Head and Shoulders thing

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE COMMERCIAL

Shows this CHRISTMAS

Thursday, Dec. 17th, Greenville, SC at G-Spot. Show starts right at 8pm, 10 dollar cover. Featuring Nick Shaheen and Jay Hastings. Friday, Dec. 18th, Charlotte, NC at CANS. Show starts right at 8pm, 10 dollar cover. Featuring Steven Forrest. Show in NYC, this Dec. 7th. Check it out.

2012 ads for Nat Geo (read the comments if you want to know how dumb people are)

Something was made and then posted here

Mouth of The Lion from Rory Scovel on Vimeo.

2 performances from The Bentzen Ball

The Bentzen Ball, Washington DC, HR-57, 10/22/09 from Rory Scovel on Vimeo.

Go to this

Shows in DC that are awesome. Click HERE

The AlteredStates Tour with Reggie Watts

We're going to be starting this small 4 show tour next week in Portland. All the information is currently listed on my homepage but I'm not entirely sure the start times to the shows. So do some research and then come see one of these shows, or all of them if you really love amazingness. life

Bear Commercials

Comedy vs. Cancer show in Greenville, SC from Rory Scovel on Vimeo.

The Wonderful Adventure Series

The Wonderful Adventure from Rory Scovel on Vimeo.

The Wonderful Adventure Part II from Rory Scovel on Vimeo.

GREENVILLE, August 1

Are you on Facebook? You should be. If you are. Go to this link and join this group. Then click on invite more people and invite more people to join this group. The show will be very funny and the money goes towards something meaningful. Even if you hate beautiful fun and joy, just send the invite to people that are human and love things. HERE

Grand Canyon Adventure

The Cathedral of Rocks from Rory Scovel on Vimeo.

Digital Underground w/ Scott Moran

My roommate is a fan and a good friend of Shock G's from Digital Underground. About a year or so ago he went and filmed a show for them and has now cut it into a 3 part documentary. Check it out here.

Digital Underground - 6 Minutes in Denver from Scott Moran on Vimeo.

Karma June 26th.

For all other shows I will be doing please consult my frequently updated website HERE Here is a poster for the 6/26 show at Karma.

TOOL

They are touring again. Go HERE and find out if you can see them or not. They are great. Go to this.

Show on June 26th in NYC

HERE

If you don't know, learn.

This is comedian/musician/artist/dancer Reggie Watts. He has an amazing group of talents and he is really someone you must see perform live. So check out this video to see his musical talent. Then go see him live to experience it and witness his brilliant comedic talent.

The Beginning Is Near from Jake Lodwick on Vimeo.

I don't know, something I guess

Brain Vacation from Rory Scovel on Vimeo.

explosions in the sky from Rory Scovel on Vimeo.

one time we did a thing that happened from Rory Scovel on Vimeo.

New vimeo clips

If you get bored and have actually subscribed to this account, check out my vimeo stuff.

New York City Crime Stories and Stories of Crimes from Rory Scovel on Vimeo.

The College Years vol. 1 from Rory Scovel on Vimeo.

Rory Scovel Live at The Biltmore in Vancouver BC from Rory Scovel on Vimeo.

NOWHERE

Andy Haynes and I have posted our new web series on youtube. Up right now is the trailer and episode one. These will probably be monthly episodes. Please send a request to rory.scovel@gmail.com if you want to be on the mass email about updates on this web series. It will only be a once a month email letting you know that a new episode is posted. Please check it out and let us know what you think. NOWHERE

For those yet to audition.

I just walked out of my 8:30 am audition for Season 6 of Last Comic Standing. It was the most awkward experience. Going into the audition I had reservations. I wasn't sure I wanted to be on a reality contest show that greatly misrepresents what its really like to be a comic and struggle to become a full time working comic. I've thought about this a million times leading up to today. Do I want to be on a show like this? I know that I don't decide if I get to be on the show or not but still I didn't know if I would be happy if I were selected. People say that being on a show like that can be great exposure and help get you booked at clubs around the country as a feature and sometimes even a headliner. This point in the game seems to be the weirdest spot. You don't make enough money working comedy throughout the year but yet still can't hold a permanent 9-5 because when you do get a call from a club you have to go. You have no health insurance or extra cash in your pocket ever. You just have to hope that the shows and auditions you go out for are the right moves to help your career. So what do you do when you get the chance to audition for a show you aren't that excited about. Do comics lose respect for you because you are trying to win a contest to gain exposure? I have no clue. The main problem for me is that all the elements that make up this show aren't reflective of what you actually need to do or learn as a performer. I walked up to Gotham Comedy Club at 8 am. I had a booked audition for 8:30am. As I approached the club I noticed that there was a line of comics that was a block and a half long. People had been waiting for hours, spending the night on the sidewalk, just to get inside and showcase their comedy for 2 minutes. Who do they showcase for? The first audition round is in front of 2 producers of the show. I don't know these people. I don't know their names or their backgrounds. One was a an older woman and the other was an older man. I walked on stage around 8:40. I walked up to the microphone, stated my name and began my first joke. About 10 seconds or so into my first joke I realized that these two people had yet to look up and acknowledge my presence. They were discussing something and looking down at some papers. Perhaps it was my polaroid headshot that they took in the lobby or the meaningless personal info I had to fill out. Very warm and inviting posture. The one gentleman has a look on his face like you are about to take his only daughter on her first ever date and he has a time machine and already knows that later you end up touching her boobs and videotaping it for myspace pornography. This is how he stares at you before he even knows how funny you may or may not be. COMEDY. The fact that he is a judge is a joke within itself. Now keep in mind as I write this. I'm not angry that I wasn't selected for this show. I had reservations going in and honestly was on a fence about the whole thing. I just don't like the process. You go into a room with 4000 cameras and 2 people with angry faces. Thats worse that performing at an empty open mic in the middle of nowhere. I did 4 jokes and I knew as I did each one of them that I wasn't actually performing them or giving any life to them at all. I sounded like I was reading off someone elses jokes from a sheet of paper that I'd never seen before. So not being selected for this show is fine by me. I didn't give them much to cheer for. After a minute and fifteen I think, I stopped performing. The woman said that I had well written material but guessed that I wasn't performing it the way I normally do. She pointed out that it was 8:30am and a bit weird and I said it was weird and there is noone in here. However what I wish I would have said was "sir, perhaps you could sit up and force a fucking look of delight as we get up here and perform our material for you. There is a block and a half of people outside (which I already felt like a dick for getting to go straight into the club) waiting to come in here and perform, the least you could do is actually show some gratitude for their time and their effort. Without any of us, you don't have a show at all." I didn't say that on stage nor in my postperformance interview. I wish I would have said that though. Oh well. For anyone that is auditioning today or later this month, do not let those two people ruin your own vibe and energy. They aren't comics and in my opinion they aren't an audience either. Stare right through them and do what you do.

