Local Comedy in These Trying Times (Part 2)

In my PART ONE of this three part story about how stand-up comedy is handling the Coronavirus climate, I talked to Yakima native, now New York joke slinger Jonas Barnes. Before everything went to hell, he did a lot of business from not only hitting the stage, but by booking comedy shows here in Yakima as well as in New York & Los Angeles. In this second part, I tapped my good friend Alfred Carcieri (AlfredComedy.com). He's former military, culinary artist, and stand up comic, touring up and down the west coast! I met this New England native, many years ago when he first came to Yakima and performed at the Laugh Lounge. In the many years I've done stand-up / improv / radio, I've met a lot of great people, but Alfred is one of the guys that made me laugh on and off the mic, someone I'm proud to still chit chat with often, even if it's just through social networking. Which, thanks to COVID, that's where he's been focusing. I knew that the playing field would change, but I didn't realize how much until he gave me a deeper look.

"With the Coronavirus Quarantine starting back in March, it was very clear that standup comedy as we had come to know it, would be gone for a while. While many clamored to find a way to transfer telling jokes on stage to the internet with Zoom, many more decided to explore other avenues to express their comedic creativity. About 14 million new podcasts started in March and April. Sadly, about 13.9 Million of those have fallen by the way side as it turns out consistency is hard."  Alfred Carcieri.

Consistency is something he's no stranger at! "For those of us who had started putting online content out before the world went wacky, it just meant doubling down and focusing our attention on that content. Making it better, expanding it, giving it all of our comedic focus. June will be the 12th Episode and 1 Year anniversary for my home filmed, self-produced monthly cooking show; Cooking Time."

Below is his Cooking Time Episode - Stuffed French Toast (They do kick ass, but warning, explicit language, as all cooking shows SHOULD have).

When asked to describe his "Master Chef meets comedy show" series Cooking Time, he said that "It (Cooking Time) is a simple, silly but informative instructional series, designed for people who are new in the kitchen; perfect for those new Quarantine Chefs and new college grads." He doesn't just keep his comedy confined to the kitchen or stage, but to the airwaves as well with his Time Killer Podcast.  "June will also be the 1 Year anniversary for my weekly Podcast; the Time Killer Podcast. The Time Killer Podcast is where I go over the news of the day and all the things I read to kill time lately, quick takes on recent news stories and fast deep dives on weird stories from history."

You can check out all of his cooking & podcast episodes on Alfred's YouTube page. If the man's not busy enough bringing the funny during laughter drought, he's about to release his debut album. Hardcore Softy is available for pre-order now and available world wide on June 20th. It's important to stay focused, and keep laughing. If you're the few whose job it is to keep others laughing, hang in there, we're all in this together.  Look for the final part of my "Local Comedy in Trying Times" series later this week.

PART 1 - PART 3