Greg Fitzsimmons at the Wilbur tonight for the Magners Comedy Festival

Kelly MacFarland's new album
Bombshell.

Last night Kelly MacFarland packed Mottley's for her CD release show as part of the Magners Comedy Festival. The CD is called Bombshell, and it will be released officially on February 8. More on that in a later post.

The Festival is in its second year, and has expanded to moe clubs, and even to the Wilbur. Tonight, Greg Fitzsimmons returns to Boston for an early show at the Wilbur. If you want to know a bit more about Fitzsimmons, his time in Boston, and his new book, read my interview with him from late last year.

The BC Q&A: Kelly MacFarland

Kelly MacFarland is back in Boston after having won Best of Fest at the Rooftop Comedy Festival in Aspen. She'll be gigging around town this summer, headlining at ImprovBoston tomorrow night with Maria Ciampa and Dana Jay Bein and playing The Comedy Studio next week, but if you don't see her for a while after that, she'd probably hunkering down over her new netbook to finish her first book, a compilation of personal essays she's hoping to finish this summer. We spoke briefly by phone earlier this week.

Are you sort of huddled in these days working on the book, or do you still get out to play frequently?

No, I’m still out playing a lot. I was actually just in Aspen at the Rooftop Comedy Festival a couple of weeks ago.

Yes, congratulations.

Thanks! I was voted Best of the Fest, which was awesome. So I’m still out working. But I’m trying to take the summer to really focus on the book. I’m definitely out playing, I’m recording my CD at the end of August at Mottley’s, on August 27 and 28. I’m really excited about that. And I’m doing a couple of things for the Plymouth Rock Comedy Festival next week. I’m still out there and working. And I’m slotted to do a couple of USO tours in the fall.

How is the book coming?

The book’s coming okay. It’s a little bit of a process, but it’s going well.

What is your premise for the book?

It’s a collection of short stories based on my stand-up and my life.

Are they non-fiction stories?

They are based… Well, yeah, they’re nonfiction. Mostly. Yeah, you can say they’re nonfiction. I’m not really making a lot up.

With “mostly” in parenthesis then?

Yes. All facts will be true. I’m trying to think, the last one I just wrote, it’s all true. So it really happened.

What made you decide to go that route?

I was approached by literary agents last winter, and I’m a storyteller, that’s kind of my thing, and I just thought it would be really cool to see it all in print. And they did too, so we decided to work together.

Have you done anything like that before?

No. Not at all. Hopefully this will be the first of many books.

Was it a daunting process?

Yes. It’s daunting because I’m used to being so verbal, so it’s hard to put it down on paper. And I’m also very critical of my own work. I’m like that with my stand-up, too. So I end up rewriting and rewriting and rewriting, which apparently is a big no-no in the book writing world.

No, quite the opposite.

Really?

Well, you’re not supposed to keep rewriting until you’ve finished it.

That’s what I’ve been doing.

You’ve got to get a first draft before you start editing, and then you edit it mercilessly.

Right. I kind of start it, and then go back and decide that I don’t like any of it. And then I end up rewriting before finishing it. I’ve been told, just get it all out on paper, then go back and edit.

Do you have a publisher yet?

Nope. I’m working with my agent. We haven’t even gone to proposal yet. Hopefully that will be sooner rather than later, but that really depends on me. I’ve got to kind of buckle down. I just ordered a new netbook to see if maybe that would help. It’s like a new toy. You know when a girl buys a new pair of earrings to make herself look pretty? I’m buying a new netbook to see if I can make my writing look better.

It might work if it allows you to go someplace where you can concentrate.

That’s it exactly. I want to be able to write any time I feel the urge. You buy a new pair of sneakers thinking it will motivate you to run. Well I’m buying a new netbook to see if it will motivate me to write. Something new and shiny.

Are there any particular stories people would recognize from your stand-up that you’re working on?

Maybe. I don’t really want to say yet, just because everything’s so still in the works. But there’ll be some themes. If people like my stand-up then they’ll like the book, for sure.

