Notes from the road in Boston, and some video to entertain you
I ran across this video the other day, it a fucking hilarious translation of a freestyle rap battle that Ben Hays and his friend Ryan of www.BenandRyan.com made.
I thought it was one of the best videos I’ve seen in a long time.
Here’s the original rap battle, which is actually just as entertaining and almost just as funny.
I also ran across some video of Evan Tanner talking in depth about life and the lessons that he’s learned along the way.
I received a ton of email from Evan’s fans about my blog entry about his death, so I wanted to put this up for the people that hadn’t seen it yet.
I think it’s a perfect example of what made Evan a really unique and special dude.
I’m in Boston right now in my hotel room at 3:21 in the morning, and I’ve got to leave in 2 hours to head out to the airport, so i figured I would just stay up and write a blog. I had a fucking tremendous time here this weekend.
The show at the Wilbur theater was off the hook. That place is an awesome spot for comedy. It seats a lot of people, but it’s all on 3 separate tiers so it’s really like 3 intimate comedy clubs sandwiched on top of each other for one big, bad ass show.
It’s literally the perfect theater for stand up comedy, because usually when you get over a 1000 people in a room you lose some of the intimacy, but the way the Wilbur is built everyone is right on top of you.
The crowd was fucking fantastic, and I hadn’t been there in almost 2 years, so I got to treat them to all new material.
Boston is where I started doing stand up, and coming back here to perform after I celebrated my 20th year of performing was a real trip down memory lane.
The weekend was also an interesting contrast of then and now, because after doing the historic Wilbur theater in Boston on Friday night, I did comedy at a Chinese restaurant in Chicopee tonight. Chicopee is way out in western Mass, and when I was starting out I did a ton of gigs out there. Back then you could make a decent living as a comic in the Boston area, but you had to do a lot of driving, and much of what I did was way out in western mass. As a matter of fact I did my first paid gig out that way when I opened for Lenny Clarke at a nightclub called Jay’s in Pittsfield.
I had barely been doing open mic nights for a year when I met Lenny, and he not only let me open for him, he also gave me some great advice and encouragement. Lenny had just come off of an HBO performance on a Rodney Dangerfield special and was a legend in the Boston stand up community, so the night was fucking huge for me. I’ll never forget it.
I’ll also never forget all the other times I drove out there, doing comedy nights in local bars and restaurants. It was where I cut my teeth as a comic, so it was a real treat to go back with Joey Diaz and Ari Shaffir and do some old school road comedy.
We had a great fucking time this weekend, and got some funny video that Brian will be editing and putting up as soon as we get back to LA.
I’ll be in Omaha, Nebraska for a gig at the Funny Bone on tuesday night, and then the UFC on Spike TV on Wednesday night, and topping the week off at one of my all time favorite clubs, The Comedy and Magic Club in Hermosa beach, CA on Friday and Saturday.
To keep up with all my gigs so that you don’t miss when I’m coming to your town, sign up for my mailing list.
Thank you to everyone that came out to the shows this weekend, we had a fucking blast!!
[...] http://blog.joerogan.net/archives/237 [...]
Joe,
I’m sorry to veer off topic but I’m going crazy trying to find a clip of a crazy UFC fight between two friends, former team mates from Ultimate Fighter, who met in the ring, had a crazy back and forth fight with lots of high fives and mutual respect, and then it ended with an outrageous double knockout. I seem to recall that you were announcing and were blown away. I’ve searched high and low and can’t find it. Please let me know their names!!!!
Thanks and happy travels.
Ira
Hey Joe, big fan of alot of your work and views of the miracles of experience. i’m luis, also Luis ‘the gorilla’ gonzales 9-3-0 middleweight cagefighter. i think you already gave away the isolation chamber but i thought i might try for a hand out anyway…lol. feel a little like stan. but i’m interested your views you could be regarded as a shauman of sorts. well, later. Lou.
Have you ever heard of the ? Like smiting a virus by slamming the patient with a shovel.
Maybe as a comedian you know how to popularize such an idea. Everybody can feel excessive surveillance sucks but understanding why it even can’t really work but screws everybody else…
it w o r k s
@ Ira
That was Pete Sell vs Scott Smith
Anyone have Joe Rogan’s manager email address? I’m trying to get ahold of someone who runs this site for some advertising opportunities?
I promise I am not a spammer. I work for Yardbarker.com and we currently have blogs for Georges St. Pierre, Arianny Celeste and Frank Shamrock.
Andrew
Check out the worst rap battle ever.
http://www.detroitiscrap.com/archives/1334
Been a little while since I have been on the site Joe. I really enjoy the evan tanner stuff. He was a great guy. I have been following you for awhile. The first time I saw you on Fear Factor my Dad told me that he saw you live before. After reading your story about boston I called him and talked to him. Fuckin amazing….I grew up in Western Mass. Actually born in Pittsfield and lived in West Stockbridge….My Dad saw you at Jay’s that night and a couple other times he said. He moved to East Hampton a couple years after that. He said it might have been in Worcester that he saw you again. He just has two words for you most of the time “Funny Motherfucker”… Anyway thanks again for the great laughs and even better commentary. Somebodies gotta keep goldie straight.
That rap battle was brilliant.