T.V. Party

T. V. Party                                            4167  (127)

Saturday, April 8, 2006-2:25 A.M.

I've been bitching to my wife for the last six months that I need a T.V. credit to beef up my resume.  I guess the moral to today's story is "Watch out what you wish for, you just might get it."

I'm playing Fat Katz Comedy Club in Utica, NY, exit 31 off the New York State Thruway if you're counting, working with Mike Dambra, one of my best friends in the business and a damn funny headliner.  I'd played Fat Katz a couple of times before, but hadn't been here since the club changed hands.  It is now being handled by Jonathan Dean Belt, a comic from Syracuse, NY, that I worked with about 15 years ago.

This week, the plan was to tape our 8:00 P.M. show for broadcast on a FOX affiliate station here in Utica, to bump up club attendance.  They figured that Mike was a damn funny comic, and hence, his act would draw the masses back to the club (open as it is under the new management).

We were greeted by Jonathan with hugs all around, and then it was down to business.  He wanted me to perform an 8-9 minute set, take a break, and then Mike would do a 10-12 minute set for the audience in attendance.  Then there would be an intermission, the cameras would be turned off, and we would go back up and finish our feature and headliner times, respectively.  We both bristled, not wanting to burn our funniest material up front, and then have to go back up to a crowd who had basically just seen us.  The other problem, for me, was that I would basically have to follow Mike's funniest material.  I wasn't looking forward to that.  After a few discussions with Jonathan and Jason, the video production guy, we talked them into just letting us do our full sets, and then edit for the show from that footage.  It made more sense, really, and would have been way more comfortable for both of us.

The show didn't get started until 8:30, and I didn't find my way onstage until about 9:10.  Most of the crowd (about 50 in all) had been there since 7:30, so they were antsy, to say the least.  I rattled off a 22-minute set (which is what you get out of me when you ask for 20 minutes), and headed next door to the pizza place to get a submarine sandwich.  The guys who own the sub shop used to own the comedy club, and they would feed the comics.  I didn't get a free ride on the sub, but the kid behind the counter remembered me and I got a 25% discount, which isn't shabby and was much appreciated.

I walked back across the parking lot and back into the club's front bar, where I enjoyed my sandwich and listened to Mike's act.  He was doing well, but not really holding back on language for the T.V. taping...I definitely tried to sanitize my set, wanting to give them the most usefull footage as possible.  I also wrangled a deal guaranteeing a DVD copy of the show while signing the waiver, and got Mike the same deal as well.  After the show, the video team told me that they thought most of my act would make it into the final cut of the T.V. show because it was more "family friendly" than Mike's material, and while I don't revel in that at Mike's expense, I'm looking forward to seeing the material edited into a three-camera shot.  It might make for a nice new demo tape that I could send around to club bookers, and that's always a good thing to have.

Tonight, things go back to normal, and we get to just do our shows as we want, and the crowd should be bigger as well.  It's a nice club, and they're still doing some work on it, but they've improved it quite a bit.  One thing they still need to do is get some doors for the toilet stalls in the men's rooms....curtains just don't cut it when you're pinching a loaf in a public place.  C'mon, Breeze!  Plywood is cheap over at Home Depot....all you need is some hinges and a barrel latch.  I'll come over early and do the work!

'Course, then I'll have to stink up your men's room...you know, just to make sure the doors are steady and secure during use.

Have a good weekend!

Ralph Tetta

Rochester, NY