Mitcz.com : Official blog of Rev. Mitcz, the demented devilish comedian from Hollywood, CA.

My standard response (to anyone outside of my close friend circle) when I get the oft-asked question about plans for various projects has always been “I don’t discuss upcoming projects until I feel confident that I’m finishing it soon”.

However, as I actually have quite a shitload of things on my plate this year, I thought it might be a good idea to make them public so people can hold me to it. A brief rant about stand-up comedy follows.

What I’m Doing This Year (hopefully)

• Finish Grab Your Crotch and Roar
• Record my debut comedy album (more info below)
• Launch setl.it
• Change the Mitcz : The Expert format a little bit and do it more often
• Release the iPhone game I’ve been working on

Why is that shit not done already?

I have a whole piece prepared about the difficulties of writing and ultimately finishing the book. The long-and-short of it is threefold : 1. There’s SO much information for me to process; being a verbose guy – if I don’t find a way to compress that information, the book will be 700 pages long before I know it, 2. Writing the book is so important to me that I feel obligated to stew on every word to make it the best it can be (despite being pretty sure I’ll never live up to my own expectations), 3. It’s tough to find 3-4 hours in a day to just sit and write.

Frankly, reason #3 explains much of why I’ve not yet finished any of the things I mentioned above. I’m overwhelmed with work, after a long dry-spell of not having work to such a degree that I was falling behind on bills and I was in danger of losing everything. To overcompensate for that, I’ve taken on more work than I can handle. It’s tough to balance all the shit I don’t want to do but pays me well versus things I really want to do but don’t pay at all until months after they’re finished (if at all).

Hopefully, you see my dilemma.

A Brief Rant on Comedy

I know I don’t perform often enough. I’m fully aware of that and while I’ve sat made bullshit excuses for why that is – it’s no one’s fault more than my own. The only defense I’ve really got left is that “working the comedy scene” tends to be a game of repetition, the time to constantly perform, having a large enough group of friends willing to see you, and keeping yourself on-track despite those 3 hurdles.

I hate repetition. For a time, I tried to write a whole new set from scratch every time I went onstage. As time went on and I realized I actually do belong on a comedy stage, I got more comfortable reusing old material. The last few months, I haven’t even bothered to prepare for a set ahead of time. Any new material or new ways of performing old material was written either on-the-spot while I was onstage, or just a few minutes prior to going onstage. That doesn’t feel like a fun challenge. While I love to make people laugh, I feel cheap if I don’t bring something new & unique to each performance.

I don’t have the time to constantly perform. And, being without a vehicle anymore, I’ve even less ability to go out as often as possible to perform. It’s a fucked situation, and one I’m trying to find ways to remedy.

The friends I have who would come to a comedy gig even semi-regularly either don’t want to be dragged out weekly just to see me or have already seen me enough times that it’s probably starting to get old. That’s fair, and I certainly don’t fault any of them for it. That’s just how these things go. I don’t really hang with a partying bunch of Hollywood folks that go out on weeknights and drop $50 at whatever bar we end up at. That’s no one’s fault – it’s just the proverbial lay of the land.

In spite of all of that, I still manage to perform pretty regularly and I’ve got quite a few gigs lined up. Having been around for awhile, it’s not difficult for me to get booked just to work the stage and hurl hot joke-love in the face of a crowd.

But, I’ve been getting a little bored. I see the same comics and hear the same jokes out of them week after week. I try to go up and do some new shit, but since the audiences tend to be the result of someone just inviting their friends, they’re often not an audience of comedy-lovers so much as they’re just “out to have a good time”. And, unless your act is well-polished and well-rehearsed, they’re not going to notice that you’re trying some new angles and trying to connect with a willing audience. The places where you’ll find crowds like that are, for instance, The Hollywood Improv. Wanna know how to get to the Hollywood Improv? You bring a bunch of friends to enough smaller gigs that shows you have a “pull” and can bring a crowd, and you’re asked to bring that crowd to The Improv.

If you’re not bringing crowds to the smaller clubs, you won’t be asked to perform at the bigger clubs. Fun little catch-22, because it’s tough to promote an unknown club, despite the fact that I bring pretty good crowds of friends every time I’ve performed at The Improv.

My Comedy Solution (and my debut album)

I wanna do a few more smaller gigs that don’t require bringing anyone out (I have several of those lined-up, thankfully) and I’ll use the time to try some new shit and further polish some old shit. Then, I’ll be setting up a huge gig somewhere to do a full 45-minute set that I’ll record and put onto an album.

After that, I’ll probably bow out of the comedy scene for awhile and work on all that other shit I wanna do, and let the album work its way around. I’m not sure what will happen with it, but I hope everyone who’s ever wanted to see me will come out for the recording and we can make it into the best night of comedy I’ve ever given to a crowd. Maybe I’ll even do discounted pre-orders for anyone in that crowd, and I’ll send them physical CDs of it when it’s pressed.

Anyway, that’s my plan. Feel free to hold me to it.

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