Hey look–my blog is back early!  I wanted to thank everyone for their support and purchases over the past year.  My book is now a year old.  I’ve set a personal sales record on Amazon.com for December including four sales overseas so I’m very happy that momentum continues.  Now for some advice…

In the next two weeks some newer comics are going to get their first chance at a corporate gig (or perhaps you just experienced it in the last few weeks, sorry this is late).  When you get to the gig you think, “Wow, X-hundred dollars just for doing a set?  This is great.  Hey look, cocktail shrimp!”  Then you take the “stage” to a number of people who not only don’t want to stop chatting to listen to you, oh no, they don’t want to stop and listen to anyone who would dare intrude their party with stand-up comedy.  The bosses in charge butcher everything needed for a successful comedy show…seating, lighting, introductions, timing, and a number of other things.  It’s very possible that an experienced comic’s list of highest paying and worst gigs of all-time are very similar.  If you ever get a chance to work with the very funny Dan Davidson, request that he tell the story about his worst corporate party experience.  I just listened to Jimmy Pardo explain his very recent awful show on Never Not Funny episode 1122.  Even the guys who are at the top experience these things.  All of these holiday parties lead right up to the pinnacle of challenging yet lucrative comedy on New Year’s Eve.  I’m not saying to turn them down, but just know that the big paycheck comes with a price (great irony Durham!).  For tips on how to handle various gigs such as corporate parties and other holidays, check out my book on Amazon.com or one of the other sales channels.

In 2013 I want to slightly adjust the angle of this blog and make it more of a journal.  Don’t worry, I’ll still jam the plugs for my book in by explaining what happened at my show and what you can learn, but it’ll be less textbook-like.  The goal is to maintain the weekly entries.  Feel free to post any questions or ideas…Thanks for reading.