Two Shows tonight at Lafflines

Doing Two shows at Lafflines Tonight. Hosted By Duncan Minett, and Danny Quinn in the middle - it's a good one. Second show is almost sold out, a rarity at Lafflines.
Come on down 604-525-2262.

The night I almost got in a fight with Chad Krueger

Krueger was hangin out with Kid Rock and Pamala Anderson at the Courtnal brothers fundraiser for a mental health centre, (ironic in itself)in Victoria. I had opened the night before for Michael Buble' at the MacPhearson, and Michael was closing the show at the Empress.Although I wasn't on the show, I was hangin out with Michael and the band. Krueger came backstage and muscled his way onto the show, saying a friend had promised to donate 5000 to the cause if he sang. He started demanding a guitar, and a guitar pick. He was being really obnoxious backstage, mocking the band and their music, saying "I'll show you how to write songs!" The band were all high end players from LA and the guitar, in particular, was a little guy. Any way Chad stole his guitar pick. (Apparently guitar players are very particular about guitar picks. Anyway, I felt for the guy. So after the show, i went up to Chad, whose not a very big guy, (compared to me anyway)and looked down into his little rat eyes and said "Any chance I can get that guitar pick back?" He was surrounded by autograph seekers at this point. He said "You mean the one I had so mouch trouble getting backstage?" I said "Yeah, that'd be the one." He dug into his pocket, pulled out the pick and handed it to me. I said "Thanks asshole." The autograph seekers looked stunned. He had no idea who I was. (I had the appearnace of a scurity type that night). He probably would've behaved different if he knew I was a comedian. Anyway, Buble's guitar player got his pick back, and my drinks we covered for the rest of the night.

How I met Shaquille O'Neal

It was still the days when Vancouver had a NBA team (1999). I was working with a couple of guys on a show called "The Living Room" at the Millenium Room, which was a club on the fifth floor of downtown building. It's a strip club now, but at the time it was a really cool venue for music and comedy.

Anyway, ShaQ owned a house in Vancouver at the time, and was hanging out with some escort from the parlour in the same building. He was hanging out in the Club after the show. (he wasn't there when the show was on, and we (some comedians) were having a few apres show drinks.

I was feeling pretty good, dancing up a storm, when Shaq came in. He was pretty easy to spot, all 7 feet, 300 pounds of him. The two girls with him seemed more like protection than for pleasure. Vancouver had been notorious for scandel with celebrities - David Dukovny, Ben Affleck - so it seemed to me these girls were there to keep gold diggers away. Anyway, i walked up to him and at 6'1", I'm not used to looking way up to talk to someone. He was happy to chat, found out I was a comedian and really liked that. I swear when I shook his hand that it covered my forearm. He was dancing with his two girls, and being that i had been talking to Shaquille O'Neal, I had THREE girls dancing with me. Shaq laughed pretty hard when he saw that. Ever since then, when I see him interviewed, he's very calm and cool, and after standing beside him, I understand why.

being a lexicon, quitting smoking and men's issues

Ran into several people down at the Starbucks on Cornwall and Yew - "my office as some call it. Ran into Dan Quinn, whose doing the show at Lafflines with me this weekend. He told me someone out there in blog land has referred to someone as a "Richard Lett" type. Not sure what that means, but its interesting to be seen as a "type".

Then I chatted with Kim Seary, an actress I've known for years. We talked about her attempts to quit smoking, and how that can make you crazy. I had a friend who quit smoking, then her health went haywire. She developed a sensitivity to light, and dairy and wheat foods and she was generally a mess after that. Kim found herself having a lot of emotions coming up without the pacifier that smoking can be. It is also a social addiction, and as a writer, it is difficult to write without smokes. (I'm smoking right now).
We talked about The Men's fest - a theatre festival I started (93-96)- and the politics I was involved with then. A lot of them ,as it turned out, were my own issues, and once I figured that out, as well as me being cast in "The men's show" (giving me an outlet for the ideas) then need for the Men's fest stopped. It also became clear that funding agencies would not fund this event, even though the regularly supported women-only events. I believe my issues with women have be resolved, but last night, at a poetry reading, there was a publisher of a anthology called "A Room of One's Own" which was exclusively women. When I asked if they would accept transgendered writers things got tense. Another guy suggested that women are well represented in the world of poetry, but the snobbish reply from these publishers was they would never change that policy. Of course, the publication was well-funded by Canada Council and other funding agencies. Some things never change.

Another one bites the dust

Just got an email from Lauren Hammersley that the open mic at Toby's is done. They come and they go. It's surprizing which ones stay and which ones go. Sort of... usually it's the ones with the budgets that go. Owners will let you play there room for free for as long as you want. Thats why El Cocal and the Well keep going. I'm headlining Lafflines this weekend. Lafflines is a great club, it's just that it's in a shitty neighbourhood. But I've always had fun out there.

The rain is still coming down, and I've got some stuff to do that will make me go out there. It is true that people are down right now. Activity is the key. I am trying to find a writing partner for comedy. Need to get some projects going. We'll be re-doing "The Happy Prince" in April - and I was talking with my old bankrobber buddy Stephen Reid. Peter Anthony and I having writing a screenplay based on Stephen's novel "Jack Rabbit Parole".

Two of my other film guys, Ric Bearisto and Mark Tuit, have put me off till end of February, so there's not much to do about that - except write stuff. It always begins with me writing...

I've taken to slagging Canadian TV
This Hour has 22 Viewers
Degrassi - the LAST Generation
The Royal Canadian Old Farts

And of course in Vancouver there's "DaVinci's Inquest/City Hall/Senate Appointment/Death" featuring some of Vancouver's coolest, toughest midgets in the business.(it's true that Nicholas Campbell and Ian Tracey are maybe 5'5", and anyone my size present a problem, so they just don't cast us.)

record broken

If I'm not mistaken, the rain days in a row record has been broken. it certainly is raining this morning. I'm a little drowsy, was out at Toby's last night. (not Hargreaves - the comedian - the pub where they have a Sunday night open mic. I ran into my ole pal Gates, who bought me a few Jack n Cokes. It was fun, but it had been a couple of weeks since I'd drank so, I'm feeling it this morning. A guy at the show said her heard my "Gay Marriage" routine on sattelite radio. Thats the second person to tell me that, so its definately getting out there.

Speaking of Toby, he did a great set last night, and is one of the finalists for the Corner Gas promotion, could win 10 K and get a spot on the TV show. (The money should cover the dmage that appearance will cause. Sorry - love to take my shots at Corner Gas. My friend Gabbie Miller is on it, so for those that think my slagging the show is personal, its not the case. It's just not my style of comedy, and I assume the people that get into me, are not likely to dig the safe cartoon that that series is... Anyway, go to the website for Corner Gas, and vote for Toby.