new trailer for new webseries

check it. HERE

Webisodes

My Canadian comedy buddy Casey Corbin and I have decided to put a webisode together while we are in Calgary. Its called "The Apartment". Episode one is already on youtube here. Please check it out and let us know what you think. The entire season will be 5 episodes and we are working on all five over the course of this week. Episode 2 should come out this Wednesday. Thanks for checking it out.

Another blogpost?

Thats right. Lucky you. Another blogpost. Here we go. So today I woke up around noon and joined Andy Haynes for a lovely morning ride across Seattle, over to Capitol Hill. There we went for a coffee and exchanged ho hummeries. Then I was informed he was going to get lunch with his girlfriend and I couldn't play the 3rd wheel. The shit really did hit the fan. I threw my cup of coffee right into his face cause I thought it would be funny. Turns out the coffee was way hotter than I predicted. He starts screaming for dear life yelling out "it burns, oh fuck this burns." Meanwhile the rest of the coffee shop sees whats going on and they love it. They think we're some sort of 2 man street act that just got to town and wanted to test out our new material. They are having a rip roarin good time and I decide to start passing out DVDs of my standup. Andy is in deep tears on the couch, trying to regain sight when bam Shock G walks into the coffee shop. He was carrying a keytar and a bad attitude and boy did it really get the room jumping. Andy was doing is best to dial an ambulance on his laptop cell phone but he still couldn't see straight and wasn't getting very far. I thought to myself, "well, we do have the time while Andy recovers...Shock G, do you wanna play a jam with me real fast?" Of course he says yes cause I'm standing there with a smile the size of smiles in Texas and just looking scrumptious. We start off with a slow jam and the crowd starts coming to their senses. We clearly aren't a 2 man road show. We're clearly a 3 man circus. Thats right. They all start crowding around me and Shock and just start snapping pics with camera phones and cameras and just phones without cameras. It was unreal. After our 5th encore, the people refused to leave without letting us take their money. We did, lots of it. Andy's share is probably going towards some sort of facial reconstructive surgery. I'm probably gonna put mine down on a laptop. Shock told me he was going to buy a robe for me. I told him thats foolish, thats his money, he should take the robe. Well one thing leads to another and suddenly we're fighting it out like ninjas in the parking lot. He does not see a decline of offer as a nice gesture. He is pissed that I would deny his kindness. We're both there in tight hipster jeans and no shirts. He has 3 bandanas and I'm wearing a backwards Cleveland hat. Not a particular team just a hat that reminds people that Cleveland exists. We each have a sword and by now a rather large crowd has gathered around us. Just before I take my first swing in his direction...poof...he turns into Humpty Hump and everyone starts dancing. He's pegging me in the face with confetti and everyone is having the laugh of the night. Andy comes running outside with a huge smile on his face and he's removed his fake Andy face and everyone realizes he never was hurt by the coffee, thanks to Latex. I turn to Shock G and we hug just to show that the previous ninja battle was merely our closing sketch. The three of us take hands and bow to the gracious audience. I've never felt like this before in my life. The road really is awesome. Seriously, this is what the road is like.

gone again

tomorrow i leave for another 2.5 month adventure. Its hard to believe that it was just a year ago that I took this exact same trip. Time flies. Not really sure where it goes. I am excited to see old friends from Seattle and Canada. I'm really hoping to learn as much this tour as I did last year as well. For all the people that sent me well wishes, I appreciate it. I will see you all very soon. Just remember one thing..."Don't stop..."

To the West Coast

Hello Jon Mumma and Danny Rouhier and sometimes Ryan Conner. The only 3 people that read my blog. I could have just emailed you guys all the great things that are happening in my life but then realized if I don't go on my blog and say "noone reads this" then noone will leave a comment and say that they do. Without that comment I can't raise my self-esteem to get me through another week of new material that has little to no hope of being the foundation to a successful career. I am heading to Seattle on 8/29 to participate in the Bumbershoot Festival. I am really excited about this. I watched many shows last year with comic legends Andy Haynes and Scott Moran. This year we all 3 are appearing in the festival on the local's stage being headed up by People's Republik of Komedy. I love them. Here is a link to the Bumbershoot site for info and tickets. I will be appearing in a number of shows in Seattle after the festival. On the 20th of September I am off to Vancouver for the comedy festival there. I am really excited about this as many of the comics in the festival are the reasons I got into comedy in the first place. Here is a link to the festival. When the festival ends I am off to do the Yuk Yuks Western tour for the 2nd year in a row. This year will be a bigger challenge as I've been given the opportunity to co-headline many of the shows I'm doing. It will be great to see all the comics I met last year and catch up on how our Summer Fantasy Hockey Teams are doing. New York City so far has been a great place to live. There is a lot going on here but getting stagetime isn't the easiest venture. Granted I haven't put forth the necessary effort to gain any time but when I return from Canada I hope to really push myself to network and attend more shows as a fan of comedy and not just a jealous performer forced to sit in the back.

