A Reanimated, Redux, Revival, Reboot of a Classic Comedy Album- "Lou Diamond Phillips?" Drawn Out
I released my first stand up album in 2008. It was selected by Punchline Magazine as one of the Top 10 Comedy Albums of the Year alongside some unknowns such as: Louis CK, Mitch Hedberg, Todd Barry and Doug Benson. This album has followed me around for years in a good way. The stand up comedy scene is vastly different now than in 2008. There was no Tik Tok, Instagram or Twitter. Comedy Albums were not ubiquitous like they are now. This came out about three years before the seismic shift began. Podcasts were not even a thing yet. Now if you don’t have a podcast then people don’t know what to even do with you. And if you don’t have a video podcast then what the hell am I even talking to you for?
Lou Diamond Phillips? Reanimated link to video of full set
Anyhow, this album was produced by a friend I first met at a stand up show he put together at his college. He was a friendly and eager guy who loved standup and was just getting started in his career. His name is Scott Rogowsky and he later went on to make a name for himself as the host of the wildly popular HQ Trivia.
He was a fan of mine and had a lot of ambition. He printed up a bunch of physical copies of this album, unfortunately physical CD’s were about a year away from being almost totally obsolete. FYI if you’d like an actual copy of the album I have plenty and I can send you one if you pay the postage.
There was some video footage of the set that we taped at Pianos in the East Village. But the full set was not captured on film. The alt comedy scene was in full swing and some of the best comics around regualarly performed on the Sunday show at Pianos, hosted by the Whitest Kids U Know. I appeared on their live show many times and they were gracious enough to let me tape my album during their Sunday time slot. It was a grand night. The energy was positive and totally supportive. It was an intimate setting but the place was packed out. This is my favorite type of atmosphere. I like smaller venues full of attentive comedy fans. Stand up comedy seemed on an upswing and the alt room crowds were die hard comedy fans.
FYI- I also wrote a semi-autobiographical novel about this very time in stand up comedy when the alt scene was burgeoning. It’s called ‘Born Funny’ and if you’d like a copy I have some and can send it out. It debuted at #40 on the4 Amazon bestseller List.
Anyway, recently I finally came up with a brilliant idea to animate the audio of this album and I now present it to you. Anyway, I hope you like it. To me this album is a perfect time capsule of a bygone era in comedy and in my life as a comic. I don’t do stand up much anymore but when I taped this I was grinding it out weekly. It seems like a long time ago but at the same time it feels like it just happened. Lou Diamond Phillps? Reanimated