A teenager who owns over 300 exotic pets? Looks like this young man has a future behind bars…Animal enclosure bars! Oh goo! When I was a teenager, all I had to do was take out the trash and to get me to do that it took two older brothers putting me in a double-chicken-wing. “Twist my arm why dontcha!”

Thursday June 13, 8PM – $12 general admission / $17 reserved
Friday June 14, 8PM, 10PM – $15 general admission / $20 reserved
Saturday June 15, 8PM, 10PM – $20 general admission / $25 reserved
Tickets can be purchased online at https://esthersfollies.com or by calling our box office at (512) 320-0198.

RC(RooftopComedy):Congratulations on a phenomenal Late Show debut! This is a moment comics dream about and only a select few will ever realize. I’d like to explore the Late Show experience from the beginning to how it’s currently impacting your career, so let’s get started!

RC: How were you contacted and how did Letterman hear of or see you?
There are 3 bookers that work together to find comics and prep them for the show. I met them through a comedian friend of mine here in NYC and sent them a link of about 10 minutes of my best TV material.

RC: How much lead time were you given before the appearance? What kind of instructions did they give you regarding time/material. Was there an approval process for the jokes?
It was a long process for me but it’s different for everyone. It took almost a year of whittling my set down from 10min to about 7min for a live showcase. Then based on that live showcase we cut it down to about 4-4.5 minutes and then I did another live audition. Then we tweaked a couple things and moved the order around. I kept sending them links to revised versions of the set. I had one line that I added that got approved the day before. They’re looking for about 4 minutes in the club. It translates to about 5 minutes in front of the Letterman audience with applause breaks and solid laughs. They are great at what they do. They picked out some really good jokes that fit the style of the show…and I figured out how to put them together. Then we made adjustments.

Eventually, I was given a ballpark as to when it might happen but I got official notice on a Monday and recorded a week later on a Tuesday.

RC: I’m going to have both clips of the performance in the article. Is there anything you want to say about either clip?
Well, the clip from The Comic Strip was on a Sunday night in front of a mostly European tourist crowd. I recorded Letterman on a Tuesday. At that point I had the set down word for word. They were kind of rough crowd and weren’t quite warmed up yet. I just pretended I was in front of a huge crowd that was laughing hard and practiced going slow. Sometimes that’s tough to do when they’re not quite on board with what you’re doing. You know you should stick to the script but your instincts tell you to speed up, change the jokes or maybe talk to the crowd. I just forced myself to rehearse as if I was on Letterman.

RC: Have you appeared on any other late night or television program before?
No, this was my network TV debut.

RC: How did you feel leading up to the performance, during and after?
I felt really good about the whole thing. I had been prepping and rehearsing this same set for a few months so I knew it backwards and forwards. The week before the taping I ran around NYC and did my set about 15 times.The experience was a little surreal when I was standing on the side of the stage ready to go out. I could see Letterman at his desk and it really hit me that this was going to happen. I just told myself to have fun. I knew I had enough experience and if anything weird came up my instincts would take over and the set would go great. Those Letterman crowds are the best. Afterward, I felt great. I felt relieved and excited. I knew it went well. I had a sense of satisfaction and gratitude. I told myself that all the hard work pays off.

RC: What kind of in studio practice did you get? Were you given coaching?
No studio practice. You get to walk out on the stage and stand on your mark. You get a feel for the space and the room… its smaller than you would think. It’s very intimate in there. Like doing a small theater. The crowd is really close and very receptive. As soon as I got my first joke out I really loosened up and just performed like I would for a great theater crowd.

No coaching really. I’ve been studying Letterman comedy sets for a few years. I have friends that have done the show. I knew that it’s best to go really slow and let the jokes breathe a little. I also knew to expect applause breaks and laughs in places where you don’t normally get them. I wasn’t sure what to do with my hands because there’s no mic. I tried to practice that as well but I figured it would come naturally just like having a conversation at a party. I always try to make it feel like I’m just having a conversation with the crowd.

RC: Have you always been a fan of the Late Show with David Letterman?
I’ve always been a big fan of the show. Since college. It has been a goal of mine to perform on the show since I got into comedy. It still feels a little surreal.

RC: Why do you think the Late Show has more gravitas than other late night programming?
I think its because the Late Show has a solid tradition of smart comedy. The show has it’s own style that has been consistent for years and years. People respect that. People respect David Letterman as a comedy icon.

RC: Was this an opportunity you visualized in your mind far before it happened?
Absolutely. Before I had my opportunity to do the show, I went backstage with a friend who did the show and I’ve sat in the audience. I stood on the stage in the spot where you perform. I visualized myself being there, performing and killing…. more than I care to admit.

RC: At what point did it seem like Letterman was a possibility?
As soon as we started selecting specific jokes I felt I was on the right track.

