Good News York by Growth Mode Content - GNY EP.197 | feat. Brandon Ciotti

Episode Date: July 7, 2026

Brandon Ciotti on Building Central New York Stand-Up, Writing Jokes, and Upcoming Palace Theatre Showcase On Good News York, host Noah interviews stand-up comedian and improv performer Brandon Ciotti from Utica, New York, who began comedy about four years ago and has been performing around the state. Ciotti promotes a July 17 showcase at the Palace Theatre on James Street in Syracuse (doors 6:00/6:30, show 7:00, tickets on the Palace website) featuring Becky Wiggins, Connor McCann, Jason Gowan, Tommy Armstrong, and Abdul Hadi. He discusses adapting stories into tight stand-up by trimming “fat,” using punchlines, and relying on pauses and a Cliff Notes-style set list, as well as shifting from shock humor to more clever, self-deprecating material. They talk about improv vs. stand-up, building community, marketing niche live events, and the persistence and driving required to grow the CNY comedy scene, including a July 14 open mic showcase at Johnny B’s Tavern in Rome. 00:00 Writing Stories Into Bits 00:33 Meet Brandon Ciotti 02:12 Showcase Details And Lineup 05:36 Why Not NYC Yet 05:58 Standup Vs Improv Grind 09:20 Bombing And Finding Voice 10:43 Big Unlock Going Clever 12:49 How Brandon Writes Jokes 14:36 Improv Teamwork And Nerves 17:34 Building CNY Comedy Scene 19:43 Love Of Black Box Rooms 20:40 Monday Show Hack 20:59 Holiday Booking Nerves 21:23 Anxiety vs Optimism 21:48 Writing With Friends 22:46 Open Mic Showcase Plan 24:02 Building The Local Scene 25:37 Marketing Niche Live Events 27:24 Raymond Paintball Pitch 30:23 Flyers And Weird Formats 31:59 How To Start Stand-Up 34:17 Bucket Pull Signup System 35:02 Tough Rooms And Bar Crowds 36:22 Thanks And Studio Outro

I've had some bits that have just stemmed from, like, somebody else's story, and I'll try and, like, create something out of it. Like, it's definitely a process of taking a story and chopping it up. Like, you can't take something and just, like, tell it word for word. I learned that and stand up. Like, you've got to trim the fat. There's a lot of storytellers out there, but what you don't realize is that in between the story,

there's a lot of punchlines, and there's, like, ways that they punch it up. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Good News York. Today, my guest is Brandon Ciyati. Brandon, welcome to the show. Thank you for having me. Absolutely. Brandon, go ahead and tell the people who you are. So I am Brandon Ciyadi.

I am from Utica, New York. That's where I started doing stand-up comedy. And I started about four years ago. I've been just kind of running around New York, all the different cities, except for the big NYC. That's the only one I haven't gone to. But just kind of try and stand-up comedy at open mics and meeting everybody in the area

and slowly kind of like growing with stand-up and improv. I started about a year and a half in. I'm also an improv performer, I guess. I'm not on a team at the moment. I feel... It's coming. It'll happen. I feel like a stray puppy right now. Just looking for a home.

In a box. Please, please, somebody. No, yeah, Brandon is, I'm just going to come out and say, I think Brandon is it the best, if not one of the best stand-of comedians in the scene in this area, in my opinion. Like, I don't know. I've been to a bunch of open mics. I'm like, damn. Brandon crushes pretty much every time.

I love your bits. I think they're great. And, like, I don't know. And the way people talk about you, like, they're like, oh, my God, that's Brad. It's great. I have not heard a negative word about you from anyone, which is very, very. very rare because people in Syracuse like to talk of some crap. So that's crazy.

That actually means a lot. That's the first time I've heard that actually. So thank you, Noah. That means a lot. Yeah. No, I think you're great. I think you're great. So you got a show coming up to you on the 17th.

Can you tell us about that? Yes. So we will be at the Palace Theater on James Street. I'm going to be having, it's like a showcase with everybody doing about 10 to 15 minutes. And I've got four to five comics. It usually ranges between three to five when I do these showcases, but with this one, I believe we have five. All together, the first I want to talk about,

did you want me to explain? Yeah, get in there. Yeah, yeah, let's hear. So the first comic that we have is Becky Wiggins. She's from Rome, New York. She runs an open mic at Chris's Grubbun Pub every other Tuesday. It's the only comedy mic in the area for us in the Utica Rome area. So definitely one you should hit up.