VA Beach and Indianapolis

I just returned from a weekend of shows at the Virginia Beach Funnybone and Morty's Comedy Joint in Indianapolis. Both clubs were awesome. The staff at both clubs was really cool and the headliners I was with for the 2 weekends were a lot of fun. Why am I telling you this? In all honesty, maybe someone at those clubs reads my blog and feels good that they made a random no name performer happy. Is that so wrong? Wanted to indirectly tell people how you felt about their club and hotel and treatment? I don't think thats a crime. More honesty: I want to get booked at those clubs again. So there it is. If you check out the schedule on my website, you'll notice there isn't too much going on for me right now. So I load my site with tons of compliments for places I've already worked. Doug Powell, dear friend and comic guru is no longer performing stand-up. I know I'm probably the last person to mention this or possibly even find out about it but I just wanted to say something about him on my blog. Just in case anyone actually reads this thing. Thats right, I don't know how to check my own site stats to comment on the traffic I may or may not be receiving. Anyways, Doug was an awesome comic to watch. He constantly put new material together and in a very innovative way. He took huge risks on stage with a lot of his material and it paid off more times than not because of his natural talent. If you ever got the opportunity to see Doug on or off stage, you know he is a great guy. Moreso on stage, you know he is a natural comic and we are all going to wish we could hear his "new stuff." I know I will constantly wonder what new ideas he might have about whatever. His creativity was incredible and it definitely inspired tons of other comics to try bigger ideas and write in a more abstract voice. Doug, if you actually visit my site, I want you to know I will miss getting to see the awesomeness. I've learned that you don't know how much time you and other comics will be living in the same area. So many people move away to pursue other things or try comedy in a new area. Its probably the saddest part for me. I've met a lot of great people that I don't get to see on a weekly basis anymore. I know thats just how things go. I just want to say I'm glad I got to get a glimpse of Doug while he was still performing. I feel like PHISH just broke up for the 17th time.

Live at Gotham and new GUB

I just found out today that the episode of Live At Gotham that I'm on will be airing on Friday June 8th at midnight on Comedy Central. Hopefully it will replay a few times a little earlier in the day or night. Also be prepared to be way overreminded of this. I'm not sure if midnight on Friday means really late Friday night or really late Thursday night on June 7th. I guess we'll find out soon enough. I am working on the next episode of Growing Up Backwards. Trying to figure out how to tell this story that I really want to tell. I'm not sure I have the footage I need. Sorry if you are really salivating to see it. I am getting it together. I will have something out soon. I'm sure there is really only one person wondering where the next episode is. I have found recently that full time standup comedy is a lot of fun however pays for shit. So guess whose broke. There is a strange cloud over my head about trying to have enough money to live. And yet for some reason it all still seems worth pursuing. Chasing your dreams can be quite painful. Online diaries are fun.

awesome title here

So far things have been great in NYC/NJ area. I finished the taping for Live at Gotham and it was an amazing experience. I think the air date is some time in May. I will obviously let people interested know the exact date when I know it. I love the comments I get on my blog. Especially the ones by Leo Goodman or at least the guy/girl pretending to be Leo Goodman. Or perhaps it is Leo Goodman knowing we would never think it was actually him so he uses his real name. Either way, they are so funny and I love reading them. Here is a show that Jay Hastings, Justin Schlegel and myself will be doing at the DC Improv Comedy Lounge. If you can check it out, check it out. I have included the link below for ticket purchases as the show is not advertised on the DC Improv homepage. This should lead people that have already seen our act a thousand times to show up to see our act again. That is unless strangers read our blogs or visit our webpages. The show sells out at 60. If you are interested in coming out, please pass the word along to friends that perhaps haven't seen us before. They will enjoy it. Justin will be fresh off his canadian tour and ready to destroy the room. Here is the link...here. How about that Danny, a hyperlink.

Leaving Town

My girlfriend and I found a place in Hoboken, NJ and we will be moving on the 1st of March. It is sad to be leaving DC, this place I called home for the past 3 years. I will most certainly miss all of my friends here in DC and hope that soon enough that they will also be diving into the world of comedy in NYC or elsewhere.

Just to Clarify

If you watch the seattle video in my video section it says "improvised set" just before it starts. This is not an entirely improvised set. Just here and there when I'm interacting with the crowd. I included "improvised set" in the title because the manager of the competition didn't believe that I didn't know the people I was interacting with. I wanted to make sure people didn't think anything was set up. I only bring this up as someone I was speaking with brought that up and I wanted to make sure I at least said something about it.

So here we are...

