The Valley

The Phoenix comedy scene was not what I expected it to be. Just between us when friend/ comic Guisseppi Giovanni I asked if I wanted to join him in checking it out I was nervous about it, but at the time I was living in a homeless shelter, in Flagstaff, AZ,  where I was only allowed to go to one open mic a month. Any comic will tell you that the quickest way to get good is to go up as much as possible, and write as much as possible. To make up for the lack of stage time I wrote 2-3 hours a day, but without stage time it felt like I was living in hell. Ironic since it was a faith based shelter. My original plan was to get my driver’s license as I saved up for a van I could live in. Then from there save up enough to finally check out the Phoenix Scene. It was 6 month plan. A month into the plan is when I get the text from Guisseppi Asking if I wanted to live down there part time with him. I thought this through for about 8 hours straight before I decided fuck it what do I have to lose? The following weeks were me getting over bronchitis, planning, and stress vomiting. I told my friends where I was going, but failed to mention this stupid ass plan to my biological family.  December 13^th, 2017 1ish in the AM is when we made it to Phoenix.  Later that day we went to my first open mic in The Valley. Catalina’s Sports Bar & Grill. I don’t remember how well it went, just that I didn’t bomb. Having Guisseppi with me helped with my nerves. Something else that helped was I actually knew a few of the people there from Big Pine Comedy festival. I honestly thought no one would know, or care about who I was. My expectations were apathy and snide comments. I stuck by Giovanni when I wasn’t chain smoking cigarettes. I think I did the fake nice thing where I’m overly polite to people I don’t know well. Much to my surprise everyone was very friendly, and a lot of them remembered me. All this threw me off. Why are these strangers being nice to me what’s in it for them? A lot of my family is very negative and self-serving, so I’m used to working for everything. This eclectic group of people however was different a short list of things they did for me: Gave me cigs/food/beer, helped me get a job, put me on booked shows, and helped me find a place to stay. Unfortunately I’m a fuck up, so their kindness was wasted on me. I owe everyone there so much. They treated me like family. I definitely am going to figure out a way to pay them all back. There are a few people who I don’t get a long with there, but that’s to be expected when you’re in big place like Phoenix. If you move there, and a few people don’t like you it’s not the end of the world. Ignore them. Hang out with the people who do like you, and no one should fuck with you. You do need to be nice to people though. No one wants to work with you if you’re an asshole. If you walk customers from a venue don’t be surprised if a host asks you not to come back. Even if you do piss off half the scene. You can still find places to perform. When you go to The Valley try to go during fall to spring time. If you’re not used to the heat summer will fuck you up. My favorite Mics to hit up are “Punchlines on the Patio” located at Devil’s Advocate. It’s a Monday mic. Catalina’s is another favorite. As well as The Woodshed.  I don’t think there are any mics that I didn’t like, but the rough mics where you can get heckled/ignored/talked over are: Spinelli’s, Tempe Tavern, and Catalina’s. For more info on the mics in Phoenix go to the open-mics section of this website, and click on the link to Trevor Skies comedy. Also a really fun show to check out every Thursday is “This Week  Sucks Tonight” starts at 11pm. After the show you can go to Gracie’s Tax Bar, and meet the hosts/ by them a drink. Another great thing about this area is it’s somewhat close to the Vegas, and L.A scenes.  Keep checking back in for more articles. Next one will be on my hometown of Flagstaff!!! Thanks for reading.

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