Hey folks welcome to good news York brought to
you by ads on the go Get ads on the go comm is
the website check that out Go talk to our man
Zach and get your face on the side of a truck
driving around 31. Absolutely, which I I did
that recently I Was up on 11 and was gonna go
to 31, and it was the worst traffic I've ever
experienced in my whole life. I've never experienced
that before. I know the traffic's always a little
tight there, but it was insane for no obvious
good reason. So I think people are avoiding the
81 traffic and trying to take regular roads.
So one thing Zach's doing now so that his truck
doesn't get stuck in traffic just with one person
getting berated with ads is he's working out
arrangements with local parking lots to be like,
a digital billboard that can go to the most populated
area at any point. Like he was out in Berutan
for the fireworks. The most brilliant young man
I've encountered in a long time. I really like
Zach. By the way, you might have noticed, that's
not Mike. Mike will be joining us a little later.
He's got another guest that's gonna join us in
the studio. He's gonna do an incredible interview
with them, so stick around for that. But first,
I am joined by my good buddy, Dylan Wirtz. Hey,
what's up everybody? Dylan is a, I guess you'd
say, newfound comedy promoter here in Syracuse.
He put together this event called the Cuse Comedy
Throwdown. Did I get it right? Correct. All right,
cool. A couple months back now. April. Incredible
event. First one he's ever put on. Sold it out
in, I don't know, 20 minutes or something crazy
like that? Couple weeks. And it was a competition,
so there was a number of comedians that came
on. I was lucky enough to be a judge for the
event. It was really cool. And they got points,
and you had some top three winners. Now you're
having a championship, and if you wouldn't mind,
talk about that, and then also introduce our
other guests for us, if you wouldn't mind. Yeah,
so it all came together. Should I be looking
at you or looking at the camera? Anywhere, buddy.
Okay, cool. So basically how it came about is...
Less than a year ago, I had just decided on a
random Thursday night to go try a local open
mic. I went out to Average Shows in Baldensville,
kind of wrote some chicken scratch jokes and
went up there and really enjoyed it. I had a
coffee meeting with a friend, Robin Cortese,
you probably know, a few months later, and she
had just asked what I had been up to. I'd mentioned
I was doing some stand -up comedy. The thing
about doing stand -up at local open mics is it's
a bit of a mixed crowd. There's some folks there
that just want to, like, have a beer. some of
the comics who just want to, like, get their
jokes off, and then a few people that are, like,
kind of actively paying attention. Yeah. So it's
hard to get that feedback, and if you're, like,
actually doing well. So I had mentioned to Robin
that I was hoping to try out a competition sometime
soon so I could really figure out where I was
at with things. And she said, hey, how about
you just throw a competition? So one thing became
another. We booked the Syracuse Polish home.
I reached out to some buddies who knew a lot
of comics in the area, got in touch with... as
many people as I could find. And the show came
together really quickly. I think the format of
it really sold itself. The Polish Home kind of
has this rabid fan base of people that just want
to get drunk on the weekend. And they're good
folks over there. And then the comics were inviting
their friends and their family. So the show kind
of sold itself. We put together that panel of
judges and the night came together better than
I could have imagined. My best friend traveled
up from New Jersey. It was just a really cool
night. That's awesome. So we raised some money
for Golisano Children's Hospital. That was a
charity show. Nice. So the Polish Home was able
to make some cash. We made a significant donation
to Golisano. And we, as you saw, we made it as
fair as we possibly could. We had different categories
for the judging and we had eight judges and we
were telling... There's detailed criteria I had
to pay. I had to like think about it. Holy shit.
But yeah, it was serious. I wanted to make it
fair. Yeah, so we did that, and then we had the
three winners. We had Mr. Mike Terry in third
place, Tommy Armstrong in second place, and then
Abdul took the crown as the Cuse Comedy Throwdown
Champion. And a few weeks after the show, the
idea came to mind, like, hey, let's throw a private,
more intimate show with the winners of the competition.
And we reached out to CNY Jazz Central. got the
room booked, reached out to these guys. They
were all down right away. We have two other comics
that placed highly in the competition, Screech
Monroe and Phoenix Thomas. Nice. We got some
musical support from Theo Curtin who is, we're
not roommates, we're housemates. Okay. And Theo
is a super talented improvisational pianist and
guitar player. Damn. He's done solos at like
the Boston Music Hall and he travels all over.
Because he can do improv music. He's a part of
a number of local groups Because he can just
hop on there and kind of feel the vibe of the
music and then play his thing. Yeah Yeah, so
that's what that's what we're doing and uh, it's
on Thursday, July 24th At doors at five show
at six and it should be a good time. That's awesome,
man. I'm really excited for the show gentlemen,
like I said the The competition was tight. It
was incredible. There was so many comedians.
Yeah. But of such high quality, like there was
we were we were laughing all night, which was
really cool. But you all really pulled it out.
And I guess we'll go to Abdul first. What as
you were going through your performance there
in the competition, how did you feel you did
compared to some of the comedians? I don't know.
