Guest Blogger: Onward and Upward

Lucas Lewis Week is almost at an end, so remember to check out Lewis's performance at The Gas tonight at Great Scott. He's taping his set, and it's always good to have a full crowd for that. Thanks to Lewis for his work this week. One more coming -- a lengthy Q&A with Mehran. -- Nick

By Lucas Lewis

BOSTON — Let's say you're a comedian in Boston. You've been at it four, maybe five years. You've started to have some success, and you're well-known to the comedians and bookers around town. You've played all the local clubs to rave reviews, entered some festivals, maybe even gotten some road gigs.

So what comes next?

More than likely, you're going to start to think about the next phase of your career, and more than likely, that's going to entail moving to New York or Los Angeles. The time frame may vary but the general consensus is that you need to leave Boston in order to succeed as a comedian.

“It’s really to do it for like 10 years and then eventually move to L.A. or New York,” says comedian Eugene Mirman. “Really it’s so much about tenacity that if you literally just keep doing and it and doing it, you’ll probably eventually get good. But you have to leave Boston. Definitely in terms of getting work, there’s just a lot more in New York and L.A.”

***

I graduated college with a degree in theater. And I'm unemployed...because I have a degree in theater. I just moved into my own apartment. It’s near where my parents live. It’s across their hallway...because I have a degree in theater.
— Ahmed Bharoocha

Ahmed Bharoocha, 27, spent the first half of his life in Southern California, moving to Rhode Island just before starting high school. He attended URI and, after a brief foray as an engineering major — largely to please his parents — he eventually graduated with a degree in theater.

His parents eventually came around.

“At that point I had started doing standup and they had seen it,” he says. “I think they could just tell it was something I was really serious about. After that they didn’t give me a lot of guff about it.”

Bharoocha started doing standup comedy in earnest in 2004, occasionally heading to Boston or New York for gigs but mostly staying in Rhode Island at first. He met fellow Ocean State comedian Tim Vargulish and the pair soon started traveling to Boston with increasing frequency — first monthly, then weekly, and eventually several times a week.

As an outsider, Bharoocha found the Boston comedy scene intimidating and hard to break into. That perception was turned on its head when he began attending open mics with regularity, and he was soon assimilated into what he now considers a very supportive, accommodating scene. It was a stark contrast from the “bringer” shows he did in New York, where stage time was contingent on how many people you brought through the door, and the crowds were often hostile.

“With Boston, there’s a lot of stage time where you can get up all the time, a lot of open mics where people will listen to you,” he says. “They might not laugh, but they will pay attention to you. In New York, there are a lot of really rough, angry open mics.”

Bharoocha soon came to consider himself a Boston comedian. He set goals for himself that he quickly realized, including become the Comic-in-Residence at the Comedy Studio. He earned invites to prestigious festivals, including the Boston Comedy Festival, the Seattle Comedy Festival, the Great American Comedy Festival and the Bulmer’s Comedy Festival in Dublin.

He started to get work on the road, too, but he had a nagging feeling that he needed to move to New York or Los Angeles to take the next step — or at least to try.

“I kept putting it off, and it was getting to a point in Boston where I was comfortable — I did most of the things I wanted to do, and I was worried it would be too late if I didn’t go,” he says.

Last winter the Boston comedian Zach Sherwin, aka MC Mr. Napkins, moved to L.A., where he now hosts a free standup showcase (“French Toast”) at Taix in Echo Park on Sunday nights. Sherwin had Bharoocha on the show his first night in town.

***

“I'm originally from Wisconsin. I used to have this crazy job there where me and all my co-workers got paid to get drunk all day. It's call roofing.”
— Shane Mauss

Shane Mauss, 30, grew up in La Crosse, Wisc., and came to Boston in 2004 in part to pursue comedy. Only, he didn't really know how one did such a thing. That didn't stop him from having an almost-absurdly fast — and certainly unusual — rise in the comedy world.

“I had no idea what I was doing so I just opened up a phone book — people still used phone books back then — and I called around all the different clubs. Rick Jenkins was the guy who was just like, come check out some shows.”

