s, our buddy Keith Lowell Jensen was doing a movie show, the Thursday Night Grindhouse, at the Colonial Theatre, and we were doing a similar sort of thing on Cable Access TV: Deth’s Oogly Hed. When Keith lost his partners in the Grindhouse, he suggested we team up to do a show at the Crest and well...the rest is history.

Tony: The screenings are a little unique in their audience participation, are there any guidelines and rules for audience members?
Christy: Once again, the key word for TFO is FUN! We strongly encourage folks to play along and have fun at our shows, but of course we do expect our audience to also be respectful of others and show normal common decency. For instance, we’re fine with heckling, but please don’t just yell non-stop obscenities...that’s not fun for anyone, just annoying. Practicing common sense wherever you are can really go a long way...after all, we’re all adults here.

Tony: For non-TFO regulars, could you describe a few of the other things someone might expect to find at TFO?
Christy: You would be wise to expect the unexpected! You never know what you might find at TFO - that’s part of the fun! But some ‘normal’ TFO things would include: Lots of folks in costumes; lots of zombies; lots of beautiful, scantily clad ladies; ridiculously silly stage shows; interactive games and contests; original and vintage shorts; and the finest in late-night cinema fun!

Tony: What are some of this year’s highlights?
Christy: Besides an awesome sampling of the best in cult cinema, we will also be welcoming back our original host-Francois Fly! We will be transforming the Crest Lobby into the seedy spectacle that is Trashville - an interactive shanty town full of fun and surprises. We will also be welcoming legendary director Jim Wynorski when we screen “Chopping Mall” on July 25th and hosting a Vampire Prom when we show “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” on August 1st. And so much, much more.... [Note: These two screenings coincide with the Sacramento Film & Music Festival, July 24th - August 2nd at the Crest Theatre, and Festival Passes are also honored at TFO]

Tony: Not satisfied with just screening Trash, you’re now making Trash - what’s next for TFO Productions?
Christy: Our last film “Monster from Bikini Beach” managed to gain us quite a bit of attention and excellent reviews, so our big focus now has indeed become making our own feature films. This year, we are making a brand new and exciting film: “Planet of the Vampire Women.” It’s an action-packed sci-fi adventure of the galaxy’s sexiest space pirates who pull off the ultimate heist only to crash into an unknown world. Finding themselves trapped on a storm-shrouded planet overrun with monsters, the intergalactic outlaws unknowingly awaken an unspeakable horror that causes the dead to walk...with an insatiable lust for blood!

TFO schedules and archives are available online at www.trashfilmorgy.com

March 19, 2009 Interviewing Techniques handout

2009-04-19T03:56:22Z

The Art (and Science) of Interviewing

Martin Kuz, Senior Editor for Sactown magazine, March 19, 2009

Pre-Interview

Deciding what your story is about will help you determine what questions to ask. What are the primary points or themes you want to touch on in your story?
Who is your audience? Understanding who reads the publication you’re writing for – and what writing style that publication prefers — will also help you craft your questions.
Research your subject. Read what’s been written about the person. Depending on the story’s complexity, talk to other sources before you interview the main subject.
Prepare a list of questions and bring it to the interview. Ideally, you’ll have your questions memorized so that you can stay in the flow of the conversation, but the list can help if you forget a question or get sidetracked.
Practical matters: Pick a place that isn’t especially noisy (for taperecording purposes). Find out beforehand how much time the person has for the interview – you don’t want the interview to end with your most important questions left unasked. And always, always, always plan to take notes so that you have backup if your recorder malfunctions.

The Interview

Keep an open mind. Don’t assume you know how a subject will answer a question – you want to try to understand how he or she sees the world. But an open mind isn’t an uncritical one – don’t necessarily take everything a person says at face value.
Establish rapport. Some people are more comfortable than others giving an interview. But either way, you want to make the person feel less like they’re doing an interview and more like they’re having a conversation with you. Start with easy, open-ended questions that can’t be answered with “Yes” or “No” so you can draw out your subject.
Ask your questions and then listen. (In other words, don’t pull a Charlie Rose.) Remember: It’s the other person who’s supposed to be doing the majority of the talking.
Be patient – but not overly so. Always give your subject ample opportunity to answer a question because you never know what may
be revealed. At the same time, remember that this is your interview – if the person is ranging far afield on a tangent, don’t be afraid to (politely) interrupt and steer the conversation back to where you want it to go.
Save the toughest questions for last. If you plan to ask questions that might compel your subject to end the interview, wait until you’ve asked everything else first.
Don’t forget to ask for the person’s e-mail address and cell phone number if you don’t already have them so that you’ll have a way to follow-up if necessary.

Post-Interview

Don’t wait to transcribe your tape or go over your notes. It’s best to have the interview fresh in your mind when you review the tape or
notes for several reasons, including a) It will help you to more clearly see what were the most interesting responses, which in the normal flow of conversation can sometimes be missed; and b) You’ll have a better sense of what follow-up questions you may want to ask.
Organize your transcripts/notes into an outline so that you can see what topics and themes are most relevant and engaging.
If necessary, arrange a follow-up interview, making clear to the subject what points you want to delve into more deeply