As of this morning my girlfriend and I have secured an apartment in Hoboken, NJ and we'll be moving between 2/15 and 3/1. We have many many many items for sale and would love to help anyone out who is looking for furniture or electronics. We have tons of calculators. TI-85 bitch. We are trying to get rid of these items as quickly as possible and have begun posting on craigslist. Please let me know if you are interested. http://washingtondc.craigslist.org/doc/fur/274075662.html. yes, no hyperlink. I get it. I'm sorry but at this point enjoy pissing off Daniel. Also on March 1st at the Arlington Cinema Drafthouse, come see Jay Hastings, Kojo Mante and Myself perform awesome standup comedy. I just realized that this will be my final DC show as I'm heading off to NJ right after the show. Please come out and support the three of us as we are trying to convince ourselves we are awesome. Your laughter will certainly help this.

Thank you all Very Very Very Much.

To everyone that made it out to the Handlebar this past Friday, I would like to say thank you so much. Coming out and supporting us perform live stand-up comedy around the holidays really means a lot to myself, Jay and Kojo. I know there is a lot of other things that you could be doing with friends or family and coming out to see us might not be at the top of the priority list. A huge thank you to all of you for coming. The show went exactly the way we all wanted it to and hopefully you all enjoyed the performances that we work on at open mics and shows every single night of the year. We promise to continually add to our performances and try and become better and better each year. The Handlebar has already informed us that we are more than welcome to do the show again next Christmas. We promise this next year to have a chair for every single paying customer. For those of you standing in the back I apologize for not having enough chairs for all of you. I want to thank everyone for being courteous throughout the entire show and hopefully you enjoyed it enough to see another one in 362 days. Thank you all very very very very much. Have a good Christmas and New Years. See you soon.

DC

Its good to be home finally. It has been an awesome 3 months away and I wish I could still see and hang out with a lot of the great people I met while away. I miss them all and appreciate the influence they all gave me with their own individual unique forms of performance comedy. It is good to be home though. We had auditions on Tuesday at the DC Improv for Comedy Central's "live at Gotham." I'm not sure if anyone has received the thumbs up from them to audition again or do the show but either way it was a great time. I enjoyed the set I performed and had an even greater time getting to see all my friends that I've missed over the past 3 months. I am really really really looking forward to the Christmas show at the Handlebar. I am finding out this week how ticket sales are going and hopefully they are moving pretty nicely. If you are in the area and intending to see this show, its best to buy in advance. The Handlebar is a great venue and myself, jay, and the kojmeister are really amped to get on that stage. This blog has a pretty abrupt ending.

Done and Done

Tonight we had the final show of the Seattle Comedy Competition. For tonight I finished in 1st place. I def. had the set that I've been waiting to have. I had so much fun on stage, I wish it could be like that all the time. Overall for the competition I am bringing the bronze back to D.C. My first place finish at the final show shot me from 5th place to 3rd for the week. Thanks to everyone for the emails and myspace messages. The support was great and I really appreciate it. I'm coming home now.

From the Seattle Weekly

There is a write up about the overall competition this week in the Seattle Weekly. Here is an online version for your reading pleasure. http://www.seattleweekly.com/arts/0647/arts_feature.php

4.5 days

Almost there. I am almost home again and I couldn't be more excited. I am currently in the Finals of the Seattle Comedy Competition. It has gone from 32 comics to 5. So I feel pretty good, top 5 feels good. Last night I finished in last place though. I tried to loosen up a bit too much and it def. reflected in the judges scores. I got some pretty low scores which kind of shocked me. Really shocked actually. I thought my set was okay, not great, but not horrible. So now I have to pick up the performance and tighten it up a bit. I have no choice but to use last night as my drop score night. That means I gotta bring it. I will do my best. I am excited for the challenge. The other guys were great last night as well. Damande Tschritter absolutely crushed. Such a fun performer to watch. Happy Thanksgiving. Reminder...comedy central will be holding a Live At Gotham audition this coming Tuesday 11/28 at the DC Improv. Its a great lineup. I highly recommend you coming to this show. I am really looking forward to the xmas show more and more. It is going to be so much fun and I hope everyone enjoys it. I am writing this blog like a 3rd grader.

Final Week

This is my final week of traveling on my little adventure. Last night I placed first at Fairhaven pub for the night so I will be advancing to the Finals of the seattle comedy competition. I am really excited and hope I can represent DC in a big way. Hope everyone is doing well. See you very soon.

Zimmerly Zoobles

So the last blog was sort of sad. I'm not in such a sad dark place like it sounds. Just missing home a bit and decided to eat some rocky road and cry over my keyboard for a short while. So I am in the Lucky Eagle Casino right now. We are in the middle of nowhere in Rochester, Washington. Tonight I finished 4th on the show. So far I have finished 5th, 3rd, 4th, 4th. We get to drop our lowest score for the week. So far I have a pretty solid start. Just 2 more shows to go and then we find out the comedians that will be advancing to the finals of the competition. Going into this competition my goal was to showcase well in front of the right people and hopefully advance to the semifinals. I have accomplished both of those things. So I'm happy with myself. Tomorrow we head off to Central Washington University and then Bellingham. I think I can do well at these shows but you never know who the judges are or what they will score for us. Sometimes someone crushes and doesn't finish well with the judges, you just have no way of reading them. Regardless of these small details, the competition has been a lot of fun. I have been hanging out and traveling with some Canadian comics. They are great guys and all doing well in this competition. I am finding myself traveling with Canadians quite a bit these days. Very nice guys. I hope everyone at home is enjoying themselves. I can't wait to see you guys. Hollersons.

