It’s been a bit since I’ve performed any stand-up, but I’ve got a veritable whirlwind of activity with two shows in two nights!  I am just going to collapse on Friday morning.   Tonight I’ll be hosting a really fun line-up of comics at Punk House at Westside Comedy Theater in Santa Monica.  Then tomorrow, I will be doing a set at The Merrill Davis and Friends Show at El Cid in Silverlake.  There is an all-star line-up including Eddie Pepitone and Maria Bamford among several other comics I really enjoy.  Attend!

Already February. So what’s new? As I’ve neglected this site for some time, probably much!

A quick update:

-Spent most of December and early January in New York. Went there for some good ol’ fashioned head clearing, and happy to report that it did the trick. Stayed in Brooklyn, spending my days roaming around the city, hanging with pals, seeing some sights, and freezing my LA ass off. Spent the evenings doing stand-up, drinking a lot of beer and whiskey, and freezing my LA ass of. Because that’s just what you do in New York, I’m pretty sure. Did about ten stand-up shows, including one Be-Bop Heroin Hour which was a lot of fun. Had some great comics at Lolita Bar, including Jordan Carlos, Leo Allen, Kumail Najiani, Tim Molloy, and Liam McEaneany. The place was packed, and the show was well received, so mission accomplished. Overall, doing stand-up in NY had it’s ups and downs, which is about how it goes in LA. Typically, I do a set and immediately decide that stand-up is what I need to be doing for a living, or I do a set and immediately wonder why I subject myself to the pain. The net result was a decision to continue doing stand-up “casually.” We’ll see how that works out. The other fun part of the trip was getting the opportunity to shoot a couple episodes of a web series called “Mister Greenslacks” with comedian Bobby Tisdale. Hoping to get an edit of those together soon.

-Now that I am back in LA I am in transition mode. Still doing freelance video production, with one project due in a couple weeks. After that, the hunt is on for a job, which is promising given the current economic climate! But I’m hopeful something great will come soon. Or at least something that pays real money. Because I don’t know about you, but I like to buy things, like food and shelter.

-Did Be-Bop Heroin Hour at San Francisco Sketchfest this past weekend. It was a total blast, and we packed The Purple Onion and had a really fun time. Had a couple of great line-ups including Eddie Pepitone, Ron Lynch, Matt Champagne, Michelle Miracle, Sean Conroy, Vanessa Ragland, Jordan Carlos, Jeff Kriesler, and as always Chi Chi Lavie, Hugh Moore, and myself with two fantastic bands including The Lee Bob Quartet and The Sharp 4. Hope to do some more Be-Bops in LA and SF soon.

-Currently on Day 16 of a 30 Day plan to work out for at least 30 minutes a day. Half way through and I’ve only missed one day. I say that to brag.

-Other than that, just working on having a productive and focused year. Working on a fun podcast which should be out soon, and planning on a big year in creating more content for the web and beyond. Hope to update this site more often, and have a few other projects in the works. Stay tuned!

1. I am co-producing a new sketch/stand-up show called “Campfirin’!” that will be making it’s debut at The M Bar (1253 Vine St.) on Thursday, August 13th at 10pm. The show is FREE and has an all-star line-up of performers. Stay tuned for more info or visit the Facebook Event Page

2. As you can probably tell, I’ve decided to change WordPress themes. I got a lot of love for the old theme, The Morning After, and I put a lot of work into it, but it was more of a “magazine” style theme, meant for a constant stream of new content. Right now I am looking for more of a portfolio style theme, that still gives me some flexibility to blog leisurely (read: I am lazy). After months of searching, I’ve found one that will be simple to use and has a sharp look to it called Grid Focus. As you can probably tell, the site is currently in “Public Beta.” I am hoping to have working links and updated portfolio, show calendar, and archives soon. ‘Til then, be good.

1. Use logical thought to question how “Crazy” Randy got his nickname.

2. Don’t follow “Crazy” Randy back to his bungalow in the hills.
3. Definitely don’t consume “Crazy” Randy’s “Bathtub Scotch.”

4. Don’t step inside “Crazy” Randy’s “Animal Room.”
5. Don’t drunkenly taunt “Crazy” Randy’s python.
6. When “Crazy” Randy invites you to pet his python, “follow your gut.”
7. When “Crazy” Randy’s python coils up, “Crazy” Randy’s python attacks.
8. “Crazy” Randy’s python isn’t quite finished biting yet.
9. Don’t wear scented facial moisturizer?
10. Avoid looking for new friends at ice skating rinks in Panorama City.

A cool friend of mine who is hip to new and emerging trends told me about a new site this week.  He was very hush-hush about it, so do me a favor and please don’t leak this information!

The site is called twitter.com, and the thing about it is that you can post, or “tweet,” about anything you want.  Then other people who are twitter.com (a very small number of ear-to-the-ground folks) can see these “tweets” and comment on them.

It’s only a matter of time before others catch on, so take my advice and KEEP IT SECRET!  It can be our little private online playground!

So won’t you be my twitter friend?

UPDATE: It’s kinda catching on a little.

JamieFlam.com Oregon readership rejoice!  I will be making my long awaited Portland debut this Sunday Night at The Hawthorne Theater as part of the Bridgetown Comedy Festival.  It’s quite a star-studded line-up, featuring people that get paid by others to perform their comedy.