Mauss soon got himself on a bill; it was OK. Jenkins encouraged him to take a standup comedy class, which he did with Rich Gustas at the now-defunct Emerald Isle in Dorchester. (Tough neighborhood, he says; he once got mugged outside of the class.) The graduation show was eight weeks later, back at the Studio, and Mauss — as they say in the business — killed it.

He immediately started getting booked on bigger shows around town, and soon he was hosting. He made it to the finals of the Boston Comedy Festival in 2006, and on the strength of that performance he was invited to the prestigious (but now defunct) Aspen Comedy Festival, where he won Best Comic. He found management and was soon being booked all over the country.

Less than three years from the time he started doing doing comedy, Mauss appeared on Conan.

Even though he’s from Wisconsin and lives in Austin, Mauss considers himself a Boston comic. He's not the only one. Mauss was recently one of six nominees for The Phoenix’s Best Comedian award in the Best of Boston readers' poll — something his doesn’t realize until I tell him.

“I'm in the running for best comic in Boston right now? That's funny, I had no idea. Well, that's a mistake on their part.”

While he had enough work to move wherever he wanted, he thinks for most aspiring comics, the road still goes through New York or L.A.

“I feel like if you've been doing standup and have been doing well for like five to seven years, and maybe been in some festivals and done fairly well, and maybe are featuring a fair amount, then I'd say there's going to be a point where you might have to seek out New York or L.A. to catch a break,” Mauss says.

But Mauss' story, while an interesting case, is hardly representative.

“I don't know, my path was different just because I got seen in a festival and invited to another festival and things just sort of blew up for me. So I never needed to go to New York or L.A. to be discovered.”

***

Bethany Van Delft was born in New York but moved to the Boston area when she was little, ultimately ending up in Dorchester. She always loved comedy but was “debilitatingly shy” growing up, and it wasn't until she had a quarter life crisis more than a decade ago that she mustered nerve to try standup.

“I was a restaurant manager, I had a three-story townhouse in South End and an awesome boyfriend — and I was so incredibly bored,” she says. “I thought when that time comes, you’re just happy, and I was miserable.”

She signed up for a comedy writing class at the Boston Center for Adult Education and was the only woman — and the only person who wasn't white. She dropped out after three classes, frustrated with feedback that either seemed non-applicable or like a double standard. But she still showed up for the graduation show at The Comedy Studio and actually had a decent set, good enough to earn a monthly spot from Jenkins.

Van Delft continued on this path for a few years, writing a new set each time and generally just maintaining but not improving. Jenkins would always tell her she needed to go to open mics, but she never did.

“Obviously you know you can’t get good at comedy doing that,” she says. “I didn’t really get what you had to do to become a comic.”'

But about six years ago, something clicked. Van Delft made the rounds, introducing herself at all the clubs and performing nearly every night at open mics or feature shows. She killed. She bombed. All of it made her better. And now she has a decision to make.

“I know that I have to go somewhere,” Van Delft says. “Probably New York, I would think. It’s just really hard. I started comedy later in life, like I wasn’t 19 and in college or anything. I wonder how much that has to do with a comic’s success…

“It’s a tough decision I’m trying to work out right now. I have to do it. To be at the next level, I have to do this. I’m at a crossroads right now.”

Boston is a starting point, but it's never the endgame.

“Boston isn’t where you 'make it,' says Mehran, who last year was named Boston's Best Comedian in The Phoenix Best of Boston readers' poll. “That takes a certain pressure off of development. A comic can discover her or his voice with less pressure and temptation to compromise to more formulaic templates here.”

Kaplan, Sherwin and Mauss — who not all that coincidentally share management — represent the last exodus of great Boston comedians. Josh Gondelman, Van Delft and Mehran are perhaps the next wave.

And if there's one negative to the Boston comedy scene, it's this: The place can't retain its talent. Seems like as soon as someone gets really good, they leave.

But the void never lasts long.

