6/27/05
Wow, I went a loooong time without a post, I bet you guys are having serious withdrawl, no? Uh, no. Well, first of all, sorry for the dry spell, I was in Tempe and the place I was staying at charged for internet and I can't afford it, so again, sorry. And, as I'm sure you can figure out from that last sentence, I ended up going to Tempe and working the improv with Pablo. I was hosting but it didn't matter, I had a great week and sold a lot of merchandise. I was pleasantly surprised. There are a lot more details that I can go into, but I'm functioning on about 4 hours of sleep and a shitload of hours flying, so I'm keeping this one short. Oh, the show in Lauderdale has been moved to Miami, so if you're in the area, come on by. Three...two...one...SLEEP!

6/18/05
I'm sitting here waiting for my buddy Tommy to come get me. He and I are doing the gig in Fallbrook tonight. So I figured I'll do a little bloggin' now. Well, in case you didn't see it on the tour page, my gigs for the next 2 weeks have been cancelled...well, pulled! It's such fucking bullshit. I can't go into the specifics about it, but it boils down to some comedy politics and in the end, I'm the one who gets fucked. Again, the reason for the change is, at it's core, a good one, but the reasoning for it is stupid. I wish I could go into details, but out of respect, I won't. So what I'm saying is that if all goes to "their" plan, the outcome will be positive, but I'm fucked. I'm the one who's fucked out of the money I was expecting, the money I laid out for the plane tickets, the money I was going to make on merchandise. It's just not fucking fair. I mean how long do I have to be in the shithole of a business before I start to get respect???? I love comedy, I really do, I love doing it, I love making people laugh, and (ego time!) I'm good at it. I'm got the respect of a lot of peers and some of the clubs out there, yet I still get fucked by the higher ups. Why? Why the fuck does this shit happen to me? Still!? It's just not fair, that's what it comes down to, it's not fair. I think I'm a good guy, don't get me wrong, I have my faults and I have my moments of sheer prickness, but on the whole, I'm a good guy. So why does the karma in this business just love to bite me in the balls? Is this a lesson I'm supposed to be learning? Fine, I get it, life can be unfair, I get it. I fucking get it! Now, let me apply what I've learned and give me something good. I know I'm bitching like a 10 year old, but I feel like I'm being treated like a 10 year old. I feel like I'm not being taken seriously, like my life doesn't mean anything to these people, like I'm just a bother to them. All I'm doing is trying to be a success, I'm trying to be comfortable and just do what I love to do. This happened twice in Orlando and now two other weeks. FUCK! They don't get it. Despite what some might think, I don't have a lot of money, right now I live hand to mouth and I count on my road gigs to bring that buffer zone of money. And this time especially since I've spent so much money on making some more CDs and DVDs, not to mention the money that I'm putting into the Skippy show. I'm really getting close to the bottom here and these 2 weeks were something that I was looking forward to. Not only for the money, but for the fact that I was going back to 2 amazing clubs, and now...GONE! I wish I could quit, I wish that I didn't have this stupid fire burning inside of me. I wish I didn't love this job so much. God, life would be a lot easier if I had a regular job and a regular life. If I was a teacher or accountant or something. Get up at 7 am, go into work, do my job, come home to a house, relax, maybe with a family and then at the end of the month, there'd be a paycheck waiting. A steady paycheck that I can count on. But no, I want this job, a job that has as much stability as a fat man standing on a waterbed. A job with no schedule, nothing to count on. A job with an amazing pay off IF you are of the 2% that actually get to that level. A job that has no long-term plan. A job that beats your ego, confidence, sanity and wallet into a pulp. A job that requires you to fuck up your body by staying up late to "work" and network, and then sleeping into the early afternoon. A job that makes it almost impossible to have any kind of a romantic life. A job filled with a lot of underhanded, vendictive, bitter people, not to mention a job where you yourself can become underhanded, vendictive and bitter. A job that can kill you from the inside out if you're not careful... and, for whatever reason, I love it. That's when you know you're in it to the end, when you don't know why you love this fucked up business. Tommy's here, gotta go.

