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Monday Morning Quaterback....

I hope that everyone had an enjoyable Memorial Day Weekend. It was a bit lousy on the weather front for most of Sunday and Monday, and while such weather is usually good for comedy clubs, and it was good for us, it still would have been nice to be outside cooking out.

Drew Hastings did a really nice job. He is truly a professional and it is always interesting to speak with someone with Drew's experience talk about the changes which are taking place in the comedy business.

Drew did have a bit of a rough go of it when he did radio on Friday morning, and I only mention that because our friends over at Mayhem in the AM on 790TheZone just hammer us this morning. I think the whole train got off the tracks because of the crane guy. Nevertheless Drew felt terrible about it, not the crane guy but the relative lack of nonflow in the interview.

The surprise of the weekend perhaps was Scotty K. It has been quite some time since he performed and the audience really embraced him. We'll probably take a look at bringing him over from Birmingham more often when his schedule permits.

The Legal Edge Returns....

Noah and I will be hosting a holiday edition of "The Legal Edge" this Saturday night on 640GST, the new home of Braves Radio.

We will likely be discussing the crane man, the runaway bride, the Michael Jackson trial, and maybe the filibuster.

We will also be taking the calls of our listeners on those and any other legal topic.

Consider calling the show at (404) 367-9478.

Check out the links we like....

I've tried to put some interesting comedy related links along the side here.

When you have a spare moment or two, consider poking around a bit and you might find something that is interesting to you.

Memorial Day Weekend.....

There is a lot of consideration that is a part of making a booking for Memorial Day weekend, all holiday weekends really.

Last year we had Pablo Francisco, and I think that is an example of a booking decision to have a slam dunk draw.

This year we looked at some other choices, including some of our friends like Earthquake, and Don Curry, but found that there were some other events going on in Atlanta that would be in competition with those acts.

As we considered all of our choices, we decided that we would bring back a comedian who is seeing a significant increase in his national popularity, but who also had not been in our market in quite a while. We have been looking for an opportunity to bring Drew Hastings back to Atlanta - in fact, our club is the place were Drew was first paid as a professional comedian - and Memorial Day weekend seemed like a great time to do just that.

I think that we made the right choice and I hope that our customers will take the time to take a break from cooking out to come to see Drew's show. It is well worth the trip.

What's All The RUCkus About?

We tried a little something different tonight, namely a show called RUCkus - or Real Urban Comedy. It was organized and hosted by Griff from Hot 107.5.

On the whole it was a good show. I had the opportunity to speak with a number of people on their way out of the club who expressed what a good time they had.

Scotty K in particular got a ton of compliments, so I hope that more people will come out to see him this weekend with Drew Hastings.

We're going to meet with Griff next week to discuss what tweaks we might make to the concept before going forward again. It will be an interesting discussion for sure. One thing I would think we'll cover is the difference between a comedian doing the time they are supposed to do and the time they actually do, as tonight's show clocked in a just under three hours.

Thankfully tonight's performers were all funny, so the extra time that was performed was for the most part entertaining.

The 3 day walk...

We hosted a fundraising event last night for one of the teams participating in the three day walk for breast cancer.

It was a particularly poignant night because early that day Jerry Farber lost one of his closest friends to breast cancer. Jerry, Special K, and I were the scheduled performers and it seemed as though everyone had fun.

I am glad that we got these women closer to their fundraising goals and maybe, just maybe, you'll see them walking this fall in Punchline T-shirts.

Mid-Week Update...

On some days you just look up and another week has passed.

This past week was a good one for us here at the club. Billy Gardell was our headliner and it is always good to see him. At one time we both shared a manager/mentor, my current partner in the club, Chris DiPetta. As a result we have a little bit of a running good son/bad son thing going - I'll let you figure out who is who.

Yesterday Billy had a pitch meeting with the people from Turner Entertainment, and it went pretty well I think from what I could tell. Turner is expanding their offerings here in Atlanta and some of their people came out to see Billy last week at the club.

I hope he gets a nice long look from them and maybe then someday we'll see his "Everybody loves Raymond" going off the air after a multi-year run.

Monday Morning Quaterback...

I hope that you took the advantage to go see Ken Rogerson this past weekend.

Things were a bit hectic today as we were making some marketing decision about what the next several months will look like. I think it is important to be diligent about assessing where you are and where you want to be going.

We also opted to get rid of the air purifiers that we have had on demo for the last three weeks. None of us, nor any of our customers it seems could tell the difference. Maybe with the machines gone we will find that in fact, there was a difference.

We are hosting the Atlanta Bar Association this evening for a screening of last year's "Bard Show" which is a show written and performed completely by lawyers.

While it might seem that there is nothing about the legal profession, this is actually a very well put together show that raises money for a good cause.

On The New Smoking Laws...

I suppose that by now, most of you are aware that the Governor signed the new smoking laws.

How this will impact on businesses in Georgia will play out over the next several months, as the law doesn't become effective until July, 1.

It doesn't appear to apply to us, but I do wonder if it have a de facto application if the public begins to demand compliance from businesses that aren't required to comply.

The Legal Edge Appears Briefly....

I am very happy that the Atlanta Braves are now carried on the same station as my radio show, "The Legal Edge".

It has however resulted in our frequent preemption.

This weekend there is a late game on the west coast, so George and I will be back at it. Well, George will anyway. I will be participating by telephone for the first hour or so from another event.