“One of the amazing things about the Boston scene is how it replenishes itself constantly,” says Nick Zaino III, who has covered comedy for more than a decade and runs the Boston Comedy Blog. “Every few years, a bunch of people leave, and you wonder, who’s going to take their place? Who is going to step up? And it might not be obvious who that is, but there is always someone there who gets good and starts really building and getting hot.”

That next someone might be Matt Donaher, aka Matt D, a New Hampshire native whose ascent in the Boston comedy scene has been downright Mauss-like. Last month he was voted Boston's Best Comedian in The Phoenix readers' poll — just two years into his comedy career.

Donaher's razor-sharp one-liners (ex: The important thing to remember when committing a murder-suicide...is the order) have earned him slots at big clubs and festivals, and there's more on the horizon. But the 25-year-old says he's not going anywhere at the moment.

“I don’t really feel the itch because Boston’s been so good to me,” he says. “I’m happy with what I’m doing and I know for a fact if I left right now it would be to my detriment.”

Ultimately he'd like to be a writer, perhaps for one of the late-night shows, and he thinks skipping town before he's developed more would be a mistake. Still, he already knows that at some point he'll probably need to leave.

“It’s more that I don’t want to hit one of those lulls, so that would require a move to jump start it all,” he says. “If a year from now, nothing from this conversation has progressed, that wouldn’t be good at all.”

But if — or, more likely, when — he does leave, one thing seems certain: There will be someone else waiting in the wings.

An Impromptu “Mehran Show” Tonight Focuses On Auditions

The Mehran, title character of
The Mehran Show at Mottley's

The Mehran Show usually happens the third Thursday of every month at Mottley’s. This month, that’s getting pre-empted by a St. Patrick’s Day party being thrown by the club’s host bar, Trinity, who will be using all three floors, including Mottley’s basement space, for the drunken revelry. That means The Mehran Show will happen tonight instead, with a line-up made up of comedians practicing for two auditions happening next week at The Comedy Studio.

On Tuesday, Eddie Brill will be in town. Brill will be looking for talent for the Great American Comedy Festival, but he also books the comics for Letterman. Thursday, talent agency Mosaic will be looking at local talent to add to their roster. Tonight’s line-up includes Matt D. (both), Tony Moschetto (Mosaic), Bethany Van Delft (Mosaic), Kyle Ploof (Brill), Andrew Mayer (Brill), Raj Sivaraman (Brill), and Jenny Zigrino (Brill), with a couple of more comics possibly jumping in late.

Mehran, who is on the bill for the Mosaic show, says he has done somewhere between ten and fifteen auditions, which doesn’t necessarily make him feel like a veteran of the process. "It's not like I'm one of these battle-scarred road comics who can tell you about the Vegas cattle-call of '02,” he says. “From the relatively short list of audition showcases I've been on, I can say that the trick is probably not to get too trapped in your head about it, don't forget to stay in the moment and have fun and do your strongest material that sums you up the best but you're also feeling the happiest with on that particular day."

“These auditions are based on a cumulative preparedness,” he adds. “It's not like we got a script that morning or had to write new material to suit the fancies of a particular booker (at least not that day.) These agents come to see what we already do.”

Neither of these auditions is likely to make or break any comedians career. But it could mean a significant step up and open doors for them eventually, to future festival appearances, or even a Letterman spot. What you see tonight at Mottley’s could be the very beginning of a career path toward New York City or LA.

The Boston Comedy Interview: Nate Johnson and The Great Boston Molasses Comedy Disaster Show

Nate Johnson turns the 1919 Molasses
Flood into comedy.

On January 15, 1919, a giant storage tank burst in Boston’s North End, flooding the area with roughly two and a half million gallons of molasses, killing 21 people and injuring more than 150. A little less than a hundred years later, Nate Johnson figures we are ready to laugh about it.