Home

I miss home. My body and brain are drained. I have five more shows in the semifinals and the closest one is 1 hour from Seattle. Yes, none of the shows are actually in Seattle this week. Traveling, traveling, traveling. I placed fifth last for the first show of the semis. Everyone was great. So much talent is in this week its unreal. I really like everyone and I hope we get to all become close friends over the next week. I'm sure I will be seeing some of these people in the future. I wish you could meet them, reader person. I have been sleeping on couches and futons. I have slept in 5 different places ever since I have been here. I have the worst eating habits now. I don't do anything during the day. I can't sleep that well and all I know how to do is bitch about it to people that read my blogs. This trip has been an amazing experience. Something that I think has helped my standup more than anything in the world. Getting to work this much has really molded me into something new. Something I really enjoy. I want it to end now though. I want to go back home and go to sleep. I want to see my girlfriend and I want to see my friends and family. I want to see my buddies and how much new material they have. I want to spend the night at the Mummersons and eat an all-star breakfast the next day. I want to sit in the Hastings chair and watch videogame golf on a shitty tv. I want to hang out and have a schedule. I want a routine again. Something I always hated. I want it back.

In the Semis

I locked my spot last night to advance to the semifinals of the Seattle Comedy Competition. You can read about all the stuff at seattlecomedy.net or seattlecomedycompetition.com (why are these not links blah blah blah?) Deal with it. This means I am staying in Seattle for at least one more week. Hopefully I can advance to the finals and be around til the 27th of November. Either way this has been a really fun competition and a lot of great networking has been going down. I'm excited to meet new people next week and hang out a bit. The local comics and the overall community in Seattle is unreal. The way they operate and help one another and put shows together is amazing. I am jealous of what they have. Seattle's growing comedy scene will be something people talk about in 30 years. Not normal people but comics that are up and coming right now. (because comics aren't normal people) You def. want to visit here to see how great things are. I am really looking forward to the Christmas show in Greenville SC. I sent out an evite notice to let a lot of people know about the show. I got a lot of responses saying that the "notice" was really early "remind me closer to the show." I think an early notice is the point of being able to buy tickets well before the show. I have no idea how ticket sales are going to end up, but hopefully if you are intending to see this show, you are getting your tickets way in advance just to secure a seat. Not saying the show will sell out, but we were pretty shocked by the crowd we got last year. A crowd we def. didn't predict. That could happen again. The evite isn't the only form of advertisement. The handlebar sent out a 4000 email blast also. Why am I giving out this info? Cause I want to make sure my friends see the show.

Yo

Im off to Seattle right now. My first week of shows in the contest starts on Tuesday evening. Wish me luck and hopefully I can make it on to the 2nd week in the competition. I hope everyone is well. See you soon. 2 months down, one to go.

Hello People of the World

(for some reason paragraphs don't work on my blogger.com thing. I write it with paragraphs but it doesn't work when I publish.) I have finally organized and sent out the evite to the holiday show that Kojo Mante, Jay Hastings and myself will be performing. I know what you're saying, "evites, that sounds uncool and childish." Wrong my invisible internet inquirer. Evites are a great way of giving information while also providing recipients of said evite a simple way of forwarding an online brochure. Yes, this blog is an infomercial of sorts for evite.com Regardless the evite is out there and hopefully it will be forwarded around and people will feel compelled to see this amazing show this Christmas. If you would like to have the evite forwarded to you because you may be interested in attending the show or know people that might be, please email me and I will gladly send it to you ASAP. My email address is rory.scovel@gmail.com The success of last years event was solely based on awesome word of mouth from friends in South Carolina. I am hoping we can maximize that tool again this year and really spread the word about the show. It is going to be a lot of fun and different from last years. If you are thinking we are doing the same "act" with the same "material" rest assured it will not be that way. Since we are still young in the standup world our jokes and presentation is constantly evolving and definitely improving month to month. I think if you saw last years show you will be pleasantly surprised at the individual improvement. Plus Kojo Mante will be the emcee of the evening. He is a top notch DC comic on the rise and he is one of my favorites to watch on a regular basis. I am excited that he is taking the time to travel quite a distance to make this show as good as we can get it. So if you are on a fence about what you'll be doing the evening of Friday December 22nd, just know it will be something you regret missing. As for my little adventure that I'm on here... Chicago is quite a fun place. Lots of comedy all over the place. Improv, sketch, standup, every night of the week. And for the most part it is all top notch. When my Canadian tour ended I had 2 weeks before the start of the seattle competition. I decided to fill that time with a 2 week vacation in Chicago. While here I auditioned for Second City's touring company. I did not get a callback but I really didn't expect one. I need more education in the improv world and I need some involvement in sketch. I have decided to move here sometime early in 07. I'm really excited about it because this town offers so much performance opportunity in a variety of ways. Plus the improv education here is top notch. Why not learn from some of the best in the country? I am off to Seattle this Saturday and my first night in the Seattle Comedy Competition www.seattlecomedycompetition.com is Tuesday night at the Seattle Comedy Underground club. I'm really excited to hang out in Seattle for a bit and hopefully I'll do well in the contest. This adventure has been eye opening. I can't wait to get back to DC to see my friends. I miss you all and I hope you are all doing awesome. To everyone else, I hope I see you on Friday December 22nd. I think you will really enjoy what I'm going to bring to the table.

