STAGE TIME Magazine: Comic Progress Report

NEW RELEASES
DVDs
Alex Borstein
Drop Dead Gorgeous

Comedy Jump Off
Mark Demayo,
Smokey, Mike Shawn,
Ruperto Vanderpool
and Antman

Pablo Francisco
Ouch! Live From San
Jose

Ralphie May
Girth of a Nation

Carlos Mencia
No Strings Attached

Latin Legends of
Comedy
Joey Vega, Angel
Salazar and JJ Ramirez

Paul Lynde
An Evening With

Lewis Black
Red, White & Screwed

Katt Williams
Live

Michele Balan Live!
(Just Barely)

Bob & Tom Radio:
The Comedy Tour
Drew Hastings, Bob
Zany, Greg Hahn and
Mark Armstrong

Kevin Hart
Live From the Laff
House

Neil Hamburger
The World's Funnyman

CDs
Wanda Sykes
Sick & Tired

Doug Powell
Doug the Helicopter
Pilot

Greg Giraldo
Good Day to Cross a
River

Christian Finnegan
Two For Flinching

Whitest Kids You Know

Russell Peters
Outsourced

George Lopez
El Mas Chingon

Demetri Martin
These Are Jokes

Norm MacDonald
Ridculous

Greg Behrendt
Greg Behrendt Is
Uncool

Blaine Smithson
Live at Club Flamingo

Books
The Book on Hosting
How Not to Suck As An
Emcee
Dan Rosenberg

Backstage at The
Tonight Show: From
Johnny Carson to Jay
Leno

Getting the Joke: The
Inner Workings of
Stand Up Comedy
Oliver Double

Live From Middle
America: Rants From a
Red-State Comedian
Brad Stine

STAGE TIME - Features

Comic Progress Report:
Did They Keep Their New Year's Resolutions?
Billy Bingo, Vince Cummings, Pat Alder, Chris McDevitt,
Joanne Syrigonakis and Shaun Eli

Last winter, we selected six comedians to share their top five comedy goals for 2006. As
promised we are tracking their progress. Comics will receive a final progress report in the
next issue.

Billy Bingo

In progress: 1. I would like the sitcom that I co-wrote, Guns and Hoses
to become a TV show.

I have submitted my sitcom treatment to industry in NYC and California
and received positive feedback. One of the largest comedy
management agencies in NYC told me they want to read the pilot once
it is written.

In progress: 2. I'd like to be able to perform 30 minutes of clean material.

I have written 20 minutes of clean material.

In progress: 3. I would like to get some TV commercial work.

I have auditioned for several commercial agents. I participated in a TV pilot that was shot at
Caroline's in June called Kill or Be Killed.

Success: 4. I want to be a ''guest host'' for a day on Good Day New York.

I appeared on Good Day New York along with Colin Quinn to promote my annual FDNY Bravest
Night of Comedy. Vanessa Alfano was the reporter and we spoke on camera throughout the
whole two hours of the show live from a firehouse in Manhattan. It was just my luck that Tiki
Barber was guest hosting for that week.

Success/In Progress (Pass at City club) 5. I would like to continue pursuing my goal to
"pass" at a club in the City and follow up with the clubs I've been in touch with to be "SEEN"
in the future.

After performing at Governor's, the owner told me he would give me paid weekend spot. I
am still doing late night spots at the Comic Strip and management likes me, but still haven't
added me to their roster.

For more info on Billy, visit his website www.billybingo.net.

Vince Cummings

Success: 1. I will do more feature spots than guest spots.

I have been able to do more feature than guest spots.

In progress: 2. I will start on my first movie.

I have been in talks with my partner/agent for my script.

Success: 3. I will remember that stage time is a privilege not a guarantee.

I value stage time more than ever.

Success: 4. I will remember that stand up is more fun and a dream than a job.

I still think stand up should be more fun then just a job and I realize that it is a business.

In progress: 5. I will send Stage Time magazine my fifth goal and create a website.

