After seeing my humiliating failures in bold print on the pages of the press — bombing on stage at StandUp New York comedy club, I’ve decided I will never again grant this type of unfettered  access to any reporter from The Rolling Stone or my alumni magazine.

Chrystal Houston’s interview took me on a journey, mostly fun, back to the epiphany when I realized I had an obligation to get over my fear and pursue comedy, to the terrifying first UCB improv class at Solo Arts theater,  to the failures at the early attempts on stage and finally on to some fun.

Read the article here.

My doctor told me to cut back on dairy and red meat, which in layman’s terms means “write a blog about cheeseburgers.”  I’m no food critic, and a pretty simple man in general, so most burgers will score a 10.  This purpose of the series is not to offer useful information on where to find the best patty in NYC.  It’s to provide a structure for sharing stories about the pursuit of comedy in Gotham, and  a justification for the increased dining-out expense.  (My wife is a former Deloitte accountant, so I get audited every fiscal quarter.)

I’ll date back to the New York Comedy Festival to mark the official birth of this series, giving me an excuse  to re-post my photo with Ricky Gervais.   Before the show, Ian Berger, producer for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, and I grabbed dinner at the Redeye Grill.  The venue is not on my list, but Ian picked it for proximity  as it’s directly across 7th Ave from Carnegie Hall.  about a 60 second commute.  Or approximately 90 secs in traffic.  It was a little on the swanky side for my liking, but the burger was very good.

After a hilarious one-hour set which included an Elmo cameo, we went backstage to give Ricky a few notes on his Noah bit; chatted with the opener  Todd Barry, also Janeane Garofalo, then headed off to the afterparty at the Empire Hotel rooftop bar, where they served some amazing Kobe beef mini-burgers that tasted even better than our dinner.

After much internal debate  over the burger critique, I decided to give the Redeye Grill  a 10.

Redeye Grill
890 Seventh Ave. @  56th St.
(212) 541-9000

See reviews from Zagat and Yelp

Here’s one of Ian’s field pieces, “Borderline Cops”

I could not have asked for a better father, and I feel horrible for never buying him a coffee mug that says exactly how I feel.  This year, Dad’s getting an autographed copy of “Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy” by Eric Metaxas, and if I can negotiate an employee discount, an ASR 9000.