The other comics we have on the show, were Connor McCann. He is from Rochester. He is hilarious. He's a very deadpan delivery style. I try and have different style comics come out so I can kind of move them around and play with the lineup throughout the show.

Yeah, you were saying if somebody's like, if the crowd is kind of like... Yeah, so I'll throw like a raunchy comic up and say the crowd doesn't feel it. I'll be like, all right, well, let's throw, you know, this person that's more clean in. And then if they like the raunchy comic, I'll be like, let's double down.

Let's see what we can do. Let's see how bad we can get with this crowd. Yeah. I love it. So that's how I've been doing it. Connor's great. I also have Jason Gowan. He is just a trap.

To be honest, I'm not even sure where Jason is from because he's like all over the place. And he's, he's torn a lot and he's great. He's one of the people that does like kind of characters and voices. Oh, cool. He's a really goofy. Yeah, he's a lovable dude. aside from that we also have Tommy Armstrong

he was the reason why I say four or five was he was kind of like in and out of Pennsylvania his hometown and he decided he was back in town and wanted to be on the show so we threw him on so Tommy is also going to be on there he's from Pennsylvania but he's kind of a local Syracuse guy everybody knows about

he's into the stand-up scene he also does like internet videos and reels and just picked up on Netflix. He has a show. Minimum wage. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, cool. Yeah. So he is on that one. And then we also have the, my good friend, Abdul Haddi, you know that he is the best comic, I believe, by the way. He is the one that I would say is top tier, the best in the area. Everything he says is so funny to me. And we hang out. I'm so happy that me and him have grown to be friends. And like, it's, I've had him on a lot of my shows. And I think for this one, because he plans on moving to New York City, I would like him to probably close this one out.

He's going to kill. He's just every show I have him on, people love him. They all come up to me and tell me he's their favorite, and he's so good. Abdul Haddi, yeah. Cool. Sweet, the show is on the 17th. Yes. What time is it?

July 17th. Doors, I believe, are at 6 or 630, but the show starts at 7. Beautiful. And where can I get tickets? So on the Palace website. Sweet. Yes. Beautiful.

If I go to the Palace Theater's website in Syracuse, New York here, I can go and get tickets to this show happening at 7 p.m. on the 17th. Beautiful. Cool. Why haven't you been to New York City yet? So I just haven't gone. And it's like I have friends there and I always say I'm going to go visit them. And I feel so bad I haven't done that.

But yeah, the scene out there, I just would love to check out. I feel like going out there one night would feel like months in this area. Yeah. Yeah. No, yeah. We, okay, so when I was in Atlanta, I met these guys, I met this guy who was like 21 and I was like 23. So it was like, whatever.

But like, you know, we were young and he was like, I'm going to, we're doing five mics a night and he didn't have a car. And so like, it was like Noah's driving to five mics a night, which is crazy. Yeah. And so we would do like five mics a night. And I did that for like six months. And I was so bad at it. I mean, you just got to keep doing it.

It's like, how long did you try it for? About six months. Just the six months. Well, I did, I did six months with them. Not enough. Keep going. I know. I did six months with him.

Then I did like another six months later on. But like, I don't know. I'm just not. It's, I like improv. I think improv is really fun. It's a different thing, right? You're building with a team. You're building like a reality and like, and it's just more collaborative.

Whereas like, I really believe stand up feels like, hey, I have this like list of theories that I'm going to like deliver to the audience that I think is going to like resonate with them and make them laugh. And I just, I don't know. It's a lot. less of a I also am really bad at memorization like I don't know yeah so I used to try and like rattle it all off the top of my head and I realized that wasn't pausing and there's a lot of like power in the pause I learned like later on and I I did that the first time when I used a reference guide like I didn't have like a full script written out that I had to look at on stage it was more of a a cliff note like just list of jokes and it does help

that like slight minute where it's like you say your joke and then you let the joke kind of resonate for just a second and then jump back in and the audience has a chance to kind of some people might not understand it immediately and I just that's how I do it I guess the uh cliff notes version cool yeah uh awesome but but I'm just thinking if you go down in New York city even like in a weekend you could probably hit 20 mics and right you're set 20 times yeah I would like to go out there and hang out and see some friends and family and also get like 20 mics in in one night or two. Yeah. I bet they're like at like 3 a.m. I don't know. You know, you could. Yeah, I don't. At that point.