Johnson brings his Great Boston Molasses Comedy Disaster Show to Mottley’s tomorrow, with stand-up from Matt Donaher, Dan Boulger, Ken Reid, and Lamont Price, and sketch featuring Johnson, Tim Vargulish, Ryan Douglas, Maria Ciampa, and Sean Sullivan. Apparently, there will also be a group called the Burnin’ Love Sauces on hand to hawk 1919 Molasses BBQ Sauce, and a local band called Hot Molasses.

I caught up with Johnson by e-mail to get a few more details.

What led you to write a show about the Great Boston Molasses Disaster? Are you a history buff?

Yeah, I’ve always been a kind of history nerd, especially as I’ve gotten older. The molasses flood I’d known about for a while and really wanted to do something about it-whether it was a bit or a character or video or whatever. Doing an entire show about it provided all those options.

This was actually a tragedy at the time – how do you turn it into comedy?What’s the structure of the show?

There’s a little thing I like to say-time plus tragedy equals Thursday night comedy show. It’s always tricky writing anything about something that people could potentially find offensive. But if you’re just going with your reaction-which in this case, for me, was, “Wha? Seriously? Molasses?!”, then, ideally, the audience will get that and understand the intention isn’t malicious or disrespectful. The show is structured so there’ll be bits about the actual event, broken up by comics, with the goal being that people learn about this weird thing without feeling beaten over the head by it.

How does the stand-up fit with the overall theme? Are Matt, Dan, Ken, and Lamont going to taper their sets to the night?

Of the comics on the show, I think Ken’s the only one I heard do a bit about the molasses flood and Dan has some great history material. But the comics are really there to kinda break up the show and not make it too molasses-heavy. I’m just shooting for a funny show that I’d want to go to.

How did you put Tim, Ryan, Maria, and Sean together for the sketches?

I’d had them all in mind when I was putting the show together and knew I wanted some sketch. Doing sketch at Mottleys can definitely be challenging, but I feel pretty confident because I’ve done stuff with all of them before and they know the space pretty well. Also, they can all do excellent ethnic accents that no one will find offensive.

Who are the Burnin’ Love Sauces?

They’re a local saucier that makes a BBQ sauce called 1919 and molasses is an ingredient in it. It’s a great sauce and I thought it’d be fun to have them sell their stuff at the show. Plus, I don’t think there are enough shows with barbeque sauce vendors at them.

Who is Hot Molasses?

I’d really wanted a band to play at the show and found these guys online. They’re from Somerville and sound kinda like the B-52s. They’ve got a new EP coming out soon and they’re debuting a song about the flood at the show. Yeah.

Any plans to visit other Boston tragedies? Race riots? The 1986 World Series perhaps? Stephen Tyler?

Totally. I’m actually working on an operetta about the Charles Stuart murder and a 2-act play about the Blizzard of 78 performed by puppets.

North of Boston: Mike McDonald Presents His Tenth Annual Comedy XXtravaganza For Charity in Portsmouth

If you happen to be in north of Boston or in the New Hampshire area Saturday, Mike McDonald had put together a great show at The Music Hall in Portsmouth. It’s his Tenth Annual Comedy XXtravaganza, and McDonald will be performing along with Ken Rogerson, Joe Wong, Matt D., and Christine Hurley, plus music from The Boston Naturals.

“I started doing it cause I wanted a theater setting for great comics to interact with a great audience,” says McDonald.

It’s an interesting mix of younger comics and veteran talent. So how did he choose the comics, I asked? “I needed a Chinese guy, a chick, a kid who’s never gotten laid, and a guy in recovery,” says McDonald. “Well. Actually I picked these comics cause they can all throw heat.”

The shows, as usual, will benefit charities, this time the Green Alliance and the Seacoast Food Pantry. “We hook up with some local charities every year to give something back from the show to the Seacoast,” says McDonald. “It’s tough out there and anything we can do to raise a little awareness. I picked [the charities] with my co-producer who lives in Portsmouth. I’d look over the cause and the website and if I was onboard with what they do, we go with them.”

Click here for tickets.

