I'm developing my next hour of stand up, come take a peak...

Hello Everybody,

I have an album coming out on January 12th (Presale) on the Burn This Records label!!! I’ll def be sending reminders, but PLEASE save the date!!!

This album contains most of my current headlining set. So I’m challenging myself to write a new act. I would say, at present, I have close to 20 minutes of new material. I’m still writing about mental health stuff, of course, but this next hour is definitely going to be more overtly political. I’m excited about that. My new opening bit is all about being self-aware about complaining about my life amidst the deep pain and suffering in the world. It’s also about me being playfully faux-bitter about my comedy career. I’ve realized that I need to process in a funny way how I feel about my struggles to find success as a comedian in order to keep any seeds of bitterness from really crystallizing. That would be the worst. Bitterness chokes off creativity. I think I figured out a way to provide myself with some genuine catharsis that renews my resolve to continue on into the comedy abyss lol. Anyway, here’s my new 4+ minute long opening bit. I hope you enjoy it as written, and I hope you get to see it performed live sometime. I would love that:

“This first piece is called complaining about your comedy career while your country has been actively supporting a genocide… Yeah sure, Israel is ethnically cleansing Gaza, using billions in US military aid… But why can’t I get booked in BLOOMINGTON, INDIANA?!?… Thank you. Thank you.

This next piece is called complaining about your comedy career while Donald Trump is the president of your country… Yeah sure, Donald Trump is ushering in a wave of MAGA fascism, and using ICE to break up families, and is terrified of the Epstein files because he’s a pedo… But why am I so BAD AT INSTAGRAM???… Thank you. Thank you.

This next piece is called complaining about your comedy career… Just complaining about your comedy career. AHHHH!!! I’ve been doing stand up since July of 2001! Pre-911! And I’m still not famous?! Are you kidding me?! Cut to 2005, I was one of Comedy Central’s ‘Fresh Faces of Comedy’… During George W. Bush’s 2nd term. Whatever!

Cut to 2007, I started comedy at The Creek and the Cave, alongside Timmy Williams from the Whitest Kids ‘U Know, ushering in the 3rd wave of alternative comedy in New York City. You’re welcome!

Cut to 2013, I helped pioneer the Bushwick comedy scene by starting one of the first shows in the neighborhood at Cobra Club. It’s called ‘Live From Outer Space.’ It still exists to this day!

Cut to 2014, I became a correspondent on the radical, leftist comedy news show, ‘Redacted Tonight.’ I did over 220 segments on the show, really kicking the evil empire in the throat with hard-hitting political satire. Yeah sure, the show was predominantly funded by the Russian government. I don’t wanna talk about it!

Cut back to 2010, I started talking publicly on stage and on podcasts about my struggles with bipolar disorder, using comedy to destigmatize mental illness WAY BEFORE IT BECAME COOL!!!

I currently have a CRIMINALLY UNDERRATED stand up comedy special on YouTube, entitled, ‘The Manic-Depressive Chocolate Fountain Operator,’ directed by Brendan Canty, the drummer from Fugazi, HELLO, and shot at the legendary DC Improv during Tig Notaro’s Bentzen Ball Comedy Festival… AND I’M THE ASSHOLE?!?

Also, I have a killer headlining stand up comedy routine, and a full-length one man show about a manic episode I had in Dublin, Ireland in 2008 where I thought that the CIA and descendants of the Nazis were trying to assassinate me, but I was being protected by the IRA and Bono from U2. And I promise you it is funnier and more meaningful than anything you are gonna see on or off Broadway. That is A FUCKING GUARANTEE!!!

But I guess none of that matters because I only have 3,733 followers on INSTAGRAM!!!

Also, it’s possible that my severe bipolar disorder may have contributed to some setbacks in my stand up comedy career…. Hard to know. Tough to tell.”

That’s the new opener, folks. Thanks for taking the time to check it out. I’m really riding that fine line between ironic bitterness and absolute self-indulgence with this one lol. But it’s what I need to express right now.

If you’d like to see me perform live and don’t live in NYC, reply to this email with where you live, and we’ll see if we can make it happen.

If you’re in NYC, there’s two wonderful opportunities to see me perform in December. I’m doing a special show at Cobra Club with the great Lee Camp on 12/12. And I’m performing my solo show I’M ON LITHIUM at Cobra Club on 12/19. You should come through!!! Click the pics to reserve tix!!!

Love,

JFOD