The deets:

Hosted by Jamie Flam and Hugh Moore
with the musical stylings of Chi Chi Lavie
and of course LIVE JAZZ from Bossambop!

with:
David Koechner (The Anchorman, The Office)
Tig Notaro (The Sarah Silverman Program)
Matt Braunger (Letterman, MadTV)
Michelle Biloon (The Late, Late Show)
Kenny Stevenson (Fries on the Side)
Michael Busch (Human Giant, Miss March)

Check out the Bridgwtown festival site for more.

In other “news,” the Flam Front has been uncharacteristically busy the last several weeks.  Working on a handful of production gigs that have taken me to exciting places including: An orthodontist office (my first inner-mouth shoot!), the Port Hueneme Naval Base (with Judy Carter for an NPR piece — my first audio engineer gig!), and soon will be shooting a web series for small business owners.

My comedy appearances have been random most of this year, but I did have a blast doing the tax-themed Knuckle Sandwich show at The Mandrake last week.  I played Marshall Sprash, CPH (certified public humorist), and with a ChiPs and Beverly Hills Cop 3 reference in the script you know it was a crowd-pleaser.  Finally, in March I made my first appearance at The Hollywood Improv.  The house was packed, and it was nerve wrackingly fun.  I had a solid 5 minutes of material that I knew, as opposed to most of my stand-up gigs when I go up with a piece of paper and 15 half-written jokes.  The show has been a bit of a spark, and I am hoping that the show in Portland will be the first of many in the upcoming months.

Happy Earth Day!

I guess the site is official, now that I’ve included links to it in a mass email, so the stakes have been raised!  I must produce quality content now.  Keep in mind that the site is in official BETA testing mode, so there may be kinks, which I encourage you to send me at [jamie(at)jamieflam.com].  I’m currently employing 12 QA technicians who will make immediate upgrades based on your feedback.

Kisses and also hugs,

jamie

Pictures of The Be-Bop Heroin Hour in San Francisco, taken by Travis LoDolce.

Pictures of shooting for the web series “Manscouts!”, taken by Brian O’Malley.

And a fabulous picture of my new nephew Jordan!

I could go into how life is hard and the economy and being 32 years old and what am I doing with my life and all that business, but it’s hard to do that when I look at these pictures. Pretty sweet when you got a cool new member of the family, you get to do jazzy comedy shows in San Francisco, and you can enjoy a day outdoors making fun of kids that enjoy days outdoors.  Ah, life.

Why the lack of posts lately?  Well, not that I ever established any type of regular posting pattern, and not that I’ve even let anyone even know that this site exists yet, but allow me to explain: The MacBook Pro I inherited from my last job went and had a faulty video card.  And the fine folks at Apple would not replace it because of a conveniently placed dent located near the place where the video card exists.  My bad.  So over  a month without a computer and I finally had to bite the bullet and go and get a new one.  But it’s pretty sweet!

Life is hard and the economy and 32 years old and what am I doing with my life?!?

WINKYFACE!

It’s been a bit since I posted, but I assure you it is due to external forces and not any type of psychological malaise attacking my central nervous system the past few weeks.  Ok, maybe it’s a little of both.  My laptop is on it’s last legs after an Apple Store CPR operation, and my desktop, currently juiced up with RAM to keep me going while I take care of the laptop, now refuses to start.  It makes me want to kick things!  Other items of note: The Be-Bop Heroin Hour in San Francisco was a blast!  I’ll have full recap once there are pictures online.  Other than that, just straight maxin’.  Oh, and you know, making my television debut!  Sure, it may have been 2:30am on a Monday night, but it was Comedy Central, and I already bumped into one person who saw it randomly (as opposed to having Tivo’d it based on my Facebook update).  Below is the clip that was shown on television, as part of a show called “Atom TV.”  The second episode is below that.  There are 7 total episodes, all of which will be released on Atom.com in the coming weeks.  They all star the positively hilarious Eddie Pepitone.  Three of them feature me.  All of them were shot in my kitchen.  More fun facts coming soon!

Snack and a Commercial: Raisins

Snack and a Commercial: F’mores

Friends, family, esteemed colleagues,

I am excited to announce that the monthly stand-up comedy/live jazz show I’ve been producing the last year and a half will be making it’s Bay Area debut this Friday evening at The San Francisco Sketchfest!  I’ve booked a stellar line-up of some comedians, and the only way you can gauge the value I put on the word stellar is to attend this show.  So go!  Here are the details:

The Be-Bop Heroin Hour at SF Sketchfest
Friday, January 16th at 8pm
The Purple Onion in North Beach

Tickets and more info here.

The line-up: Matt Braunger, Josh Fadem, Ron Lynch, Meghan Parks, Eddie Pepitone, Mike Phirman, Vanessa Ragland, and Brent Weinbach.  Their credits include (but are not limited to): Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job!, Comedy Central Specials, The Sara Silverman Show, MADtv, the movie Old School, Comedians of Comedy tours, and more.

And of course I will be hosting alongside Hugh Moore, with the croontastic vocal stylings of Chi Chi Lavie, and jazz trio awesomeness of The Adrian Gormley Ensemble.

Tickets are close to sold out from what I’ve been told, so act fast if you’d like to attend.

If you do miss out, there are still plenty of other amazing shows in the festival.  I like to say it’s a comedy nerd’s wet dream.  But it’s also quite possible that comedy nerds are ejaculating to the idea of the festival while totally conscious.

Warmly,

Jamie Flam