6/16/05
I am so pissed right now, I have been waiting in my apartment all day for a package to be delivered. So I go online to check the status and it seems that it was "unable to be delivered", yet I never heard my buzzer ring and there is no "failed to reach you" slip on my door. So someone is lying. I wasted an entire fucking day just sitting here with my thumb up my ass...well, not literally, but damn near close. I mean my pinky was knocking on the starfish. Ewwwww, sorry. I needed to do some shit today and I feel like I've wasted so much time. I did watch Back to the Future 3, which I hadn't seen in awhile, but that really doesn't make up for the lost time, now does it. Hey, I know, I can go back to the past and never break my laptop, thereby negating any need to sit here and wait for the package! Great scott Marty, it can work! But what if by not waiting here I go out and drive to a restaurant to grab a bite and suddenly I get hit by a big truck and break my legs...I SWEAR TO GOD, THE PACKAGE JUST GOT DELIVERED JUST AS I WAS WRITING THIS! Wow, now it's a great day!

6/15/05
Well the Skippy show is having some problems already. We're moving the dates, most likely it will now be the last 2 weeks of Sept. and the first two weeks of Oct. This was due to Kyle's schedule, and to be honest, I rather like having more time to get the show and videos all together. So I guess there's not a problem afterall...of course I won't know if the dates are secured until next week, cross your fingers. We had the shoot for Skippy's sitcom today, it's soooo fucking funny. I've gotta say that the people that we've gotten involved in this are amazing. Big thanks to all who have helped so far: Tina Dupuy, Steve Seagren, John (oh shit I forgot your last name), Dean Haglund, Dave Hansen, Bill Devlin (excellent photographer), Lance Montalto (excellent videographer), and all of them are excellent comics. This is coming together so wonderfully, I just hope the theater dates work out. I'm going to be resting easier now that the bulk of the shooting is over. There's only one shot left to do, but I'm waiting for a very special prop being sent to me by the lovely puppet lady...waiting with baited breath by dear PL. I've got two spots tonight AND I got a call from Budd Friedman's office, I got booked in his Reno room in September! I'm really excited about that. I know I mentioned this in a previous entry, but it's so fucking cool that he knows me and likes my comedy. If all goes well in Reno, hopefully he'll start using me in the other rooms. Good vibes people...good vibes. Life is funny, isn't it? Something like that makes me smile, when in the grand scheme of things it's only a small step...but it's a step nonetheless. It's so gloomy out here, very overcast. I hope it stays chilly at night, I love it. It's June and I'm wearing a jacket. Some might find that annoying, but for a guy from the humidity hell that is south Florida, it's fucking great! Nothing to report in the personal world, just going through the motions. Okey dokey, another blog entry filled with nothing of importance, another obligation fulfilled. Just kiddin' my bloggers, you know I loves ya! Oh, check out my cousin Jonathan's website, he's 11 and he knows more about movies than most executives I've met...plus he's written 3 novels and 30 movie treatments. Come to think of it, I should start to kiss his ass now.

6/14/05
Oh my dear god am I tired. I have been shooting all day for the Skippy show and I'm completely exhausted...and we still have another full day of shooting tomorrow. Today started kinda shitily, Kyle told me that he is not able to do the last 2 shows, so now we (me and Lenny, the director) are trying to switch the last days of the show from Thursday to Tuesday. Also, I had to stop the production of the publicity posters and postcards because of a possible date change. And to top it all off, I got a parking ticket...viva this business! But, aside from that, everything is peachy. Oh yeah, I got summonded for jury duty. It's weird, it's a great week for working, yet little things seem to be shitting on me. But, like they say, don't sweat the small stuff, I'm sure everything is going to work out. Don'tcha love it when people tell you that, or you tell yourself that, "Everything will work out." And it usually does, but at the time of frustration, it doesn't seem like anything will work out. So right now, it seems a bit hopeless...but I know it's not. So if you're going to email or post anything on the boards, just let it be something like, "Hey Flip, you have our support, you kick ass", not, "Hey Flip, it'll be ok, don't be discouraged." Thanks. Damn, even in typing I sound bitter. So MJ is not guilty, no surprise. Not that I think he didn't do it, but no celebrity (ESPECIALLY MICHAEL JACKSON) will ever be convicted in California. I know people have said this, but it's true. OJ, Robert Blake, Michael Jackson, all not guilty, all California. Martha Stewart, Pee-Wee Herman, guilty...not California. That should be Cali's new slogan: CALIFORNIA: IF YOU'RE ON TV...YOU CAN KILL! or something like that. Maybe, HEY CELEBRITIES...RAPE AWAY! What do you think? You know what I found odd, when they showed the crowd outside the court room as the verdict was being read, there was this woman releasing doves with every 'not guilty'. I wonder what she would've done if he was guilty? Like she had a cage of wolverines just ready to release? "Guilty...", "Grrr!" Sad thing is that joke will only be usable for the next month or so. Well, I'm going to collapse and get ready to shoot again tomorrow...at 8 fucking AM! Night.