At that point, you're there. What else are you doing? Right. Exactly. Yeah. I would love to just see what it's like though. Because I do love like with improv the thing that you were saying about like the community that you build and everything. Like I always liked having a crew. Like when we were hanging out doing stand-up, it was always nice to like have people to bounce off of, talk to afterwards and be like, hey, yeah, that really sucked. They're like, hey, man, what can you help me out with with this joke? Yeah.

So there is some community to it, but it is very much like you're on your own doing it. Right. I started trying to get those guys to go with me to other mics. We would drive for like hours. And I rented a couple of vehicles just to fit everybody in. them and go yeah wow yeah that's incredible you're renting vehicles to get comics like i mean that's huge that's super nice yeah but then it became just me driving out yeah yeah yeah because you love it and you're motivated and some people can't you know some people don't love it that much and they're not or maybe

maybe that's wrong right maybe they're i think it's like a discouraging thing too like you do you like you like you were saying you kind of like stop it's just like some people just don't want to do it i think a lot of comics i think the thing that makes them a comic is when they keep doing it after the bomb. Because it's like you can do one really awesome set. Yeah. And be like, oh, I'm a stand-up comic. And it's like, yeah, but have you bombed in front of a bunch of people and realized they all hate your guts?

Yeah. Oh, yeah. Dude, I was a white kid from upstate, like suburban New York doing comedy in Atlanta, Georgia. Yeah. Believe me. I bombed, Brandon. I've bombed pretty hard. Yeah, that had to be rough.

I couldn't. Yeah. It's like the Apollo. You're just like getting hooked out. Yeah. Believe me, I've had some rough, I've fed, it's rough roofs. So I was just like, oh, cool, okay. Everyone in this room not only wants me to stop speaking, but like, they want me to go away.

So, badly. You were saying with theories, too, it's like, I try really hard not to be like, hey, this is how I feel about this thing and you need to agree with me. Yeah. I tell a lot of, like, jokes about me. It's, like, self-deprecating. I, if I touch on an edgy subject now, like, I try and make it more so about me not understanding or I'm the idiot. as opposed to like punching down on that thing. That helps a lot too.

Like I'll say things and I can get away with it mostly because they're like, oh, he's just so dumb. He's just an idiot. Oh, he can't really think that. I love that. Cool. What do you think was like the big unlock for you? Like what do you think like, I don't know,

tell me about your stand-up journey as you've learned it. And what do you think was one of the big unlocks as you like got better at writing jokes and stuff? So when I started, I definitely was low-hanging fruit, and I wanted to be shocking. And I still like those, like, dirty, dark jokes. Nobody doesn't, yeah. If you don't, you're a liar.

But the thing that I kind of learned was I could bring it back a little. Like, it's cooler, and it's easier for everybody to like it when it's more clever, and it's not so much this, like, raunchy, disgusting bit. I don't know. It took me a while to realize that. I definitely was like fighting it off where I'm just like no you're free of a speech I'll say what I want I'll do what I want and then yeah they just yeah it got through to me eventually where I was like yeah I could probably take it back a couple notches sure yeah especially when there's like you know

a crowd of like 40 year old like white women that like don't want to hear something like disgusting I feel like I don't know what what taught you that like was there a certain mic or a certain set that you were like okay now it's now it's time to have some clean bets or something something like that. I don't necessarily think it was a lot of people just told me. Like they kept saying it and I was like, like I said, I like to push. I'd be like, oh, no, no, no, the red button, the red button.

I'm going to keep like doing the jokes. Yeah. It just got to a point where I think I was just like, it's like growing up kind of thing. I'm just like, all right, Brandon. Like you got to like, you see all these other people trying to do it. That's what it is. It's more secondhand embarrassment. That's what.

Yeah. That's the thing I'm seeing. It's what I see somebody else doing it. And I'm like, Oh, God, like that for me is hard to watch. I was like, is that what I look like? I'm going to take it back. Yeah.

I don't want to be that guy. God, I know that feeling. That's a great anecdote, right? Watching somebody else really bomb, trying to do something really blue, and you're like, yeah, you're like, oh, was it worth it? Yeah, cool. What does your process look like? How do you write material?