October 20th from the Diary of Rory Scovel

Last night was my first show in Vancouver. The club here is amazing. The crowd was a lot of fun and energetic and overall I am predicting this weekend of shows to be the perfect way to end this Canadian Adventure. I am just over the halfway point now in this trip. I am not sure if I will advance out of the first round in the Seattle Competition or not, which if I didn't I'd be home sooner, but I think I might stick around regardless and see a bit more of Seattle and watch the end of the contest. I'm never just out here on the west coast so I might as well see whats what while I can. Plus a lot of the comics in Seattle, all friends of Andy Haynes, were really nice guys and fun to hang out with. Yes, I mean that sexually. I am really looking forward to getting back to DC though. I really love that city. I love the people there and I love how the comedy scene is growing. Hopefully I will have something to return with that might be a small contribution. I look forward to seeing my friends and seeing them perform. Most standups evolve so much in their first 5 years that it will be really cool to come back and see the new material and new stuff thats going on with the comics. I definitely look at this standup pursuit much different after being in new places. It has really forced me to decide if this is truly what I want to do as a career. Its such a strange thing, you may put in all the shit hours and the shit shows and pay your dues only to find out you don't have what it takes to get to the next level anyways. I guess thats true in any line of work but I can only see it through my own situation. Being away for only 2 months has been a strange thing. I think it has definitely benefited me though and will hopefully make me a better standup. I think its important to constantly evolve and allow change to happen to your presentation and material and I really want that to be the end result for me. I am looking forward to seeing Chicago for a couple weeks and seeing what the comedy scene is like there. I hear so much about it all the time it will be good to finally get to see some improv/sketch/standup shows. I am nervous about the Seattle competition. I really want to represent the DC area well and I sort of look at it like that. I know we are all on our own in this business but when it comes to any comics from the DC area performing elsewhere, I always see it as representing your friends back home. So I hope I can make you guys proud.

So..........

I just returned from a weekend in a town called Cranbrook in British Columbia. This was an interesting time as there wasn't much to do there, I was given the worst room in the hotel and the show was filled with people that may or may not have hated me. I don't know because they were sort of silent when I wanted laughter and then laughed when I wanted silence. My gauge broke on that one. I just got back to the Blackfoot Inn in Calgary (this is where I end up every Sunday-Thursday until my weekend gig somewhere). I decided to google myself because I have security issues. This website popped up and I feel as though I've finally made it as a celebrity. This guy found me, somehow, some way. http://www.doitwith.net/2006/09/29/AmbiguouslyRory.aspx Washington Improv Theater will be starting a run of shows at Flashpoint Theater in December. There is a lot of really great improv going on in that little black box of secrets right now and you should def. check it out. I've heard nothing but awesome things about the run that is currently going on there. I'm not sure how many more shows that run has (if any) but if they have another weekend or two, skip over there and see what is what. Check em out at www.washingtonimprovtheater.com I was recently selected to participate in the Seattle Comedy Competition so it looks like my trip out West is going to extend a bit further. My first night of competition is on November 7th and I am guaranteed 4 nights of shows in the first round. If I am able to push forward then I may be in Seattle for a bit longer in November or at least til mid November if I don't push forward at all. Please wish me luck. I'm excited to hang out with a lot of the local guys in Seattle. I think there is a cool comedy scene there that is innovative and very supportive. Just based on local guys putting in a good word for me I was able to perform a guest spot when I was in Seattle at the beginning of September. I think thats a really great thing, especially as an out of town comic. Hopefully some of the guys and myself can write some sketches and performances and see what is what on stage a few times in Seattle before the contest kicks off. I've decided to head to Chicago after my last show in Vancouver on 10/21. I am going to wait in line and see if I can get on the waiting list to audition for Second City's tourco. I don't really expect to get much out of it except for maybe some good networking and face time with some of the improvisers in Chicago. I really think that might be my next destination after I leave DC. I love improv and sketch and there is a really vibrant community in Chicago. Should be an interesting month, hopefully there will be good news to report a long the way. If you check out this blog pretty frequently I apologize for not updating often. I am lazy. If you are going to be in the Greenville, SC area for Christmas please feel free to click the link on my websites homepage and purchase a ticket to the Christmas comedy show we are doing in Greenville on Dec. 22nd. Its going to be awesome. I would like to think we could generate enough interest to sell out the entire show at 520 seats but maybe I'm dreaming too big. But lets say that we do sell out, you will be happy to have purchased those tickets online in advance because it will be a great show for the holidays. Hope everyone is well. I miss you guys.

September 30th from the Rory Files

I am in Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada. Its an amazing city, or am I saying that so you think I'm having the best time ever just so I can outdo the time you are currently having. Both. hahahaha, we smoked crack yesterday and then rode in one of those floatplanes that takes off and lands on the water. It was unreal, or did it even happen? I don't know either, it was some pretty kickass crack. Tonight is the last of 3 shows we are doing in Kelowna. The town that doesn't stop rocking until 12-2ish a.m. like most towns. The very first night here, some very nice audience members asked me to go with them to a bar. I said yes, not knowing I was going to witness a murder. So anyways, there I was in the bar. Just minding my business staring at the dancing strippers. Yes, dancing strippers, what else would they be doing? Then out of nowhere someone says "hey, lets do a jagerbomb." I thought to myself, "okay." Thats when things went the way of the gun. And by gun I mean sloppy drunk rory talk. I wasn't actually sloppy drunk, we just did the one shot but we drank 400 beers, swear to God, 400. Then off to a club called "LEVEL." It was a techno raving, strobe light, beat pumping heaven. I was out of my element, so I did what I usually do in situations where I know noone. I became the shady guy in the corner who needs a haircut. Out of nowhere a guy comes up to me and says "hey, you wanna see me make a dead body?" Of course the answer was yes, its called living on the edge and I'm clearly a rockstar comic who lives about the law. What could happen? You guessed it, murder. I'll stop here and point out that I realize this is the shittiest, least informative blog ever. I know. So anyways, the shows here have been fun, the crowds have been young and rowdy but not to the point where I couldn't get the jokes out. Its been cool. The trip here form Calgary was a 7 hour drive through the Canadian Rockies. Incredibly beautiful. I've never seen such awesome nature. Huge Rocks covered with snow and happiness towering over the small road and vehicles. The water was so clear and clean, I wanted to bathe in it like they do in the movies. I don't know which movies but I know I've seen that happen sometime. Right Robin Hood? Right. Okay, back to the point at hand. There isn't one. Hope you guys enjoy reading these incredibly entertaining online diary entries. They warm my heart.

