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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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

 

At the Top of the hour

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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!

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

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

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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

Got something for your face

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Entertainment, Networking, top of the bottom pile

An object in motion stays in motion and we here on the Pile are objective to not making moves. We’re out there, shaking hands and creating the opportunities instead of waiting for them to fall in our laps. There is no waiting for breaks around here, we’re out to make breaks by breaking out into the things. You can break a leg by chance, but is it a clean break or something that will linger for the rest of your life? In this case, we want the hard work and pain associated with the risk of failing. You must fail to succeed.

Your time is valuable, so if it’s not spent furthering your happiness, are you managing the clock or is it managing you? We don’t believe in counting the clock until punch out because we’re always ticking. If there’s time to lean, there’s time to clean and we remember that whenever we find ourselves in a mess. Relationships to sustain and grow, presentation to tighten up, and always learning. That’s how success stays prevalent.

There’s luck and then there’s hard work, and we choose the latter in this instance. Luck is chance, and chances are fleeting. You have this moment now guaranteed to you. And after reading that sentence, you now have this one. It’s impossible to move forward walking toward the past and sometimes you can find yourself mired in the present. The time isn’t found on a clock, the time is now. Find happy, find good enough, be proactive.

Stay Piled.
–Top of the Bottom Pile Tour

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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Hey, Hi, Hello

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Hello, Networking, top of the bottom pile

No one’s role in life is any less or more important than the next person. We are not defined by our work role, our monetary stability, or the car we drive as all of these material things don’t fuel our daily interactions. You may have obtained them through your integrity, but in the end that’s all for naught when we are ready to leave. How you treated people and left your mark on them is what truly counts. A man can be measured by memories that creep in late night, not by his possessions, but by the length of his funeral procession.

You only get one chance to touch lives in this lifetime, so why not say ‘Hello’ and be as nice to everyone as you can? Even if your goal is business related, having a relationship cultivated, a positive one, with as many people as you can encounter can only help you later on down the road. Who do you think a person values more? Someone who walks in off the street, or even from within the company, whom just seeks the position or the person who asks about their family, their well being? Who took the extra time to connect on a personal level. My money is on the latter.

We recently encountered, as we do too often, someone who can’t seem to grasp that principal. This person didn’t take the time to say ‘Hello’, however we did and their reaction to this was cold and closed off. They even seemed to go out of their way to mock us when we were simply doing one of the most important things to being successful; building your network. He thought he brought us down a peg, but all he succeeded in doing was leaving a bad taste in our mouths, and a want to never work with him in the future.

That closed off an opportunity for him and in a business such as Comedy, or any field for that matter, opportunity is precious. This man’s integrity, or lack there of, has prevented him from exploring an avenue. By sticking to our moral code and mission statement, we will avoid poisonous people such as this man and continue to prosper.

Stay piled, friends.

Top of the Bottom Pile