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Due to strong, early demand for tickets, a second show
has been added to The Blackout Diaries:
Friday July 29th @ 9 PM
The Lincoln Lodge
$10 (buy online)
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| posted in
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07/06/2011 06:35 pm
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 The Blackout Diaries is a critic’s pick by Metromix: True Tales of Booze Fueled Decisions
Also, “The Blackout Diaries” now has an official webpage here. Stop by for all links on tickets, press and more.
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07/04/2011 06:37 pm
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Hello all, I’m excited to announce a new comedy project I’m launching in July called “The Blackout Diaries”. The short of it is: comics tell amazing but true stories. The audience then ask questions.
Here’s the top level details, along with the official press release, which probably explains the show better than I could.
The Blackout Diaries
OVERVIEW / DESCRIPTION:
4 of Chicago’s funniest comics tell true stories of booze, crazy nights and questionable decisions. You then ask questions.
The Blackout Diaries: a comedy show where there are no stupid questions.
Last summer, Sean Flannery debuted a critically acclaimed one man show about the last ten times he nearly killed himself by accident (“Never Been to Paris”). It ran short the first night so he took questions from the audience. The Q and A session was so popular, it was eventually incorporated into the show.
The Blackout Diaries is a re-occurring comedy showcase that is fully built around this interactive, question-and-answer model.
Says Flannery: “I think we all have a few amazingly funny stories, particularly on drinking; the kind that are so funny, your friends are always asking you to repeat them to strangers. This show tells those kind of stories. But, when you tell those stories at a bar, everyone always has a dozen questions. This show also allows the audience to ask those questions.”
Think of it as the Socratic method, with lots of tequila.
APPEARING:
Sean Flannery
Prescott Tolk
CJ Sullivan
and more
(some can not be named due to pending lawsuits… that’s how crazy their stories are)
FORMAT:
Each comic will tell a story, all of which are amazing, hilarious and true. The audience, if it has questions –”did any one go to jail?”, “what did your wife say?”, etc– can then ask the comic anything they want, with Flannery moderating the Q and A session.
The comics will also be sharing some photographs and voicemails from the stories, while telling them.
GOAL:
Make every one laugh. The audience leaves, no questions unanswered.
WHEN:
The Lincoln Lodge
Friday July 15th @ 9 PM
$10 (buy online)
all ages (adult content)
The Lincoln Lodge is at
4008 North Lincoln Avenue
(Lincoln and Irving Park)
* one block west of Irving Park Brown Line stop
* free parking lot (spaces limited)
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| posted in
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06/29/2011 07:07 am
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The Catholic Church ruled the Middle Ages, mostly... because they were the only people in town with a clock. -- Old Saint Pat's Fest
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| I’m in several shows during next week’s Just For Laughs Festival:
| Tuesday |
| Chicago Underground Comedy presents,
“Secret Big-Time Local Comedy Showcase”.
8 PM / $5 (buy online) / The Beat Kitchen
I’ll be doing a longer set here, with multimedia.
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| Wednesday |
| The Anti-Social Network.
7:30 PM / $42 -62 (buy online) / The Chicago Theater
opening for Dave Attell, Jim Breuer, Bill Burr and Jim Norton
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| Wednesday |
| New Faces of Chicago.
7:30 PM / $15 (buy online) / Lincoln Hall
From the press release: “This is a showcase of Chicago’s newest and freshest comics… come see which one of our New Faces will make you look really cool at parties for years to come when you can say ‘I saw them when…’”
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| Thursday |
| New Faces of Chicago.
7:30 PM / $15 (buy online) / Lincoln Hall
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| posted in
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06/09/2011 09:32 pm
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FACT: parties have been less fun, the last few years.
INITIAL HYPOTHESIS: I (and my friends) am/are just getting older.
FIRST CRACK IN HYPOTHESIS: football games are not less fun.
SECOND CRACK IN HYPOTHESIS: bars are not less fun.
NEW HYPOTHESIS: ipods are ruining parties.
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I have crunched the numbers. Ipods are ruining parties.
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( first off, before we
even get into the core of the argument, let us all agree: a great song sounds a
thousand times better on the radio-
the same way meat tastes better after you hunted it. You feel alive; as though Nature Herself opened the clouds and delivered the song to you)
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Why are iPods Ruining Parties?
In short: because they are too good. Music no longer stays in the background at parties. You used to talk or laugh or argue above the music at a party- some times barely noticing it, as the CD reached the album’s weak, unreleased tracks; or the station moved to commercial.
