I spent all of today driving. And I like driving. Especially through northernmost California and up the Oregon coast like today. And the shows tonight and the rest of this week will be fantastic. The problem is I can’t accomplish much else while I’m driving. I can at least keep my brain engaged with podcasts…
Seth Godin wrote a blog recently about the game-theory of discovery and the free-gap. It’s an interesting thought from the man who coined the term “idea virus”. Like he says, “free” isn’t new and isn’t going away. But the distance between those who get things for free and those that pay for them is getting…
Dave Hooper over at MusicMarketing.com posted today about the Canadian band Living With Lion’s recent go around with the the Canadian government run FACTOR organization that fund and supports Canada’s music artists. A fantastic thing unto itself. Sort of like our NEA, but without the snob appeal. Anyway, LWL’s new album is called “Holy Shit”…
Now that my latest DVD has been released, I need to write a new show. And, as usual, I have no idea what the themes will be or what it will consist of. It’s the proverbial blank page that now expects me to drop some important thoughts on it. And I’ve been working on a…
I’m not a member of NARAS. Over the years, I’ve repeatedly thought about joining and always decided it wasn’t worth the money. And there’s plenty for people both inside and outside the music industry to dislike about NARAS. But in light of last night’s Grammys and the collective response of “Who?” to some of the…
I’m very excited because you’re sharing in two “firsts” with me today. This is my first music video! All my other videos have been live performance things, but this one has a storyline and everything. 🙂 Second, this is the first time I’ve ever written a song, hoping people will hate it… You know those…
Just saw this post on Mashable about the top 10 most watched web series. Nearly all of them are comedy. First that makes me happy, because the world needs to laugh as much as possible. But that leads me to the question of why there isn’t more successful comedy on TV. The top 10 there…
Be Yourself… Unless You’re An Idiot My new standup comedy and music DVD! Well, it took me the whole darn summer to accomplish this project, but it’s finally done! 45 minutes of new comedy and music that took me two years to write and refine. Plus it includes extra bonus comedy and music clips, a…
In my last post I was talking about the decreasing numbers of paid downloads that the industry is worrying about. And lately the reports of decreasing ticket sales and canceled tours hasn’t helped any. But as I also mentioned, entertainment is a lagging indicator of the economy. And, of course, the exorbitant ticket prices don’t…
Prince, The Purple One himself, seems to have a band case of Notlisteningtohisfansitis. And as a huge Prince fan myself, it’s very frustrating. In case you haven’t heard yet, Prince is taking even more steps than usual to keep his music off the internet. Here’s the short version: http://www.contactmusic.com/news.nsf/story/prince-the-internet-is-over_1151352 And the original interview: http://www.mirror.co.uk/celebs/news/2010/07/05/prince-world-exclusive-interview-peter-willis-goes-inside-the-star-s-secret-world-115875-22382552/ Prince…
Becky Donohue of Coffee and Showbiz put up a great blog post about places you should NOT do comedy. Some of those include: strip clubs, anywhere there are TVs playing sports behind your head, children’s birthday parties, church events, and America’s Got Talent. Comics are known for taking stage time anywhere and everywhere. An audience…
I’m shooting my new standup comedy DVD this coming Saturday for a late July release. I’d like to put some cool extras on there and I thought it would be fun to have a Q&A type thing. So, add a comment below with your question and I’ll answer it (and credit you) on the DVD. …
Since some idiots have once again decided to hack my main site, I wanted to put the link to buy tickets for my June 12th comedy DVD filming here. I’ll be filming 45 minutes of new material for release later in the summer. And this is a great chance to say “Dude, I was totally…
The Insane Clown Posse have popped up on my radar recently. A couple months ago I was in San Francisco and I saw all these guys headed for the Warfield Theater in clown makeup. I didn’t even realize ICP was still active, let alone playing a 2200 seat theater. Next I was grabbing some CDs…
How much does entertainment cost? Most of us like to be entertained in some way every day. And the flux in attendance at shows over the past few years scares venue owners for sure. Some nights are amazing. Some nights are DOA. It’s tough to get people off the couch and out of the house…
The nature of entertainment, the way it’s presented, and how people experience it is changing. With so many different options it’s become harder to get people off their couch and out to see live entertainment. My girlfriend sent me a video this morning that I thought was great. It’s a flash mob type thing with…
I just saw this great article on WSJ about Joe Wong and his difficulty carrying his American-style, though Chinese inflected comedy over to China. First off, I’ll say that I’ve never heard of Joe Wong before and I wasn’t exactly blown away by the clips I saw of him. Apparently he got an appearance on…
Erykah Badu’s new video for Window Seat is all about individuality and how it’s suppressed by the world around us. The video itself has been taken off YouTube, but you can see it on Erykah’s official site. All her naughty bits are blurred out so it shan’t offend your sensibilities. She did the video in…
Ooh, it’s been a long day. I’ve spent 19 hours driving over the past two days and I’m getting ready to hit the stage here in Montana in just a couple hours to start a two week tour. I’ve played this room twice before, and the question always is “What will I do different this…
I just finished reading a really interesting post at Music Think Tank entitled “Farewell to the Casual Music Fan” . I always like to dig into contrarian thinking and this certainly goes against the grain of current music industry thought. In short, many people have floated the idea that a music artist can make a…
I was just reading this article in the St Cloud Times about the constant battle between small music venues and performance rights societies. http://www.sctimes.com/article/20091117/NEWS01/111170004/1009/Sounds-of-silence?-Fees-spur-venues-to-scrap-live-music- Here’s the basic idea. When a business uses music in their establishment, it’s supposed to pay a licensing fee. If they’ve got a jukebox or karaoke, they pay mechanical fees. If…
I’m sitting here on the east coast getting ready for the first show of this week’s tour. But it’s blog day and I’m having a terrible time coming up with something to write about. Here’s the thing… I like performing and I like expressing myself. But putting those expressions into the form of a song/joke/script/video…
There’s a disturbing trend that I’ve seen in comedy over the last few years. Pop culture references have always been part of the game, but in the past it’s usually with some twist or original thought or punchline. But lately I’ve seen things that people seem to think are funny simply because they make a…
I’m reading a great book on Brazilian music styles called The Brazilian Sound. Yep, you’ll be hearing some of those sounds from me in some new songs. 🙂 There’s an interesting comment about the way some indie bands are handling their music there. In the world of Technobrega music, the composers freely allow DJs and…
