THE "SUMMER OF PAUL" BEGINS

May 17, 2004- Yes, the "Summer of Paul" has officially begun and I'm enjoying the hell out of it already. A few weeks ago, I went out to Las Vegas with Kimmy. It's only about a four hour drive from Los Angeles but it's right through the desert which makes for some great scenery for about the first seven minutes. After that your mind just wanders and you start to wonder how long it would take for someone to find you out there if your car broke down. I was certain that tons of bodies were buried in this desert and it began to get very depressing. As I looked up, all I could see were the splotches of dead bugs on my window while I looked down the road that appeared to never end, which was even more depressing. Everytime Kimmy and I would see a house we would wonder out loud what the hell anyone who lived there did all day and how horribly hot and depressing it must get. Overall, the mood on the drive up was...you guessed it depressing. I need to find my thesaurus.

After we got to Vegas it was all shits and giggles. We stayed at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino which is a bit off the strip but very cool. It's kind of a hipper, hang out at the bar type casino. Not as much about losing tons of money gambling, which was fine with me. The hotel has tons of memorabilia, and every room has pictures of some drugged out rockstar. Ours had a picture of Keith Richards getting on a plane with a bottle of Jack Daniels hanging out of his pocket. I didn't even realize that he drank? All of the lamps in the hallway are cymbals as in the type a drummer would use. Yes, I did look up the spelling. If I started talking about how all the lamps are symbols you would start wondering what kind of drugs I was doing on this trip.

The hotel is usually crazy but it was extra-busy this week because Howard Stern was taping his radio show there. The place was flooded with Stern fans, and during the three days we were there I ran into just about everyone from the show except Howard himself. I hung out in the fantastic pool during the day then watched some NBA playoff games in the casino bars at night. The first night we found ourselves watching the Kings/Timberwolves game and noticed Carson Daly smoking a cigarette in front of us. A few moments later, Beetlejuice and most of Howard's "Wack Pack" bellied up to the bar in front of us. It was definitely a strange scene. The next afternoon I rode the elevator with Howard's producer Gary, also known as "Ba Ba Booey." I tried not to be a pest, I just said hello and commented on how crazy the hotel was because of the show. Not a great story is it. I also saw one of the really fat guys from the Sopranos at the pool too but I can't remember his name. No chicks at the pool, just a big fat guy from the Sopranos with his shirt off. Luckily, I didn't gamble the whole trip so I came out even. The place was mobbed with fans that waited all morning to see the show taping so I ended up just hanging out and watching it on closed-circuit TV by the pool and the bar inside. Overall a really fun couple of days. I wasn't broke or hungover so I left the city feeling a lot better about myself than I usually do when I leave Vegas.

We headed back to L.A. for a day before traveling up to Modesto, CA for my shows at The Fat Cat. Now Modesto is kind of in the middle of nowhere. It's almost all farmland. The scenery is breath-taking as you see the endless rows of beautiful almond and orange trees from the highway. Before you get too happy, the next several miles of highway are marred by the sight of several hundred cows piled on top of each other in their own filth. Most people know Modesto because it's the hometown of Scott Peterson. I figured that any city that's famous for a guy who murdered his pregnant wife is probably not going to be too exciting so my expectations weren't set very high. The hotel was very nice and the shows at The Fat Cat were great. I worked with Chris McGuire who was hilarious and a really cool guy. I ate at Denny's twice in one weekend which is never healthy. During the day, we went miniature golfing and also checked out the Blue Diamond Almond factory which was (gay), I mean fun. Gee, I wonder if the almond factory tour was my idea or Kimmy's?

As noted on the opening page of the website, I was a part of the AOL Standup Showcase at The Improv in Irvine, CA, last week. It was a blast and my clip should be added on AOL in two or three weeks. If you have AOL, just got to keyword: comedy. Click on LA comedians, and my name should be up there shortly.

I've added a few dates this summer including Washington, D.C., El Paso and I'll be headlining a week in Buffalo at The Comix Café at the end of July. Check out the schedule page for details.

Thanks for Reading,
Paul Morrissey