Brian Hope Comedy

Well….10 days in a row clearly didn’t work. A lot has happened since I last blogged – I went to Ottawa to Absolute Comedy in November and had GREAT SHOWS. The best I’ve ever had there. The Sunday show is always the weakest because you’re comparing it to the rest of the week but it was still good. Me like telling joke in Ottawa. I don’t know what it is about that club (www.absolutecomedy.ca) but the crowds are always awesome. I ran into a bunch of old friends while I was there including my old military buddies (we went to the Legion on Rememberance Day to buy a beer for a veteran – and many for ourselves), old high school buddies and people I used to work with. It was a pretty busy week and I only had to work a max of 3 hours per night. But there’s always beer after so it turns out to be a pretty late night.

Last night I did my 3rd Christmas show of the year. So far, so good. Knock on wood. When you do Christmas shows you’re not typically going to “kill”. Your goal is to beat the memory of the chicken that they just had.

Overall it went really well. We weren’t signing autographs after the show but the crowd had a great time (except the old table in the back-left corner – we just say that they weren’t able to hear us) and so did we. It’s always satisfying on the drive back to know that we didn’t ruin a Christmas party. That’s only happened once……London, Ontario 2008. Let’s just say I did an inappropriate joke right after a service award for someone who passed on. And no, it wasn’t about the person…..but the joke hit a little too close to home me thinks so from then on I’ve learned to ask the organizer if they’re giving away an award to a dead guy.

The organizer for last night’s show asked me if I was interested in MC’ing a conference of theirs in 2012. That would be WICKED but obviously it’s a couple of years away – she may get a new job or forget me altogether – but I’m writing this in my blog so I can send it to her in 2 years to remind her. Now I just need someone to remind me that I’m supposed to send this and it’ll be perfect.

I’ve got a show next week in Peterborough and the week after for Scotiabank so it’s turning out to be my first real Corporate season. I had a couple last year but I’ve got 7 or 8 this year so it’s steadily improving.

For New Year’s I’ll be in Cobourg….jealous? There for a show that I’m headlining (I didn’t book this one – came through a buddy of mine) and then Andrew and I will be heading to Belleville to watch Jason Blanchard headline a show that I booked for him. We’ll probably crash in Belleville for the New Year as it’ll be a bit of a drive to get back and it’ll be past midnight so there will probably be a drunk or 2 driving back as well. Might as well play it safe and crash in Belleville.

I’m hosting the Fox and Fiddle open-mic tonight at 10pm – I run and book the show weekly so I’m meeting a lot of the newer acts in Toronto. Some are pretty good but I’ve noticed nobody likes to stick to their time. I’m going to start not booking repeat offenders for 2 months as the show is going a little long every week. I’m not sure why no one keeps track of time anymore….maybe that’s an old-school comic thing.

My website is getting redone as well – we’ll see how it turns out. It’s going to be more user-friendly but probably not as pretty as the one I have now.

Well….10 days in a row clearly didn’t work. A lot has happened since I last blogged – I went to Ottawa to Absolute Comedy in November and had GREAT SHOWS. The best I’ve ever had there. The Sunday show is always the weakest because you’re comparing it to the rest of the week but it was still good. Me like telling joke in Ottawa. I don’t know what it is about that club (www.absolutecomedy.ca) but the crowds are always awesome. I ran into a bunch of old friends while I was there including my old military buddies (we went to the Legion on Rememberance Day to buy a beer for a veteran – and many for ourselves), old high school buddies and people I used to work with. It was a pretty busy week and I only had to work a max of 3 hours per night. But there’s always beer after so it turns out to be a pretty late night.

Last night I did my 3rd Christmas show of the year. So far, so good. Knock on wood. When you do Christmas shows you’re not typically going to “kill”. Your goal is to beat the memory of the chicken that they just had.

Overall it went really well. We weren’t signing autographs after the show but the crowd had a great time (except the old table in the back-left corner – we just say that they weren’t able to hear us) and so did we. It’s always satisfying on the drive back to know that we didn’t ruin a Christmas party. That’s only happened once……London, Ontario 2008. Let’s just say I did an inappropriate joke right after a service award for someone who passed on. And no, it wasn’t about the person…..but the joke hit a little too close to home me thinks so from then on I’ve learned to ask the organizer if they’re giving away an award to a dead guy.

The organizer for last night’s show asked me if I was interested in MC’ing a conference of theirs in 2012. That would be WICKED but obviously it’s a couple of years away – she may get a new job or forget me altogether – but I’m writing this in my blog so I can send it to her in 2 years to remind her. Now I just need someone to remind me that I’m supposed to send this and it’ll be perfect.

I’ve got a show next week in Peterborough and the week after for Scotiabank so it’s turning out to be my first real Corporate season. I had a couple last year but I’ve got 7 or 8 this year so it’s steadily improving.

For New Year’s I’ll be in Cobourg….jealous? There for a show that I’m headlining (I didn’t book this one – came through a buddy of mine) and then Andrew and I will be heading to Belleville to watch Jason Blanchard headline a show that I booked for him. We’ll probably crash in Belleville for the New Year as it’ll be a bit of a drive to get back and it’ll be past midnight so there will probably be a drunk or 2 driving back as well. Might as well play it safe and crash in Belleville.

I’m hosting the Fox and Fiddle open-mic tonight at 10pm – I run and book the show weekly so I’m meeting a lot of the newer acts in Toronto. Some are pretty good but I’ve noticed nobody likes to stick to their time. I’m going to start not booking repeat offenders for 2 months as the show is going a little long every week. I’m not sure why no one keeps track of time anymore….maybe that’s an old-school comic thing.

My website is getting redone as well – we’ll see how it turns out. It’s going to be more user-friendly but probably not as pretty as the one I have now.