ANOTHER HELLISH GIG, WHICH WE DIDN’T EVEN DO

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This is not an anniversary of anything, just a remembrance of the stamina I used to have in my younger days while pursuing that dream. My partner and I spent the better part of the mid-1970s working in Lake Tahoe, where we met lots of people that thought they could do something for/with us. One […]



IT WAS HELL, OR WARM ENOUGH TO QUALIFY

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As I sit here sweltering in the London summer with the temperature slightly over 20 Celsius after 9:00 PM, it’s still nothing like all those years I lived in Arizona. It was only some seven years after our family had left Tucson and I was now living in San Francisco, where summer usually held off […]



I STILL FEEL A BIT GUILTY, BUT A HACK IS A HACK

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On the last episode of the Comedy Dish podcast I do on Wednesdays with Steven Alan Green in LA (and me in London, shameless plug), we initiated the first of what will be a running feature entitled You’ve Been Hacked. We discuss instances we’ve seen of either comic thievery or blatant hackery. I mentioned the […]



DOING STANDUP DURING A STANDOFF

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This past week, the British ITV Network ran a three part series dramatising the case of a July 9, 2010 incident involving a psychotic by the name of Raoul Moat. Moat was incarcerated for domestic violence, but had served his time, and once released, stalked his ex-girlfriend, killed her lover, and shot her, though she […]



30 YEARS AGO, WORKING FOR A FUTURE POLITICIAN

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1993 started rather miserably, with me getting audited for the only time in my life, but as it turned out, so did many of my show biz colleagues. I knew it was coming as soon as my then-wife and I were called to the auditor’s office. After nearly three hours of grilling from a total […]



OUR FIRST PSEUDO-CELEBRITY FANS

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When I last blogged, I talked about our work fifty years ago with backing musicians, but not about what was going on with the duo act at the same time that was making us something resembling a living. We had linked up with a manager who saw potential in us, but he was limited mostly […]



WHAT I WAS DOING 50 YEARS AGO

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In the mid-90s, when I was working freelance as a stage manager for various plays and one-man shows, I got in a conversation with one of the plays’ directors. I jokingly said, “I’ve worked with musicians, comedians, and actors, and I’m not sure who’s the most neurotic to work with.” He replied, “Well obviously you […]



Remembering Someone Special

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For a change, this is not a celebrity remembrance, because no, I never met Gina Lollobrigida. One of my lifelong friends passed away last Thursday at the age of 76, the first to go from a group of merry pranksters that I formed a bond, and soon after a band, with. Peter Nichols became my […]



AND A BRIEF RETURN TO THAT OTHER CAREER

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Last Saturday, Christmas Eve, I received a text message offering me a New Year’s Eve gig as a vinyl DJ at the King’s Head in Crouch End, the same gig I had every NYE from 2015 to 2019. My last gig there was aptly enough, Friday, March 13, 2020. A week later, we went into […]



“ROCK THE BOAT, DON’T ROCK THE BOAT BABY…”

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1974, Hues Corporation, RCA Records. I’m reminded of boats as Steven Alan Green and I prepare to resume our Comedy Dish podcasts tonight on Facebook. Why I’m reminded of boats is how many comics we’re inviting onto the show that we knew back in the day that are now somewhat dependent on the work cruise […]