Mike Baldwin Home

2011 - WINNER - Seattle Comedy Competition
2011 - Semi-Finalist - Laughing Skull Festival, Atlanta, GA
2010 - WINNER - Trial By Laughter, Indianapolis, IN
2010 - WINNER - Clash of the Comics, Kansas City, MO
2007 - 3rd Place - San Francisco Comedy Competition
2006 - WINNER - Funniest Comic in Midwest - Columbia, MO
2004 - WINNER - Funniest Comic in Kansas City
2003 - WINNER - Funniest Comic in Kansas City

This website was built by me, Mike Baldwin. A new one is being built by professionals as we speak. For now, enjoy!

June 16, 2012
I'm currently in Chattanooga, TN, getting ready to do a show at the Vaudeville Cafe. This weekend is like "We have a river, and it's Tennessee, so we should all meet at the river and play music and drink booze" fest, so it's been rowdy and traffic has been a pain in the ass. But last night's show was good, and if Friday is good, then Saturday is often as good, and usually better. Next week it's off to Seattle again to headline the Comedy Underground. Excited to go back there again. I love Seattle.

June 17, 2012
As some of you know, I've been doing the low-carb thing for a while now. In about 2 months I lost 50 lbs or so, and I've manage to keep it off for another 6 months after that. If you're interested in reading a low-carb thing that I wrote, you can click the button there if you'd like to read it.

iPhone, iPad, and iPod users, you need the "Open Office Reader" app to see this.

UPDATE ON THE LOW CARB THING (June 26)

A lot of people are asking me about "cheat day", which is a day that you just eat whatever you want to: pasta, ice creams, pizza, chocolate, you name it. Sounds fun, huh? Well, it's not a real thing. Not for you. Not yet. You have to really get used to what you're doing, or you won't last and you'll end up fatter in the long run. Once you reach your goal weight, and you're just trying to maintain a weight, then you can start having a cheat day every week or 10 days or so. I recommend Sundays or Mondays, depending on how much money you have. On Sundays, the restaurants seem to serve better food, but on Mondays the buffets are way cheaper. Either way, don't start doing a regular cheat day until you've done it for like, I don't know, 6 months or so at least. Ok, now go watch some comedy or something!

June 19, 2012

Today I'm flying to Seattle, WA to headline the Comedy Underground again. I'll be there this Thursday-Sunday. Before that, on Wednesday, I'm doing a private corporate gig for the Washington Oil Marketers Association. Don't worry, I'm not sure what they do either, but, I am pretty sure I'm going to find out. Corporate gigs are always weird. There's usually one person who is the big boss, and everyone in the audience will look to that guy first, to make sure he's laughing, before they will laugh at anything. I think people are afraid they'll get fired for laughing. Which, depending on which jokes they're laughing at, might be true. If a guy is laughing and clapping at all the "i smoke pot and drive drunk" jokes, his boss might frown upon that. Maybe I'll skip those jokes that night. But, who knows? Maybe the bossman is a Huge pothead, and everybody smokes pot everyday at work together. You never know! That's why, when you do corporate stuff, you've got to get to know who your audience is. Wish me luck!

June 25, 2012

First off, let me say that the corporate gig I was dreading so much turned out to be AWESOME! It took place at the Suncadia Resort in Cle Elum, Washington. If you've never heard of the place, look it up. The views are amazing and the resort, also, super amazing. It wasn't like most corporate shows, where I'd be doing an awkward set in front of a bunch of people who were too scared to laugh. In fact, it almost seemed like a bar show. Everybody was drunk and yelling and having a great time. (by the way, comedians Hate when you yell things out or heckle during a show. just because we CAN handle it, doesn't mean we want to. we Want to be doing our act.) But, it worked out nicely and I think everyone enjoyed themselves. I hope they did. And hopefully Anne enjoyed yelling stupid things out every two minutes. I hope she had fun, even though I'm pretty sure that nobody knew who Anne was or why she was at the show! Good times!

And thanks to the lovely and awesome Lea Wilson for seeking me out to do that show, and for giving me an audience full of fun people who were there to laugh, and for buying me dinner, and breakfast, AND for giving me a super awesome hotel room with a washer/dryer in one machine, IN the room! I am a fan of You!

And Owen Straw was with me too, so change all those I's and Me's to We's and Us's. Owen is funny. And he sells a shirt with a picture of a ship on it that says "Bong Voyage". The smoke stacks on the ship are little bongs. Heh. It's neat. I got a purple one.

So then, it was back to Seattle once again. I headlined the Comedy Underground, a place that is fast becoming one of my favorite rooms in the country. I had a wonderful time there, and we had really good, fun shows all week long. Bryan Cook featured, and he is really funny. And his beard itched my neck when we hugged goodbye at the end of the week. All in all, I can say that in the 5 times I've been to Seattle now, this was my second favorite. First favorite was, of course, being handed $5000 and the title of Seattle Comedy Competition main first winner guy. Yup.

One night there was a bachelor party there. Yeah, dudes. They didn't go to a strip club, or to get drunk at a bar. They came to a comedy show. This is a video of me messing with those guys a little bit, as well as telling a joke or two. The sound isn't wonderful, so, maybe turn it down before you push play, until you figure out what an appropriate volume is. Always better to start low when it comes to volume. With comedy it's not as important as it is with porn, but, that's another story entirely. See the video!