Controversy at Mottley's Comedy Showcase and Chili Cookoff

Last Thursday, Mottley's Comedy Club took a bunch of Boston comics and made them compete for their spot on that night's show the way ancient comedians always settled their disputes - with a chili cookoff. Mottley's First Annual Comedy Showcase and Chili Cookoff ended in controversy - Mortensen, who does PR for the club, came in second. Jon Lincoln, co-owner of the club, won in a field that also included Tony V., Tony Moschetto, Kelly MacFarland, Tom Dustin, Amy Tee, and Dan Boulger. MacFarland won the "People's Choice" award for her contribution.

Lincoln was booed by the comics in the back as he took the stage. Some actually hissed and shouted "set-up" or "fixed." Lincoln would point out that the certificate marking his win was signed by him earlier, and then made out to him, as well.

Was it fixed? We'll never know. But we do know that the night raised money for the Greater Boston Food Bank.

I interviewed Lincoln and his fellow Mottley's co-owner, Tim McIntire, after the show.

Nick DiPaolo Back In Boston Friday with Comics for a Cure at the Majestic

Danvers native Nick DiPaolo started out as a stand-up comic in the Boston scene in the late 80s, cutting his teeth at Nick’s Comedy Stop and Dick Doherty’s clubs. He had a marketing degree, but never really took that seriously as a career (he once told me in an interview for the Boston Globe, “If I learned anything, somebody would have known me by now. I really lack in the marketing skills.”).

After a couple of years of one-nighters around New England, DiPaolo moved to New York, where he perfected his angry, sarcastic persona, peppering his act with more right-leaning political commentary. That’s the DiPaolo most people know – gruff, conservative, and unblinking in his criticism of what he sees as an overwhelming political correctness that envelops race and gender relations. He’s been a regular on both Howard Stern and Opie and Anthony, and got a taste of what it’s like to host his own show on New York’s Free FM, which lasted only five months.

DiPaolo still makes it back to Boston regularly (he was part of the NECN Comedy All Stars taping at the Wilbur a few weeks ago, and often comes to town with Artie Lange). And his regular opener, Joe List, is also a transplanted Boston comic now living in New York. DiPaolo is part of a bill of Boston comics, past and present, for Friday’s Comics for a Cure show at the Cutler Majestic Theatre, along with List, Gary Gulman, Kevin Knox, and Kelly MacFarland. His new CD is called Funny How?

How did you get involved with this show?

My opening act Joe List was asked by Tracy Harding if I would perform at this benefit and i said sure because I believe every once in a while you should give back. It benefits children with cancer. I mean how could anybody say no to something like that?

How has the new CD been doing?

The new CD Funny How? is doing quite well. I keep shipping boxes of them to Amazon and they call back a few days later asking for more. I figure at this rate it will go "copper" by March.

I recorded it at ACME Comedy Co. in Minneapolis. It's my favorite city besides Boston to perform. I sell out there every time and the people love my shitty east coast attitude. I chose there because the audiences are so polite. They actually sit and listen even when they're drunk. It's the coolest thing.

Is getting a radio show your ultimate goal? It seems to have suited you in the past but it's hard to carve out your niche in a crowded field.

There aren't that many slots to go around in NYC when it comes to talk radio. It's what I want to do still. I enjoyed it so much when I was on 92.3 Free FM. You can be funny without interruption, no hecklers or chatty assholes fucking things up. I loved it!

Do you think you'll be appearing on Fox News again this year?

Well, I did the show Red Eye and Fox and Friends and hope to do them again. I'm still doing their streaming show called "The Strategy Room." I had a little run in with Shepard Smith on that show and it got 160,000 hits the next 2 days.

Considering your more conservative political views, do you expect the next four years to provide you the kind of boon for material that the last eight years has for more left-leaning comedians?

Please! Making fun of a Black man? Is that even allowed? You see there's the difference. The business I'm in is run by people who are quite liberal as far as politics goes. They don't like it when you attack what they hold near and dear to there pol. hearts and they won't think twice about holding that shit against you when it's time to give you a job. But that hasn't stopped me yet.

Do you still have any connections to Danvers? Is your family still there?

Yes, my coke dealer still has a home there. My parents and one of my sisters is still there.

Comics for a Cure, January 9 at 8PM. The Cutler Majestic Theatre. 800-233-3123. www.maj.org