Well, here I am, once again, using this platform that Exotic has so generously handed me for the purpose of shameless self-promotion. Last June, I wrote about Strip City, the TV sitcom that I co-wrote with a friend and that I was—and still am—pursuing. I pushed my Kickstarter campaign to raise money to pay for the pilot filming. As it turns out, times are tough, and Kickstarter failed to meet the set funding goal. Not one to let that stop me, I set out dreaming up alternate means of raising money.
When I approached my boss, Frank, about the possibility of hosting a fundraising event at X Exotic Lounge, where I work, he readily granted me his blessing. After securing both a venue and the support of my bosses, my next task was to figure out what the event would be. It occurred to me that I've gotten to know a few stand-up comics over the years and that a stand-up comedy night in a strip club might be fun.
I pitched the idea to Frank, who responded by saying, "Yeah...like Lenny Bruce used to do." Now, I knew of Lenny Bruce. I knew he was one of the gods in the pantheon of comedy. I immediately recognized that it wasn't an insignificant thing for my boss to draw such a comparison. I also recognized that when it came to Lenny Bruce, I possessed a knowledge gap that clearly needed to be closed. The next day, I opened up Wikipedia and looked up this legendary comedian whose name my boss had invoked. I learned that Lenny started performing his stand-up material as an emcee at strip clubs in LA. But what I read next left me picking my jaw up off the floor. One of the first clubs he performed in was a strip club in LA called Strip City. The synchronicity of the whole thing felt to me, deep in my soul, like the universe telling me, in no uncertain terms, that I was on the right track.
Those moments of confirmation didn’t end there. I recently saw a video on YouTube in which Bert Kreischer spoke with Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong, and about 5 minutes in, the conversation turned to the fact that comedy clubs, as we know them, didn't exist when Cheech and Chong were starting out. Instead, they performed at strip clubs, to the confusion of the audience, who were initially baffled by such an interruption. Why, the audience wondered, were they watching these guys perform their act and not staring at the titties they were there to see?
I was watching M*A*S*H recently, and the first episode of season 10 shows a USO tour that had come to Korea to perform for the troops. One of the singers on the tour develops acute appendicitis and is rushed to the 4077th, where Hawkeye removes her appendix. When the other performers on the tour made their way to the MASH unit, I was struck by the fact that the headliners of the tour were a comedian named Fast Freddie and Brandy Doyle, a world-famous stripper.
What I’ve come to realize is that, far from the novel concept for an entertaining show that I initially thought I’d dreamed up, I instead managed to stumble—completely unaware—upon a rich tradition, a deeply intertwined history that exists between the worlds of burlesque entertainment and stand-up comedy. Although I’ve long known about Portland’s famed and storied strip club culture, I’m only now beginning to understand what a truly robust stand-up scene our city has. I’ve only begun to scratch the surface of the widespread open-mic network that exists throughout Portland, but I’m starting to get the picture. I can’t even begin to express how exciting it’s been to bring together the comedy and strip club worlds (I guess you could say we’ve brought those worlds back together) and to watch it resonate with people.
While I was the guy who dreamed this whole thing up, I've had an overwhelming amount of help along the way. I mentioned my idea to Japan the Punk Rock Comic, a regular at X Exotic Lounge and a revered elder within the Portland comedy scene, who naturally has a dedicated following in…Korea (which, to me, is a piece of conceptual comedy that I imagine Andy Kaufman would have found hilarious...it's sure got me laughing pretty hard). He approached me less than a week later to let me know he'd put together a full lineup of comedians and that we just needed to pick a date. I’ve learned a lot from Japan about how to put on a good show, and without him, I’d probably still have this comedy night trapped in the limbo of the planning phase.
I’ve also found a mentor in the form of Spartacus, a regular at Dixie Tavern (he goes by Spartacus, but at Dixie, we affectionately abbreviate it to "Sparky"). I've listened, fascinated, to the stories he's told and retold over the years of his days working at the famous Comix Annex in Houston, Texas. Sparky worked there in the '80s as security and, eventually, as a manager. He took advantage of the opportunity presented by such a workplace and broke into stand-up himself. Back then, Comix Annex was a comedy proving ground akin to The Comedy Store in LA, or The Improv or The Comedy Cellar in New York. Sparky speaks fondly of his experiences getting to know legends like Sam Kinison and Bill Hicks, meeting the likes of Bob Saget, Chris Rock, Brett Butler, and Dana Carvey, and opening for Andrew Dice Clay. When I told him I was starting a comedy show and that I was working up a set so I could try my hand at performing, he gifted me four old notebooks full of his handwritten comedy material. When he gave me those notebooks, he did so while telling one of Mitch Hedberg's jokes, telling me, "Here,you throw these away." Joke's on him, though. I'll treasure those notebooks to my dying day!
We’ve had several amazing performers at the three shows we’ve put on so far. Richie Stratton, for one—local emcee extraordinaire—who also happens to be the first comedian to perform at the Warped Tour. We also have BJ McNaughty, a Portland stripper whose clown act landed her an appearance on Jerry Springer back in the day. Bryan Withawhy, who hosts the El Oh Hell comedy open mic at Dante's, has graced our stage. Keegan Bell and Jesse Hooper were also recently invited to perform at Jimmy Kimmel's comedy club in Las Vegas. And let's not forget Juan Denmark, who has made a name for himself through his appearances on Kill Tony.
In addition to all the established comics who have lent their talent, it's been fun to watch a brand new crop of comedians find the inspiration to begin performing. Once I started talking with DJ Dick Hennessy about the show I was putting together, something clicked with him, and he's been hitting the open mics religiously ever since. Some of the guys I've befriended while we judged Dick's competitions together have started performing at the open mics, as well. Speaking of competitions, this August, Dick is rolling out a new one: Strip Jokers. It's going to be a comedy competition held in strip clubs across the city, in which a stripper will join each comic on stage and remove an item of clothing for each laugh the comic gets from the crowd. If the stripper ends up naked, the comic will head to finals. You won't want to miss it!
You also don’t want to miss Strip City presents: Tits & Giggles at X Exotic Lounge. I hope to see you there!
There are things about Nate Hazen you wouldn't understand. Things you couldn't understand. Things you shouldn't understand. You don't want to get mixed up with a guy like him. He's a loner, Dottie. A rebel. When not working security at X Exotic Lounge and Dixie Tavern, you can find him searching for the basement of the Alamo and plagiarizing this bio from the movie Pee-Wee's Big Adventure. Check out his stand-up comedy show, Strip City presents: Tits and Giggles, on the first and third Thursdays of every month at X Exotic Lounge, from 10 p.m. to midnight.