Gary Gulman tops the bill at Steve Macone's Holiday Show and Toy Drive

Gary Gulman at the Burren's
Slightly Better Christmas
Spectacular Wednesday

The usual Wednesday night comedy contest at the Burren is being pre-empted this week for some special guests and a toy drive to benefit the Somerville-based Toys for Local Children. Macone is calling it his "Slightly Better Christmas Spectacular," because "the toys will be helping children have a slightly better Christmas and people can expect, at the very least, the show to be slightly better."

Gary Gulman is dropping in, supporting his new album, All I Want for Chunukah Is Christmas. Also on the bill, Matt D, Rob Crean, Tim Vargulish, Shawn Donovan, Maria Ciampa, Kate Ghiloni, Matt Kona, and Chris Fleming. Josh Gondelman and Zach Sherwin (aka MC Mr Napkins) may also drop by, depending on if they can get to Davis Square from the Wu-Tang show at the Wilbur in time.

Macone says a few more comedians may wind up stopping by last minute. 

Boston Comedy Festival finals wrap up

Darryl Lenox

The Boston Comedy Festival wrapped up Saturday at the Wilbur with an efficient night of comedy and a strong line-up, basically split into two moving parts – the competition finals, with eight contestants, and two awards, given to Boston Comedian of the Year Joe Wong and the Lifetime Achievement Award going to Robert Klein. There were only two other comedians on the bill, Darryl Lenox and host Jim McCue. And where this event has sometimes dragged in the past, it felt winnowed down to a trim formula this year.


Lenox opened the show before running to do his own headline spot at Cheers. It’s a shame there was so much going on Saturday night – Comics Come Home at the Agganis, Jim Gaffigan at the Wang, Juston McKinney at Nick’s, the Festival finals, Todd Barry at the Hard Rock, and a strong local line-up at Mottley’s. Lennox probably got lost in the shuffle, especially opening on a show against his own show, and he deserves better. If the chance comes around to see him headline again, take it.



Matt D.

It was a pretty strong crop of finalists this year, as well, probably the strongest in recent memory. It was equally split between out-of-towners (Saleem Muhammad, Nate Bargatze, Nick Cobb, and Will Sylvince) and Boston comics (Mehran, Matt D. Lamont Price, and Orlando Baxter). There was no one on the bill for the finals that felt tacked on or not polished enough to have made it onto the show.



Orlando Baxter


The Boston contingent was especially strong, including Baxter, who has improved by leaps and bounds since I last saw him (and it had been a while). I was wondering, before the show, how Matt D. would fit in. He’s a deadpan absurdist, rattling off joke after well-constructed joke. But a lot of the comics had big energy and big personalities. It would be easy for him to get lost in that, but that didn’t happen. Matt D. had a great set dense with one and two line jokes.

In a Boston Comedy Festival first, there was a tie for first place between Nate Bargatze and Saleem. Will Sylvince came second, and Nick Cobb came in third. Which means the Boston comics trailed the field. There was a certain amount of parity among this group, but that doesn’t make the results any less puzzling.


Nate Bargatze and Saleem Muhammad

Contests are always subjective, and it’s impossible to know the mind and tastes of the judges. And the fact there was a tie for first may mean the tally for each comic may have been roughly the same. I’d be surprised if there were more than two or three points difference from the top to the bottom of the bill. And when it comes right down to it, how does two or three points translate into a meaningful comment on someone’s comic talent or ability? That may also be why only Bargatze and Saleem were actually announced at the show – I asked afterwards about the rest of the order.


Joe Wong

The second half of the show was loose and entertaining. Wong had a great set, accepting his plaque for Boston Comedian of the Year. He talked about playing the Festival in 2003, and meeting Eddie Brill, who books the comics for David Letterman in 2005. Wong noted that Brill told him when they first met that Wong was on his way to the Letterman show. Wong addressed the comedians from the competition, saying, “So if Eddie Brill has not told you this yet…”

Robert Klein was fantastic. His resume is long, stretching over more than forty years, and Klein had a little fun with his introduction for his Lifetime Achievement Award. Standing next to McCue and listening to a list of his accomplishments, Klein began to hunch over and tremble, aging as McCue spoke.


