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.

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Building Friendships

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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

Another Top Meeting

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

Another Top Meeting

A good meeting makes things great. What makes a good meeting? Conversation, trust, and a willingness never to hold back thoughts, ideas, and brainstorming. This week was the first time, in a while, we met face to face. It feels so much better than Skyping. The physical aspect of it really brings teams together. You get a chance to remember each of us are real.

Our meetings consist of laughing, S.M.A.R.T. Goals, planning out City walks, and really learning about one another. These are people who are going to be working together and making a difference. Changing a game which continues to remain stagnate. A system of ideas which maintain a status quo. We want others to change their game and make a difference too.

There is an amazing feeling when our efforts make others change up their style. Start working as a team, and more importantly, know that we too want to help other people in this industry. What we have planned for comedy is more than just jokes, more than a scene, but an empire to see others succeed. To open doors for ourselves so we can break down walls for other entertainers who deserve a chance. 

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

On Top of the City

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Christopher Hamilton, Networking, new york city, Roger Skai, Thomas J. Bellezza, top of the bottom pile

On Top of the City

New York City has become our home stomping ground. Some consider California, others Chicago and even a few more call Boston their home. To us, NYC is where we spent most of our days chillin and relaxing… okay maybe those are lyrics, but we are all New York Comedians. There is a responsibility to having that title. This is the Mecca of comedy. Or so history suggests. In the 80’s and early 90’s there were comedy clubs everywhere and now there are only the Symbols of humor staying alive. 

There is such a grand history which makes running the streets of NY priceless. It’s a responsibility which we take on proudly. But comedy is the least of the system when it comes to walking down to Comic Strip Live, or to Gotham Comedy, and even relaxing at The Stand. Clubs are there for congregation. These are our churches, temples, places of worship. We might now always pray when we are there, but we are listening, learning, and building beautiful relationships. 

It seems almost counterproductive to be doing what we do; being relationships, pushing our Brand, and practicing our art. But, truth is, it is getting us where we want to be. In the center of everything. It allows us to be around the people we respect the most, and the clubs which maintain the game. Be it up town, midtown, or downtown, our goal is to continue to grow among our fellow Peers and enjoy this adventure as we climb from the Top to the Bottom Pile!

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

The Whole City

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comedy, Networking, top of the bottom pile

Another round of Comedy Clubs this past week. The Pile loves frequenting spots as many times as we can because of all the camaraderie and new people we meet. There’s a million stories, all with something to relate to and you always come out finding a little bit of yourself in them. This past week we had the pleasure of meeting with Richie Tienken, owner of The Comic Strip Live, which has been slinging the laughter since 1975. Richie has helped comedians such as Eddie Murphy, Gilbert Godfried, and Adam Sandler get their starts and even lent a helping hand in guiding some of their careers.

After a nice sit down, Richie was nice enough to impart his wisdom from being in the business so long, and even shared a few inside stories including how Eddie Murphy almost didn’t make Saturday Night Live. This is a prime example of someone who doesn’t owe anyone a lick of time giving a few upstarting Comedians a little heart to heart, something the Pile is very big on; sharing experiences and giving back. Richie had a plethora of memories, and I hope he saw in us the excitement to hear them, as we saw the passion in which he recited them.

We can now add The Comic Strip Live to an ever growing list of places that are truly homes for Comedians. The Staff reflects true professionalism and a lot of the values that we’ve built this brand on, and there’s always a great line up of Comedians trying to give you the best experience possible. This, among numerous other things, is exactly why it is becoming a place we love to frequent.

Stay Piled, friends

–Top of the Bottom Pile

FaceTime

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Networking, Relationships, top of the bottom pile

It’s not what you know, it’s who you know. We’ve all heard it, we’ve all been either helped or thwarted by a relationship cultivated, and it can seem frustrating at times. Take for example, someone who goes to College, puts themselves into debt, graduates only to be looked over by nepotism or the boss’ best friend. It seems unfair, but is it really? Why couldn’t you be educated and work on your relationships with people?

Here on the Pile, we not only put in our time and research, we make sure to apply what we learn to the field with the people with interact with. The practices we believe so firmly in, we institute while out and about at various spots hanging with like minded people. People who want to be successful, thrive on connection and work together toward an ultimate goal. This makes us feel fulfilled, as it gives validation to all we’ve been working so hard to learn and achieve.

So when the time comes, we know the people who can put us in the right place at the right time, and when we’re in that place, we know what to do with the opportunity offered to us. You can give a man a million dollars to improve his quality of life, but if he spends it all on sweet IROCs and 40 ounce bottles of malt liquor, he will soon regress back into disparity. We’re trying our damnedest to not be assed out once we reach the pinnacle. It’s a tough climb when you wanna bungee,and when we get to the top, we’ll let you all know just how it feels to be there and stay there. We don’t plan to jump for quite awhile.

