Headlines July 29 – 31

Mark Pitta began his stand-up comedy career on a bet. It was at a comedy club called The Punchline in San Francisco and his college buddies thought the class clown didn’t have the guts to go up on “open mike” night that Sunday. This was 1981. Mark took the dare and hasn’t left the stage since.

After honing his skills the next three years at clubs like the Holy City Zoo, The Other Cafe, and The Punchline- Mark left the Bay Area for Los Angeles and his dream of appearing on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. On August 21 1990, he walked through those famous curtains as Johnny announced his name.

“It was surreal,” says Mark. “I really didn’t know I was on until I watched the show later that night on my own TV.”

When Johnny Carson left The Tonight Show, Mark didn’t. He added five more appearances with Jay Leno.

Mark’s other credits include Comedy Central’s The A List; Premium Blend Make Me Laugh and Dr. Katz. Mark also hosted Fox Television’s Totally Hidden Video for 2 seasons plus NBC’s Friday Night Videos. Mark also landed acting roles on 3rd Rock From The Sun and Mad About You, the same year he wrote and starred in a pilot for NBC.

Mark has toured with Howie Mandel, Celine Dion, Vannessa Williams, and Paul Anka.

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Click Here To Watch Mark’s Video on YouTube!

Thursday, July 29, 2010 – Sacramento, CA

The Cedric The Entertainer show that had been scheduled at the Sacramento Memorial Auditorium last Saturday, July 24th and rescheduled for  today, July 29th, was unexpectedly canceled by the promoters. Attempts to contact the promoters were unsuccessful. Calls to the Sacramento Memorial Auditorium box office voice mail confirmed that tickets purchased could be refunded at place of purchase.

Headlines July 29th For One Night Only!
This Show Has Been Canceled!

Cedric “The Entertainer” is best known for his crowd-pleasing roles in the recent hit films BARBERSHOP with Ice Cube, BE COOL with John Travolta, MADAGASCAR (animated feature), INTOLERABLE CRUELTY with George Clooney, and THE ORIGINAL KINGS OF COMEDY, MTV’S documentary feature directed by Spike Lee. Additionally, in April 2004, Cedric was star and producer of the box office hit JOHNSON FAMILY VACATION (ranked the #1 comedy in America for two consecutive weeks).

On the big screen, Cedric has also been seen in THE HONEYMOONERS (in which he starred as Jackie Gleason’s famed character “Ralph Cramden”…with thumbs up from Roger Ebert), LEMONY SNICKET with Jim Carrey, MAN OF THE HOUSE with Tommy Lee Jones, BARBERSHOP 2, BIG MOMMA’S HOUSE with Martin Lawrence, KINGDOM COME with Whoopi Goldberg, SERVING SARA with Matthew Perry, as well as displaying tremendous vocal talent in DR. DOLITTLE 2 and ICE AGE.

He will next star in THE CLEANER opposite Lucy Liu, MR. LUCKY co-starring Bruce Willis, JOHNSON FAMILY VACATION 2, FLASH co-starring Nelly, PREACHIN’ AIN’T EASY and the animated feature CHARLOTTE’S WEB.

Tell them you saw it on SacramentoComedy.Com!

Click here for Reservations and to buy tickets!

Click Here To Watch Cedric’s Video on YouTube!

An AmericasComedy.Com Interview

Comedian Cedric The Entertainer is one of the hardest working men in the entertainment business. Perhaps you love him from his roles in Barbershop, Be Cool or The Original Kings Of Comedy. You may have became a fan of his voice-over roles in Madagascar, Charlotte’s Web or The Proud Family. Maybe it was his staring role in the hit Johnson Family Vacation. Anyway you look at it, Cedric IS “The Entertainer.”

Even with his success as an actor, producer and director, Cedric The Entertainer is coming to Sacramento’s Memorial Auditorium and going back to his roots of stand up comedy.

We spoke to Cedric, (Mr. Entertainer?), by phone as he was recovering from a minor surgery performed last week.

Have you ever worked in the Sacramento area before?
Yeah, I was in Sacramento about 3 years ago at one the local clubs and then at, I think the same venue that I am playing on Thursday, so it’s been awhile.