So a lot of the times it's through hanging out with my friends. if I'm just like back and forth, we're talking about stories or whatever. I've had some bits that have just stemmed from like somebody else's story and I'll try and, like, create something out of it. Like, it's definitely a process of taking a story and chopping it up. Like, you can't take something and just, like, tell it word for word. I learned that and stand up. Like, you got to trim the fat.

There's a lot of storytellers out there, but you don't realize. is that in between the story, there's a lot of punchlines and there's, like, ways that they punch it up that allows them to kind of, like, drag it along. Yeah. But, yeah, I think just shortening bits for me with my friends, taking something that we think is funny and trying to do, like, the setup, the middle, the punchline. Yeah. Cool.

No, that's great. Yeah, I remember as well learning. My first stand-up set, I was like, oh. oh, like I've done improv for like 10 years. I can just go and do stand-up. And I realized, oh, very quickly, oh, I don't know how to write a joke at all. Like, this whole room, I don't know what to do.

And, like, it's very disorienting. And you learn very quickly, like, oh, joke writing is the thing. And you need to, like, do it. And you need to, I don't know. Yeah. I think a lot of people think stand-up is, like, crowdwork, too. Right. So, like, improv people are like, hey, improv.

I can kind of, you know, crowdwork and do this. And it is a thing. Like, a lot of the greats are good at improv and stand-up and they have like actors that started out as stand-ups. Like there's a reason for that. They had improv as a background. Yeah. So I don't know.

I think it's funny that improv and stand-up people don't get along either sometimes. Right, which is, which I get too. Like, I don't know. Like I, there's that one joke. There's that one podcast clip where like it's John Marco is talking about, he's talking about like improvisers. And he's like, they're the most catty like. fucking drama film people it's just it is a lot

of people that want to be the main character yep and I think coming from stand-up and going into improv it was extremely difficult for me to like take back and be like hey don't just take over the show like sit back sometimes

it's funnier to just be the background guy or the guy that like kind of references or like says like a random thing we had a guy he was so good at just being in the back. Like whenever there was a scene going on, he would be like the janitor. Sure.

Just mopping or sweeping. Not saying anything, but his faces and the things he would do behind the people in the scene were just like even funny. He stole the scene sometimes. Yeah, he was like reacting. Saying nothing. That's hilarious.

That's great. No, yeah, I feel like that's what improv to me is about, right? It's like learning to work together, learning to support other people that, I don't know. I mean, we did an improv workshop last night. You know, we were in an activity together. And like, it's like, cool.

Some of these people have never been on stage before. You know, and so how do you kind of get them to, you know, contribute a little bit, right? And I feel like we both kind of pimped out some of the people on stage a little bit. Yeah. Because people get nervous and they like, once they're on stage, they just shut down. They don't know what to do. I've seen it happen. So it's like, yeah, gently, you just kind of throw them the ball.

You're like, I know. You're like, Alison. Who's your cousin that's a celebrity? Yeah. Yeah, it says anything. Yeah. You got a word in there? What do you got?

Like, I don't know. Yeah. No, but that's also why I love it, right? I think that's why it's like, I don't know. Public speaking is like, I think it's the number one or number two fear in the United States. I heard that after I started doing all this, that they were like, oh, this is like the scariest thing in the world for people. Yeah. And that's why I love, I love any form of comedy because you're watching people learn how to manage adrenaline in their brains, right?

It's like, oh, sick. There's 40 people staring at me all of a sudden. That never happens, and it's my worst fear. And also without a script, right? Without something that, like, I have to fall back on, right? And if you can guide people through how to exist in that moment and, like, manage that adrenaline when it pops up, I think that that's, like, a really cool. I don't know.

I think it changes your life. And it makes you feel like, oh, sick, I can do anything. Yeah, it was cool. You could definitely see, too, they started enjoy it more. It's like they're sitting there just like looking down at the ground. And then the second you include them, this big smile on their face comes about and they're like, oh, I'm in. This is easy. Like we could do this.

Yeah. I love it. Cool. I see you hustling. I see you hustling online. I see you putting together shows. I see you, you know, networking with other comics, trying to build a CNY comedy scene. And I appreciate it because I've been doing the same thing.

And I see you over on the stand-up side doing the same thing. What do people not know in the Central New York area? What do people not know about that effort and about that underground comedy scene here? Just that it takes a lot of just persistence and a lot of driving in the area. Like if we could have a little bit more centralized in this area, Utica, Rome, Syracuse, that'd be great. It's been great. Everybody like you were saying is very nice. They're very, like, cool people in the scene right now for Syracuse.

