I founded the Heavy Hitters of Comedy in an effort to help comedians promote themselves to industry professionals and comedy clubs as well as the fans of comedy. Over the years, I’ve helped create websites for such experienced talent as John Ratzenberger, Bryan Callen, Greg Fitzsimmons, Orny Adams and Jimmy Shubert just to name a few. The experience has been extremely enlightening, as I’ve learned that people often have a hard time understanding how effective technology can be. Our goal is to create online applications that comedians, comedy clubs and industry professionals can utilize through emerging technologies and the Internet thus helping comedy professionals stay up to date and in front of technology changes.

The Heavy Hitters of Comedy offers the online tools that give comedians the ability to provide information regarding their professional comedy careers. Our Comic Profiles give the comedian a place on the Internet to provide comedy specific information like biography’s, links to community websites, videos, high resolution headshots, interview questionnaires, twitter feeds and event posts.

November is also an exciting month for our members, as we will be releasing the Comedian Career Tracker tool, which is an innovative way for a comedian to keep track of their career as well as market themselves to industry professionals. The tool provides the resources to record and share data such as performances, audience statistics, fan ratings, experience level, industry specific data and all other aspects of a comedians’ career. We believe this is currently the best way to track and monitor our comedians’ success.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. The Heavy Hitters of Comedy’s will continuously invent and create new applications to make technology work for the comedy community as well as continuously enhance its current applications. If there is something you would like us to focus on such as web design or web promo kits, please let us know as are here to help you succeed.

Sincerely,
Mike Casentini
President
Heavy Hitters of Comedy

God Bless America

Every time I open a newspaper these days – well OK, no one reads papers anymore, but I do go to their websites, and of course there’s always the 24 hour cable news cycle – the point is every day there’s a news story about some hardworking family from the middle of the country. Usually accompanied by a video or photo of an honest looking blue-collar couple on the verge of tears. Through suppressed rage, the man describes how he has worked hard all his life, and now the same companies that he has entrusted his money to for decades have just thrown his world into chaos. The tearful, yet courageous woman says something to the effect of I’ve never been late once, not since I got the card/loan, and now my payments have tripled over night.

Chuck and Jeanne Lane of Ohio, were recently featured on CNN, and after nearly twenty years with the same credit card account, the good people at Chase Bank, have forced the couple to choose between surgery for Jeanne and college for their son, or Chase’s new extortion scheme.

What virtually every credit company is doing right now is deplorable. With the Exception of Bank of America and Discover, and let me say it takes a lot to get me to say something good about Bank of America, but these two companies have voluntarily frozen their interest rates until the new credit reforms go into place in February. The rest of the Lending institutions around the country appear to be issuing virtually no new credit, and are rushing the gates to come up with innovative ways to fleece their current customers before the regulations close the door on these despicable practices.

The Chase Bank Scam the Lane’s fell into is a particularly nasty example of extortion. The Lane’s were offered the credit card as a low interest credit card. Now that Chase has decided low interest isn’t in their best interest, they have given the Lanes only two real options. Forgo any surgeries and get their son an application at Wall Mart, or be strong armed into staggeringly high new interest rates for their low interest credit card.

God Bless the Free Market Enterprise. To add insult to injury, Chase and the other Members of the Chamber of Commerce are spending billions of dollars to fight a federal consumer protection agency. I’m shocked the fellas over at chase can walk with balls that big.

While I wholeheartedly support socialized medicine, and believe that healthcare and education are not things that should be for profit. I say pay the people who work in these industries well. In fact I believe teachers should make as much money as doctors, and need as much education. I just don’t believe the companies that do business in these arenas should be for profit.

Imagine how much easier it would be for administrators of hospitals and medical facilities to balance their budget, if they didn’t have to generate all that revenue for the rich white guys who own stock in the companies.

The Great American Lie is “If it’s profitable, and it’s legal, than it’s moral.” It truly escapes me how these people can sleep at night. Oh yeah I forgot, on bags and bags of money.

Jay London

The other night I witnessed something quite remarkable.  In a city full of aspiring Comedians, often talent can be found lurking in the shadows of small venues and workout rooms.  Rumor had it that a young comedian I had heard good things about was going to be performing at The Ramada on Vermont.  The Top of The World Bar in the basement of the Ramada has been a starting point for many talented comedians, and a recognized workout room for professional comedians.  The eclectic mix of guests staying at the hotel offers a unique opportunity to try out material.

When I arrived at the Ramada last Monday night, the audience consisted of two hotel guests, the performing comedians, and me.  I immediately began questioning my excursion.  On a night when The Jay Leno Show was premiering and the first Monday Night NFL game was airing, it was no surprise that the guests may have been locked in their room favoring the TV over live entertainment.

The comedians began taking the stage for one lackluster performance after another.  The two hotel guests looked as if they might have another twenty minutes of attention span at the most.  Then I caught a familiar figure out of the corner of my eye.  Jay London was in the corridor with a notepad, going over some jokes before going on stage.  Now I wasn’t surprised to see him, as he is known for working out at rooms like the Ramada around town.  I was surprised by how focused he seemed.  He was actually warming up like this was a show he was getting paid for, and not a workout room with two legitimate fans in the audience.