RC: Have you already felt an impact on your career? Have any immediate opportunities surfaced from the appearance? Are you hoping for anything specifically?
I’ve had a few things pop up here and there. I can’t be too specific but, yes, it’s already impacted my career in a great way.

RC: Any advice you’d give a comic about to debut their stand-up on TV?
Just have fun. You’ve already put in the hard work and you deserve this moment. Make sure you enjoy it and that’ll come across to the audience.

Thanks Andy! If you want to keep tabs on where Andy will be performing visit his website, www.andyhendrickson.com

Follow him on twitter @andyhendrickson

And checkout his latest album, Underachiever

-Paul Mecurio

Listen here!

I met Scott years and years and years ago, in the “delightful” little burg known as Modesto, California. Scott was headlining a comedy show; I was the middle act. The club was downtown, a location in the middle of an ever-evolving revitalization project where new stores were surrounded by old Bail Bond shops. Affluent yuppies stepped around bearded homeless men with little concern as they marched into the trendiest of trendy clubs.

Scott and I bonded over a mutual appreciation for one another’s comedic chops, as well as a passion for civil rights. I say “civil rights,” because if you didn’t know it, Scott was gay. He wasn’t in the closet by any means, and in fact, talked about his orientation in his act (and on television), but it was nothing he led with. No, Scott would drop that bomb right in the middle of his set: “Oh, by the way, this big, burly man that’s been talking football, family and relationships? Yeah… he’s gay.” Sexuality wasn’t something Scott wore on his sleeves like a less talented comedian might do—using “gay” as a crutch to get cheap laughs—no, Scott went up and performed comedy, winning the audience over using his wit and observational eye. Only many minutes deep into his set did he let the audience in on his secret, and it challenged the hell out of what stereotypes people thought “gay” was. Which, Scott would tell you, is exactly why he tailored his set the way he did. With his magician’s reveal, Scott became the everyman; “Why, he could be my brother, cousin, uncle…” It was a fantastic way of combating homophobia, albeit by not even mentioning homophobia or being confrontational. If anything, it was designed to be an afterthought. Which is made it all the more subversive, brilliant, and effective.

After those shows, Scott and I kept in… probably somewhat-annual touch after that; maybe checking in every 13 months or so, just to say “Hi,” and then like happens so often in the comedy world, we just forgot to reach out to one another. Somewhere in the couple years between exchanges, Scott got involved in military tours, and that is where his legacy will shine. Were I a better researcher, I would look up the exact number of times Scott put himself on the line to make sure the men and women who serve knew they were appreciated. As it stands, I know the number is north of 50, which means calling him this generation’s “Bob Hope” would not be too far off the mark.

I was lucky enough to tour Iraq with Scott in 2010, and it was unlike any other experience I had ever had. Scott was a man born without ego; everything he did was for the troops. No matter the situation, he was ready to perform for them. In a war zone, nothing is done under optimal conditions, but that didn’t matter in the slightest to Scott. “How can we give the soldiers the best experience possible?” was all he wanted answered. If there was an outpost in need of distraction, if there was any single person who needed to be reminded they were appreciated and cared for, Scott wanted nothing more than to make sure they got a show. His dedication to those in harms way was unparalleled.

I cannot for the life of me remember how it happened, but at one point on the tour, one of us referenced the Family Guy episode where James Woods exclaims, “Oh, piece of candy!” Like many little things that make up the best in friendships, that became our calling card. It was a running joke for the rest of the tour, and for months and months after, a random text would hit my phone, “Oh, piece of candy!”

My deepest empathy is with his family at this time.

Scott was a good man, and will be missed.

I am proud to have known him.

A Comedian Lobs Jokes in Iraq

On August 31, 2010, President Obama addressed the nation. He declared combat missions in Iraq over and announced a troop drawdown would begin. One day later, comedian Nathan Timmel boarded a plane as a part of the first group of entertainers to enter the war-torn country under this new ‘mission.’

Telling jokes to soldiers who face death every day is a different kind of performance – no stages, microphones, or spotlights. Rec rooms, dining facilities, and courtyards become performance spaces, and comedians use their best stage voice to tell their stories without the benefit of a P.A. system. All the while, armed escorts scan the perimeter for signs of danger.

A most notable—and unfortunate—difference is: when playing a comedy club in America, you don’t tour the local emergency room and receive information about the customer who died there last week. While being shown a medical facility outside Basra, however, that’s exactly what happened. A quiet moment that brought home the true cost of war.

Thought-provoking, sentimental, and an unflinching critique of a seemingly lazy mainstream media, An Inattention to Detail is a reflection on the unique responsibility of delivering punch lines to those who need laughter the most.

Price: 99¢

Available for: Kindle

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