Always A New Year

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comedy, Networking, Roger Skai, Thomas J. Bellezza, top of the bottom pile

Always A New Year

January, the coldest month thus far, is becoming a tackled month. It is so cold, the walk around aspect of our journey is getting difficult. On the bright side, we have two road shows this month. And that’s important. Each new year must have upon it more growth. We’re extremely happy for these road shows. They are brought to us by our ever growing relationships. We are completely appreciative.

Though the team goes up and down with members, that membership is really a number. Our movement is more important. This year we hope to inspire others to believe in a strong unity of people. Helping one another and working as a team. We have friends outside our Top Of The Bottom Pile brand, but they are very much part of this family. To the exciting doors opening for us all.

Though we are working with Team Rise Together, and oh DEER! Productions on a web series (Dramatic), it is all a part of the growing Brand. With the radio show packed of guests, and more road shows coming up, the Top of the bottom is getting exciting for us all. Our movement is to inspire others to work together as a team. Let us hope we can enjoy opportunity together. Always in a new year.

Top of the bottom pile

Cold Winter Breeze

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Roger Skai, Stand-up Comedy, Thomas J. Bellezza, top of the bottom pile, Winter

Cold Winter Breeze

This is the time of the year where those comedians willing to sacrifice are put through the grinder. The ice cold grinder. Spring, Fall, and even Summer, have a little give and take to the weather and wear and tear of whether we should or should not go out. Winter however is a stay at home cause. But you can’t. You have to get up and go out. Because you must be working toward your goal 365 days a year.

Jackets, scarves, and hats, are simply some of our favorite things. Depending on how bundled you get really adds to how hot you are in clubs. Carrying enough to stay warm outside leads to being super hot inside. Either way, we will be having our second winter in the city this year. That’s pretty exciting to know that we have gone from one location to another and all these things are happening.

Embrace that cold winter breeze and move on forward. Because every step forward is the next step up. You have to keep active out there in comedy, acting, in life. You have to be moving. Where are you moving to is important too. And we know that we want to be involved, and we want to help anyone and everyone. So let us keep building this pile and keep climbing to the top of the bottom pile!

Top Of The Bottom Pile!

Switching it up

Tags

Comedian, comedy, New things, Roger Skai, Stand-up Comedy, Switch it up, Thomas J. Bellezza, top of the bottom pile

Switching it up

At times it feels like we are never seen on stage and thus have little value in the eyes of other specific comedians. Is performing the end all be all of comedian or not to comedian? Maybe it is. If you are not performing comedy, then you are not a comedian, you are just a fan of comedy. Walking around and becoming friends with other comedians, club owners, and people who love to laugh.

Sure, it seems, at times that we would appear to be fans of comedy. It comes off that way because we are fans of comedy. That is why we love being around its environment. But we are also comedians; real life stand up on stage and tell jokes comedians. Do we perform as often as other comics? Depends on the season and time of the year. Also, if a tree falls in the forest and no one sees it…

Trees everywhere! Comedy is a skill learned through doing. Perform and you will become. However, truth be told, writing jokes and getting into the business of being a comedian makes you a comedian. Switching it up, we’re going another route. Instead of doing open mics, or bringer shows, we have to change the game by changing how we play the game. Inspire others that process is malleable.

Building Friendships

Tags

comedy, Networking, Relationships, Roger Skai, Thomas J. Bellezza, top of the bottom pile

Building Friendships

Over eight radio show episodes we have continued to build relationships with new people. From Guests to other show hosts on the station where we do the Top of the Bottom Pile Radio show. It is an impressively deep feeling of gratitude that we have these opportunities to being in a business of humor. A sense of gratefulness is added when we realize it is around our friends too.

Meeting new people is only as powerful as remembering to follow up and say hello again. Meeting a person once is only the intro. It is nice to see comedians reach out and introduce themselves. It happens more with beginners than the three and older vets of this scene. Saying hello is the beginning a beautiful opportunity for relationship; working, or friendly!

We believe strongly in introductions. We want to know more people. We want to know what is going on with you and your career. We want to support your success. Because success for one person is a sense of hope and joy that others can make it too. This takes hard work in addiction to hoping. When you see a Top of the Bottom Pile sticker, member, or post, say hi. We are all in this together!

Top of the Bottom Pile

 

Guests

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Guests, Radio, Roger Skai, Thomas J. Bellezza, top of the bottom pile

Guests
Life without friends is less than laughable. Meaning how can you laugh if you don’t have friends? Our best friends give us the greatest of jabs. They are letting us know it is okay to be down and out and still find the crazy funny in the situation. Because, truth be told, laughter in misery. Usually the misery in others mishaps. Still, what a notice! More friends the merrier!

We love our friends. The friends riding along side the rest of us on Top of the Bottom Pile! We are all on it. Unless you are on the bottom of the top pile, in which case, YAY! So happy you have made it there. We love seeing the success of others, it gives hope, proof, and validation that hard work pays off. And this is why we are proud of invite our friends to any format which allows them opportunity!

The newest opportunity has come in the form of our radio show. It is a great feeling to be able to interview people in general, but when they are our peers, and our friends, it adds a whole new flavor to the game. Changing it begins with opening doors for everyone! One level at a time we shall all rise together to the Top of the Bottom Pile!

“Individual commitment to a group effort–that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.” –Vince Lombardi

Top of the Bottom Pile

Performances

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Business, Chris Hamilton, Performance, Roger Skai, Thomas J. Bellezza, top of the bottom pile

Performances

We love performing. How often we perform depends on if we are on tour, working material, or walking around. Busy does as busy is. There’s a sense of interesting concern in comedy. A thought that if you are not seen performing then you are not doing anything. Is performance really progress? How aggressively should a person be performing to be considered professional? Paid/unpaid!?