Suddenly the urge to flee the scene was replaced with excitement.  I’ve long been a fan of Jay London, his self-deprecating humor, witty one-liners and outlandish wardrobe, always put a smile on my face.   Jay London bounded onto the stage and launched into his routine.  Consummate professional is not a phrase that previously entered my mind when I thought of Jay London, but it is now.  For about twenty minutes Jay had the two hotel guests mesmerized and every comedian there glued to their seats in front of the stage.

After his set, Jay quietly said goodbye to the room Booker and the bartender, shook a few hands and went on his way.  It was truly remarkable to see a professional dedicated to his craft.  It didn’t matter how many people were in the room.  Jay London had some material to work out, and that’s exactly what he did.  My hat’s off to Mr. London, all those aspiring comedians, not to mention many professional comedians out there, could take a lesson from Jay.

Career Crossroads

I am often amazed by how many mediocre people I encounter in this world, that have reached pinnacles of success in their careers.  While so many gifted and talented people seem just out of fortunes grasp.  As I move from club to club, night after night, I see talented and hilarious people performing just outside the spotlight.  Why does success elude these people with such efficiency?  After observing, interacting and analyzing comedians, three major factors seem to be at play:  ego, ambition, and professionalism.  I know it is counter-intuitive, but while talent is a necessary prerequisite, the degree of that talent is increasingly less of a factor in one’s success.

Like most creative people, the talented comedians I have met, struggle with insecurity and self-confidence.  On the other hand, most of the marginally talented, extremely successful comedians I have met could barely fit their egos through the door.  The simple belief that they belong is a powerful thing.  An abundant ego allows a comedian to brush off a bad night, shove aside the memory of a heckler, and bound onto stage the next time.  Now, the battle between ego and insecurity is a natural and productive debate.  Allow ego to get to far out of control, and you’re no better than the drunk patron who decided it was time for crowd participation.  Allow insecurity to seep too far into the forefront of the brain, and one’s confidence is shaken, and your performance is sure to suffer.  Finding a balance between ego and insecurity seems pivotal to any comedian’s success.

Let’s take a look at the purpose of ambition — it is the motivation to complete tasks and overcome adversity in the pursuit of success.  Ambition lands somewhere between greed and apathy.  Many greedy people have made huge fortunes through efforts fueled with greed, but I ask you are fortune and success the same thing?  I say no, particularly with in the realm of comedy.  Greedy people aren’t funny.  To be a professional comedian means that you are being paid to provide laughter to your audience.  To be a successful professional comedian means you have garnered a relationship with your audience.  Crowds are fickle and can usually smell insincerity a mile away.  Conversely a comedian with apathy usually doesn’t make it out of the open mic, bringer, and coffee house shows.  Yet the ambition to work on your craft, develop a tight set, and bring it to as large of an audience as possible, is laudable.

“Opportunity is missed by most people because it comes?dressed in overalls and looks like work.”?  — Thomas Edison

I agree with Mr. Edison, that you must work to create your own opportunities.  Be a professional: work hard on your material, pay your due’s, do your time on stage, and above all promote yourself.  Many comedians I know go to great lengths to promote themselves, but their efforts are misdirected.  In the post and go world, where anyone with a hand held video recorder and a youtube account, can be a “star” on the internet, the world of comedy has become confused.  As a professional comedian, I don’t believe it’s in your best interest to add your material to a site where you are lumped in with these aforementioned posters.  Nor is it beneficial to post all of your material for the world to see from their PC.  Paramount doesn’t post entire downloads of it’s movies when they release in the theaters, they post trailers to entice people into the trip to the theater.  Rule number one of business: don’t give away the product, if people are willing to pay for it.  Like it or not, every comedian is a business.  Comedians must make wise business decisions to remain viable.  Develop and distribute adequate marketing materials, develop and cultivate professional relationships with in the world of comedy.  Most important of all, conduct yourself in a professional manor.

At the end of the day, if you carry yourself with integrity, you will be met with respect. Handle your affairs in a professional manor, and you will be given professional courtesy.  And above all believe in yourself.  There are many successful people with less talent and more belief than you.  Why shouldn’t you find your opportunity?  Why not you?

About eight years ago, I came out to Los Angeles with a big dream of becoming a comedian. I had just started performing comedy about six months before moving to LA so I was pretty much, as you can guess, a newbie. In fact, I was such a newbie that I wasn’t even considered GREEN, I was INVISIBLE!

Shortly after my move, I immediately started making my rounds at all the major comedy clubs like the Improv, the Comedy Store, the Laugh Factory and so forth. I even worked the small venues and the bars with the make shift stages and even the places with no stage at all. I found that each comedy club came with their own rules, their own audience, and their own clicks but I always had two goals in my mind – To win laughs and to become a regular.

I met all sorts of funny individuals in that process, from the experienced comedians to the wannabes like myself. It was cool meeting the celebrities in the beginning, but then I quickly realize that they were just like me. The only difference is that someone gave them a chance, but guess what? I was the one on deck. So what could I do?

I decided to approach those that were further along in their careers than I was. I’ve always had lots of questions and I’m confident, but not enough to just start asking away at things. Fortunately, I was able to develop smart relationships with individuals that were working and continued to get more and more opportunities. All the while hoping that a little, no, a lot of their success would rub off on me.

Then, instead of waiting, I decided to take a chance. I asked the one question most commonly asked by comedians, and that is…“How long does it take before you make it to the next level?” The most common response I received was “EIGHT YEARS!”

So, it takes more years to become a comedian that it does to become a doctor. You know what? Maybe it should!