6/10/05
Evening all, had a great set at the Improv tonight. Budd Friedman was there and he said that I should be doing his Vegas room...I'm very excited! I still get giddy when I think that Budd knows who I am, I mean that really is a big deal to comics. For those who don't know, Budd started the Improv in the 1950's, so he's pretty much like the Godfather of stand up comedy. I've got a few irons in the fire now and all of a sudden it seems like I don't have enough time in the day. A friend of mine, who's a writer on a new show, told me to get my writing package to him asap. Great except for one thing, I don't have a writing package. So this weekend will be dedicated to getting that done. I also got a DVD in the mail of my show from Mill Valley, so I will be editing together a new demo reel. That show was so fucking good. Thanks again to Mark Pitta for making that happen. Alrighty, it's late, I'm tired and I've got a heavy weekend ahead of me. I wish I had something funny to say like in the last post, but alas, I don't...sorry.

6/7/05
So it's 3:15 am, I just got into bed and I'm a bit buzzed from drinking and spending some time at a strip club...what a life. Yes, I was at a strip club with a comic, he pretty much paid for everything, so I don't feel bad about it. Isn't that strange, I was staring desparation and pervertedness in the face and the one thing I was worried about was money. Damn, I am a Jew. I mean it is kinda sad that at this very moment, there are women who are dancing, stripping off all of their clothes (and for some, dignity) for a buck or two. And the men in these places are scummy, lonely men...myself excluded. Well, I'm not scummy. I felt bad, I didn't want to stay long, but my buddy was REALLY drunk and I was driving him home, and he spent a lot of time with this one dancer, so I was left sitting there and drinking water. Seriously, I was. And then all of these dancers came up to me and asked if I wanted a dance, I politely said, "No, thank you. I'm OK." And they went on their way, but it still felt bad. I remember seeing an HBO documentary on strippers and how one club manager was saying that he wished there was a home for out of work strippers, because most of them don't save their money. Tonight I wished that I had like $50 to give each of them so they felt like they made something tonight. But then again, I was also thinking that the men are the ones that I should feel sorry for. Do you realize that when a man (or woman) goes to a strip bar, we're actually teasing and frustrating ourselves....AND WE'RE PAYING FOR IT! We're torturing ourselves by being denied a base desire that we all have. Do you think in Ethiopia they have "food bars" where people pay money to just smell and look at food? Just a big slab of beef sitting in the middle of a stage, the song "Eat It" being played and a DJ saying, "Alright, we've got roast beef on the main stage, and lasagna on the side stage. Come on people, take your money out for roast beef. And you don't want to miss our next performer on the main stage, it's apple pie! Aw yeah, you can smell it, can't you? Now remember, these dishes are available for private sniffings in the back." OK, tired, buzzed and rambling...night.

