My thoughts on Mick Foley as a comedian

This might be a strange blog for my wrestling fans. So far I have talked about all things gay wrestling. Well today I am going to take a break from that an talk about something way out there. You also will be introduced to a new side of the flawless one in this blog. Let's get into it shall we!

Today I want to talk about my thoughts on Mick Foley's transition into stand up comedy. A lot of you may be scratching your head on this one but I assure you I can back this one up. I don't think I have to introduce any of you to the legend that is Mick Foley. This is a man who has put his body on the line countless times because of his love of the wrestling business. All those years of body abuse took a heavy toll on Mick. His one hip is in such bad shape that he can't even put a sock on his foot without assistance.It's a miracle that the man is still walking and not some sort of wrestling statistic at this point. It is easy to see why one would want to retire after all of that abuse. He hung up the boots and decided to enter the complex world of stand up comedy. He's been on the scene for a little over 2 years and he seems to have found a new calling.

At first I didn't know what to think of this. A lot of wrestlers think that because they can put on an amazing promo that will translate into something else. I mean look at The Rock! The Rock was perhaps one of the best mic workers of all time and has had quite a successful acting career. I personally think The Rock is a shitty actor and has no mainstream appeal. Aside from The Rock there aren't really many other wrestlers who successfully made the leap to Hollywood. Stacy Keibler, Hulk Hogan, John Cena, Mickie James, Chris Jericho, Trish Stratus and countless others have flopped outside the wrestling world. The point is just because you have promo skill doesn't mean it's going to translate into acting or performance skill. That's where a lot of wrestlers make the mistake. They don't realize that wrestling fans and movie, music, or comedy fans are a whole another animal. It's an animal they aren't often ready for and it eats them alive. Why didn't this happen to Mick Foley?

Is Mick Foley funny? How did he not fail as a comedian?
The question of if Mick Foley is funny is debatable. How he got successful is mostly because he has a fanbase already built in. A lot of his stand up is based on his wrestling career and road stories. He isn't really a traditional comedian and he hits his niche.  That is really how he managed to dominate the comedy world. His wrestling fans have joined him for his new journey and everything he says is gold. He knows what his niche is and he isn't going outside of that niche. He knows he can appeal to the wrestling fans and knowing how passionate wrestling fans are helps him out a lot! It's not just him after any comedian gets successful they tend to stick to a particular niche. For example a lot of female comics rely on feminist jokes. I do think that he still would have been able to find success without the WWE history. The one thing he has that is different than every other performer from WWE is passion. This is a man that puts his 100% into everything. He is also likeable and actually has amazing comedic timing. He can read an audience and get them on his side and make them laugh. I think he would have easily found success but his journey might have been a lot harder. Like I said he heavily relies on his main wrestling fanbase niche. A lot of non wrestling fans might be easily turned off or not get some of his references. I think any truly good comedian can manipulate an audience to get them on their side even if it's out of their niche. I am surprised he has lasted this long as the stand up world isn't pretty behind the scenes.  I'll get more into that in a second.

My experience in the stand up world

As I mentioned earlier I can back this blog up. Before I became a gay wrestling superstar I was making my own impact on the comedy scene. A lot of my act is very diverse and usually vulgar. My niche is what it's like to be gay and presenting that to a mostly straight audience. I do just the right amount and add some variety of content so that my audience can usually relate. Otherwise I'm just telling vulgar gay jokes to an audience that doesn't care. I don't perform as often as I used to. I actually was getting quite well known in my area and in order to be successful you have to dominate your local market and move on. The problem with that is once you go into some bigger markets the comedy market is flooded. You can have 10 comedians in a smaller town competing for a handful of spots and everyone gets a chance. Once you go to the bigger markets you'll have 100 people competing for that handful of spots. It is a lot to deal with and the pressure is really on. Then you have to deal with all the bullshit that goes on behind the scenes. A lot of times club owners bring you in and then they come up with some sort of excuse as to why they can't pay you. There are a lot of times you have to fight for the money you earned. You were agreed to get X amount of money but a club owner might say some bullshit like "We didn't sell enough drinks and you didn't bring in enough of an audience." That line is really cute when you are an opener and not a headliner. Aside from shady club owners you have other comedians in some areas that might be trying to sabotage your success.  I had this one guy that hated me because I was gaining popularity and he was more or less washed up. I was working my ass off and he saw me as a threat. He started bad mouthing me to other comedians and to club bookers. Luckily I had the fan support and people requesting me at the club and was known for my professionalism.We were booked on a show together and he had a temper tantrum quit the show and I was headliner. Worked out quite well for me. Overall I just got sick of the whole scene and limited how often I was doing it. It was something fun to do from time to time but as a full time type of thing it was just brutal. I think Mick Foley is more than capable of handling himself when those situations come up and I am sure they will and they have. Maybe the transition worked so well because both the comedy world and wrestling world are fucked up behind the scenes!