By: Michael Gilhooley
I sat down with long time comedian and America’s Got Talent’s finalist Tom Cotter at The Stress Factory in New Brunswick, New Jersey. The audience was not only graced by the comedy styles of Tom Cotter, but by Tom’s hysterical wife and comedian Kerri Louise as well. After a terrific show, meeting his fans, and signing autographs, Tom and I went to the green room, which was painted blue, for an interview.
BCT: How do you think your set went tonight at the Stress Factory?
by Hannah Chusid
BCT: So how are you doing?
RC: I’m doing well.
BCT: Fantastic, so you were on Last Comic Standing, right?
RC: Correct.
BCT: Could you tell us about your experience with that?
RC: I was on the very first one, so it was kind of bizarre, nobody knew what it was, it kind of came out of nowhere. I’d been doing comedy in San Fransisco for about three years and it was my first real break. The audition was weird, we’d been told a little bit about it, didn’t really know much. I walked in and I got past the first round in San Fransisco and they invited me to LA and I got picked out of that, and there were a lot more comics, then I went to Las Vegas. That was the year they had us all living together in a mansion in Beverly Hills. I’d just finished opening for Todd Barry at the Sacramento Punchline, I remember, and then all of a sudden a couple weeks later I’m on national television. So I went from zero to 2000 really fast.
By Leo Goodman
BCT: I know that when you started doing comedy you were a teacher during the day, teaching music.
TA: Yeah.
BCT: Were you a teacher first, and then after too many days of wanting to say bad things to the kids you decided to try stand-up, or was stand-up the thing and teaching was just a means to an end?
TA: I was always performing. Through high school I was doing the plays, in college I was in plays, and I was a music major originally; jazz piano major. Then I switched to elementary education cause I was kind of in over my head with the jazz program. But I was still doing theatre the whole time, and then I got into sketch comedy with this guy, Hollis James, who turned out to be my best friend in college, and we started doing a two-man stand-up act. Right when we got out of college. My very first teaching job was as a gym teacher, when I was still in college. I took a semester off to study jazz piano with this teacher, and a friend of mine who was working at a school said “my school needs a gym teacher, do you want to do it?” And I was 20 years old, I didn’t have a degree, I wasn’t an education major at this point, but they just said “can you blow a whistle?”
by Hannah Chusid
I’m sitting at my desk at around noon on a Friday morning, Skyping with comedian Christian Finnegan. He has been featured on Comedy Central and on the show Are We There Yet?.
Hannah Chusid: Here I am sitting with Christian Finnegan on Skype. How are you?
Christian Finnegan: Just swell, thanks…just smashing. Just one moment of bliss after another.
HC: It’s great because we actually do have a mutual friend [my college professor], Stephen Gardner.
CF: Oh yeah, that’s right. I know him as “Cheeky” of course. He’s sort of like Dudley Moore and Arthur—only more drunk. That’s not true—he’s your teacher. He’s a very upstanding, very professional, educator of the young minds.
By Hannah Chusid
I then went over to stop Judah Friedlander, featured on 30 Rock and other various movies. We sat down after he finished his set and after taking pictures with his fans.
Hannah Chusid: I’m here with the #1 World Champion, Judah Friedlander. How are you doing?
Judah Friedlander: Unbelievable.
HC: So, how did your set go tonight at The Stand?
JF: Four standing ovations at The Stand.
HC: Four standing ovations! This is a brand new comedy club, what do you think of it?
By Leo Goodman
If you’ve made yourself a regular at any number of clubs in New York, odds are you’ve seen Bob Dibuono a few times. With a talent for voices and impersonations that has also earned him regular airtime on a number of radio and tv shows, this hard-working comic has been in a fixture in the New York circuit. On a stoop half a block from Stand-up New York, where Bob regularly produces shows, the hard-working comic sat down to talk about producing show, creating impressions, and what not to do when peeing before a big gig.
Written by: Joseph Santiago
chatting with her as she’s sipping her glass of red wine.
Hannah Chusid: Marina Franklin, your set was great. I was able to peak in.
Marina Franklin: It was very laid back tonight.
HC: Laid back? It’s a brand new club that just opened 2 nights ago.
MF: Yeah, it’s great.
HC: It’s great. It has a really great atmosphere in here. It looks like a really fancy, high-end comedy club.
By Leo Goodman
Not everybody in New York City can rock a cowboy hat but those who do rock it hard. If you’ve seen one in a comedy club, chances are you were looking at Dustin Chafin. The Texan-turned-New Yorker has been making his presence felt at clubs throughout the city and throughout the world for years. He appeared in Showtime’s White Boys in the Hood, won “Best of Fest,” in the Chicago and Las Vegas Comedy Festivals, traveled with USO tours, been a contributing writer to Chappele’s Show and the Chris Rock Show, to name a couple, and produces the Stand-up 360 Festival here in New York (which starts this week, by the way, go check out http://www.standup360comedyfestival.com/). He’s also taken on a mentoring role to a number of young comics, having a great talent in helping others find their own personal funny.
By Leo Goodman
Most people think the only way to be a success as a comic is to be a household name. Comics know the truth, which is that if you can support yourself doing what you love, without needing a day job, you’ve pretty much made it and anything after that is icing on the cake. Towards that end, Jeff Lawrence has carved himself a place in the New York comedy scene . Along with performing regularly at clubs throughout the city and beyond, he also is the owner and the Director of Laughing Buddha Comedy, which encompasses the productions as well as the school giving many rising comics a chance to be seen and develop.
By Leo Goodman
If you’re on this site then you already know New York has some pretty damn good comedy clubs. What you might not know is that three of them are owned by one guy.
Over the past couple decades Al Martin has developed himself into a one-man comedy industry, with New York Comedy Club, Broadway Comedy Club, and now Greenwich Village Comedy Club providing audiences with stand-up shows and more seven nights a week. It’s even more than you realize, once you consider that Broadway Comedy Club itself has three different stages, each of them with shows every night. Sitting in the comic’s lounge area just off the main room downstairs at Broadway, with the sounds an audience’s laughter just on the other side of the wall, the comedian-turned club owner talks about telling jokes, booking jokesters, and just how much comedy a city like New York can sustain.
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