I read the book How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big by the creator of the cartoon Dilbert, Scott Adams. My big take away from the book was the idea, live in the neighborhood of the people who you strive to be like. For example, if you want to be a Wall Street big shot live in Stamford Connecticut or on Park avenue. You might only be able to afford a roach infested basement apartment, but live there. I moved to Astoria in September (before I read the book, but somehow that thought was subconsciously already in my head). Astoria has become the mecca for comedians. It’s less expensive than Manhattan and is becoming “hip”. Granted the comics that have been there for 6+ years are saying how expensive it is, but as someone who had lived on the Lower East Side, this is waay cheaper than what I have been accustomed to paying.
A few times a month I work in a coffee shop with a comedian friend of mine, Jon Fisch. We have our own computers out and focus on our own projects, but it’s nice to have company. He is a talented headliner who has been doing standup comedy for 15+ years so it’s really humbling and well, cool to have a friend of such stature. He invited me to a party with all of these Astoria comedians and I have not had so much fun since I started the Comedy Grind. I was around comics who have been working in the NYC scene between 6-20ish years. We talked about comedy, but it wasn’t a bunch of people sitting in a corner gossiping about other comics, it was a party with friends who genuinely like having fun with each other and I was so pumped to be around them. I was recently asked by a booker to recommend comedians and I wound up recommending a bunch of them from that party. I also booked one comic on my show. I’m not saying I made new friends, but I did expand my social network of comedians. Pretty much I moved to a new area for seven months in order to get invited to one party– and it was damn worth it!