Utica and Rome, it's, there's a handful that I hang out with. They're all super supportive. We, like, get together over at Becky's Mike, and it's, like, it's really just a matter of, like, getting the word out. We need more of a comedy scene, I believe, whether it's stand-up or it's improv shows. I think we've got a lot in the area that people don't know about. So it's, like, spreading the word, just coming out to shows, some, like, that I do are just, free. Like those open mic showcases where it's like a bunch of randoms that like are either doing it for the first time or trying it and practicing their set that they've been doing for years.

It's it's cool. You get to see these comics like work their stuff out at these free shows. And then the other ones that I do where it's like usually like $15 to see a handful of comics all from New York. And it's just really, really cool, even improv. When I came to your doctor, Dungeons and Dragon show over at the Song and Dance, which I love that room. Yeah, no, it's great. That room was so cool, and the way you guys set it up and did your show was legit. It was so awesome. Thank you, man.

Thank you for coming. I truly appreciate you guys being there. It was awesome. Yeah. As soon as I got there, I was like, what's this going to be like? But you guys got on stage, and as soon as it got going, I was like, I love this. Yeah. Like, that stage is so cool.

Awesome. No, yeah. It's perfect for improv. Yeah, exactly. That's the other thing, too, is like, I like, I like a small room. You know, I like, it feels like a black box. which I really like. You still had, it was like 130 people or what was it?

Yeah, yeah, but a hundred and a small. Yeah. Yeah. Sold out show. The second time we did it, sold out, and it was great. And it wasn't small, but like, you know, you're crammed in, right? Like, you know, you're going to get to know, like the stranger to your right, you know, because you're going to bump into women stuff, right? I like that, you know.

I mean, it might not be the best thing. But, like, I feel like, I just feel like it's a different experience than when you're all seated and everybody, you know, it's super sprawled out. I like that, like, underground feeling. Yeah. I definitely like a black box room more than it. Out of all the rooms that I've done stand-up in, whether it's a bar or it's a stage that's a huge theater or a comedy club,

there's something about a black box room that I just love. It's like, yeah, it's very intimate and it's like you can see everybody in the room. It's not too big. You could still have, like I said, 100 people at a show, especially a local comedy show. That's huge. Yeah. Like that's a lot of people on a Monday. Yeah.

Dude, that's the secret. Monday is the secret. Monday is the secret because it's like, Nobody else. A Monday sucks. Like, nothing's going on on Monday. You know, at the first one, I was like, damn it, we really got to do it on a Monday. And now I'm like, great, what Mondays do you have available in the fall? Like, you know, like, the showcase I did over at Palace, that one I was like, oh, I didn't even realize it was Memorial Day.

I'm like, oh, no. As soon as I booked it, I was like, ah, I did the same thing with the player's show. It was graduation weekend. It was June 27th. But both shows. It's like somehow it works out. Like, you just remain. being optimistic.

Yeah. Try not to think about it too much. Yep. The worst. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I love that. The optimism is great.

Usually how I market things is like just like mounting anxiety until the day of the thing where my anxiety peaks unless we sell it out. If we sell it out, then I can finally be like, okay, great. That's where you're coming down and you get to enjoy the hill. Right. And then we do the show and I'm immediately, what are we doing next? Like, you know, we got to do something next, which is good. But that's just because I have a weird compulsion to like make comedy shows.

I don't know. But yeah, no, we got to do more stuff together. Honestly, I want to write sometime together because I don't, I'm not good at writing jokes. And like I, I, or I'm a perfectionist about it, really is what it is. And I think that like, everyone's their worst critic. I mean, you can like judge yourself in your own set all day. Like, yeah. But I think having a second set of eyes or like somebody to talk to, it's so cool.

Like I like sitting down with my buddies, like I said, and just working stuff out. If you think you have a funny premise or like there's this big. My cousin I talk to on the phone all the time because I'm delivering and driving in between, whether it's going to a comedy show or it's like my actual work, I'll just be on the phone with my buddies and my family. And we're just cracking jokes, just telling each other like different bits. That's great. I love that.