At least its something...

http://www.handlebar-online.com/calendar.asp The Handlebar has posted the Christmas show on their website now and tickets are officially on sale. Please visit the site and perhaps purchase the tickets if you feel inclined to do so. The show is going to be awesome, I guarantee this. Today is my 3rd week away from DC and I am def. missing a lot of my friends. Not all of them of course because honestly some of them bore the hell out of me. Mostly the white ones. So today is week 3 and I just finished a week of shows at the Calgary Yuk Yuks club with Emo Philips and Tony Krolo. The shows were a lot of fun. I enjoyed 4 out of 5 of them. The early saturday show was not my best effort. I was scatterbrained and low energy and had no rhythm or pace and I was naked. Hahahahaha, the set was about as funny as the end of the previous sentence. So awesome. Tony Krolo is a Canadian comic out of Toronto. He is out here for 2 more weeks and then back to Toronto. Tony is a great guy and has been a blast to hang out with. We are working together in Edmonton this upcoming week and that will be a lot of fun I'm sure. The local comics here have been really supportive and welcoming. I got to see a Calgary open mic night this past monday and thought it wasn't so different from DC. The crowd was light but those are tough to predict with open mics. So far I have met a lot of really great people and have had a blast hanging out with them. I of course can't wait to hang out with all my friends back home but for now its pretty cool getting to dip into other comedy communities and see how things are for them. I have been doing stuff and yet still have been unable to make this blog interesting. Its cool to see how into comedy so many people are up here. They don't care who the headliner is or anything. They just come to the club knowing they will have a good time. The club setup is pretty impressive. I am going to practice blogging now so that when I get to the game I know what I'm doing.

3 down

I have done 3 shows on this tour so far and they have all been pretty good. None were spectacular yet but I have a feeling they will get better and better. I really hope to work on avoiding my set list more and more. I am tired of using it and needing it to know what direction I want to go with my stuff on stage. Its so annoying to me when I use it. I don't want to. My hope is that at the end of October I will have trained my brain and confidence to just go up and do my stuff and not need a cheat sheet. I am really hoping that I can do the entire Handlebar Christmas show without a cheat sheet. I know the show overall will go better if I can not use one. I'm also hoping we generate a lot of interest in that show early. I know a lot of friends and family in Greenville that will def. come out to support myself and Jay. Getting to do a SC show in a real performance venue finally is something I have wanted to do for a while and now the opportunity is here. If you live in the area and will be around at Xmas, there is a chance that I have your email address and I will probably bug you about the show. Just want to apologize early for any bugging. Im just excited, thats all. Hotels are fun. They can be. So I have learned so far. It has been kinda weird checking into a new room all the time and moving around to different cities to different hotels. Its the kind of thing that you think is rock star awesome until you start doing it. It isn't the greatest thing. Not really having anything in place always like when you are at home can be annoying. A canadian comic, now living in LA, Dan Quinn and I have been hanging out performing together the past few days. We drove 6 hours to Saskatoon from Calgary. That might be the worst drive ever. The great plains is to your left, right and straight ahead the entire time. I truly thought Saskatoon was a made up city and there was no show and there were certainly no people. The show ended up being the most fun show so far since being up here. The Regina crowd the next night was a lot of fun. This whole week I am at the Blackfoot Inn and performing at the Calgary Yuk Yuks club in the hotel. Its a really cool setup and extremely convenient. Out.

Vancouver and Beyond

So Mr. Haynes and myself have now parted ways. I took the bus up to Vancouver early Monday morning and I believe that night he flew back to DC. Andy thanks to you and your mom for absolutely everything. I had a blast in Seattle. For everyone that wonders why Andy is so diffrent (and by different I mean hair in weird places) its because of the really laid back and awesome place he comes from. I can now see why he wants to go camping all the time. The outdoor life in Seattle was absolutely gorgeous. His friends are very welcoming and awesome people and I hope to cross their paths again. Again, Andy, thank you so much. I had a great time. On to Vancouver. I got into the city around 2:15 in the afternoon. My friend Coco picked me up from the bus/train station and we headed out to see some of the cool parts of Vancouver. Very interesting city. Everyone seems very laid back and almost everyone walks. Its sort of strange but DC is sort of like that also. Vancouver sits in a really cool spot surrounded by mountains. I didn't get to spend so much time in Vancouver since i was leaving early the next morning. I will be back there at the end of October for a week and hope to do a little exploring. Vancouver: Good cupcakes. My flight to Calgary was pretty short. I arrived here and met Mike Dambra. He is a comic from Rochester, New York and has been apart of the Yuk Yuks touring family for almost 2 decades. He is a really nice guy and I was glad to get to work with someone really understanding and informative right away. We drove from the airport straight to Lethbridge for the show. I thought the crowd might be extremely talkative during the show but they were actually pretty attentive. There def. was some noise here and there but most of them seemed to be into my stuff. Some of my jokes didn't go over at all because they just weren't relatable. They let me know that right away. I had a pretty good time there. Mike had a great set. They really love it when he comes to town. Today I am back in Calgary with 2 off days and nights. Friday I am heading up to Saskatoon (7 hour drive), that will be fun. From there we are heading to Regina for a show and then it is back to Calgary where I'll be staying for a week for shows here at the Yuk Yuks club. I am constantly thinking about my situation when this Canadian run is over. I need to plan ahead of time and book shows but I'm sort of in the process of learning how that is done right now. Networking. I'd like to think my act could speak for itself and get me shows but it just doesn't work like that. You have to get to know people and get your name out there on the business side of things. So that is what I will start attempting to do. Being more aggresive I guess. I hope the I guess at the end doesn't take away from the aggresive tone. I really wish I could make these blog postings more fun. Hopefully they are informative. Soon you can get on the website and see "Growing Up Backwards." Something that I think will be a lot of fun and really informative. It will be out there soon.

