Another Year Older

Wow. I know, it’s like I never even blog anymore. Honestly, the new book THE COMEDY FILM NERDS GUIDE TO MOVIES pretty much took over. I’ve never “edited” a book before. With 12 other writers on the book it was a lot of time both writing and editing and there was little time for anything else, including sleeping and eating. But I always seem to find time for eating. Oh, well, another issue for another day.

I had a birthday earlier this month, and it was great. Had a great weekend with the family and opened some presents, had a few friends over, my wife cooked a lovely dinner and it was cool. But then I took one day for myself, which I never do anymore.

I dropped the kids off, maybe a little too quickly, and then headed for Malibu where I went for a hike. Luckily my friend Graham called me while I was doing it so if I had been bitten by a rattlesnake, at least one person would have know where I was.

Then it was off to the movies. I saw a matinee of Wanderlust. We have two movie theaters near us, a good one and a shitty one. The shitty one had a better time so I went there. I never go there because it’s well, shitty, but I took the chance. The theater was empty, and they couldn’t get the movie to project properly. Which by the way, is the SECOND time this has happened to me at this theater. It fascinates me. A Movie theater only has to do ONE thing. Project a movie. And they couldn’t do it. I didn’t really care about the movie so it wasn’t that big a deal and I got a free pass to come back, which I will NEVER use.

Then it was off to the mall for a foot massage. Yes, you read that right. My feet had been hurting a bit lately from walking, attempting jogging, and Yoga. So I went to the massage place at the mall. And the older Japanese man gave me the price list and I walked in with him. Man, they had everything from full body to just feet. Didn’t really have the time for full body, or the patience, so I picked the 20 minute foot massage for around 20 bucks. Then too late I realized that the dude who handed me the price list would do it. Didn’t I get to pick my masseuse? I al least wanted a lady. Too late. Well, I didn’t want to be rude. So I let the older Japanese dude do it.

It was OK, I think my feet were a little sore so it kinda hurt in parts put at the end my feet felt WAY better than when I walked in, so mission accomplished. Later, my wife said “I could have rubbed your feet and we could have saved the money” Then I said something really creepy like “You’ll never rub my feet the way a 50 year old Japanese man at the mall can.” Nothing more was said for a good 20 minutes.

Yes, I’m another year older, which sucks. Blog posts about missing my youth would take up hundreds of pages and the rest of the year. Sometimes I think it’s a good thing I don’t have time to write them. But I’m here, and while the cliché is “I can’t complain,” I’ve found I’m really very good at it. So I will continue to count my blessings, be joyful, age ungracefully, and complain. But I will try to at least complain more joyfully.

Comedy and Japan

Time for the monthly blog post. I like blogging, I’m finding, but if I force myself to make more posts, I find I don’t enjoy it as much. Isn’t that the point? I’ve seen a lot of “final posts” from bloggers who ran out of things to say and they had been updating quite regularly. Hey, slow down, Fast Eddie. Blogging should be like any other writing: You do it because you love it. If you’re not loving it, change it so that you are. If that means less updates, then so be it. OK, rationalization over.

Now, unless you live in a cave without wifi, you are aware of what’s going on in Japan. The easiest, quickest way to help is just to go to redcross.org.

Now when you think of comedy, it’s difficult to think of it as anything more than entertainment, and how it can lighten your mood. But can it really help people?

Graham Elwood and I have been doing the comedyfilmnerds.com podcast for over a year now and we’ve been really loving it. It’s been fun, liberating and just very satisfying. We have many listeners, from all over the world. That’s what’s so amazing about the internet. You can now really reach people all over the world with your work. As long as they understand your language of course.

We have listeners in Japan, and we started hearing from them. And what we heard was heartbreaking. Thankfully, the fans we heard from were safe and so were their families. One guy e-mailed and said it took him 8 hours to walk home from work since the trains weren’t running. He was worried about his family and listened to us on the walk, and it made him feel better and gave him a few laughs as he walked home with no way to contact his family. When he finally got home, everyone was OK.

We received another e-mail from another fan about how Comedy Film Nerds fans and other writers for our site kept her company via Twitter during the hardest time. So thanks to Facebook and Twitter, we could communicate and ultimately make a connection with each other. Isn’t that the whole point of social media? Or is it to play Farmville?

To have what we do in some small way help people, especially during a tragedy, is about as big of a compliment there is. Ultimately, as artists, no matter what we’re doing be it writing a novel, painting a pastoral landscape or telling a joke, the end goal is to make someone’s life a little better, by giving them an escape, (or in rare cases, having your work stay with them) even if just for a fleeting moment. Artists have certainly done it for me, and to hear we’ve done it for other people is again, the ultimate compliment.

So Graham and I were humbled and flattered by the e-mails. But obviously, there is so much more we can do. So please help. Jokes are great, but people need food, clothing, and shelter as well. Redcross.org

Promoting a Pal

As I'm sure a lot of you know my pal Stefanie Wilder-Taylor has been on most of the television shows on your television by now. But did you know she does PODCASTS too?! I know, can you believe it?! She stopped by to do out Comedy Film Nerds Podcast right before the Academy Awards and she talked about movies and how angry everyone was with her about ruining Up In The Air.

You can go to comedyfilmnerds.com and listen to episode 8. But most importantly, why would you do anything if there wasn't something in it for you? Of course there is. How about a chance to win a FREE signed and personalized copy of her new book It's Not Me, It's You? It couldn't be easier. Go to comedyfilmnerds.com and go to the message boards. Enter the contest thread and tell us who you think should play Stefanie in a movie and why. OK, it could be a little easier. Now, afraid of coming in third? No worries! Stef is giving away THREE books. THREE winners! Do it! It's free! It will help the economy. Don't argue.

