February is 10 days old and I still have loads of gigs coming up. Here’s a couple of the bigger ones (besides the usual Joe’s Bar on Tuesdays and Buzz Club on Sundays):

• Feb 12: BASTARD SLAM — I’ll be the featured poet at one of the staples of Berlin’s slam scene
• Feb 14: Anti-Slam – competing in anti-Valentine’s Day show where the worst poet wins
• Feb 16: Comedy in SIN – feature act / co-host
• Feb 18: Rathaus Comedy — feature performer at the best new comedy show in Neukölln
• Feb 29: Conversation Gangbang — featured poet

…come check it out, if not for me, then to see some of the other great talents this city has to offer. Cheers.

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Comedy in S.I.N. — Feb 2 — w. Nigel Williams!!!!

Today — Time 8:30pm until 11:30pm
Get there by 8 if you want a seat!!

He’s here! The UK-born king of Belgian comedy, Antwerp’s own *** NIGEL WILLIAMS *** , will headline a very special Comedy in S.I.N., Kreuzberg’s only English-language stand-up comedy showcase. Hosted by Drew Portnoy! ** WITH: David Bonney, Tim Whelan, Katie Maranda, Nate Blanchard, Passun Ernesto Azhand, improv comedy!

DETAILS:
Drew Portnoy (host): everyone’s favorite schleppy Prenzlauerberg Dad

Tim Whelan: offbeat Liverpudlian and co-host of Buzz Club

Katie Maranda: Sacramento’s fireball will sex the stage aflame

Nate Blanchard: the best-dressed bilingual comic this side of everything

Passun Ernesto Azhand: the man with the Fernsehturm tats!

ComedySportz: improv comedy: with Noah, Paul, and Andrew!

MUSICAL GUEST
David Bonney!

Cost: 4€, 3€ students. Shot of whiskey at the door!
Fabelhaft Bar
Schönleinstrasse 6, 10967 Kreuzberg, Germany

———————
MORE ABOUT NIGEL

http://www.comedyfinland.com/2011/04/18/know-your-comedian-nigel-williams/

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Comedy in SIN was cofounded in 2009 by Paul Salamone and Rey Melara as a way to bring Anglophonic-style comedy to the capital of Germany. English shows occur on the 1st and 3rd Thursday of each month. Interested comics, please contact Paul.

See what TIMEOUT magazine has to say:

http://www.timeout.com/berlin/features/983/english-comedy-in-berlin

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This is the spoken-word piece (read: 5 minutes of jokes on a theme) I performed in front of 900 Germans at the 2011 Berlin poetry slam Stadtmeisterschaft (city championships), plus or minus a few jokes. It helps to know German for this one. (Professionally recorded by the boys at Mixing Room in Berlin — thanks guys!).

Ami Deutsch by psalamone

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Wow, I got a full paragraph in Der Tagespiegel for attempting to smuggle English-language comedy into the Berlin Slam Poetry all-city championship! Here’s the full quote:

Der New Yorker Paul Salamone überrascht ausgerechnet bei dieser ultimativ der deutschen Wortkunst verpflichteten Dichterschlacht mit einem Beitrag auf Englisch mit „denglischen“ Elementen. „Erst seit ich die kulturellen und sprachlichen Gegensätze zwischen Deutschland und den Angelsachsen thematisiere, läuft es gut“, sagt Salamone, der seit vier Jahren in Berlin lebt und mit einer Theorie über den kompletten Wiederaufbau der Berliner Mauer konfrontiert, damit sich die Touristenhorden endlich nicht mehr über die mickrigen Mauerreste beschweren, die das wiedervereinte Berlin ihnen am ehemaligen Todesstreifen präsentiert.

Rough translation (Deutsch-o-philes, please correct me):

The New Yorker Paul Salamone surprised everyone in this ultimate battle of German spoken word with a contribution in English with “Denglish” elements. “As long as I highlight the cultural and linguistic differences between Germany and the Anglo-Saxon world, it goes pretty well,” said Salamone, who has lived in Berlin for four years. [In his text he] presented a theory about the [hypothetical] reconstruction of the Berlin Wall to keep the tourist hordes from complaining about its puny remains of the wall, with a reunited Berlin confined to the area occupying the former Death Strip.

