Comedy Marathon in Mill Valley

Back in May when I put together a benefit show to help out fellow comedian Max Alexander one of the comics I booked was Mark Pitta. Rocky LaPorte (who was also on that bill) first told me about Max's plight and came up with the idea for a show, it didn't take long to organize a show to help him pay off his mounting medical bills and also to raise awareness about his need to obtain a kidney donation. Here it is now three months later and Max is recovering from his operation (he got a kidney!) and will need until the rest of the year to feel fully functional again. Of course his bills haven't gone away and Pitta thought it might be a good idea to also help Max out. So what does he do? He organizes a Comedy Marathon at The Throckmorton Theatre which took place this past weekend and ran for 48 hours.
The fun started this past Friday morning when I had comedian Dana Carvey on my radio show and while we were chatting Pitta was driving him home from SFO after a gig in San Diego. Nanc and I went to see both Dana and Larry 'Bubbles' Brown (pictured on right) who opened for Carvey over at MontBleu Casino. Larry was on my radio show as well. Bubbles had a great set on Letterman the Friday before and Dana told me "I told Bubbles to slow down a bit when doing his act because performing on television is different than performing at a club." It apparently worked because even Bubbles looked surprised that he was getting laughs in places he didn't think were possible. After their show this past Saturday myself, Bubbles and Carvey were soon joined by long time comedian Denny Johnston (pictured below with Bubbles on the left and Carvey on the far right). Along with Nanc we hung out and chatted about all things comedy for about an hour. Someone commented that between the four of us there was "100 years of stand up comedy" but that's because Denny accounts for 35 years of that. It's always great getting to see bay area comics because that is where I started: the bay area. When Dana brought up Mark Pitta's Max Alexander Comedy marathon I gave him my cell and had him call Pitta to ask what time he wanted me to show up. Nancy and I drove down to Mill Valley to The Throckmorton Theatre where the marathon was taking place and brought Mo along because Mill Valley is a very dog-friendly community. Mark was nice enough to get me on stage soon after I arrived because I had driven four hours to be a part of the show. Also, there were three other black comics on before me and Mark said, "I need to put someone on of color" which meant it was time to put the Jew on. What a blast performing in front of the Mill Valley audience too. They were smart, very receptive and most of all paralleled their community for their love of the canine because my 'dog material' did very well. When I finished with my "La Bamba" parody Pitta came out and I talked him into singing an improvised song about living in Mill Valley (here on the left) which ended up being the highlight of my set. I didn't even know they were recording the show but now I'm glad I didn't know because you always do your best set when you don't know you're being recorded. There were a lot of great comics who participated in this special event and the ones I saw while down in Mill Valley included Harry Basil, Orny Adams (below, left
with myself and Pitta), Jeff Burghart and Greg Otto. There were so many others but I remember those guys for the short amount of time I was there before having to head back to Lake Tahoe. So, a great weekend for comedy both here at the Lake and also down in the bay area all to benefit a great guy. When we left we found a street that was my last name so yeah....had to pull over to get a shot under Nave Drive (seen here on the left). Kinda cool and was thinking maybe that's where I'll move then. Some place that has a street named after me. Nah, then too many people would sue me for falling down on my piece of lane. I do miss the bay area every now and then but the trade off is much better being up in the mountains. Got home just before 1am and then slept a few hours and was up at 5am for radio. Was nice getting a sort of day off. I may take Pitta up on his offer to do a whole show out there in Mill Valley but I think I'll only do it if he agrees to come back out on stage again to do another duet! back home now atching "Galaxy Quest" and have to admit that this has got to be one of Tim Allen's best flicks. Sometimes the best nights are those when you don't have to do anything at all.