Not anymore. Music is now organized by playlists, collections of music the host built over several weeks. His most unique, attention-grabbing songs, and –like a man who wears too much cologne– it dominates your senses into noticing nothing else in the room. How does one talk over unreleased Nick Lowe? Early Public Enemy?
“The Horn Section”
The above is a homeless man who came to one of our parties. When ever someone played a song that was too modern (say, Blacked Eyed Peas), or too indulgent (say, Radio Head), this homeless guy would stop the music, eject the CD and replace it with a Motown album. I would enthusiastically scream, “The Horn Section comes In!“, high-five the guy, and those of us who liked Motown music would dance.
The party was great. People walked room-to-room, drinking; laughing; talking passionately. Eventually The Horn Section would tire of Motown music and the songs would change… until –inevitably– someone would get too greedy and stick-in a “The Flaming Lips” CD. The Horn Section would then charge out of what ever room he was in, stop the CD, insert Motown, and the cycle would repeat.
You are not going to meet a man like The Horn Section at the modern party (I don’t even think The Horn Section knows how to operate an iPod). He has been replaced; outsourced. The Horn Section lost his job to China- where they build gadgets to run our parties.
When a new technology is released, we apply it to every task it can improve, never asking if it makes the wider events and experiences that hold these tasks more fulfilling… I guess what I’m saying –if I have a point– is: you should get drunk with homeless people more often.
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| posted in
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06/09/2011 08:22 pm
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| This week’s Chicago Reader has a great article on the Lyons Den Open Mike, which was a very definitive Chicago comedy show, launching
a lot of now-famous comedians:
When Lyons Roared by
Steve Heisler.
I’m quoted several times in the section detailing the history of Chicago Open Mikes.
I may not be good at • traditional • details, like names and deadlines, but, when it comes to remembering hilariously bad experiences, I’m as encyclopedic a source as you can find.
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| posted in
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06/09/2011 01:14 pm
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(for consideration by the Smithsonian)
Paul Revere’s Midnight Ride, told by Sarah Palin:
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| posted in
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06/05/2011 07:38 pm
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Sammy Sosa burned 700 calories per swing -- Wrigley Field
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I appeared on WLUW’s “Outside the Loop” radio show last week for a roundtable discussion on the Chicago comedy scene. Outside the Loop is a great show that focuses on Chicago stories that are being under-reported by traditional media.
If you’d like to hear a 30 minute discussion on Chicago Comedy, you can listen
here.
The conversation focused on how the Chicago scene is perceived nationally; what are it’s strengths and weaknesses; and what we like and dislike about comedy, in general.
I was joined by the Chad Briggs and The Puterbaugh Sisters, all of whom are very funny.
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06/02/2011 12:37 pm
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The first theater that showed a “talkie” was ripped apart, after the audience thought it was haunted.
-- Loungers
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| Saturday- special free taping of Never Been to Paris
If you never saw Never Been to Paris (or have friends who never saw it), Saturday might be a good day to check it out, for free, at Depaul
University (loop campus). It is being recorded, in HD, between 2 and 4 PM at the Richard M. and Maggie C.
Daley Building. The show is free and BYOB. Please contact me in advance for tickets. No late seating.
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–and– |
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| posted in
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05/11/2011 10:15 pm
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I’m featured in the current issue of RE:COM. RE:COM is a great, new, comedy magazine that focuses mostly on alternative or emerging standup comedy. You can purchase / preview a copy of the magazine at
http://www.magcloud.com/browse/Issue/184936
My article, “Things That Only Exist in Standup Comedy”, stems from a conversation at the bar after a show, where I wondered what the least-realistic topic in standup comedy is. “Easy”, you might answer, “unicorns and ninjas”; but I wanted to talk about the stuff we (comics) present as true –stuff on relationships and jobs– that, in reality, is fiction.
…I don’t think you’d have to be super into standup comedy to enjoy the article, but… perhaps…. or maybe it’s just boring.
Any way-
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When you watch a zombie movie, you never complain that the dead can rise. No, you complain that, despite living in a world with no hot showers, the survivors still look sexy.
I’m that way with standup comedy: I enjoy the big lies; the small ones bother me.
Here is a list of such lies- small untruths that comedians claim to see everyday, but which –in reality– do not exist.
1) Complex Coffee Orders
Comedians are always stuck behind a lady ordering the world’s most specific cup of coffee: “I want half latte, half mochina, all soy, cinamon-in-place-of-choclate, iced drink, with room for sugar, and…“. No one orders coffee like this in real life. Ordering coffee (in real life) is like parallel parking in that you feel all eyes on you- half the time you panic and rush your own order, choosing to screw it up for yourself rather than infuriate a group of strangers.