Either way, it's a great book and you should buy it even if you don't win, signed and personalized from the comedyfilmnerds.com store. But I hope you win. I really do. Cheers.

stefaniewildertaylor.com is her home if you want to read more about her. Oh, and you will.

One Hand Giveth, The Other Hand Slappeth in the Face

It’s amazing how the universe can screw with your expectations. I mean that in both the good and bad sense. My business partner and I, Graham Elwood, have been working on our company comedyfilmnerds.com for the last three years or so. Or as my wife calls it: a "hobby". Not full time of course, as Graham tours with Doug Benson and I have been working on my book and taking care of our youngest. We’ve slowly been increasing the business. Sales go up and down, but mostly an upward trend and traffic on the site has increased.

Sure, we've had setbacks like the site going down for four months and not being able to pay bills, the site not working, knowing nothing about HTML or online shopping carts, the garage getting to cold to work in, even in Los Angeles, etc. We bought a space heater. Anyhoo, it's been both fun and challenging, and I really enjoy it.

So we started doing live shows in Los Angeles, a cool mix of comedians and filmmakers and screening funny short films like a mini film festival with comics talking about movies. And no one came.

So we rebooted. Hit the internet. Twitter, Facebook, started a Newsletter, etc. OK, maybe the next show would be better.

But then we did something we should have done two years ago. We started a podcast. Out of my garage, where we would meet once a week and schedule it around the baby/wife/neighbor filling in as nanny. Tough, but we did it. We record every other week and in three months we were number 15 in comedy on ITunes and 81 overall of all podcasts. We have thousands of listeners now. You can subscribe here, if you’re so inclined.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/comedy-film-nerds/id345412221

So we scheduled our next live show. All those people listening, how could a few of them not come out to see us live?

Then, we get to the show and expect tons of people there. I’m really happy and excited. They are going to have to turn people away! So we waited. And we waited some more. Then some more. The sound guy starts asking us if and when we’re going to start. After counting my wife, my friend, and the four people one of the filmmakers brought, two other people showed up. And two of the four people the filmmaker brought hated the show and didn’t laugh once.

So for about four months in a row the live show not only cost us money but hit us a little in the ego/gut. We had done everything right this time, and still no one came. But then we got home after the show and bitched to each other on the cell phone like whiny babies. But then we checked the internet and realized while no one had come to our live show, over a thousand more people had subscribed to the podcast. And we hadn’t done a thing.

So thinking like a business person and promoter and not a comedian/artist (for once) it made perfect sense to focus all of our energy on what was working and table what isn’t, at least for now. Now we’re looking into selling advertising on the podcast. That’s right, we’re selling out, and we can’t do it quick enough. The podcast numbers and listeners are growing at an amazing rate. We are very thankful, and realize we just may never see any of them in person. We can live with that.

A Coupon and Some Holiday Inspiration

So, the holidays are upon us, bearing down like an unstable Christmas tree on an all too curious cat, and I thought I would give a little inspirational cheer as well as do a few plugs for gift giving, if you don’t mind.

First, I would like to invite everyone reading this to take 10% off EVERYTHING in the comedyfilmnerds.com store. This is the site run by myself and fellow filmmaker/comedian Graham Elwood. We offer some really cool signed and personalized merchandise from comedians and filmmakers. Right now you can get my book Pacify Me and Stefanie Wilder-Taylor’s new book It’s Not Me It’s You both signed and personalized and sent wherever you want in time for Christmas. We also have T-shirts, DVDs and even short film downloads, although I’m not sure how great a gift downloads make. They’re hard to wrap. So please stop by. Use the coupon code “improv” Don’t use the quotes, though. Seriously.

Now, I have often wondered (and been asked) how many fans do you really need to support yourself creatively? That’s a great question, and I didn’t think there was an answer, until another comedian, David Feldman, told me. He said the answer is simple: It’s 5,000.

Wait, so 5,000? David explained to me that it was called something like catching the tail of the comet. You need 5,000 people who like your work enough to pay $20 a year for it. The math is very simple. That’s $100,000 a year. And your fan base will grow from that 5,000.

It has nothing to do with the medium. Writing, podcasting, blogging, sculpting, painting, music, etc. It doesn’t matter. It could even be something technical like a piece of software or a video game. Maybe even an iphone app… You just need 5,000 people to spend $20 a year on you. Whether they are buying a book, CD, or paying for a podcasting subscription.

At first it seems like a lot but then think about it. It’s not 5,000 people in your town. It’s not 5,000 in your state, or even in your country. 5,000 people in the WORLD. That’s all you need. Friends and family count, too. See? You’ve already started.

Sure, it won't happen overnight, and it may take a few years, but nothing worthwhile is easy. So get out there. Find your 5,000.

Pacify Me Book Update

First off, I'd like to thank all the Bloggers for their support and help getting the word out. You guys all rock.

http://wheelsonthebus.wordpress.com/
http://www.babyonbored.blogspot.com/
http://www.mommywantsvodka.com/
http://notnani.blogspot.com/
http://ourmilkmoney.com/

With more to come! Want to get in on the action? Have a blog or a website with (ahem) some modest traffic and want to review the book? Let me know. E-mail me (click the Monty Python image on the right) and I'll see if I can make some arrangements.

Also, if you want a book SIGNED AND PERSONALIZED you can buy it from Comedy Film Nerds.

www.comedyfilmnerds.com/mancini_pacifyme

You can have it made out to whoever you want, and whatever you come up with it won't be weirder than anything that's already been submitted from "World's Best Dad", "Worst Dad Ever" to "The Lone Horseman of the Apocalypse" Be creative!

Thank you, Internet.

PS The Blogger Spellcheck didn't recognize the word "Bloggers". Nice.