Fantastic! I know that you rescheduled from Saturday, and you tweeted out that you had some minor surgery.
Yeah, I had a little hernia I had to take care of.

Everything’s Okay now?
Yeah, I’m ready to get back at it, you know, I’m up moving around and doing 110 crunches a day, so I’m good. (chuckling).

Cedric, you are truly a complete package as an entertainer. You act in comedies and dramas, animated movies and plays on Broadway. You also write, direct and produce. What gives you the most satisfaction?
I started with stand-up and I think that probably ranks pretty high up there with the opportunity to get immediate reaction to your thoughts and commentary. Having that audience response so immediately, is one of the greatest satisfactions.

I also enjoyed directing my first movie and I look forward to seeing what people think about that when it comes out.

Have you decided on a title yet? I heard it was a toss up between “Chicago Pulaski Jones” and “Dance Foo Fighting.”
We decided that the title is “Dance Foo – The Legend of Pulaski Jones” (laughs)

So, nobody won, but you just compromised!
Yeah, (chuckling), at least that’s settled.

Most people don’t know that before you were Cedric “The Entertainer” you were Cedric “The Insurance Salesman.” What was the big step you took that put you on the stage?

I started stand up almost the same week that I started at State Farm (Insurance), and it was kind of weird that I felt like my life was calling at the same time I found the best job that I had ever had since getting out of college. But I worked for State Farm for over 2 years before I decided that I could do comedy full time and so I just built my initial career around St. Louis then got an opportunity to tour on a national tour with the Funny Bones comedy clubs and that’s when I decided to go for it.It was a relatively short period for most comedians. I know a lot of guys that put their 13 or 14 years into their careers before they got a real break.

I always knew I was a performer. My mother was a school teacher and was all about the education in our household and I remember trying to convince her to let me know to a performing art school where I could sing in talent shows and stuff like that. I have always had a knack for it. But I didn’t really try to act until I was out of college.

The story about how you got the “The Entertainer” moniker was that you wanted to charge more money so you had to do more time.
Yeah, (chuckling), You know comedy is all about time. The opener does 10 minutes, the feature act does 30 minutes and the headliner does an hour, so when I started, I wanted the money for at least the 30 minute guy.

I didn’t have a lot of material so I would sing songs, do poetry, paint pictures.I would do whatever I had to do. They said I was entertaining and the guy (MC) kept calling me a comedian and I said, “No, don’t call me a comedian, call me an entertainer.”  So, he introduced me as Cedric “The Entertainer,” I had a good show, the name stuck and that’s what it’s been.

You have a daughter who’s 6 years old and a son who’s 9 years old. You have done a lot of animated shows and movies including; Charlotte’s Web, Madagascar and The Pride Family doing voice overs and you worked with Oprah Winfrey. How do your kids react to watching and hearing their dad?
They do get more excited about the other people in the films though I do love telling the story that my son had no idea who Oprah was. When I was doing Charlotte’s Web, we (Oprah and I) were in the studio together at the time and I said to my son, “This is Oprah Winfrey,” and he goes “And you do what? Do you know that my dad is Cedric The Entertainer?” (laughing) and I told him, “There you go son, that’s telling her!”

You’ve worked with so many of the greats in comedy, sports, actors and even politicians, who have you most enjoyed working with the most?
I guess I’d have to say that I have had the most fun working on the “Barbershop” movie with Ice Qube who is a very interesting character to work with. We had great laughs with Jim Carrey on “Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events,” and also in “Be Cool” with John Travolta, he was actually a very cool dude too. He liked to sing old Motown songs on the set and we had a good time.

Is there anyone that you still want to work with on projects that you haven’t yet?
Yeah, even though I kind of got to work with him while doing voice work on “Dr. Doolittle 2,” I still would like to do something with Eddie Murphy. Something big like a comedy where there’s a lot of comedic minds there and we’re all having a great time. I also have the opportunity to work with Tom Hanks in his latest movie, “Larry Crowne” so that’s a big deal. Eddie Murphy will probably be someone on the top of that list  that I would want to have the opportunity to be around and laugh, do something funny and create something special and unique with.