July 3, 2012

I'm currently sitting in the tub, watching a documentary about how we Americans waste water. I like documentaries. Every time I watch one, my mind gets changed about something. I'm currently in agreement that it's bad to waste water. But, too late. For this bath, at least. Maybe I could recycle this water somehow. I guess I could wash dishes in it, or drink it or something. But then I'm afraid someone might get some sort of dirty water disease and die. I'll just let it drain.

I have a week off, and then next week I'm headlining the best club there is: Comedy Club on State Street in Madison, WI. No matter what club you work at the week after Madison, it seems shitty by comparison. Madison is so cool. The audiences are always packed and they always seem to laugh heartily at everything I say.

Dammit, I think I just jinxed myself. Now I'm gonna go to Madison and suck.

Mike Baldwin (me!) at the Comedy Underground in Seattle. Photo taken by an audience member whose name I can't currently remember because I'm a dick. :)

July 8, 2012

Last night I did a show at a place called the Mod (or something). It's a...actually I don't know what it is. Maybe a record shop, or an art gallery, or something. Either way, it's a building on McGee St in Kansas City, and they had a show there last night, and I was in it. The air conditioning was apparently installed just a few days ago, and believe me when I say it was not doing what I think an air conditioner should do. AKA, it was hot as balls inside. They actually passed out old vinyl records to everyone before the show to use to fan themselves. All I could think was "Great, they're giving everybody something to throw at me."

Turns out, it was a great show! Chris Porter and myself made up the comedy portion of the evening. He's mega hilarious, and a super cool dude, which is rare. A lot of comics are one or the other. I'm not sure which one I am.

Thanks to Brandon Walter for putting the show together, and thanks to all those other people whose hands I shook and whose names I can't fucking remember for the life of me. But if I see you out somewhere, I'll be like, "Heyyyy!!!"

Good times.

July 15, 2012

Just got done headlining one of the best clubs in the country: Comedy Club on State St. It's a very simple and to-the-point name of a comedy club. But don't let the name fool you, this place is awesome! They have a show on Thursday, and two shows on Friday and Saturday, and they're all consistently sold out. This week was no exception. Every show was packed! I took advantage of the pack-ed-ness, and recorded all the shows, and I'll be putting out a new DVD soon, Live From Madison! (that's not what it'll be called)

A sold out crowd is a good start to a good show, but that's not the only thing you need. You also need to be able to control that crowd, and make sure they know how to behave. It seems like common sense, but, you'd be surprised how many comedy audiences don't understand the simple concept of "sit there and shut your mouth and just listen to us and we'll make you laugh". The Comedy Club on State does a perfect job of seating the room, and announcing very clearly that "if you talk, you will get one warning. If we have to warn you again, your entire party is out of here." If every club would follow those simple rules, every comedy show could be that good.

Too many clubs these days are worried about today's dollar, instead of next year's dollar. Here's a scenario: There's a crowd of 100 people, most of them couples. There is one group of six that is drinking top shelf tequila and buckets of beer, and they're all assholes, and they keep yelling shit out, and heckling, and interrupting the show. A lot of club owners would say "well I don't want to kick that table out of here, because they're spending more money than most people here". And that's a stupid way to look at it. They should be looking at it from the point of view of the other 94 people. If those people witness that rowdy table getting kicked out of the show, they're going to spread the word that the comedy club doesn't fuck around, and if you go there, you better plan on being quiet and enjoying some good comedy. A year from then, if you consistently kick out the talky tables, then what you're left with is a packed room of respectful people who are genuinely there only to enjoy your comedy, and that's really all a comedian wants: A good audience. Comedy Club on State St provides those everytime. Good stuff.

Ok, wow, serious stuff aside, it was a kick ass week. The entire staff is awesome, the other comics were awesome. Stefan Davis hosted. He's a funny dude from Wisconsin who kind of lives out in California now. The feature act was Nate Abshire who was super fucking funny. My favorite joke of his that I can remember right now is "My friends all know how to say 'bathroom' in Spanish which is weird to me because in Mexico you can piss pretty much anywhere." I don't know if it's as funny when I type it as it is when he says it, but, either way. Yup. Good guy. Good jokes. Good week. I love Madison, Wisconsin.

Now I'm off to Royal Oak, just outside of Detroit, Michigan, to headline Mark Ridley's Comedy Castle. More about that later.

August 6, 2012

Today is the day before my birthday. I'm at the age now where birthdays aren't fun and exciting anymore, they are starting to be depressing reminders of the fun stuff I can no longer do. I used to drink until the sun came up, and then work a double shift at a restaurant the next day. Now, even if I've had 8 hours of sober sleep the night before, I'm not making it through the day without a nap. I actually plan my day around naps now. Happy Birthday to me, I'm 31, the official age of "okay, now I really AM getting old."

This week I'm heading to the Rivercenter Comedy Club in San Antonio, Texas. I've never been to this club before, so I'm excited to see how they like me. I know that Dallas and Fort Worth seem to appreciate my comedy humor. I can only hope that the lovely folks down in San Antonio will feel the same way. Or they'll kill me and bury me in Texas somewhere. If I don't post something new within a week or two, I would start to assume that the "kill me and bury me" thing is the most likely reason. Or I'm high and forgot.

August 14, 2012

Here's a video of me talking to a kindergarten teacher in the audience at Joey's Comedy Club in Livonia, Michigan. I had a really fun week at Joey's. It's one of my new favorite places to go. Awesome, sexually attractive staff. Large audiences. Fun stuff.

Just a little more than a month and I'll be packing up and moving my comedy to Los Angeles. I'll keep you posted on those details as they come. Later!