Stand-Up Comedy hit its boom in the 80’s.  Shows like SNL were bringing sketch comedy to American TVs for a good number of years, and big name acts like  Robin Williams, Eddie Murphy, Jerry Seinfeld, Sam Kinison, and Billy Crystal were both touring to clubs-and thanks to HBO, had specials in constant circulation on TV.

Everyone wanted to be a comedian.  So in the 1990s (when admittedly some great comedy was still happening) there was just…too many.  Cities like DC which had several big name comedy clubs saw demand drizzle and drip-folks weren’t flocking to live shows anymore because, frankly, there was a bit too much exposure and a bit too many people to see.  Now DC has one club, the fabulous Improv which is where I learned how to do some stand up( strong language btw ) and-apart from the occasional appearance at Warner Theater for a mega act like George Carlin-is the only place to see a real headliner in town.

The strange thing is that even though there aren’t a lot of places to play there are a ton of comics in this town-a lot of them very good.  Where are they all you ask?  Well the circuit here in DC is mostly relegated to coffee houses or backrooms in bars once a week.  Open Mic-which is where a schlep like me has to go to learn how to be a good comic-is kind of hard to come by.  Here is a list of the shows available now-you’ll notice a lot of them aren’t in the beltway or even metro accessible making opportunities for a  PT comic such as myself very limited.

Most of the reason I don’t do stand-up anymore is the hassle-Even the guys who do treat you right can only put you on once-tops twice-a month if you are a green like I am:  You’re not filling in the seats with your following yet and its lame to have the same comic come up and do the same thing week in and week out.  Just a few places to play on any given night and an incredible number of comics (one promoter once told me he gets a 150 emails a day looking to get time) makes for long open mic sets (I’ve seen 17 comics do 5-10 minutes each in one night.  Yikes!) and not a lot of opportunity.  No opportunity means no growth as a comic.   No growth as a comic means less and less for you, the audience to see.  So its a problem.

All of this is by way of setting the stage for the punchline-if you will.  John Xereas is Riot Act Entertainment and I’ve always found him to be a pretty good guy.  No longer at HR-57, John has been looking for a new place to open up not just a once a week show-but a full on, 7 nights a week, comedy club. Unfortunately a big box corporation furniture company is also bidding on the place and he fears it isn’t going to go his way.

Now look-I know this is a strange post and some of you might be reading it as “feel bad for my buddy who wants to open a comedy club” but it is a bit more than that.  If you are a person who enjoys comedy, who would like to see more comedy take place or just have a competitor to the Improv in town (and I think this is a situation where competition would help both parties by the way) then I encourage you to read the letter John sent below (after the jump) and help act.  If not-hey, no worries.  I don’t know if it will do any good, but if you would like to give a try, as I am, then I invite you to do so.

Thanks and Happy Halloween everybody!

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It’s not local but it’s important: the I-35W bridge across the upper Mississippi River in Minneapolis collapsed today, right in the middle of the Wednesday rush while a Twins-Royals game was going on at the nearby stadium. Erica on our sibling site Metroblogging Minneapolis has 35W Bridge Collapse updates and an open thread right now. Flickr user Adamwolf has photos from on the scene.

Update: Greg has snagged security camera footage catching the bridge collapse, and I’ve made an animated GIF. Just keep following Minneapolis Metroblogging for updates.

photo courtesy of Hasbro

So several of the other Metblogs cities have been commenting on the new Here&Now Monopoly edition - what Hasbro calls Monopoly “if it had been invented today.” Rather than spots like Park Place and Illinois Avenue there’s Seattle’s Pioneer Square, Minneapolis’ Mall of the Americas, the Atlanta Airport, and Orlando’s Disney World. We, of course, get the White House. Reasonable - it’s the most famous of our landmarks, though I’d contend not the most visually distinctive.

The issue I take with this, however, is that it’s one of the green properties - not one of the two most expensive blue properties, which went to Times Square and Fenway Park - and sells for 3.2 million bucks.

3.2 Million. Hehehehe. Seriously? You guys think you can buy the White House for 3.2M? HAHAHAHAH. If you’re looking to update the game to the current time you need to put a price tag of 3.9 BILLION on that bit of real estate, and that’s just the rental for four years. Sorry Hasbro, if you wanted to put that kind of a price tag on one of our landmarks then maybe you could have let players purchase the local sports arena, in exchange for which you get to call it by your own name.

Oooh, there’s a new Monopoly version idea. Instead of streets and buildings you have politicians and sporting arena locations. You buy the right combination of politicians and they take money out of the city coffers to buy the sporting arenas for you! Monopoly: Corporate Sports Welfare edition. I have a few politician names I’d be happy to nominate for inclusion…

If you had asked me in - say - 1992 if I saw myself moving to the nation’s capital, I’d look at you and go, “Huh?”

