Back in the comedy loop courtesy of Sara Jo Allocco

This blog has languished because, frankly, I haven’t had much time for comedy lately. I kindof realized that while it’s fun to go out every night and laugh, that still leaves me with piles of deadlines and not getting ahead in any way with that little thing called a writing career. BUT, I have made some decent progress with my writing and want to try to get back in the swing of things. So this week I not only went to two comedy shows, I performed at one of them! I will have to write about the fabulous Rejection Show another time (though for now you really MUST check out Carolita "Ape-Face" Johnson's post and Flickr set about her performance; she calls rejection "Vitamin R"), it was one of the best ones I’ve been to, but for now I will say that Sara Jo Allocco’s party-formance Take This Job and Shove It, at D-Lounge, last night, was super, super fun. Sara and Brandy just know how to put on a show. They also managed to book me, and if it were anyone slightly less adorable, I’d have said no, because I vastly prefer the comfort of my computer screen versus being live on stage in front of actual people.

But I said yes, and of course left what I wanted to say until the very last minute so had typed out maybe half a page, like the two sentence setup to what I wanted to talk about, then hauled ass over to D Lounge. I discovered that the way to get me to your event on time is to make me think it starts an hour earlier than it does. I couldn’t be bothered looking up Brandy’s original email, so I just went by the flyer, which said the party started at 7. I got there, and found out the party was at 7, show at 8. So I went to Whole Foods to get some food, and while there also got salt and vinegar potato chips for Brandy, a chocolate Rice Krispie Treat for Sara, and mini cupcakes for the crowd. See, since I’m not a performer, I get crazy ass nervous. Last night I wasn’t so much, but still, I figured that even if I sucked onstage, I could feed people and also have mega cleavage on display to help mitigate my not-funnyness.

So I had time to be all girly in the back room and catch up with Miss Lianne Stokes, whose eyeliner (MAC, of course) I coveted, and wound up booking her for my awesome November 15th lineup for Comic Sex Night at In The Flesh (how awesome is my fucking lineup? Sara Jo Allocco, Claudia Cogan, Jessica Delfino, Julie Klausner, Todd Levin, Mindy Raf, Lianne Stokes, Baron Vaughn and music by Adira Amram - total shameless plug but it's my blog and (will be) my birthday, so please mark your calendars!) I got to meet the lovely Anya Garrett, who takes all those HOT photos of Sara and Brandy for The Kissing Booth. Sara had all these printouts of job performance reviews which cracked me up.

I got to see Sean Crespo, who I’m pretty sure I haven’t seen before, though I’d heard his name. He talked about a few really bad jobs, culminating in a sleep deprivation study, a thermometer up his ass, and getting in trouble for jerking off, but I think the best part of his set was this hilarious impression of this gay kid on a cruise singing “Fame.” You kindof had to be there, sorry (this is another reason I’ve slacked on the comedy blogging; you pretty much have to be there for all of it). After the show we talked about managers, free shows, and The Comedian Who Shall Not Be Named.

Jon Friedman, who today was conducting business via BlackBerry from a freight elevator (We are having a sandwich/cupcake picnic tomorrow! Food! Fun! Come to Prospect Park!), talked about working as an office manager at an Internet startup and the infamous “mirror hat” letter, but even more entertaining was his tale of folding clothes at Ann Taylor Loft.

Michael Cyril Crighton made us all jealous of his upcoming trip to Ireland, and grossed us out with tales of homeless antics across the street from his job. He also shared how he gets hit on by phone at work, and also is often mistaken for a woman on the phone.

The show ended with an awesome musical medley with Sara and Brandy, who kept announcing how drunk they were on stage each and every time.

Anyway, I had an awesome time, and got to trash my heinous old job where I thought I would die during the blackout. I also found out about all sorts of cool comedy stuff going on that I’ve been too out of the loop to know about. I caught up with John O’Donnell, who I’d last seen drunkenly dancing with Becky Donohue at Kambri and Christian’s wedding. I mentioned Claudia’s name and he’s like “oh, I’m doing a show with her.” Hello? MUST I be the last to know? Well, I will tell you: they are doing a new show called Check Your Cool every Tuesday at Parkside. John passionately defended the coolness of Parkside Lounge, and I will admit, the Ms. Pacman and free entertainment are great. I’m lazy, though, and it’s just far enough from the train that I’m sometimes not so up for going, but I do want to check it out.

Carol and Sean told me all about the upcoming Drink at Work shows, including a very special September 11th show. I try to not really make plans for that day, because it somehow seems wrong to go off and have a good time, yet I find memorial stuff a bit too morbid. As I said to them, anyone who can make me laugh about 9/11 I will totally give props to. It was a lot of fun and was cool to see and meet some new (to me) comedians, plus D-Lounge is super convenient. In fact, tonight D-Lounge is home to Sweet Paprika at 10:30, with Michael Brill, Sean Crespo, Susan Prekel and Roger Hailes is there, and next week, September 1st, they’ve got Jess Wood, Rena Zager, Josh Grosvent and Adam Lehman).