I think that we will be talking about the looming filibuster confrontation looming in the Senate.

Ron White At The Ugly Mug...

I would be remiss if I didn't say thank you to our friends at Ugly Mug Pub for being able to host Ron White Thursday night on such notice.

Based on what we have seen and heard, Ron's new material is going to be every bit a part of our common lexicon as his current material.

Check out their show this weekend if you get the chance.

Rogerson...

So here it is, Friday the 13th and we are supposed to be wrapping up the second night of a crazy sold out Mitch Hedberg weekend.

Once Mitch passed we, like every club who was holding a Mitch date, needed to replace him - which as you know is impossible to do.

We opted to go with Arnez J., who is an extremely popular act.

It turns out that Arnez was also committed to a date later this month at Chastain. The promoter of that show felt it was in the best interest of that date to not have Arnez play our club. Reasonable minds could disagree about that, but nevertheless we went back to the drawing board.

Thankfully, Kenny was available, and it is my personal opinion that he is our own Julio Franco. Solid, dependable, and gets the job done just how it needs to be.

It will remain a mystery why Kenny is not more of a household name.

Our crowds love him.

I thought you might like to wonder what happens at a club once names get moving around. Maybe not.

Back In Action....

The final night of the Carnival Comedy Challenge was pretty fun.

I got to play at times Paula Abdul and at times Simon.

There will be a few of the contestants who you will see on stage at the Punchline in the future.

My thanks to the whole gang who welcomed me in when they could have hazed me far worse.

Chappelle...

It turns out that the suspension of production of Chappelle's Show may have greater implications that originally thought.

He has checked in to a mental health facility in South Africa.

We wish him the best of luck with whatever circumstances brought him to seek this type of help. We hope for a speedy recovery or an ability to manage his condition.

Bloggered in Pittsburgh...

Blogger has eaten some posts here this evening.

I am in Pittsburgh as one of the judges for the Carnival Cruiselines Comedy Contest.

It is really a great event and a lot of fun for the participating comedians. Obviously a little more fun if you are winning, or at least advancing to the finals tomorrow night.

The panel discussion at the end was my favorite part of the night.

Some pretty talented people showed up today.

Reep-a-ritas....

Jon Reep is a star in the making.

You can see it in the energy he puts forth on stage, and in the way in which the audience responds to him.

What's Going On With Chappelle's Show?

Any time you see an article like this you've got to wonder what is going on.

Hopefully it is nothing ominous.

We were negotiating to host a DVD release event to match the launch of the new season. So much for that for now I suppose.

For the record, we get tons of requests to bring Chappelle to the club, and based on what he is looking for to come - it isn't happening any time soon.

The First Lady As "Last Comic Standing?"

Some time ago I posted a bit about the President and some of the jokes that he told a various campaign stops.

Every year there is an event called the White House Correspondents' Dinner which is an opportunity to have some fun after a year presumably filled with things which are not fun.

This year, the First Lady made some remarks and I think maybe she might have better chops than her husband:

"I am married to the President of the United States and here is our typical evening. Nine o'clock, Mr. Excitement here is sound asleep, and I am watching Desperate Housewives. With Lynne Cheney. Ladies and gentleman, I am a desperate housewife. I mean if those women on that show think they're desperate, they ought to be with George. One night after George went to bed, Lynne Cheney, Condi Rice, Karen Hughes and I went to Chippendales....I won't tell you what happened, but Lynne's Secret Service code name is now Dollar Bill."

"George always says that he's delighted to come to these press dinners. Baloney. He's usually in bed by now. I'm not kidding. I said to him the other day, George, if you really want to end tyranny in the world, you're going to have to stay up later."

"The amazing thing is that George and I were just meant to be. I was a librarian who spent 12 hours a day in the library, yet somehow I met George."

"I'm proud of George. He's learned a lot about ranching since that first year when he tried to milk the horse. What's worse, it was a male horse."

Maybe we should find out what her avails are......

Frank Caliendo....

Frank is town tonight and Tuesday. Not only is he a very popular comedian as a result of the way in which he intertwines a variety of impression, he is also a very astute business person.

If you've never seen Frank live, really consider coming out tomorrow night to check out the show.

Lisa Ann Walter.....

It was interesting this weekend to see Lisa Ann Walter work. Every comic probably develops a core constituency over time. Lisa was really strong this weekend with women out to whoop it up.

I expect that she will get stronger and stronger as time goes by.

About The "Runaway Bride"....

I think it is a typical boy meets girl, girl loves boy, boy asks girl to marry him, girl says yes, girl eventually disappears resulting in three day wall to wall news coverage, girl turns up in New Mexico, boy says he'll still marry girl kind of story. I don't understand what all the hullabaloo is about.

It's a bit hard to believe that this woman could actually profit from this escapade with a book or a movie deal. Should she have to reimburse the county? If we are going to feel comfortable holding schoolchildren accountable under zero tolerance policies, and we are going to push personal responsibility, and we going to bill people for the damaged street signs when they hit them with their cars, then perhaps the county's taxpayers shouldn't be footing this bill - which is really going to play havoc with the wedding budget.

Don't you just get the sense that this will cause a boomlet in wedding planning packages that include a "cold feet" package?

If this past weekend is any indication, people are over this story because they are really laughing at the jokes told at this couple's expense.