Things change.

I moved here in the summer of 2001, having received a promotion with my previous job. This promotion required my move to the DC area. I was excited…not all my friends back home shared my enthusiasm.

One friend wanted to give me a year’s supply of mace. I told her, “No, because I may use it on my husband.” (BTW, I am divorced now, but I can honestly say I’ve never maced the guy.)

Another friend said I wasn’t political enough. I replied, “I’m not going there to take the President’s job. Have you seen how those people look when they get out of office? No thanks.”

My family had mixed feelings about it…crime, crowds, gourmet grocery stores…all things to be feared. However, since I’m stubborn, I went anyway.
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Chances are, it’s incidences like these that are costing DC at budget time for Department of Homeland Security funds. Our cohorts in Minneapolis think it’s probably just as ridiculous as it looks, but it seems that events like these are used by other states to drum up support for increased budgets to protect things like the Mitchell Corn Palace or some other roadside wonder instead of being used to protect real, actual targets instead of things that are bullshit excuses from middle american politicians to “protect omaha from them dern terrists!”

Fact is, it’s our big cities, like this one, like LA, like NYC, that are going to be the targets, not Omaha, not Minneapolis (even if they do throw sweet zombie parties!) not Kansas City.

But still, those congresscritters think the best way to protect their jobs is to “prevent terrorism” in the same way that our city council believes the best way to be reelected is to “prevent crime” by adding useless cameras.

Eventually, it’s going to cost lives.

Alana Beard has been named to the 2006 WNBA All-Star Eastern Conference team.

Now whist everything I know about the Mystics can probably be written on a dime, I do know that Erica, over at Minneapolis MetBlogs is all about the WNBA, and thus I learn what I can from her.

Although 2005 saw our very own guard/forward selected as a reserve for the 2005 WNBA All-Star team Eastern Conference, 2006 sees her selected for the starting lineup for tonight’s game. Let’s hope the young sports star is ready for the challenge.

If you’re not luck enough to have scored tickets to the jam-packed event held in Madison Square Garden, be sure to grab a frosty bevvy at your favourite sports bar and settle in for the 7 p.m. tip-off on ESPN.

Although these days I don’t travel as frequently as Wayan, it’s not unusual that I arrive at Dulles four hours ahead of my scheduled international flight thanks to the new security procedures. Imagine my surprise, when I arrived an hour and a half early to DCA for a 6:25 a.m. flight to Miami and made it through security (dans chai latte) in twenty minutes. Not only was I elated that my much needed latte wasn’t confiscated (word to the wise: Heathrow is notorious for not letting tasty beverages through security) but I couldn’t believe how much more quick and efficient the security check points were than Dulles. (Shut up - I refuse to acknowledge the fact that Dulles must handle three times the traffic of DCA).

Once in Miami, it was a quick stroll from concourse A through to concourse D to board the puddle jumper to Key West. What? No additonal security check points? This never freaking happens in Europe. Perhaps with my new found love for domestic travel (tell anyone and I’ll deny it), I might just cancel my flight to England in July and hop a flight to visit fellow Metroblogger Erica out in Minneapolis.

Erika over at Minneapolis Metblogs blogged on her personal blog (I’m protecting bad pictures of the author by not providing that particular link) about a Wired author doing some informal research for his next article.

He brings up a few good points in his post; are couples more apt to instant message and/or email each other rather than getting their arses off the couch to ask their partner in the next room what’s for dinner?

*I’m looking at you, Tom and Tiff*
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i was browsing around other metroblogging cities and i came across a post from minneapolis lamenting the difficulty of meeting girls in bars. the writer pondered whether it was because midwesterners are “too nice” — perhaps the girls feel that it is more polite to pretend that a guy is simply not there, rather than “shut him down.”

completely ignoring someone when he is speaking to you is “too nice”? maybe i don’t understand midwestern culture but i just don’t see how that is very nice. this reminded me of how some people (usually from the northeast) consider DC to be a friendly city, whereas other people (often from south) complain that we are so unfriendly.

based solely on that one post (what? is that too small of a study sample to extrapolate reliable results?), i think we must be friendlier than midwesterners. i don’t think most girls in DC would simply pretend a guy didn’t exist. or am i just out of the loop when it comes to the DC social scene?

what do other people think? is it easy to meet people in bars in DC, as opposed to other cities? maybe wayan has an opinion on this, he seems to have a reputation as a ladies’ man.

Though they may be a lot further off from us than Vancouver is, please also welcome our 35th city, Islamabad in Pakistan! Part of the reason I love writing here, and working for the network, is that we’re all over the world. From LA to London, from Vancouver to Vienna, from Hawaii to Houston and from Melbourne to Minneapolis to Manila.

Welcome Islamabad!