Seattle: First Blog from the NorthWest

So this is my first blog since leaving DC. I feel as though I should try and make it awesome with action packed adventure, drama, crying and stuff. It might be boring. I apologize for that. I'm not a blogist, I'm a man, a man who blogs about adventures. See? Already the blog is off to a bad start. So I arrived in Seattle on Wednesday night. Andy Haynes picked me up from the airport and we were off to perform at a showcase at the Mirabeau Room. This was an amazing showcase and thanks to Peter Greyy for throwing us on. The entire show runs to make the audience think the show is filmed and sent to a network. Its called "Comedy Night." Right at the start there is a hush over the crowd and a voice that says 10 seconds til we pick up the feed to the network. Then music comes up really loud, a voice announces the lineup and welcomes everyone to the show. It isn't actually a tv show at all and that makes it so fun. All the comics were really good. I was pretty impressed. There were no low points to the show. A lot of the comedy was sort of alternative but very creative and cool. There was a section called "the joke down." This was my fav. part of the show. 2 comics come on stage as characters. They each tell 4 jokes and the audience votes who the belt goes to this week. This particular joke down was between "moondancer", a guy dressed as a unicorn and another guy face painted to be a clown. They do jokes as their characters doing stand-up comedy. Amazing stuff. Really funny and different. The show had short films and music involved as well and this did not derail the standup portion at all. I was really blown away. Unfortunately next week is the last "comedy night" at Mirabeau room because the room is closing or "the network cancelled the show." Thursday Andy and I wake up and go on an amazing adventure. We drove North to San Juan Ferry and played around in the town of Anacortes. We were "climbing trees" so Anacortes was awesome. We ate cookies on the side of the road and jotted down stuff in our joke books. It was relaxing. People up here are very different. Laid back, chill. Noone is in a rush to do anything and its really cool to see. This fits my lifestyle perfectly. I could see myself living in the Pacific Northwest one day. So we catch the Ferry at 2:30 and the boat takes us through all of these islands. The scenery was incredible. Island Mountains, Mount Ranier in the background. Unreal. I've never seen things like this before. Movies, books, (picture books), stories from old men. Thats the only means of info I had about such beautiful scenery. The ferry took us to Orcas island. This is an island filled with hippyish people. Amazing. The community of people is so small and relaxed and everyone eats really healthy. Like Flowers. I don't know if flowers are healthy but doesn't it seem like they would be the most healthy food. I mean they are flowers people. They are filled with magic made of ice cream and sprinkles of smiles all over the place. We spent the night at a summer camp where Andy has ventured almost every summer of his youth. It was called Camp Orkila. Here we hiked around to see some amazing sites of Canada from the top of a mountain. Incredible views. We drove over to a lake on the island and jumped off of cliffs into the water. I'm so afraid of heights. I jumped from the lowest ledge and was still scared shitless to do it. That night we slept in a cabin. Of course the kids were away for the summer, but wouldn't that be weird if we just showed up to hang out with them. Talk about a seminar on taking candy from strangers. We looked so shady. We just showed up at the cafeteria the next morning where all the staff was eating breakfast and just dove into eating with them. Really weird. They were cool about it. It wasn't a concern of who we were but more of a we don't care if they eat because there is enough food for them anyways. I thought that was awesome. I have loved the people up here. They are fun, We went to bumbershoot yesterday. We are heading there again today. I'm going to blog about that later and also my train trip up to Vancouver. I'm starting to realize the adventure that I'm actually on here. I don't have a job to go back to. My whole family thinks that I do and I thought I did also but last minute found out I might not be able to get my position back. Kojo Mante is now the new Rory Scovel at my old company. I don't mind it though. I really think this is it. Its time to struggle and see what I can do. See if I can actually get shows and become a better performer. There is so much to learn on this trip. Tightening up my set and learning how to be a better presenter. I am going to be wondering how to do that and also where my next steps are going to be. If there is a way to network and get shows, I might not be home as soon as I thought I would be. I know over the next two months I'm really going to miss all my friends and seeing my family but this is how things are. Its now time to see if I have what it takes. At this point I'm considering heading to LA at the end of it all. Seeing Mummersons in LA clubs doing his thing and possibly staying out there for some time. Seeing whats what with the who nows. This is going to be an amazing trip. I really want everyone close to me involved with it. If you want to be there is a chance. Check back to the website in about 2 or 3 weeks. The very first look at "Growing Up Backwards" will be on there. If you want to know what it is, you'll have to go to www.roryscovel.com on that day. Hopefullly it will be something amazing that you really enjoy seeing. Hope everyone is well. Thanks for all the emails from people that wrote me such supportive tips and well wishes. One in particular I can't mention but they know who they are. Ditto.