No one has the chutzpah to walk before a crowd and say, “your morning is less important than how my milk is poured”, which is what such a customer would be stating.
In fact, the entire retail transaction is nothing like comedians claim. You are not, SIR, stuck behind a housewife writing checks- no one writes checks anymore. Checks have been gone for so many years, I wouldn’t even know how to fill one out. I mean, from what I recall, you had to spell numbers on checks, right? Jotting “138″ wasn’t good enough. You had to write, “One Hundred And Thirty Eight“- with your bare hands, like some calligrapher from the Han Dynasty.
And this crap about people carrying too many items through the express lane? Again, this only happens in the world of standup comedy. I have never seen it. Truthfully: I expect to witness a hit-and-run auto accident before I finally see a person attempt to rush 15 items through the express lane.
Finally, don’t get me started on retail-line pranks. Name a place that puts us in lines –airports, banks– and a comedian will give you advice on how to have a little fun in that line, through a hilarious pranks (“turn to the person next to you and –do what I do– whisper, ‘I have the masks, did you bring the guns?’”). Stranger-on-stranger pranks do not exist. You’re more likely to fuck, murder or marry the stranger before you in line, then prank him.
Why?- because there is no possible outcome (of pranking him) that could be more fun than just quietly sitting in line. If he takes you seriously, and runs or gets a guard- you have to explain yourself and now look like a jerk. But, if he recognizes the joke and decides to play along (“NO- I thought today was the bomb day; I’m wearing a bomb”), well, now you are stuck in an even worse situation: an atrocious joke that neither of you know how to end.
2) Hand Jobs
Hand jobs are the go-to sexual punchline for comics, yet they never occur in real life. Hand jobs are probably so common in standup because it is the funniest sounding sexual maneuver. Most female misdirection jokes end with her giving the guy a handjob (“he didn’t get my name right; he vommitted in the sink… yep, I gave him a handjob”) and male comics tend to talk about it like it’s asking for a stick a gum (“I mean, Jesus ladies, can’t I at least get a handjob”). Hand jobs, however, don’t exist in the real world- to this end, they are like tigers: extinct in the wild, yet somehow we still talk about them constantly. Most adults would sooner abstain than ‘endure’ a handjob. If forced to choose, I can think of only two scenarios where a handjob would develop (in adult life):
• one of you has a bad leg injury
• you are staying at a cheap hotel where the doors don’t shut properly
3) Internet Porn
OK, I can’t claim that internet porn, something that accounts for 35% of all downloads, only exists in the world of standup comedy. But no one watches as much internet porn as male comics claim to view and NO ONE gets caught as often as they bemoan. Getting caught looking at porn happens exactly once in a man’s life- and then he changes all habits. It’s like a mini September 11th, in that you tighten every aspect of security and marvel at how lax you used to be: “Jesus, I wasn’t even locking doors beforehand”.
And, once you tighten that security, it is now, in today’s age, impossible to get caught looking at porn. The modern browser –just like the modern oven– cleans itself. Google Chrome, which I use, all but assumes you are looking at porn, opening up new windows in what it calls “inconginto mode”. The symbol for this mode is a sneaky, cloak-and-dagger spy. Mozilla is even more brazen: their symbol is an Eyes-Wide-Shut, Venetian, sexual-party mask. I half expect them to call it “Money Shot Mode”, over Private Browsing.
…………………………………………
Regular readers of mine might find this content out-of-character- a blog that is mostly about sex and porn. However, I would point out: I am discussing standup comedy here, and it’s pretty much impossible to have that conversation without it being mostly about sex and porn.
Perhaps you disagree? Or perhaps you think comics don’t really talk about this stuff?- Well, that would make this whole blog a big lie, which, if you recall, is acceptable under my terms.
It was Abraham Lincoln –I believe– who said, “wake up every day and try to tell at least one really big lie.”
That’s still great advice.
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| posted in
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05/02/2011 07:54 pm
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The greatest band of all time recorded exactly one song, which was so good, the music industry forced them to breakup. They were a band for exactly 45 minutes. -- The Coupa Lounge
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Thursday
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| Friday
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Performing in Heartland Cafe’s first standup comedy show with CJ Sullivan
Heartland Cafe present Sean Flannery
8 PM, $7
7000 North Glenwood Avenue
Chicago, IL 60626-2803
heartlandcafe.com
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Final performance of “Never Been to Paris” at Chicago Center for Performing Arts
9 PM, $12 (advanced / $15 at door)
Chicago Center for Performing Arts
Chicago and Halstead
neverbeentoparis.info
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| posted in
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04/25/2011 11:37 pm
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Whales evolved from deer.