Stay piled.
–Top of the Bottom Pile

Growth

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Networking, top of the bottom pile

As movements tend to do, they gather up steam and snowball into something much bigger than originally anticipated. Though we started off as a threesome, we’ve decided that when you meet someone who shares a similar vision to yours, you want to work with them and that’s exactly what happened with the newest member of Top of the Bottom Pile and we are now a fierce foursome. You will however have to wait till April 1st to find out exactly who is this mysterious new member.

This is exciting for us because as many of you have read and joined in the conversation you’ve seen how many times we are met with adversity in the field. Narrow minded individuals who think there is only one path to success. Though we go off course every once in awhile, we assure you, whether following traditions or blazing our own trails, we have created avenues for ourselves to succeed so it was refreshing when we first encountered this new individual, and eventually watching our relationship grow over time, we were elated to find he felt working with us would be just as beneficial for him.

So the pile grows and with this comes more audience to reach, more goals to accomplish and a lot of work ahead. However, together we can split up this work so that no load is more overbearing on a person than any other which will keep us from getting burnt out. All the while, building toward something that we individually wanted but now as a team, the success can be shared by multiple people with the same results just with more support and organization which eventually leads to less work.

Stay piled, friends.

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The Direction for Your Conversation

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Convesation, Networking, top of the bottom pile

Last week we touched upon what it meant to give your conversation direction so you don’t wind up mired in a talk that is going nowhere. When we initiate a conversation with someone, we for the most part have an idea of why we are having it, or where we want it to go. In the social examples we’ve provided, it’s a bar setting and you’re trying to get someone you’ve fancied your eye on to see value or interest in you.

For us, it’s a more business sided reasoning. We want to alert people to our brand, to get them interested in what we’re doing in Comedy without us telling them we are Comedians. They figure out for themselves through conversation with direction, rather than “selling” it to them. This works effectively because it gives the person the illusion that they’ve discovered the information themselves, which to the human psyche/ego is more important than being bombarded with what we’re trying to do.

We may start a conversation off in public with something as simple as the weather, but soon, through asking and answering various questions, we’re directing that conversation ultimately toward us being Comedians. This is achieved by short, concise answers which slowly but surely creep toward, “Well I’m a Comedian”. The weather turns into the weather in New York, since we were in Manhattan this weekend.

Example:
“Yeah, it was brutally cold in the Manhattan this weekend.”

“What were you doing in Manhattan?”

“I had a gig.”

“Oh? You’re a performer?”

“Yes, I’m a Comedian.”

“That’s so interesting! I love Comedy, where can I see you?”

“Well, you can take my card and check my website to see all my dates.”

Instead of just beating around the bush with various, dull conversation for a huge chunk of time, or even worse, telling that person that I am a Comedian and they should come out to my show, I let them discover the information for themselves, thus seeming they are making a choice to come see me, as opposed to being sold on coming to one of the Top of the Bottom Pile shows. This demonstrates your value to that person through listening, and responding as well as achieving your objective of brand awareness.

Giving Conversation Direction…

Tags

Entertainment, top of the bottom pile

Continuation posts aren’t really our motive here on the Top of the Bottom Pile, however, a very good comment on last week’s installment of the blog Activity Breaking posed the question, “what about the conversation after you’ve engaged someone?”. Outside of business and relationship building, I’d say the average person encounters this hurdle the most. What to do after you’ve obtained the attention you are looking for.

Aside from just trying to kill time, every conversation you find yourself engaged in was started with the purpose of obtaining results. Last week, we used the example of approaching a person at the bar you find attractive. You want to know more about them, and maybe even ultimately take them home for some alone time. We here at the Pile don’t condone pre-marital relations unless the other person is ridiculously hot in both body and mind, but we understand this happens.

After you’ve approached this person, you’ve broken their activity using our method, you now have to keep that person engaged long enough to obtain the goal, which in this case, is dirty dumpster sex in the alley behind the bar. We’ve all encountered the scenario where we decide, possibly against our better judgment, to give someone our ear and a shot to “wow” us into buying into them as a person. They either succeed, or they crash in flames in their own awkward pauses, comments, and silences.

Always have a plan. Always approach the conversation with a clear path to the information you are looking for. First, listen. Gather up as much about the person as you can. Make the first few minutes of your exchange all about them. Their interests, what they do for a living and then wait for them to take the interest in you. When the conversation turns itself your way, which it will as you’ve given them reason to value you, answer with short “jury talk” answers. Instead of giving them all the information at once, spread it out. Not only does it give depth and bulk to the conversation, it lets your listener feel as if they are finding out the information for themselves, as opposed of having it “lectured” to them.

On top of giving the illusion that they are in control of the conversation, it’ll also ward off any negative stigmas such as bragging as they asked you, as opposed to you just giving them the information. More on this next week, folks.

Till then, Stay Piled.