3 Comedy Shows In 3 Nights... Is It Possible? March 29, 30, 31 2007

The Plan...

A few weeks ago my friend Haydn Porter and I were chatting on AIM and I mentioned that I was thinking about going to see Jim Florentine at a local comedy club. That comment sparked a conversation that hatched an awesome plan for these two huge Howard Stern fans... Three comedy shows in three nights... with a Superfan Roundtable appearance thrown into the mix.

At first we were just planning to go see Jim Florentine. Then we started looking to see who else might be in the area at the same time so we could try to go see other shows as well. Then we found that Rev. Bob Levy and the Killers of Comedy would be at Caroline's on Broadway around the same time. That worked out perfectly because it was on a Thursday night, the same night as Superfan Roundtable. Things were falling into place too easy. Haydn got herself booked on Superfan so I did the same thing asking Mutt to be on the same night with friend Haydn. I hadn't done the Superfan Roundtable since December 6, 2005 even though I had been asked back a few times. My fear of failure kept me from doing it again... until Haydn talked me into it.

So now we had two comedy shows and a radio show to do together. Then I remembered that Artie was going to be at the Borgata in Atlantic City the next night. I knew that the show was already sold out but figured that if I asked for a favor from the great Bob Levy, he might just be able to come through for me. Well, he did. Bob, being the very generous man he is, told me he could set me up with four passes to that show. So there it was... Three comedy shows in 3 days. Caroline's on Thursday after Superfan Roundtable, Artie's show at the Borgata on Friday and Jim Florentine at The Stress Factory in New Brunswick, New Jersey on Saturday.

Haydn had to fly in from Oklahoma to do all of this, that's why we were planning on cramming all of these shows into this short amount of time. Maximizing the fun and hang-out time between friends. She also wanted to bring a friend she has who works at SIRIUS so we made the plans for four people.

Show Time

Thursday, March 29... Time for Superfan Roundtable. My wife and I headed up to SIRIUS so I could attempt not to make a fool out of myself in front of thousands of fans listening to Superfan Roundtable. This was also the first time my wife was going to meet Haydn so that made me a little nervous. It's not easy to explain to your wife that you're really good friends with an 18 year old who was going to be in a Playboy issue. Things did work out pretty well later in the evening so I'll say a quick ''Whew!'' to that.

Superfan Roundtable worked out pretty well. This time I was a little more prepared than I was the first time I did the show. I still think I suck on air but everyone told me I did fine. Whatever. The only reason I was there was because Haydn had asked me to do the show the same night. If she hadn't been there, I wouldn't have been there. There was an unexpected surprise that night though. I got to meet the brand new Miss Black Howard Stern, Charlie Super Fly, who turned out to be very sweet.

After Superfan Roundtable Haydn, me and my wife headed down to Caroline's Comedy Club to see Rev. Bob Levy, Sal the Stockbroker (with broken wrist and black eye), Richard Christy, Shuli, Geno Bisconte (who gave me a shout out up on stage) and others. The show was great, we got to hang out with a bunch of the guys from the show before and after the show. I also met a couple of fans of my site which still, to this day, boggles my mind.

Haydn even had the pleasure of having Rev. Bob telling her how he'd like to eat her young, 18 year old ass without the blue cheese dressing he usually pours in his unsuspecting victims volunteers. Bob didn't do that part of his act that night but I have a feeling that he would have done anything to get Haydn up on stage for that.

After the comedy show we all headed back up to SIRIUS to drop Haydn off with her friend Mike. We all hung out a little bit more until my wife and I had to get going at around 1:30 in the morning. The trip home was a disaster but I'll spare you the details. I will say that I think I got out of a speeding ticket by mentioning that I had just been on Superfan Roundtable though. Whew! Thanks officer!

Uh Oh! So Much For Planning...

On Friday had to drive down to Atlantic City for the Borgata show that Artie was doing. We got there about an hour or so before show time. I figured that would be plenty of time to pick up the tickets that Bob Levy had reserved for us. Little did we know that the show promoters and/or The Borgata kind of screwed them over with comp'd tickets there and we had no tickets to get us in. Haydn was on her way down with Mike and was running a little late but it didn't matter all that much since we didn't have a way to get in anyway.

