The AG Times: Friday, January 15, 2010

Hey all,

WE MET ROBIN WILLIAMS. Just had to get that out there. I shook his hand, talked to him, and was in a picture with him. Not to mention a bunch of other famous comedians. But, back to a semi-chronologically ordered post here.

We started the day off at Porter Novelli. They are a PR firm who work with clients like Mt. Dew and Monster.com. The women we met with was very excited to host us, and gave us some very good cookies. We didn't really talk about anything too technical here. It was really more of her just telling some stories and how their company operates. It is a company that deals more with corporations instead of people. They are big on the social network advertising. Their clients tend to ask them for help with setting up and using Twitter accounts, Facebook adds and things like that. They find that there types of advertising are much more effective that conventional types of advertising. As many of you have probably heard Pepsi is not doing a Super Bowl commercial this year. Pepsi co. is one of their clients and has shifted the money that would be spent on a Super Bowl commercial to their social networking budget instead. Many companies are starting to spend more and more money on this part of their budget, and it seems to be yielding some very nice results.

From Porter Novelli we had some time to go get lunch and to wander the town. I got a snack at Union Square and then walked every street in about a 4 block area around Union Square just looking at stuff. I still had a little time and ended up at a Borders Books reading a book about the National Parks. It had a really cool picture of Half Dome on the inside cover, made me happy knowing that I had been on top of it. While I was in Union Square eating my snack, there was a crazy lady who was yelling at random people and talking to herself. She would randomly do some dances moves as well. Then, she ran up to some random guy and started making out with him. He looked surprised, kissed back for a minute, until finally pushing away and getting away. As I was leaving security was trying to get this lady to leave. It was an interesting lunch for sure.

We finally all met up and headed over to Creative Commons. CC is a digital copyright company. If you visit their site you can get a free copyright license for anything you put online and have the rights to. It is a license that always allows others to use your property, but you can change the restrictions that are placed on your stuff. They really believe in sharing everything on the internet and juts giving credit to the correct people. This is another place that I am going to try for an internship at. Despite being a non-profit they operate much like a normal business, and are very driven to give out these licenses. They pay their bills through donations and grants. Unlike Kiva who is almost collecting enough on their own to pay their bills, CC is not even trying to get that 'tip' that Kiva asks for, or anything else to help pay their own bills. This is one thing that I really wish they would change. There is no reason that a non-profit can't be independent and pay their own bills. The ideology that you have to get grants, and that is the only way you will be able to operate is putting a lot of pressure on people outside of your company, and maybe outside of your ring of supporters. This puts them on some thin ice, if people decide they don't wanna give money anymore, CC is going under.

After CC I headed to China town with Jeni, Bryan, and Jake. We wandered around a little bit and then ended up at a really nice restaurant that was recommended to us by a cashier at a random store. I got some Fried Rice and it was some of, if not the, best fried rice I have ever had. Then, it was time for us to head back to the hotel to start the night, the best night of the trip, and the best night of comedy I have ever been a part of.

We, Jake, Adam, Jeni, Kaitlin, Kiflu, Drew, Megan, and I headed to "The Purple Onion". There were two shows that night, sketchfest and Joke-e-oke. When we called ahead of time to see if we should buy tickets early or anything, we were told that there would be no problem getting in at all. When we got there, we were in the front 1/5 of the line, and barely got in. We had to wait in line for well over an hour and a half. This would have been terrible, except that we met Robin Williams while standing in line. He came to watch his friend perform, and walked right by us in line, and even stopped and talked a little. We will see more of him later. After we finally get into the club there are no chairs and Jake, Jeni, and I have to stand in front of the bar. This really wasn't a big deal, because the comics were very funny and generally showed up at the bar after the set. When they would show up we got to talk to them, and get to know them a little. It was awesome to be talking to the people you just watched perform.

After sketchfest was over, we had to exit the club while they set up for the next show, Joke-e-oke. It sounds a little funny, but it is exactly what it sounds like, karaoke with jokes. There were a few people who signed up and picked one of their favorite comedians and did a skit of theirs, while trying to impersonate them. The first person to go was Alley, she had picked Chris Rock. She actually sounded very much like him, and did his skit at least as good as Chris could have done it, maybe better. This was a competition based comedy show. So, there were three professional comedians as judges. I got to sit directly behind the judges. So I had a lot of interaction with them, and one of them even found me after the show to see if I was from the area. The judges were, (I think these are the right names) Rick Overton, Paul Provenza, and Harmon Leon. Paul and I talked a lot during the show, and he was the one who came and found me after to see if I would be attending anymore shows.

In the end it came down to Kazoomie (Sure I spelled that wrong) an Asian girl, and Alley a little white girl. They ended up having to have an 'insult off' to see who would be crowned the winner. In the end it was Kazoomie, with the winning line of, "Why don't you go slip into something a little more comfortable? Like a coma." Everyone who went in our group could not believe how amazing the night turned out, especially after we almost left because we were frustrated with waiting in line. It was honestly the best comedy I have ever seen, and probably will ever see in a very long time. While we were hanging out before Joke-e-oke started, we finally decided to go ask Robin for a group picture to which he gladly accepted. He is a little shorter than my shoulder, and every bit as hairy as he is in the movies. Also, he is very funny and rather understanding and nice in person. There are a few pictures below, enjoy. Sadly, the good pictures with of me with other people are on someone else's camera.

My fried rice at the Chinese Restaurant we went to in China Town.