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Rob’s Blog

June 3rd

I don’t keep track of a lot of dates, but June 3rd sticks in my mind because in 1996 it was the day I moved to NYC, which means today marks 20 years since I took a flight from Chicago and a bus from LaGuardia to get to a 3-month sublet in Hell’s Kitchen. And though I didn’t do anything intentional to celebrate the occasion I spent the day finishing up a packet of songs and sketches for a potential gig, recording my own music in my studio, and discovering that my YouTube channel (which I obviously didn’t have in 1996) just hit 20 million views. Not bad.

In these 20 years I met a lot of wonderful people through the performing world and had a lot of great experiences, not the least of which are:

  • Opening a dozen shows for George Carlin
  • Opening for Lily Tomlin at the MGM in Las Vegas
  • Doing a 2 week tour in Afghanistan performing for members of the armed services at military bases
  • Completing my goal of spending at least one day in every state
  • Appearing on Comedy Central
  • Making the Dr. Demento Funny Five and Funny 25
  • Putting out 4 albums of music
  • Having a performance piece about my distaste for a certain Baroque piece of music go viral and lead to so many fun and interesting encounters and opportunities
  • Being in a concert film

Shoot, I could go on and on. And though I’m not a household name, nor rich, I feel I’ve gotten better and better at mixing comedy, music, and performance in a way that’s true to who I am and what I believe. Last year I wrote a musical which I hope you all will see and hear someday and I still thoroughly enjoy making people laugh with jokes, music and lyrics.

Thank you to everyone who’s been part of this experience, my good friends in and out of comedy, my family—both immediate and extended—and everyone who’s come to shows, watched online, and enjoyed what I do.

Yours in rock,
RobP

Free Chris Christie: The Musical!

We isolated the audio of Chris Christie’s inner monologue the night of Super Tuesday as he watched Trump give his victory speech. It’s a sappy Broadway ballad! Here at RobPRocks HQ we’ve amplified that audio and set it to some lovely animated photos of the event. We hope you enjoy it!

O.K., actually it’s a song I wrote as a demo for a comedy news website and I started putting some pictures together to give them an example of what I thought could be done with it visually. As the midnight hour came and went I was finishing the video but losing perspective, hitting that point in the project at which you wonder if it even makes sense anymore. But since it was a topical subject I posted it on my facebook page anyway, around 2 am last Friday, to see what people thought. Luckily some of my west coast friends were up and able to check it out right away and they not only liked it but started sharing it right away.

The arrangement is pretty simple, just piano and vocal, which is something I hadn’t tried until I wrote the song “Flashback Wife.” I’ve been playing and writing on keyboard a lot more lately, since working on my musical last year, and it’s been a lot of fun to explore this new (for me) area. I hope you like the results!

May DFTM Wrap-Up

There was another nice crowd on hand for last weekend’s Don’t Feed the Musicians!, which featured the very funny River Clegg, the very musical Nick Nace, and the very musically funny Mark Douglas from Key of Awesome on the YouTubes. The new show time of 7:30 worked seamfully (I thought it was at 8 but got there early enough to start on time) and the audience got to sing along to Mark’s Reggae Shark and my new stadium song for losing teams.

Collage of Guests
clockwise, from top left: Mark Douglas, Nick Nace, Rob Paravonian, River Clegg

There was even a surprise for me before the show in the form of a mysterious envelope addressed to me in care of QED. Would it be anthrax? A paternity suit? The Columbia House Record and Tape Club tracking me down to try to win me back? It turned out to be a surprise $100 grant given to the show from a foundation named after Nazheda von Meck, who was (according to Wikipedia) a 19th Century Russian patron of the arts. Adding to the mystery was a very dubious return address in Belleville, NY with the zip code 00867-5309, or, without the zeros: 8675309, à la Tommy Tutone’s hit song from 1982.

Whoever my mystery benefactor is, thank you very much! It will help me give a few bucks for cab fare to the musicians who have to schlep instruments to the show. It’s also lovely to know that people appreciate the show, which I’ve been doing monthly now since November and have been really enjoying. QED and folks in Astoria have been very supportive.

Look for Don’t Feed the Musicians! again on June 20, with new guests and more musical surprises!

MarsCon ReCap

This weekend I performed for a crowd of Klingons, hobbits, wizards, and several incarnations of Dr. Who; and at the hotel were a full-size remote control K-9 and Dalek, panels on anime, and room parties with Wizard of Oz, 1970s, and The Big Lebowski themes. Hopefully by now you’ve guessed that I was at a sci fi convention. More specifically I was at MarsCon in the Twin Cities, a great fan-run sci fi con with an entire comedy music track curated by Luke Ski and others.

There were fun performances all weekend long with Dr. Demento regulars like Devo Spice, Sponge Awareness Foundation, The Great Luke Ski, TVs Kyle, Carrie Dahlby, Power Salad and many more. I had a great time performing because the crowd at MarsCon really knows and loves comedy music and they enthusiastically support it like no other group.

The themed room parties are a blast too. As you make your way down the hall you can have a shot with a Klingons in their spartan room, a white Russian in The Dude’s Abode  while The Big Lebowski plays on a loop, and then a hot chocolate with the Manticon folks dressed as marines from a series of novels by a sci fi writer named David Weber. Up and down the halls are elves, Star Trek officers, anime characters and more.

The creativity of everyone there is one of the things I loved most, fellow performers have podcasts, animated web shows, and music projects; several of the attendees have elabroate costumes that they made themselves, and you even see parents and kids participating in events together.

 

Nyes_Selfie

I even had time for a quick extra-conventional sojourn, taking the Twin Cities’ relatively new Metro light rail to downtown Minneapolis to Nye’s Polonaise, a polka bar that’s been open since the 1950s and sadly will be closing its doors this year. I had a quick bite, listened to a set from The World’s Most Dangerous Polka Band, and then made my way—amongst the throngs coming out of a Timberwolves game—back to the hotel in Bloomington to revel with wood nymphs, steam punks, and various ogres, demons, and off-world types.

I can’t thank the MarsCon folks enough for treating me so well and inviting me to such a fun convention. As the Musical Guest of Honor I was truly honored to be there and very grateful to have been a part of it. If this kind of thing sounds fun to you get in touch with the MarsCon folks and get yourself there in 2016.

Next “Don’t Feed” Saturday Jan 17th

Jan 17 show flyer

Don’t Feed the Musicians is back! The next installment is Saturday, January 17th at 7pm and features:

  • Comedian Jackie Kashian
  • Comedy musicians Anna Marquardt
  • Violin duo Adam Grannick & Elena Estrin
  • and this month’s theme: The Sixth

That’s a lot of entertainment, and the show is still free! Reserve your spot at QED’s website, and spread the word by sharing the facebook event. Hope to see you there!

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