After a bunch of phone calls I did manage to get up to one of the green rooms where Rev. Bob Levy was supposed to be. He wasn't there but I did get to hang out with Otto from SternFanNetwork.com for a few minutes. Otto managed to get green room passes for two people... not quite what I thought was going to happen, but who am I to complain? We did eventually manage to get everyone up to one of the green rooms where a bunch of Artie's old high school buddies were hanging out. We watched most of what was left of the comedy show from that room on a closed circuit TV they had in the room. Not exactly like watching the show with 2,500 other crazed fans, but, once again, who am I to complain? I was just happy to be there.

We got to see some of Bob Levy's act and all of Artie's. Haydn and Mike went out to the crowd and watched some of Artie's act in the audience. Sal the Stockbroker was also there and did his Baba Booey Dance which is the same dance that led to him breaking his wrist the week before. This time Artie made sure he didn't fall off the stage.

After the comedy show we all headed over to where Artie was hanging out. I had said a quick hello to him earlier in the evening but didn't want to bother him too much so I just left him alone. Haydn managed to get thrown into his small entourage for a short time and vanished for about a half hour. We all met down at this snooty club 'Mur Mur' a little later and ended up getting booted from there, before even getting in, to another bar in the casino. Since Haydn was under age, she wasn't allowed in so we all bailed out and just headed back to the hotel we were staying at. We spent some time just talking and laughing in our room having a great time before everyone went to their rooms.

That night I just thought ''Whew! That was close!'' We almost didn't get into that one. I'm sure everything will work out just fine on Saturday at the Stress Factory... or will it?

Oh No! Here We Go Again...

One More Show To Go. This shouldn't be a problem at all. I'd spoken to Jim Florentine a couple of weeks before this show and it sounded like we were all set to go to the 8 o'clock show at the great Stress Factory comedy club in New Brunswick, New Jersey to see the show. Things started falling apart early in the day. First we weren't sure if Haydn was going to be able to make it because she and Mike had dinner plans. Then I found out she had gotten car sick on the drive home from Atlantic City and they weren't going to be able to make the 8 o'clock show. Ehh, shouldn't be a problem, Jim could probably get them into the 10:30pm show. Little did I know that both shows were already sold out! That just shows how friggin popular Jim has become over the past few years. The guy is huge!

Here's a funny side story about Jim Florentine. I've always loved the Grand Theft Auto line of video games for the Playstation 2 video game console. Recently I got a copy of the newest game, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories, and started playing to kill some time. In the game you car-jack cars and while you're driving around you can listen to various ''radio stations'' in the vehicle. I was changing stations at one point and heard this belch on a talk station (VCPR), but I kept changing channels trying to find some music. About 2 seconds later I thought to myself that the belch sounded very familiar... like it was someone I knew. Then it hit me. That sounded an awful lot like Jim Florentine! Could it be Jim playing the voice of this character on the radio? I quickly went back to that ''station'' and immediately recognized Jim's very distinctive voice. Then it hit me that I had recognized Jim by his friggin burp. It was very strange to say the least.

Okay, back to the story. My wife and I got to the Stress Factory around 7pm and gave our name to the gentleman at the front desk. He searched his reservation list and found nothing. UH OH! Screwed again! He let us know that the show was sold out, but knowing that we were friends of Jim's, he put us on the list and let us in. Whew! Lucked out on that! Good thing Haydn couldn't make it to the 8 o'clock show because we may not have gotten in if we had 4. I asked the host if they had anything open for the 10:30 show. Nope, sold out! Damn this wasn't going right at all.

I figured that maybe Jim could pull some strings and get Haydn into the 10:30 show. Unfortunately I was wrong. Jim tried but since they were sold out, there was little chance of getting them in there at all. I made the call to Haydn giving her the bad news. Luckily they hadn't left for the club yet so they didn't make the 45 mile drive for no reason. She was also very understanding and didn't have a problem with it at all. Unfortunately I was so distracted during Jim's performance on stage that I couldn't enjoy the show. What I did see of Jim's act was hilarious though. Jim and the rest of the guys who were there with him were all very funny.

So three comedy shows in three days didn't quite work out the way we expected. I still had a great time though. I'm pretty sure everyone else did too. Haydn did tell me that she was very happy the night we were hanging out at Caroline's so that was good sign. Going to those comedy shows is always fun. Can't wait for the next one! And maybe, just maybe, I'll have the balls to do Superfan Roundtable again one of these days. This time I won't wait a year and a half before going back... maybe. We'll see if Haydn can talk me into it again.