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

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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

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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

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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

 

Making our Way Uptown

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Comic Strip Live, Stand-up Comedy, top of the bottom pile, tour

In the world of entertainment there are some breaks. A few brands that just were in the right place at the right time and caught onto something big. For the rest of them, there is a lot of hard work and effort put forth in making success happen. Sometimes the two worlds collide. Top of the Bottom Pile has received the opportunity to audition for one of the most prominent clubs in New York City Comedy, The Comic Strip Live.

This is, with no explanation needed, a great honor. The likes of Eddie Murphy, Jerry Seinfeld and Louis C.K. have passed through those hallowed doors on 2nd Ave in the Upper East Side of Manhattan and pretty soon you will be able to add us to that list. To say we are nervous might be an understatement, but then again, no matter how long you’ve been doing what you love to do if you don’t feel a little bit of nervousness in that pit of your stomach right before, perhaps you are in the wrong business.

Aside from the obvious benefits we can reap from this audition, we are looking forward to the experience and the relationship we will make with this club along the way. Just hanging out there has become a favorite pastime of ours, and we are looking forward to the business and personal aspects of this relationship as it flourishes. What started as a seed planted will soon become as symbiotic as two brands can be. Wish us luck, and as always…

Stay Piled.
–Top of the Bottom Pile

The Whole City

Tags

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

Tags

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

Tease over

Tags

Christopher Hamilton, Roger Skai, Thomas J. Bellezza

A few weeks ago, we had mentioned that the Pile was growing. After a much anticipated and highly speculated event, we can officially decree that we are ready to announce our newest member, Chris Hamilton!

A quick rising star who has performed at Hoboken Comedy festival, several colleges in addition to performing at all major comedy clubs in New York City. As a native New Yorker, he talks about his upbringings and the differences from present day New York City compared to New York in the 90s. With a bizarre point of view and observational humor make him a force to be reckoned with in the comedy world.

For the Pile, this means a few things. Other than our apparent presence in the community, this signifies a change as well as growth in our brand. This offers another brother in arms to take up some of the work load and opens doors to new possibilities with a fresh perspective on things. Stay tuned, because 2015 is certainly looking to be “the year of the Pile.”

Stay Piled, friends.
–Top of the Bottom Pile

Building While Building…

Tags

Networking, top of the bottom pile

So many times you hear that there is a specific way to do things. An order to it which has to be followed in order to obtain the success and goal you have set for yourself. If you don’t do it a certain way you will never make progress. This would make it seem that there is no room for error or improvisation, which truthfully if you think about it, goes almost against human nature. We are a variable species, with a ton of curve balls thrown our way every day. It’d be nice if everything was a 90mph pitch down the middle, but that’s not how it goes so why does your success have to follow a single trajectory?

Pioneers. Trail blazers. The purple dot in a sea of red. The ones who don’t follow the beaten path and create roads of their own often find themselves in the at the finish line with the rest of the pack and often find themselves there before the crowd. Why? They looked at their goal from all sides.

To the Pile, this is the Comedy life for us. So many people say you have to do it a certain way, you have to follow these avenues to get to the end all the while they are neglecting other important parts that they claim you need to do after you’ve mastered a certain aspect of your career. The prime example being they feel they have to be totally funny, the best they can be, killing crowds every single night effortlessly before they begin to work on the brand and relationship side of things.

Our question: Why can’t you do things at the same time?

While we perfect our acts, we’re cultivating relationships, building our brand and increasing our presence both in the community and online. This way, when the time comes and we start getting noticed, we have legs to stand on. Imagine being so funny, or so good at your job, and then when it gets the recognition, you get turned away because no one knows your work. There’s no audience or support to your terrific talent, so you get passed up again until you can draw. Build while you build.

Stay piled, friends.
–Top of the Bottom Pile

Growth

Tags

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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