In fact, I'm pretty sure it happened overnight, at least when you consider the timescale of a planet.
If you were to put two deer in the ocean, Ron, their grandchildren would be whales. That is a pure, scientfic fact.
-- Castaways
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Screw Emmanuel. I only vote for ugly candidates.
Well, see Franz, 'the game' is always a year ahead of us. Not the two parties, of course, but the bankers and grubstakers that truly run this country. No matter what we want --a war hero, a reformer, a charmer-- they will see it before even you do and have a matching candidate, waiting and ready to sell you out.
But there is a kind of person they will never anticipate you wanting; a kind of a person that is invisible to them: the unsightly.
Always vote for the ugly guy, Franz. He's on your side.
-- Paulie's Tavern
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| The Visitors Locker Room, the sports comedy podcast I cohost with CJ Sullivan, was recently asked to contribute answers to Ego TV’s “Would You Rather” segement. You can read the answers below, or at egotvoline here |
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Would You Rather…paint an entire house with a model plane paintbrush OR mow the lawn at Wrigley Field with a pair of scissors.
CJ: Wrigley with scissors. I am going to quit both jobs a hour into it anyway. At least I can blame the bad lawn at Wrigley on crab grass or weeds. A streaky paint job on a house is like a cougar’s bad dye job.
Sean: Paint the house. I wouldn’t be surprised if they actually cut Wrigley with scissors, given how sacrosanct they treat that park. If I’m painting a house, at least I might be working with some young guys; whereas, at Wrigley, I’d likely have an 80 year old man over my shoulder, screaming “more hustle!”.
Be a bench player on a team for 15 years with one championship OR have three all-star seasons and blow out your knees and never play again
CJ: The all star, because I would have enough money to buy the journeyman’s championship ring, when he is down and out. Plus, I would only have to explain how I got hurt, for the rest of my life- the journeyman has to to proof he actually existed.
Sean: The bench player because, in the long run, fans will forget a three time all star as thoroughly as they have a bench player. Thus, it comes down to walking around town with that ring. It’s your best hope for cutting to the front of the lines or talking your way out of speeding tickets.
Bet your life on the winner of the NCAA tournament OR the Masters?
CJ: The Masters. Both are impossible to predict, but it would be easier to fix the Masters. My threats have a better chance of scaring privileged golfers than division one basketball players.
Sean: Depends- if it’s open to the female versions too, definitely The NCAA tournament. That thing (the ladies tournament) is won by Connecticut every year and there are NEVER any upsets. Plus, if I am wrong, it would probably go down as the biggest bet in female sports history, which is kind of a cool way to go out.
Blow a 30 point lead but be up 2 points with a minute left in the game OR come back from down 30 but still be behind 2 points with one minute to play?
CJ: Blow a 30 point lead. You have the rare opportunity to win twice in one game and ruin the opponents season. You won the initial blowout, and, then, you thwart a historic comeback by stopping them. Somehow the storyline then becomes: they were the ones that choked, for not closing the comeback, hence crushing their spirits twice in one night.
Sean: Blow the lead. First, having a 2 point lead with a minute left is still a sizable advantage, no matter what happened in the previous twenty. Secondly, it’s a no-lose situation for your fans: if you win, they get an interesting victory, but, if you lose, they now have a historic letdown, which they can use as the perfect analogy when ever things are going too good to be true. Any sports fan will chose a lifetime of perfect analogies over short term happiness.
Win $1000 playing cards in Vegas OR lose $1000 but meet a celeb and have the night of your life?
CJ: I would gladly spend $1000 for the night of my life. Although, I’m pretty sure the celebrity would just be a sidebar to it and not the cause. I win a $1,000 at cards all the time, and it usually just leads to $3,000 bar tabs and the worst night of my week.
Sean: Night of my life, for sure. I can say with certainty: if I win $1,000 at cards, my wife is just going to make me buy a dishwasher (which we don’t have). And, while that would speed up the household tasks, it’s a pretty terrible story so I’ll take the night of my life with a celeb.
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| posted in
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04/11/2011 07:30 pm
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| posted in
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04/11/2011 07:27 pm
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| posted in
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03/23/2011 10:21 pm
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