If a comedian performs every Friday / Saturday, and is being paid, are they more successful then a comedian performing for free seven days a week? What about a comedian performing only three months out of the year on tour? Our feeling is performance is our reward for doing our job. The job of making a career and getting all our business in order.

We look at everyone with the same amount of respect. Working, paid, unpaid, touring, just starting out, or whatever your situation is, we love and respect the crap out of you. This is a hard business, comedy. It’s beautiful when you see people doing what they love. The idea should be to judge less, working together more, and inspire one another to be successful in both business and entertainment!

“Look to the future, because that is where you’ll spend the rest of your life.” ~ George Burns

Top of the Bottom Pile: The best of the worst, your second best choice!

Festivals and volunteering at the bottom

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Chris Hamilton, Festivals, Roger Skai, Thomas J. Bellezza, top of the bottom pile, Volunteering

Festivals and volunteering at the bottom

Last weekend was a chance for a few members of Top of the Bottom Pile to go and help out. That’s the name of the game. Helping, working together and making a difference. To change the game, one must become the change they want to see. So our team jumped on a chance to volunteer for the ‘Woodstock Comedy Festival‘ to bring awareness to domestic abuse and human trafficking.

None of us performed. It was all about giving back to the business we all love. Besides, we had a chance to Network, Market, and Practice our beliefs of being involved and changing the game to a selfless team mentality on our trip from bottom to top! The town was beautiful, embracing, and they had a drum circle on Sunday. Hippies! Talk about fun! Loved it very much!

Watching how a festival is ran from the inside is extremely valuable. It gave an insight on process. Something to think about when performing at these events. A lot of stress, and work, go into making festivals a big success. So next time we are involved on a performer level, we know to give the people working their space. Let them do what they do so we can do what we do.

“The system doesn’t run itself. It takes everyone from the top to the bottom to get it going right!”

Top of the Bottom Pile: The best of the worst, your second best choice!

At the Top of the hour

Tags

Chris Hamilton, Networking, Radio, Radio Show, Roger Skai, Thomas J. Bellezza, top of the bottom pile

At the Top of the hour

Radio has come the way of our very small hill top! BBox Radio has asked us to have a show. But why do a radio show? Rather, an internet show? There must be something bigger going on than just speaking on radio to be heard and seen! Everything we do, everything people do, should affect everything leading to the top of their mountain.

There are two kinds of people; People who do to be seen and reap the rewards of attention and then there are Givers. Top of the Bottom Pile lives by a deep message to always be helping. Rise together, be the best of the worst and help one another. If not to see the world of hope giving opportunity, then to see everyone working to make this business of entertainment a better environment.

This show is a great chance to build on that message and open doors for others to express themselves! Our goal is to also educate others on the process of how this business, or any business, works. The behind the scenes aspects of it all. Get named celebrities to come in and talk about how and when it was that moments started happening for them. Let’s rise to the Top of the hour!

“Everyone begins at the bottom, why not embrace the journey together to the top!”

Top of the Bottom Pile: The best of the worst, your second best choice!

Screaming from the bottom

Tags

Chris Hamilton, Ego, Roger Skai, Selfless, Teamwork, Thomas J. Bellezza, top of the bottom pile

Screaming from the bottom

“I want my chance!”, “I deserve my chance!”, “I am funnier than everyone, give me my chance!”. This is something that is said far too often in the scene. Followed by a response of maybe “Write more”, “Perform more”, “You have to pay your dues”. But these are all just sayings. Ramblings from a mountain top consumed with Flags. How loud can you scream to get the attention needed?

We don’t want our chance. Because wanting something means it is outside our control and nowhere near in our own grasp. Action creates results. The length of time to succeed is dictated by effort. We don’t deserve our chance. Chance is a risk. It is a gamble. Why gamble against the house? Opportunity is a much better word. Opening doors to opportunity through effort. We are not the funniest around.

But, we will keep running on the treadmill long after everyone else falls. Perseverance is key to a successful life. Longevity comes from helping up the people who fell on the way. The mountain had flags from the past on there and open spots for plenty of more. There is a way of thinking which leads us to understand the mountain is nothing to own, but to walk upon while traveling to the next moment.

“The mountain has a view beautiful to see, enjoy it, then more on, for there are many views beyond.”

Top of the Bottom Pile: The best of the worst, your second best choice!

Bottoms up!

Tags

Auditions, Chris Hamilton, comedy, Kenny Murdock, Roger Skai, Stand-up Comedy, Thomas J. Bellezza, top of the bottom pile

Bottoms up!

The success of others is the success of us. What does that even mean? One of our Pile Brothers was passed at Comic Strip Live after his audition. Roger and Thomas have theirs coming up soon. He was passed in a way that made us all a little proud inside. He got no bad criticism from the owner. He was the most confident on stage, and he knew his material.

What makes this event all the more special is he did it the Pile way. The way of changing the game. We want people to explore outside routes from the norm. Because, let us face it, the norm has hundreds of thousands of comedians fighting for their chance. What if there was another way? Well, there is, and our Pile Brother, Kenny Murdock (The guy with glasses) did it another way from the norm.

The idea is that we work to support one another. Either a part of the pile or not. This game is big enough for all of us to be working together. There are other routes to the top, and all the boys are doing it. Staying focused, working their craft, building relationships and even growing a Brand. All we can say is that the Bottom went up the other night, and there is still more happening! To the Top!

Top of the Bottom Pile: The best of the worst, your second best choice!