Archive for beauty bar

The road to Portland

Posted in Beards of Comedy with tags , , , , , , , , , , on January 25, 2011 by Joe Zimmerman

Slacked on my daily update but Andy posted for San Francisco and Santa Cruz on the Beard site.

http://beardsofcomedy.com/2011/01/25/west-coast-day-7-update-from-andy-from-santa-cruz/

-Notably, we stopped by Rooftop and Annie hooked us up with Andy Wood from the Bridgetown Festival, who was randomly in Santa Cruz. We didn’t have a special guest, so it was another nice coincidence in a string of small world connectors.

The drive to Portland involved an amazing view of Mount Hood – a huge white behemoth that dwarfed everything on the horizon. I guessed that it was between four and twenty miles away, and everyone proceeded to laugh at me. They laughed right in my face. A big SUV full of bearded dudes, laughing at my poor judgement of distance. Justin (from Atlanta magazine) said it was at least 100 miles away, if not a lot more.  All I know is that ten minutes later, it was nowhere to be seen.

Sunday in San Francisco involved a bizarre two-hour radio spot.  At one point we realized there was a random Asian guy in the studio. He appeared high, and middle-age, and when the host asked who he was, he just smiled and laughed. Nobody knew who he was, as both parties had just assumed he was with the other. I’m not sure he even knew English.

(Three Hours Later)

It’s dark now, and the giant mountain is in front of us again, blocking out the moon. We must have circled back.

* **
Here we are at the Hoover Dam. Andy and I played the game, “who can stare over the bridge railing the longest without panicking from fear of heights” and we both lost.

______________________
Portland tonight is the only free show of the tour, 8 pm at the Beauty Bar with special Portland guest Richard Bain.

Day 3: Las Vegas – George Maloof and his Icelandish A capella Trio

Posted in Beards of Comedy, Humor Column with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 22, 2011 by Joe Zimmerman

Early on in our show at Beauty Bar, Julie (our publicist from Better Than Nothin’) pointed out that George Maloof, of the Maloof brothers and owner of the Palms Casino, was right outside. I figured it couldn’t hurt to invite him in.
“Are you George?”
“Yes.”
“Beards of Comedy inside. You can come in free.”
(As if the owner of the Palms would care about a ten dollar cover).

The bouncer interrupted, “Oh, he’s got frequent flier miles here.”

Stupid bouncer, you live here. I only come to Las Vegas once, ever. Let me have my Maloof moment.

George said he was waiting for a “group,” which I took to mean he wasn’t coming in.

I went back inside thinking, “That’s cool I spoke with a Maloof brother,” before realizing, “No, that’s not cool at all.” I barely spoke to him. He didn’t give me money. I didn’t get a picture. Nothing. Fortunately, there would be a Maloof encore.

The Beauty Bar is a standing room only rock club and as the show progressed, the crowd of fifty spiraled toward rowdy. There was a magician/burlesque group up front who were loud and heckle-y. They were Kris Angel fans, and I wish I would have remembered that I randomly have Kris Angel’s number. I could have called him, handed them the phone, and yelled “mind freak! But I didn’t think of it, and they remained unimpressed with our lack of magic.

I went on last, as George Maloof walked in with three sparkling women. He approached the stage:
Maloof: “Can my friends sing?”
Me: “Who are your friends?”
Maloof: “They are an A cappella trio from Iceland.”
Me: “Sounds great.”
Maloof: (hands me one-hundred dollar bill)
Me: (I like rich people)

I introduced “the Charley’s” to a smattering of applause. The performance was awesome, and by “awesome,” I mean here a picture from their website:

I watched side stage, and was thankful that my set was going so well. I snapped some pics to document my new closer:

Afterward, George bought two Beard t-shirts, and asked me to plug the Palms. That’s when I realized we had just picked up a fourth sponsor: George Maloof of the Palms Casino, Sacramento Kings, and various other wealthy things.

Sponsor update:
Brown Paper Tickets
Rooftop Comedy
TrueShip Software
The Palms Casino

Everything I hoped for from that initial encounter happened, and it makes me happy to know that Maloof might wear a shirt with my face on it.

Today is TJ’s birthday and we are headed through the desert to Los Angeles for a show at Meltdowd, with guest Kyle Kinane. Kyle’s CD topped the charts this year, he filmed his Comedy Central presents, and he is an all around comedy beast. So come out, or tell a friend, or send TJ a birthday poke.

Blurry proof of George Maloof:

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