So you're also like mining material as you're on the phone with your family and friends, like driving all over because you have to drive so much for these. That's a great way to do it, I think. I don't know. Cool. Beautiful. Brain, is there anything that? we didn't touch on that you're like we should definitely talk about this i mean i think we're

recovered most we did talk about the show at the palace that is on july 17th you can get your tickets at the palace website and i don't know did we touch on the open mic showcases yeah what's that so on july 14th a couple days before that one i'm going to be holding a open mic showcase. I call it. It's really just I put it out there that there's an open mic. I get a list ahead of time and it guarantees me that you're going to have at least, you know, 15 to 20 is the list that I usually roll with. So sometimes you do an open mic and even an improv workshop and not a lot of people show up. So it's, you just, in those situations, make the most of it. But with this, I like to have an idea that it's like, whether or not.

you know, there's an audience. I already know there's going to be 15 to 20 bodies there. We're all comics. We're all going to work it out. Yeah. I've had good turnouts with those. Those have been great. We did the one at the palace.

They had about 100 people like in and out. Yeah. That was really cool. I really enjoyed that. Yeah. I was shocked. Honestly, I was like,

wow, this is really cool that this exists in Syracuse. And I was really grateful to you and Joey for putting that together. Yes. It's a pain in the ass. Joey Marcus, you're the man. No.

Joey Marcus is the man. Joey's got to come on this show. I can't actually, now that I'm thinking about it, I can't believe Joey hasn't been on this show because he's the best. We did a podcast before that open mic on stage with Cat Mattis. She does a podcast as well. It's like sarcasm society podcast. Cool.

And it was fun. We had Joey, Abdul Haddi, I don't know, Mike Terry was there. Yeah, I've seen clips of it. Yeah, I didn't watch the whole thing. We, Joey is just so funny and his laugh is infectious. But Joey is the. the one that actually got me in with the palace in Adam. Adam's an awesome dude as well. But we do these open mic showcases all around. So like the same place that I might do an open mic,

I might have a legit show with like four or five real comics coming out. So I mix it up, keep an eye out. I'm definitely trying to build a scene in the Utica, Roman Syracuse area. Everybody's been super cool about it and super supportive. I can't wait to see, like I said, where all this goes. I love hanging out with you over here doing improv as well. Absolutely, dude. I can't wait to see what you do with the improv scene out here. It's just, it's so cool to see how many people show up when you just put it out there. Yeah.

Like you can't really, you market so well with this stuff. Like me and Sarah were saying, it's amazing the turnouts that you get at these things. And it's all because you know how to market, you know your time. Like you said, yeah, Monday suck. Do everything on a Monday. Every one of your shows should be on a Monday. No, I, man, I could talk about that forever. But, like, I really love marketing.

and I think, I think especially like nowadays, I think that, uh, I think that with Gen Z, uh, and like this, there's a, there's a focus on like live events, right? Like, like that is a trend that happens, uh, because, you know, people are, the zeit guy swings back and forth, right? For a long time, like, you know, the world was the way it was. And then like, you know, COVID and everything, everybody was obsessed with like online media for a very long time, right? And now that like, we've done that for, you know, half a decade, right? People are like, great, okay, cool. Like, I miss going to live events.

I miss, like, being in the real world. And so the pendulum is now swinging back to a focus on, like, live events. But also I think that there's, like, this, like, weird, like, irony that's a part of this generation where, like, they want to go to something that has, like, this veneer of irony to it, right? They want a unique live event that, like, is, like, postmodern, right? They don't want to just go to a normal thing. They want to go to something that's like hyper-specific to them and their personality. Yeah. Right.

So like, I actually got into a fight with my sister about this, but she was like, I was like, Jaby, we're doing our first, because the first improv show that we did was improvised Duns and Dragons. And I'm like, yeah, we're doing improvised D&D. And I made it specifically for that because I wanted a specific identity. That niche. Like, when you find, yes. Exactly. That one thing and like have a theme to your show.

Sometimes it's very, very cool. Yeah. Exactly. But her perspective was, is like, well, it's really stupid to do this. You know, if you made a generalist show, like, you would have a wider appeal. And it's like, sure, but like, that's not the, that's not what we're doing, right? You don't know Dungeons and Dragons. You don't know the fans in how extremely obsessed.

Yeah. Yeah. But I also believe that, like, and this is my, okay, can I tell you here? This is a really bad idea that I don't think I'm actually going to do, okay? Pokemon. No, no. So it's worse than that. So my, then I really want to do a live show, and I've talked about this with Dady a few times, but it's, I want to call it improvised.