I love this city.

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More pissy, bored-witless video production from my new YouTube Channel. Also, Patton Oswalt’s book Zombie Spaceship Wasteland is genius.

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Happy Holidays from my YouTube Channel.

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I love flying home for the holidays. When it’s done. (From my new YouTube Channel).

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The first video of my new YouTube Channel. What a start.

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Good quote from the WineLibraryTV guy’s book Crush It!:

I’ve said over and over that if you live your passion and work the social networking tools to the max, opportunities to monetize will present themselves. I’ve also said that in order to crush it you have to be sure your content is the best in its category. You can still make plenty of good money if you’re fourth best in a category, or ninth best, but if you really want to dominate the competition and make big bucks, you’ve got to be the best. Do that, be that, and no one will be able to touch you.

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I’m writing this because I turned 35 today and I promised myself I’d do a blog post on my birthday. This being Germany, however, I’ll follow local custom and give something to others instead of making it about me. In lieu of drinks, I figured I’d give the online equivalent: useful links. Enjoy…

For comedy fans:

• The 10 Comedy Albums of 2011: Laughspin’s controversial list of Best Comedy Albums (in the US) of this year surprisingly places WTF host Marc Maron’s This Has to Be Funny over Louis CK’s Hilarious. Don’t tell anyone this, but I actually agree.
• Louis CK: Live at the Beacon Theatre: in case you haven’t heard already, Louis CK just put out an all-new comedy special as a 5$, DRM-free direct download from his personal site. Also check out a great interview he did with National Public Radio in NY.

For comedians:

• Connected Comedy: Josh Spector is an online marketing guru and working comedian who dispenses advice for struggling comedians looking to leverage their online presence to score more gigs. Useful posts on topics like how to not be a spamming a-hole with social media and creating online content that doesn’t suck .

For comedians in Europe:

• Delayed Departure Podcast: my friend Louis Zezaran is one of the few English-speaking Continental Comics to actually get the importance of online media, and has built his Baltic/Scandinavian comedy empire thusly. Check out his biweekly podcast as he interviews new and established comics on EU circuit.

For struggling artists:

• Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?: “authentic marketing” guru and philosopher Seth Godin gives great advice on what it means to be “useful”, making art, and being a leader in the post-industrial economy in the 21st century. Some quotes.
• How to Make Money from Your Art: Very practical advice for building your online identity, being of use to people, and (eventually) monetizing by “personal development” kingpin Steve Pavlina.
• On Becoming a Global Microbrand: Business card cartoonist Hugh MacLeod, aka “Gaping Void”, delivers an inspiring sermon on leveraging online tech and social media to become a remarkable online brand.
• Writing in the Age of Distraction: Cory Doctorow gives useful advice for writing in the internet age. Some interesting ideas: even if you just write uninterrupted for 20 minutes each day, that’s still enough to crank out a book a year. Also, DON’T turn the internet off (as it can inspire you), but DO turn off “real-time” communication technologies like IM or Skype. Audio version.

For people depressed about the future of humanity:

• Global Guerillas: Author, entrepreneur, inventor and former Air Force pilot John Robb beats around no bushes in showing how the nation state is doomed and that the world’s increasingly being taken over by crazed financial elites and decentralized criminal gangs and terrorists. He advocates “resilient communities” who leverage maker technologies, local economies, and 3D printing as a bulwark against these howling enemies of civilization. (Interestingly, one of his solutions for making yourself more “resilient” is by creating your own global microbrand.)
• Wikistrat’s “The World According to Thomas PM Barnett”: as a sort of antidote to Global Guerillas’ bleak, if pragmatic vision, I present “grand strategist” Thomas PM Barnett’s recent talk, a.k.a. catnip for nerds who grew up playing RISK. While I’m a bit too pessimistic to entirely agree that everything will work out (his championing of possibly earthquake-inducing “hydro-fracking” is a bit eerie), seeing the bigger picture, particularly the movement of food and population in the 21st century, and the hidden vulnerabilities of China’s expanding economy, takes a bit of the doom and gloom out of our current Western solipsism.

…and of course, for people who can’t get enough of the HIPSTER DOG meme:

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