Is there any one project that you have worked on that you look back and say, “I wish I hadn’t done that?”
No, not really where I wish that I hadn’t done it. The Honeymooners was something that I really enjoyed and it was a big brand. We had another idea that we were going to do when we started off and then the studio got involved and changed it and made it something else. It was one of those things where I wish we could have done our original ideas. It would have been a lot funnier and more true to the characters that Mike Epps and I were going to bring to it. At one point it didn’t turn out that way. It was such a big franchise and we would have had the opportunity to make so many more and add to it’s success. Sometimes you just look back on it and say, “man, that was really disappointing!”

The bigger the budget the less control you have?
The less power you have. You don’t have the say in the overall direction of the movie. We had  a new executive come in on the movie and change the movie into something he thought would make sense. He was trying to make a name for himself at the studio. You had to deal with the politics of that and that’s what was going on. You end up falling prey to studio politics.

I heard that you were interested in doing more TV. Do you have anything in the works?
We are developing a couple of different things. The title of one project is “Anger Management” based on the Adam Sandler, Jack Nicholson movie. It’s a sitcom so it would be about me as an anger management therapist who actually has anger issues of his very own. It is set in Brooklyn, New York and I am looking forward to doing that. It is still in early development though.

I’m also developing a reality show where I show up and kick in on people’s family reunions where I try to convince the families to try to eat better. We thought it would be fun to go to family reunions, Superbowl parties and anytime people are gathered together, eating wings and drinking beer and I’m like, “Alright fool, can we change this out and try something different?”

You’re one of the hardest working people in the business. Do you have any thoughts of taking a break or retiring anytime soon and just kicking back and enjoying life?
I’ve always kind of set my eye on being 50 years old and being able to down shift a little bit. I have about 4 or 5 years left for that. Yeah, I’m definitely planning on being able to slow down and travel and enjoy life and just do the fun things before I’m just old and gotta do it on a cruise ship. I just want to be able to still cause some debauchery and trouble, maybe get on the news!

Cedric The Entertainer is appearing at 8:00 PM at the Sacramento Memorial Auditorium, 1515 J St., Sacramento, CA, 95814 Tickets Here

An AmericasComedy.Com Video Interview

Iliza Shlesinger is sweet, smart and sexy. In addition to being the first woman winner of NBC’s Last Comic Standing in Season 6, she is also the youngest person to win that honor.

In a fortuitous turn of events, AmericasComedy.Com caught up with Shlesinger in the green room at the Pepperbellys Comedy Club in Fairfield, CA where she graciously allowed us a spur-of-the-moment interview before her show. Lucky for us, we had our video camera with us!

Watch as she talks about Last Comic Standing, how the $250,000 prize changed her life, her dog Blanche with the floppy vagina, and the fact that she has, in fact had sex. And the fact that although she loves Facebook,  she is an angry tweeter.

Please enjoy and excuse our production values!

Click Here To Watch Iliza’s Interview on YouTube!

Recording July 30th For One Night Only!

Sacramento comedian John Ross will be recording his debut CD/DVD at the Sacramento Comedy Spot.  Armed with only an Omnichord and/or  microphone, John Ross takes the tragic trials of his own life and transforms them into a peculiar, yet genuine presentation.

John Ross has been featured at clubs all over the West Coast, including, The SF and Sacramento Punch Lines, The Purple Onion, Laughs Unlimited, Seattle’s Comedy Underground, The Bagdad Theater, The Crest Theater, The LA and La Jolla Comedy Store, Pepperbelly’s, and The Tempe and San Jose Improvs.  Ross has also produced and hosted many projects in the Sacramento region such as, “Oddly Americana,” an interruptive, three man, stand up show, “Comedy from the Couch,” a uniquely formated stand up/talk show and  “City Beat Comedy,” a comedy on the streets game show.

For complete show information and tickets for John Ross’s CD Recording please follow this link to the Sacramento Comedy Spot website!

Headlines July 28 For One Night Only!