Everybody loves Raymond, but with paintball guns. What? All right. Now, the only thing I don't like about is that it's two different things. Oh, yeah. It's more improvised. Yeah. That's ridiculous.

It's not a good idea at all. But I'm wondering if my Gen Z folks will show up because it's ridiculous. Are we, is it really shooting paintball guns? Yeah. So the cast is in, like, I'm picturing all white set, okay? Like the set of everybody loves Raymond, like the living room and kitchen set, you know, in their house or whatever. And then like everybody's dressed in white and they have goggles on. And there's two, like you distribute two paintball guns to the audience, okay?

And like every two minutes or so, you give them a paintball, right? And they get to shoot a paintball. This sounds ridiculous. Who's going to sign up for this? I know Mike, Mike's down. You'll be there. Does Johnny want to get shot with a? No, Johnny is like, I'm not doing that.

Yeah, no. I knew Johnny was the voice of reason on that. I really wanted Crystal at it because I could see Crystal being a fantastic Marie, but Crystal's like, I'm not going to get shot with a paintball gun. It hurts. Yeah. Are you allowed to wear layers in a mask? I think, yes.

But I don't know. It's got to be a clear mask so you could at least see faces for improv. It'd be so weird to just improv without. I don't know. It's a horrible idea, but I just, I think it'd be really funny. I don't know. Where were you when you thought of this and how tired were you? No, I, I'm sober.

I don't, I don't, I said tired, not drunk. I know. I was like, he means, he means how fucking. No. No. No. No, I don't know. It's just been an idea rolling around in my head for, for years now.

And I'm like, this would be really funny. Because I always loved everybody loves Raymond. And I'm like, this would be really funny to like. Who doesn't love Raymond? Right, exactly. I love that show. Anyway, sorry, that was a really long aside, but, like, I think that, like... We are having fun.

I think that those hyper-specific shows, right? Those, they counterintuitively have a wider appeal than something that's super broad, right? And in order to get somebody to buy a $20 ticket to something, like, they need to feel like, what the hell, right? You know, they need to stop scrolling and be like, this sounds insane and, like, go buy that ticket. So, I don't know. That's kind of my thought process. And then it's just also like, like you just spam. Like you just spam things.

Like you just do 10 times what like people think would be appropriate to promote your show. Because like social media algorithms are are a slot machine, right? And you just put as many quarters in the slot machine as possible to potentially have the slot machine be like, oh, we like this one. Yeah. I don't know. I found too that it's like switching it up, like not having the same flyer. Somebody had mentioned that to me. They were like, oh, I appreciate that you actually change the flyer.

Yep. It doesn't look like the same flyer. every single time just getting spammed. Yep. But yeah, I, speaking of, like, niche idea, I was once on a, all, like, WWE. It was supposed to be, like, wrestling, but, like, yeah, it was, like, a reality television show. We were just, like, acting, like, normal scenes out, but all of a sudden we'd break out into a wrestling match. That sounds great.

Yeah, and we thought that would be something. We only did it at, like, a practice jam. Sure. But it was, like, an idea that we had where we thought it would be funny to, bring out to a show. Yeah. So just throw that in your pocket. That's great.

WWE, body slim some people. Get some mats out. That sounds like a lot of fun. Improvised. Nobody shoots their eye on. That's true. Yeah, you know, like nobody's dead at the end of it. Nobody's maimed forever.

We did, when I was in Atlanta, we did improvise clue, and that was a lot of fun, right? That sounds fun. It was really cool. You basically, like, make your own, like, mystery character, and then, like, you know, there's been a murder. And, like, you know, the lights go out, somebody's dead on the floor. Like, you have to, like, figure it out. But it was always confusing because there was no, like, we didn't, like, we would find who had murdered the person on the way.

And so, like, there'd be red herrings, but it would be very confusing because it's like, this is very, it was a mess. It was always a mess. So, like, we'd have to work it out. But, and then we also did, I don't know, various other shows that were a lot of fun. But anyway, cool. Brandon, thank you so much for coming on, man. Yeah. Thank you for having me.

I had a blast. This was, like I said, exciting. Absolutely. This is new. If somebody wants to do stand up and try stand up in the New York area, Central New York, how do they get involved? What advice would you give them? So keep an eye out for the showcases, as I was saying before, July 14th, I'm having one. There's still time to sign up.

