Time For An Update?

Well I just got back from California for the 3rd time this year. Unfortunately, I left yesterday and I’m back already! Its amazing how much you can actually stuff into 36 hours. I’ve got a nice bottle of wine and a great winemaker’s dinner last night. Pics on the way.

There’s only a couple more days to vote for me in www.CanadasNextTopComic.com I don’t expect to win but I can say that I’ve now been a finalist in 3 nationwide comedy contests. I’m bound to win sooner or later.

Work has been very busy. Its chocolate season aka… Halloween/Christmas. I saw Advent calendars out at London Drugs last week. I’m not sure how long I’ll be working as a chocolate man. I’m positive losing that job will not be good for maintaining friendships.

Hockey is back and I’m in 2 hockey pools (and one football pool that I’m stinking up) Once again I proved that I’m the Grim Reaper of hockey pools. Once I pick a player they are destined to be injured. Its only a couple of weeks into the season and I’ve already been hit by the injury bug with about 6 out of 20 of my players. Sorry players.

That is all for now.

Food and trip pics on the way

California…Knows How To Party…

It was  a long 10 days but the LA road trip has come to an end. After planning this thing hastily for the past few months I’ve got to say flying by the seat of your pants and not knowing where you’re going or where you’re sleeping that night can be fun. Perhaps, a little more schedule and we would have experienced more but there was no stress and I think Andy and I got what we wanted out of the trip.

We went to my Aunt’s wedding…

Saw a California beach…

ate great food…

we went to Universal Studios

last but not least we saw an LA dog

 

Wanna see more pics? Click here

That is all…

2 Months and Counting…

 

In just under 2 months Pearl Jam will be in Vancouver playing the Pacific Coliseum. This was where I saw them for the first time back in 1998 during their Yield tour. Since then I’ve seen them perform in Las Vegas, San Francisco, numerous times in Seattle, at the Gorge in George and at the World Famous Commodore Ballroom. I wish I kept all my concert tickets but I guess my memories will just have to do.

On top of the Canadian concert tour in September, Pearl Jam will also be releasing a full length documentary film about their 20 year career that will be written, directed and produced by Cameron Crowe (Almost Famous, Jerry Maguire)

So other than the crappy weather I have reasons for this summer to hurry up and be over.

Eddie Vedder – Longing To Belong

1st collector for Eddie Vedder – Longing To Belong
Follow my videos on vodpod

Hot Town Summer In Naramata…

Hey y’all… I know its been awhile since my last post. I have reason to believe very few people check out this page unless prompted by me through Facebook or Twitter but I’m sure I must have at least one stalker or two. So here’s what’s been going on in Artland aka the former Republic of Artandia.

I just came back from Summerland, BC.  It rained so much if they named the area last weekend it would have been called Autumnland…  heyo! Still got it. I spent the weekend doing some radio work and broadcasted LIVE from the new Poplar Grove Winery in Naramata. The new building is amazing and it looks over the lake and the city of Penticton. I can see myself visiting the Naramata again in the future. The weekend also included a nice dinner at restaurant in Summerland called Local (check out the appetizer plate we got) and it also included 2 late nights that consisted of copious amounts of BC wines. There was even a bottle left over that I can add to me collection. One interesting thing I discovered over the weekend was that Kelowna was only a 4 hr drive away. From Abbotsford you could probably get there in about 2 1/2hrs. To think after living in the Valley for over 3 years I never once visited the Okanagan. What a waste! One more reason to be happy I’m out of there.

