Mark's Friggin' Brush With Greg Fitzsimmons And Al Rosenberg - Saturday, January 16, 2010

This is another quick Brush with Greatness at my favorite comedy club The Stress Factory in New Brunswick, New Jersey.

I've been hearing Greg Fitzsimmons on the Stern Show for many years but I'd never seen him live doing stand-up. Greg has even advertised on my site but I just never got out to see him. Shame on me.

A couple of months back I went to see a Rev. Bob Levy comedy show in Sayreville, New Jersey and met my new friend, Kerri Edelman (alternative rock artist/clinical psychologist who works at a prison!), there. We had a great time at that show so we agreed to get together at other comedy shows. I figured this one would be another good one to meet up at so I invited her to come along. I brought my wife and my friend Clif along to the show as well.

We always get to the Stress Factory early so we can get good seats and eat something before. We showed up about an hour and a half early so there weren't many people in the club. As soon as we sat down I noticed Greg Fitzsimmons was sitting 2 tables away eating dinner and talking to the club owner's son. When they were done talking I hopped up and went over to say a quick hello to Greg just to introduce myself. I figured I'd just say hi real quick and leave the guy alone but Greg asked me to sit down to chat.

I ended up talking to Greg for 10-15 minutes about a bunch of stuff. He's very easy to talk to. My friend Kerri came over and introduced herself too. She and Greg were talking about possibly doing a segment on his radio show. Kerri also gave him a copy of her album ''Leave It All Behind.'' A little while later Greg had to run off to get ready for the show so Kerri and I headed back to our table.

We all ate and just hung out at the table talking. They were playing some music in the club and all of a sudden Kerri heard a very familiar song playing. It was the first song on her album. Greg had come back and asked the guys to play her CD. The club was quickly filling up so hundreds of people were hearing her album. Kerri seemed kind of embarrassed but I thought it was great that they were playing her stuff for all of those people. They didn't just play one song either. They played six!

Greg did a good hour or more on stage. We all enjoyed the show a lot. During his act Greg mentioned that the infamous Al Rosenberg was there. Al worked with the Stern Show when they were at WNBC and had appeared on his K-Rock show over the years as well. More recently Al had been a regular on the Miserable Men Show (Sunday nights from 7-11pm on Howard 101) for quite a while too. I had never met Al so I figured I had to make that happen.

After the show we all headed back to the tiny green room to spend a few more minutes with Greg. Al Rosenberg was in there too so I finally got to meet the man. While we were all talking Al announced that he had quit the Miserable Men Show. I was kind of thrown off by that. I figured he was going to be on that show forever. I didn't take any pictures myself so Kerri sent me the pictures you see.

Unfortunately I didn't stick around long after the show. My wife seemed concerned that we were taking up valuable space in the club or something. The late show crowd was coming in so she wanted to get out of the way even though we weren't really in the way. Yes dear, I'm coming...

And now some plugs:

Check out Kerri's music at KerriEdelman.com. Her album can be purchased at iTunes, Amazon Music, Rhapsody and more.

Find out more about Greg's radio show, podcasts, appearances and more at FitzDog.com. And of course don't forget about The Stress Factory at StressFactory.com.