Just hit me up at Brandon Ciotti on Facebook. It's Ginger underscore Brandad on Instagram and TikTok. The open mic, though, that's the place that you want to try it out for the first time. You just need five minutes, and everybody there is, like I said, all different levels. And we're going to be at Johnny Bees Tavern that's in Rome. It's one of my hometown bars. Nice. Yeah.

I do it at like these two. It's 16 stone and Johnny Bees Tavern. And they're like right up the road from one another. But they both, I have history with the people there are just like family. They're so great and like supportive to the scene. Awesome. And it's the palace theater as well. we'll be holding one again.

But July 14th, Johnny V's Tavern, hit me up, sign up. I will definitely have you. And if you don't get on that one, there's going to be more to come. And then also, there's some mixed mics in the area. I could pitch, but I'd say in my area, Rome, New York, Becky Wiggins' mic is a very cool mic to hit up. It's the only comedy one. Have you ever done a mixed or been at a mixed micke micke?

No, it sounds awful where somebody's like playing guitar and then like there's a stand-up and then there's a slam poet It's hit or miss but it's definitely like rough when like a guy makes the whole room wet including me and then I got to go on stage and be like

I got tiny penis you're right yeah fart jokes yeah dick and fart jokes in five minutes and that this guy is like his guy's acoustic this guy's acoustic guitar just made me like sob and I'm just like all right my turn yeah so the mixed mics are great

They have one at Funk and Waffles every Sunday. I like to hit that one up as well. That's right here in Syracuse, too, for you guys. Yeah. But they're all over the place. Hit up a mix mic. Hit up a comedy mic. That's how you want to get into the stand-up scene.

Just throw together five minutes. Yeah, cool. I want to do the one on the 14th. I want to, if you're down, is there a slide-over? Yeah, so the way, I already have the 20, and it's already over 20 people have signed up. So, no, no, no. What I do is I have them thrown into a,

bucket and if somebody doesn't show up, that slot becomes part of the bucket pull. So you can get pulled up at any time. You can be bumped up into the beginning of the show. You can go up later on. But everybody that's been after the 20, I just have sign up still and I throw them into a bucket. So if one of those people don't show up or toward the end of the show, I just rapid fire, pull everybody out. And it's, you definitely are coming. You're doing five minutes. Sweet. All right. You missed the palace. You came a little late and you're coming to Johnny Bee's Tavern. Sweet.

And I didn't have any jokes when I was at Pallis either. That room is so fun to the people there. Like the crowds that both of those locations bring are so much fun. They're down to see comedy and it's rare to see a bar where the people are actually down to see you. Right. Like you go to the bars and do these open mics and you're just like, all right, there's three guys that hate me here and I'm going to practice my set in front of them.

And they just look at you and like turn the volume up on the television. They're like, yeah. No, we don't want to hear that right now. with the phone or like, oh, man. It's doing a comedy show to people who don't know that a comedy show is about to happen or don't want a comedy show to happen. Oh, to see them chug their drink and just run out of the room where they're like, have a good night.

It's like, you didn't pay your tab. In college, we would do improv shows at coffee shops, like, on campus. And, like, the people in the coffee shop, like, wouldn't know that it was, like, about to happen. It was the worst. Like, it was the worst moment of my life. Yeah. I think that, like, coffee. shops it's like that is more lean towards like you want to be careful with what you say at

a bar like they don't give a shit that's the place where you could just like throw out anything at the wall yeah be gross be raunchy yeah sweet cool but coffee shops i've been there too yeah but hit up an open mic anywhere just a mix mic a comedy mic throw together five minutes and that's how you get it started sweet well i'm going to do that on july 14th and i'm looking forward to it thank you for the opportunity and genuinely genuinely brandon thank you you so much for building a scene because it sucks like it fucking sucks that one there's not a better scene here and two it's really hard to build a thing and it takes a lot of work and effort and risk and like and money and effort like so i appreciate it thank you for doing that thank you

thank you to you absolutely building the scene that you got we're going to crush we're going to keep doing this stuff together and i i hope to work with you more absolutely this was fun thank you a lot for having me absolutely thank you for coming on ladies gentlemen thank you guys for watching guys good news york is a production of click stream studios if you want i will give you a tour of this building we're britain it's a brand new facility here in the old spaghetti warehouse location uh 689 north clinton street come on down or send me an email beforehand uh if you go to call that clickstream studios dot com you can go and fill out our form there um and if you want a tour that's just submit a form we'll give you a tour we are a full service content marketing agency that focuses on video production

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