I’m in another comedy competition. I’m starting to understand why comedians, both pro and amateur are sick and tired of doing these things. There’s sometimes no rhyme or reason why people advance in these audience voting competitions. Of course the more friends you bring out the better chance you have of moving on or winning but to make sure you have more friends in the audience than the next guy is almost impossible. After night 2 of 3 I figured that I wasn’t going to move onto the semi-finals but I wasn’t going to bail out of the competition. Stage time in this city can be very sparse and every amateur should take it whenever its given to you. My only interest in the competition was the side bet I made with Sean Emeny. He thought Fiq Ahmed was going to take the whole thing. Fiq is both a good comic and he’s got a lot of friends. That is the formula for success. I took his 2 1/2 – 1 bet and it was agreed if Fiq won I’d give Sean $250 and if anyone else won he’d give me $100. So last night at the Kingston was night 3 of 3 and the audience was made up of about 9 people. There was going to be no major swing in the standings unless I did something about it.  Luckily, I didn’t have to do much because out of nowhere comedic newcomer Goldie Hoffman knocked Fiq out of 3rd place and won herself a spot into the next round. I also moved on even though I placed 4th… I was one of two “wild card” draws. That means 3 more shows in a couple of weeks. This should be fun.

Anyhoo, that’s all for now. Thanks for reading.

Help Me, Help You Win Some Money…

Here are the details.

I’m part of a comedy contest called Stand Up and Bite Me and I need your help to vote me into the finals in Toronto. If I make it I’ll have a 1 in 8 chance at $10,000 or a secondary prize of $5,000. Those are pretty good odds.

Here’s the deal I’m going to make with you. If I win either money prize I’ll put up 10% of it all to one lucky person. So just click on the link and vote for me once a day for a week. If I win, you win! Voting will only take you a minute but you have to register and use an email address (use your hotmail address that you never check anyway) Please don’t forget that you can vote once a day everyday for a week.

So how do you enter to win? There’s 3 ways…

Post a comment below and tell me who’s your favourite comic. Add your email address so I can get ahold of you if you win. Your email address will not be posted to the public.

Or you can also Tweet this… I voted for @artfactora and you should too. http://artfactora.com #SendArt2TO

Or add me on Facebook http://facebook.com/artfactora

If you do any of these things and you’ll get 1 entry in the draw. If you do all three things you get 3 entries in the draw for up to $1000. If I win I’ll make the random draw after the contest is over. If I don’t win I’ll do a random draw for some cool stuff I’ve got in the tickle trunk. I’ve got a lot of great wine. Also everyone who registers and votes has a chance to win a 42′ screen TV from Bite TV.

Check out my vid below.

Thanks for your support.

Art

5 minutes for $10,000

Not A Valley Boy Anymore…

It was around this time 3 years ago when I packed up the few things I still had and moved into a gigantic apartment in the sleepy town of Abbotsford. I say gigantic because my first apartment was a studio in downtown Vancouver and clocked in a whopping 375 sq ft.  and then my 2nd condo felt like a mansion at 675 sq ft. So needless to say living in the Abbotsford condo which was 1240 sq ft was big enough to have a domestic argument properly. We could retire to separate rooms while one of us decided to apologize to the other… or not.

As of earlier this afternoon the subjects were taken off the purchase agreement and on June 30th I will no longer be the owner of this condo. Now let’s reminisce shall we…

And Now Its Time For Random Cat Youtubing

Stand Up and Bite Me… on TV?

Congrats Kevin Banner of Sooke, BC for winning round 1. Kevin is off to Toronto to compete for $10,000.

I still have a chance. My episode will air in early June and the audience votes for their favourite comedian (me, right?) www.bite.ca

So I guess its competition season again. I don’t know why or how I get to participate in these things but I made it to the final 32 contestants for the Stand Up and Bite Me Contest.

There are 16 competing in Toronto and here’s the 16 competing in Vancouver at Lafflines Comedy Club

Friday May 13 – 9:30PM @ Lafflines

Greg Kettner
Dylan Rhymer
Rob Balsdon
Art Factora
Kevin Banner
Michelle Shaughnessy
Lawrence Fehler
Byron Bertram

Saturday May 14 – 8:00PM @ Lafflines

Simon King
Patrick Maliha
Paula Antil
Chris Gaskin
Ed Hill
Kevin Dobbie
Melanie Rose
Garret Clark

Judges will pick a winner from Vancouver and they’ll perform in Toronto at the finals for a chance to win $10,000. There will also be a wild card winner who gets to go to Toronto. The other 15 contestant’s video of the competition night will be posted on the Bite TV website and the person with the most votes also wins their way into the finals in TO.

Good Luck everyone! See you Friday.