Klein accepts his award

 In the past, the Lifetime Achievement winners have often bantered for a few minutes, done a little shtick, accepted the award and left. Klein, however, is still an active, working comic, and he wasn’t going to let an audience of roughly 600 people get away without some stand-up. Klein accepted his award, and then McCue seemed a bit surprised when Klein took the mic and started doing material. McCue stood in the background, waiting for Klein to wrap up, and when Klein noticed, he asked him if he had anything more to say. McCue slunk off while Klein launched into what would be a 25 minute set.

Klein started to wax nostalgic about coming to Boston with The Apple Tree in 1966, previewing the show before its Broadway run. Not all of the memories were good – Klein stayed at the Avery Hotel, which he called a piece of shit, while the big stars stayed at the Ritz. He was all over the map, material-wise, delivering a loose, casual set. He talked about having to “shtup” Joan Rivers in a movie, and how she tried to sell him bracelets during the scene. Industrious woman.



Klein backstage

Maybe the best part of a show like this is what happens backstage. Klein has always had an affinity for comics, and when the show was over, he was huddled up with the younger crowd, letting them pick his brain a bit. The comics seemed to soak up the advice, thrilled to have a brief audience with a legend, all the better for just having seen that legend crush in front of the same audience they had just played.
Price cracked up at the after party, talking about Klein backstage, busting chops over the price of a scotch at the Wilbur. And no matter how the contest ended, he said, being on that bill was the prize.

Dump on Joe Wong Night, Five New Jokes at the Burren tonight

Joe Wong has been getting a lot of praise lately, appearing on Letterman, Ellen, and at the Radio and Television Correspondents Dinner. So it’s about time he took a few lumps. Dave Rattigan plans to put Joe through the ringer tonight at the Burren with “Dump on Joe Wong Night,” where a few comedians who know Joe well will give him a kind of mini-roast.

“Comics are all asked to preface their material with an insult of Joe,” says Rattigan.

Who says the comedy scene isn’t sane and loving?

The night will also feature the 5 New Jokes contest with Joe, Matt D., Chrissy Kelleher, Jim Bowes, and Jim McQuaid. Every comic has to do five new jokes they wrote that week to qualify (Rattigan is always at the clubs and books a few rooms, so he’ll probably be able to tell a comic’s new material from something more road-tested). Rattigan hosts the show.

The Burren is in Davis Square. Show starts at 10PM.

The Comic in Residence Interview: Matt D

The Comedy Studio’s Comic in Residence program is made for comics like Matt Donaher, known to comedy audiences as Matt D. He’s been doing comedy for less than two years, and is already one of the scene’s sharpest up and coming comics. His deadpan and penchant for one or two line jokes has earned comparisons to Steven Wright, and a friend of mine, Derek Gerry of The Whole Truth on WMFO, has compared him to Woody Allen.

He’ll be playing at the Studio Tuesday through Sunday, every night through the month of June.

When did you start doing comedy?

I started doing comedy in February of 2009.

How often have you played the Studio?

I get to play the Studio about twice a month.

What other clubs do you play?

Mottley's Comedy Club, The Funny Bone, Catch a Rising Star...I end up playing less clubs and more high school graduations and art space type deals.



What local comedians have influenced you?

Myq Kaplan without a doubt. Steven Wright is also a favorite of mine, as well as Jonathan Katz. Sometimes it's hard for me to separate 'people I really enjoy' and 'influences,' but those are the guys I listen to from Boston and say, "I want to be like that someday."

What's the average number of gigs you've played in a month before this?

I am usually out every night, thankfully there are enough places to do that in New England.

How will you approach your time -- work on new stuff, refine older stuff, or a mix of both?

Work on new stuff and trying to solidify a seven minute set, so a mix of both. I'm glad you had that option ready.

What do you expect to have gotten out of the experience when the month is over?

I'm not sure what I expect, what I hope to get is five more minutes of jokes, and be strong enough to kick the show off to a good start every night. I do expect to have a lot of fun though.