6/6/05
I apologize to all 8 of you who read my cyber thoughts, I've been really lazy about the blog lately. But nothing really substantial has happened in my professional or personal life, it's been business as usual lately. I did get a bunch of costumes for the Skippy show today, I need to get some more stuff tomorrow. I also have a meeting with a producer type person regarding my film script that I wrote a few years ago. He's got some notes for me, I need that. I'm so married to the script that an outsider with new ideas will be quite refreshing, although I don't know how I'm going to work on the script when I'm so wrapped up in the Skippy show. Hey, it's a good problem to have, right? Um...well, this is something interesting, I might be trading my car for another. OK, so it's not that interesting. It's just that a friend of mine has a 2 door mustang and I have have a 4 door escort, and she's got a kid, so she needs a 4 door. And hell, I've always wanted a mustang. So if she fixes it up a bit, I think I might be getting a new...er, new-used car. I love my car, I just think that a change will be good, I've have the thing for 8 years. My first car was awesome...and yes, I said awesome. It was a 1985 Camaro...and I totaled it after 3 weeks. I was actually taken to a hospital, I knew I was ok but I figured my parents would have pity on me if they saw me there. I remember my mom walked in and just said, "Oh well..." Not that she was non-chalant about me being in an accident, she was just acting like totaling the car was no big deal. I was expecting her to ream me out and she completely pulled a fast one on me. My dad, on the other hand, whew baby, he was pissed. I remember he walked in and just stared at me with a look of death...I think he was just pissed because he never got to troll for chicks in the car. Just kidding Dad...I know he reads this. Man, after that accident I was so scared to drive. I had 3 cars since, the last two have been Fords and they lasted me about 5 years (Tempo) and 8 years (Escort). I'd like a new car, but I know I can't afford it right now, that's why this trade thing seems like a good idea. Don't know if I'll go through with it, but it's a thought. Man, I really am stretching for interesting blogging, aren't I? "Hey, did you read Flip's blog?" - "No, what'd he say?" - "He thinks he might trade his car for another!" - "Wow! He's amazing! What a guy!" Anywho...can't think of anything else to report, so I'm calling it quits. OH, I did add a new audio clip on the sounds page, it's my bit about Paris Hilton and the Carls Jr. commercial...enjoy.

6/3/05
Had a fun night tonight, got to see Pablo in Irvine, he was great as usual, and I had an idea for a bit of his and it worked! That always feels good. Not too much else happened...OH, I did make the official Skippy Greene website, check'er out: www.skippygreene.com. There's nothing there right now, only the poster, but as the dates get closer, I'm going to be adding things. Bios, pictures, etc. I'm gettin more and more excited as it approaches. This is something that I've always wanted to do, you know? I did a sketch show last year, and that was a big thing for me. But this is even bigger I think, this is a completely character driven show. Not just short sketches with a bunch of characters and a big cast, this is one character for 45 minutes and just me and one other person...I mean damn, how fucking cool and scarey is that? Hey, that's life, right? If it was always safe and easy, it would be very boring. You need to shake things up and just say "fuck it", do something outrageous and take a chance. To quote UHF: "Sometimes you need to grab life by the lips and yank as hard as you can." Night.

6/2/05
Greetings all and a happy June to you all! Let me tell you why I love living in LA, I'm at the Improv last night and I went up on the first show. It was a very small crowd, but I had fun and did well. So the second show goes up, it's for collegehumor.com, and I stick around for a bit. The booker of the show asks me if I want to do some time towards the end of the show...hmmm, let me think -YES! Please, I'm a whore for the stage, I'll go up at a Nazi Youth Conference if there's an open bar and a hotel. So I'm in the hall just hanging out, when there's a commotion and the manager of the club is like, "Get him off stage now, give him the light." I turn and who's coming up the hall?? Dave Chappelle! I was really caught off guard. I said hi to him and reminded him that we had once worked together and he remembered and was really cool about it. So I go in to watch and let me tell you something, I've been at that club when people have stopped by: Chris Rock, Jerry Seinfeld, Michael Richards, Tim Allen, but none have ever gotten the reaction that Chappelle did. EVERYONE was on their feet, screaming, clapping, you'd think Jesus had walked in or something. Although I don't think the Improv would be the first place Jesus would come. Then again, maybe he is a funny guy, "Hey, I just got down from a crusifix, and boy are my arms tired! Thank you!" Anyway, Chappelle pretty much just talked, not real bits, I think he just wanted to get on stage. So after that, the show went on and the crowd was fine, but the booker was like, "Look, I don't know if you're still going to get on, but I'll try." I'm like, "Of course, totally understand." I mean it's not like I was scheduled to go on anyway, and when Dave Chappelle shows up, that's a good excuse to be bumped. But as luck would have it, the last comic never showed, so I closed the show! It was so good, I followed a comic who is hilarious, but very low energy, so I knew it wouldn't be hard to get them to where I like'em. So it was a really great night filled with good times and surprises. That's why I love LA...god, wouldn't that be sad if that's the only reason I loved LA? There are other reasons, but that's just only of the reasons. I also did some work with Kyle on the music for the Skippy Greene show, it's going to be soooo fucking great! I can't wait. I've still got so much shit to do though, got to get costumes for the video shoot, got to take still pics, oy, when all this is over, I'll be resting comfortably. Well, it's 2 AM and my bed's-a calling...night.