My fifth goal is to continue to help out the newer comics and start writing sessions to not only
help them, but to help myself. As for the website, MySpace is still free.

Pat Alder

Success: 1. Convince Hudson Valley clubs that comedy doesn't conflict
with music "open mike" nights.

Some clubs weren't all that crazy about allowing a comic to burst into
their "music" space, but a few were more than agreeable. I did a few
weekly ones in Poughkeepsie.

Success: 2. If the first goal is a problem, I will travel more to NYC.

I've performed shows in NYC.

Success: 3. NO bringer shows!
The joy of open mike nights in the Hudson Valley. A few friends have come along, but
nothing enforced.

In progress: 4. Write more.

I have not kept this as well as I would like.

In progress: 5. I will travel more outside New York.

I took a trip to Seattle this past August.

For more info on Pat, visit her website
http://www.funnyladypatalder.homestead.co m/patalder1.html.

Chris McDevitt

In progress: 1. Produce a clean TV set.

I've written about 20 minutes of clean material in the past five
months. The key is whether it's as good as it is clean.

Success: 2. Go international (Canada).

I performed at the Great Canadian Laugh Off at Yuk Yuk's in Toronto February and snippets
of my set have been featured on the Comedy Network in Canada and Canadian XM.

In progress: 3. Perform in two or more festivals.

I performed in the New York Underground Comedy Festival this year, and if you consider the
Laugh Off a festival, then that's two.

In progress: 4. Produce a DVD.

The material and set have been prepared. It was filmed in June at the Comedy Cabaret in
Doylestown/Cherry Hill.

Not Started: 5. Produce a 20-30 minute CD.

This will be done depending upon the marketability of my newer material and the success of
my DVD. Still holding off on this one.

For more info about Chris, visit his website www.chris-mcdevitt.com.

Joanne Syrigonakis

In progress: 1. Write at least 10 minutes a day.

Writing is more sporadic than I would like.

Success: 2. Find a comedy buddy that I can meet with once a week.
Success: 3. Realize that comedy buddy is unreliable and then find
ANOTHER comedy buddy.

Instead of one comedy buddy, I just bother everyone I know with new material.

In progress: 4. Don't hang myself when I do screw up.

I haven't hanged myself, yet.

Success: 5. Lose weight then realize that losing weight will make me unable to do fat jokes
and quickly eat a pie.

I started dating a guy that likes big girls, so bring on the pie!

Shaun Eli

In progress: 1. Get on stage at least 200 times.

100 times as of May 30, 2006.

In progress: 2. Completely memorize an hour of material so that I can perform for an hour
without thinking of it as six 10-minute segments.

This goal might have been rather ambitious for someone in his fourth year of performing,
but I can easily perform for a half-hour and I'm continually adding new material.

In progress/Success (short video)3. Get a good, solid video worthy of sending out to get
feature work; and a shorter video to put on my website so that my visitors can actually see
and hear me perform.

A 10-minute taping in June and several fifteen to twenty minute taped spots later this year.
I have a six minute video on my website, but I want to replace it with a better, more recent,
set.

In progress: 4. Take the show I’m putting together, Ivy League Comedy to a major NYC club
and have it added as a monthly show; attract national press and possibly launch a tour
performing at the eight Ivy League schools and other cities.

The April Ivy League Comedy Showcase, at one of the Ivy League alumni clubs, was a big hit
and we're going back as part of the New York Underground Comedy Festival.

Success/In progress: 5. Be noticeably better at the end of 2006 than I am at the end of
2005.

Already there. I've revised the goal: to be noticeably better at the end of 2006 than I am
now.

In progress: 6. Set more than five goals because the more goals I have, the more likely it is
that I will actually achieve one of them!

I haven't started thinking of goals for 2007 but I do want to put together at least a few
minutes of material that's about me and what makes me unique, rather than doing all
observational comedy.

For more info about Shaun, visit his website www.brainchampagne.com and
www.IvyLeagueComedy.com.

The Magazine That Stands Up For Comedy