Goodbye Brewco - Feb 1st 2008

Goodbye Brewco

Friday, 1st February

So this past month has been pretty momentous. As some of you may or not know, I perform stand-up comedy. (how could you not know, it’s the only thing I talk about on this website) So I landed in Los Angeles on a cold October month 3 and half years ago and found that my best friend was running one of the hottest comedy rooms in Hollywood upstairs at “The Westwood Brewing” company. To make a long story short, my friend’s comedy career took off and while he was on ‘the road’ he left the room to me. Every Monday and Thursday I would shuttle over there after work and set-up the chairs, microphone lights and hustle an audience for a comedy show. Essentially, it’s a little attic above a bar down the street from UCLA. Sometimes the room has 75 college kids, sometimes there’s 4. Either way, I like performing so it really never made much of a difference to me. Running a comedy room is great. I highly recommend it for any new comic in Los Angeles. Not only does it allow you to book comedians and meet a lot of neat people but you can book yourself and perform all you want! Hooray! In addition, some of my best friends are the bouncers and bartenders who work there. It was also pretty cool that some of Hollywood’s hottest comics stopped in including Dane Cook, Dave Chappelle and Chris Rock. Well this past month, after three years, I gave the room to another comic. Some of the most interesting and weirdest stories that could only happen in Hollywood, happened to me in that room. I thought I would use this entry to highlight a few of them. And if you don’t like it TOUGH! This is tarunshetty.com so if you’re with me, read on… David Arquette/Pee-Wee Herman This was a pretty weird. One time David Arquette (Courtney Cox’s husband) had a film party release down the street Westwood. To celebrate, he decided to bring his entire film crew to the Westwood Brewing company and have a party upstairs one floor up above our room. I guess David is a big fan of stand-up comedy because when he heard of our show, he ditched his own party, came downstairs and sat in the back to watch. To make it more interesting, Paul Ruebens (Aka, Pee-Wee Herman) was at the party and was looking for David Arquette so he wandered into the room too and also stayed. By this time, the show had been going on pretty long, and the crowd began to thin out. Around 12:30 in the morning I finally get on stage to perform. I look out into the bright lights and have to squint to see my audience: A UCLA couple making out on a couch. David Arquette and Pee-Wee Herman are sitting beside them, listening politely. I’m like “Ok, so what do you guys do for a living?” Rick Fox This story might be kind of lame because I don’t even consider Rick Fox a celebrity in any right. I know he was on the Lakers and married to Vanessa Williams but I don’t know if that means anything. So Rick Fox is watching the show and the room is packed, standing room only. Of course, this dude is like 6’6 so he really sticks out and one of the comics calls him out. I forget the chain of events but somehow, Rick Fox is called on stage to tell a joke. (I remember watching this and feeling sick because rule #1 in comedy is never give up the mike. I don’t care who it is.) Well, Rick told a joke, followed by another and another and another. All in all, he ended up performing for 25 minutes! To make matters worse, he had a great set and I had to follow him! I remember complaining to a friend afterward “If I see Kobe Bryant performing stand-up comedy here next week, so help me God…” Being Discovered I always dreamed of someone discovering me while doing stand-up and this would launch my acting career. Well it hasn’t happened yet but one time they set up karaoke in the room next door. Some comic was on stage so just for fun, while waiting, I went down the hall and signed up for karaoke. I think I sang Billy Joel or something. I get off stage and there’s a lady with a big smile handing me a business card. “I’m an MTV casting director how would you like to host our new karaoke show?! “ “Uh, I’ll have to think about it.” Her smile disappeared. “No, you don’t understand. IT’S ON MTV and you get to sing on karaoke too!” ‘I understand fine, but I don’t want to sing karaoke on your channel or anywhere else on TV. See you later.” I thought that was the last of it. Turns out, this girl came to every comedy show for like two weeks after that asking me to host her stupid karaoke show. I would have considered it had I not had to start off each episode singing a song -- in a shower bathroom! I never saw her again nor did I ever see a show like this on MTV. I guess they couldn’t find a host who could sing as well as me.