Big Al’s Big Ass Comedy Show originated in The Bay Area and is produced by the likeably funny Big Al Gonzales, and features the best in Latino/Alternative comedy. Big Al’s Big Ass Comedy Show has become an event that hundreds of people rush to see every month!

Big Al Gonzales has been doing comedy for 7 years. He has become a well know fixture in the Northern California comedy scene. He has appeared in commercials and local television. Big Al started out his comedy career doing improvisational comedy where his troupe (Big City Improv) was noted as Best Of The Bay 2002, after which he broke away and went solo, doing stand-up comedy. Now he performs monthly in shows from S.J. to Sacramento, Big Al’s Big Ass Comedy Show. Don’t miss this special performance featuring regulars Big Al Gonzales, plus special guests…

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Tell them you saw it on SacramentoComedy.Com!

Headlines July 28 – August 1

Rusty Dooley is one of today’s hottest rising comedians. His high concept high energy comedy leaves audiences gasping for air around the country and internationally. He recently returned from a world tour with Russell Peters performing sold out shows in 5000 seat theatres in the Far East and India. His visual style and theatrical show cross all language barriers. Rusty honed his craft at the world famous Comedy Store on The Sunset Strip. His love for movies and passion for comedy have combined and developed over a ten year period and the result is Rusty’s act as it is today. Where better to developed an act built around movie scene’s then Hollywood?

Originally from Chicago Rusty moved to Los Angeles in 1999. He showcased at all the local clubs and became a fixture at The Laugh Factory, Dublin’s and of course The Comedy Store. The bar was set pretty high for him as he was forced to follow some of the biggest names in the business on stage every night. Even though he was the new comer it did not take long for the veterans to see the way he can get a crowd pumped up with his animated style and whirl wind blend of props and costumes. No body wanted any part of following him – Nobody. Rusty was recently voted the funniest comic by 944 Magazine. He currently has a deal with Miramax to produce a one hour comedy DVD.

His show features comedic scenes from classic films such as Top Gun, Raiders of the Lost Arc, The Terminator, Jurassic Park, Alien, Batman, Braveheart and many more. His act stands out from that of a traditional comedian. Rusty takes his audiences on an adventure not soon forgotten. Catch him when you can.

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Tell them you saw it on SacramentoComedy.Com!

Atlantic City Comedy Stop

Rusty Dooley | MySpace Video

Click Here To Watch Rusty’s Video!

Headlines August 26th For One Night Only!

Sam Bam of Stockton works all day on a PG&E line crew before heading out to the clubs where he has perfected a hilarious routine worthy enough to get him into the semi-finals of the 34th Annual San Francisco International Comedy Competition.

Join Sam and his friends for a night of hilarious laughs!

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Tell them you saw it on SacramentoComedy.Com!

Headlines July 20th – 21st

Doug Benson began performing stand-up in San Francisco when he was 22 years old, after some friends pushed him to try it out.

With comics Arj Barker and Tony Camin, Benson co-created the show “The Marijuana-Logues” -  a play on Eve Ensler’s “Vagina Monologues.” Except, obviously, about weed. The show was well reviewed and found an enthusiastic audience, running for a year Off-Broadway in New York. “The Marijuana-Logues” was later turned into both a CD and book.

Surprisingly, despite his connection with pot, Benson did not actually try the drug until he was 27 years old. In 2006, he was named “Stoner of the Year” by High Times magazine. Benson resides in California, which has a law allowing medical marijuana. Benson has a card that certifies he can use pot for medicinal purposes.

Alongside being voted High Times’ “Stoner of the Year,” in 2006, Benson also created and produced a documentary called, “Super High Me,” which won the award for best documentary at the Stoney Awards in 2008.

Benson is also the co-creator of The Marijuana-Logues and appears regularly on VH1’s Best Week Ever, all while staying atop the stand up comedy circuit. He also had a Comedy Central Special come out last month and released his “Professional Humoredian” CD in 2007. His work ethic seems more like that of a methhead then a pothead to us here at SacramentoComedy, so here’s our attempt to straighten things out..

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Tell them you saw it on SacramentoComedy.Com!

Click Here To See Doug’s YouTube Video!