Erick's 2011 Wrap Up

Man o man 2011 is now behind us and I have a lot to look back upon, both good and bad.

Well I guess this will play off as some kind of journal for all to see, and regardless of what I write it will be as honest as I can be about how my year went, so please strap yourselfs in and keep your hands and feet in the car all times cause this year was a bumpy one.

I guess we can start with last years Drunkast Podcast, that was a blast to listen too right? And well we had a blast recording it and well an even bigger blast during the party. But of course we did not disclose all the things that happened in that party, for one we all almost had a fight break out among some of the guest and I spent the better part of the party trying to keep the peace. We prevented the fight and eventually the party ended in the wee hours of the morning. Now why do I bring up Drunkast you ask, well during the Drunkast I made 2 new years resolutions as most people do I never expect to hold up to my own promises of the new year, but the weirdest thing happened THEY CAME TO BE!

The first one was the easier one of the two, meet and shake hands with Adam Carolla, simple enough right? Well how does one go about meeting one of your favorite comedians? Well easy go to his live Podcast at the Brea Improv, did it! He was cool, he was funny, he interacted with us during the show and we talked for a minute and exchanged business cards at the end of the show. That was in the second or third week of January, so I figured I was off to a good start 1 down 1 to go and I am not past the first month of the year.

The second one was not so easy, to finally get on stage and not only do a live version of WTF Weekly but also to open it up by doing stand up comedy! Now how the hell was I going to achieve all this? Well thankfully I had friends with conventions, my friend Hector Reyes was the Head Chair for Anime Conji 2010 and had given us a chance to perform live with not just WTF Weekly, but Anime Import Weekly and The Game Grind. 

So then in March when it came time to perform I tried to chicken out… Yeah I totally admit I wanted to run for the hills and never look back, but thanks to cast members and my wife it was not an option. Also I had managed to get a real comedian Rajan Darni to come along and do 20 minutes in case I bombed, then Rianna managed to get Jon Allen to also agree to perform. So I was covered for the most part, in case I messed the whole show up there would be a couple of real talents to save the whole show.

But as many have seen the show was a hit and so was I, thanks to a lot of pacing and nervous shaking, I managed to realize that stand up was no different than hosting the podcast, JUST HAVE FUN. And of course thanks to the stories I told on the podcast I had great material to work with and the audience and the Con people loved my performance and great feedback from Jon Allen helped me feel great of my accomplishment.

About 2 weeks after the con I was booked on San Diego’s got Talent as a comedian, the competition consisted of mostly musical numbers and only 2 other stand up acts. This show will always hold a special place in my heart this was the first show where I had to really put an all out effort to try and win the competition and also my wife and my mother were in the audience, the show went well and I came in second place among the comedians.

After that a did an open mic at random bar in Chula Vista and the audience was well less than welcoming to anyone that night, later on in June we attended E3 and I got some great connections made and met some of the people that made my favorite video games. Then came San Diego Comic Con, that was yet another fun experience since I got more chances to meet people that I admired since I was a kid, like Matt Greoning who created THE SIMPSONS, thanks to Jon Allen of course.

On a quick note, in August thanks to Tony Misiano I was able to work on his independent film Moonflower, and I got to see my name on the silver screen as a production assistant. It was an amazing feeling to make something happen that I always dreamed of as a kid, to sit in a movie teather and see my name come up and know that it was actually me and not some person that happen to have my name.

Well skip through my birthday which was not memorable due to a lot of different incidents, but thankfully my Birthday Roast was a lot of fun. In November I joined up with Michael Delvey and I performed at The Mad House Comedy Club on The Nerds of Comedy Show, and that also went extremely well, thanks to Tony Misiano we wrote up some great new material the night before the show and I killed on stage, it was a great achievement to finally perform on stage at a real comedy club.

Then tragedy struck my life, my mother got incredibly sick, she went to the hospital and on Thanksgiving left our world to move on to the next. It was one of the hardest things that I have had to deal with since my father passed away almost 10 years ago, it was not an easy thing to understand but I know now that she is in a better place watching over me and my family. Then 31 days exactly my Grandmother (my mothers mother) passed away as well, so the day after Christmas I had lost two very loved people in my life. It has been a very emotional last month, but we are a strong and caring family so we have held together very well and we look forward to a positive 2012.

Well to close off the year we had another show at The Mad House Comedy Club for The Nerds of Comedy Show, but this time I ended up being the Host for the night. That was a real first for me considering that I had to perform in between every comedian and well be funny on the spot, no written material and really no preperation at all, I will have videos posted soon and pictures can be found on The Nerds of Comedy Facebook Fan Page.

To say the least I had a very productive and adventurous year, with some hard times and loses but with a bright light awaiting my carrer in 2012. So now we look forward to a lot of changes not only in life but the site and well the podcast as well, we have some new exciting things coming and some new merchandise deigns as well. 

So as always kids Keep it Disciplined, Keep it Fun, and Keep on Sharing it!

by

Erick Castillo

Disciplined Monkey Studios | Promote Your Page Too

make custom gifts at Zazzle

Comments

[Christina]

So much good stuff for 2012!!!! Im excited