Usually, like every time I'm on stage, I just
usually think But that was fine. So as soon as
I got off the stage, I wasn't thinking about
placing or anything. I was just happy I had a
good set. My mind's usually just thinking about
the next joke or it's just always a blank. I
love this guy. I've seen him around for a few
years now in the local comedy scene. He's never
not been funny. Seriously, it was always like,
this dude is made for comedy, and I'm glad to
see him do it. And you can see it as he pulled
out the win. Thank you. Mike, tell me, so in
this next event, that last one was kind of a
quick showcase where you did a short set. This
one, I understand, is going to be quite a bit
longer, right? Where you're going to get to do
a lot more material. What's it like preparing
for that? or did you have a longer set and you
had to cut it down for the previous show? How's
that work? Yeah, so that's like, when you do
competitions, you wanna give people a good taste,
what not. You wanna give them your best five
minutes. Yeah, your best five minutes. So you
might not do a whole bunch of long jokes, you
might chop it up, hit them with a bunch of 30
second jokes, but with this upcoming set, you
can take your time. You can take your shoes off.
get a little comfortable, do some crowd work,
you know what I mean? Get too comfortable. Yeah,
right, right. Gotta make sure the socks smell
good. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But yeah, you know, tell
a little bit more stories, get to know the people
that you're talking to, take your time. Your
demeanor is more relaxed. Yeah, yeah. So, and
it's exciting. It's exciting. I'm not having
a blank. I thought about something completely
different. We are still having it recorded, I
believe. Say it again? We are still having it
recorded. The Night of Champions? Yeah. Okay,
yeah. We're still having it recorded, so. That's
all. I mean, that's another way to continue to
promote ourselves. Yeah. Whether we take that
footage and shop it to comedy clubs and try to
get in the comedy clubs, or we just post it,
you know, gives us the avenue to post more YouTube
clips or whatever and spread more reach. I'm
so glad you mentioned that I'd love to ask all
you fellas, you know back in the day When the
internet YouTube all these things started with
a lot of comedians I felt like the last thing
they wanted was their set or their jokes posted.
Yeah And now I feel like that's flipped and they
see the promotional value. Is that is that accurate?
And what do you what do you guys think about
that? I mean, I do agree that like like posting
clips has gotten like a lot of people far in
comedy like Like I just started recently posting
clips because I like I want people to be more
aware of who I am sure and My only issue with
it is just like I see a lot of comics like especially
young comics like posting like clip like Jokes
from like an open mic and stuff and like yeah,
these jokes are like way too Like like let them
settle like yeah, let them like breathe a little
bit before you like post them out in the world
So all you're doing is just like posting a really
good premise and that's it. Yeah. But like, yeah,
it's crazy that like back in the day, like all
you had to do was just work hard, like keep on
working. And then I just waited until someone
noticed you. And like, it's very empowering to
see comedians just like, you know, I'm just going
to take this in my own hand, throw it on TikTok.
And if like, if they like it, they like it. If
they don't, then I guess I gotta stick with my
day job. You always wanna keep writing too. So
that helps you to, cause you know what I mean,
no comedian, as we brought up no comedian, you
don't wanna post your best stuff, and then, hey,
come on out to the show, come on out to the show,
and they're like, wait, this thing. They've seen
it, yeah. Now you tricked us. You don't want
them to have that reaction, so you always wanna
keep writing, and that way you can. You can mix
it in. You can mix in your new stuff with your
old stuff. Sure. And try it in true if you want
to call it that. But... I love that. One thing
I've noticed, and I'm relatively new to this,
is I feel like a lot of comics, they use their
social media as proof that they're funny. Yeah.
Whether it be, like, sharing funny memes or,
like, doing sketch comedy. Like, I've seen your
sketches. I know Tommy is very popular for his
sketches. So it's like, if you can make the Instagram
or the Facebook or the TikTok be a proof that
you're funny, then it'll want... get people into
the show to hear those actual jokes. And I feel
like as I've been promoting the Night of Champions
specifically, because it's been a bit more of
a grind, is I'm trying to get sillier and just
kind of immune to embarrassment online. And like
the ticket sales have picked up, the interest
has picked up as I get sillier, as I get a little
funnier online. You're doing a great job of really
just having fun with it and promoting it in every
way you can. Telling goofy stories as they come
up. I mean, that's really the formula and and
I love to see that you figured that out It's
taking a lot of people. There's a lot of social
media experts that spend lots of money and haven't
figured that out You're nailing it buddy. I really
I love to see it. Thank you. It's awesome The
the venue is jazz central. Is that the name of
the place CNY jazz central? So I've never been
there before but just the look of the place on
the outside looks super cool Yeah, and the stage
is really set up like a comedy club. So wow comedy
club, you typically have that like little tiny
backdrop that people are in front of like a brick
wall or something. I don't know exactly what
it is, but it looks just like that. And then
the seats kind of like ascend upward. So the
crowds not on top of you at all. You have like,
I don't know, maybe the size of this room to
walk. And then the crowd goes up from there.
75 people. So yeah, it's gonna be cool. It's
gonna be a great night. Yeah, I'm excited to
see it. It's Anytime I think of a jazz club all
I can think of is Ron Swanson playing the sax.
You gotta get him to come out. That's it. That's
awesome, fellas. What's the website for tickets?
I know you might have mentioned it already, but
I love to get those plugs as many as I can. Absolutely.
It's nightofchampions .card with two R's .co
with no M. Awesome. Yeah, so that's the website.
And there's probably Facebook things to check
out for that too. Yeah, so there's an event page.
I think the game plan for this is that annually
we'll do the Throwdown as a charity show, and
then the Night of Champions as a private show.
And I think with that in mind, it'll kind of
raise the stakes of the Throwdown a bit, like
knowing that there's a show on the horizon. So
I think after the show, I'll establish formal
social media pages for both. Gotcha. But right
now it's just an event page and my private page
at Dylan Wirtz. OK, cool, cool. This is awesome.
Also like real quick shout out to Dylan for putting
all this together. Absolutely all this hard work
You standing near the what's that highway where
all the crashes happen? Yeah, the parkway I'm
like, oh man, I'm proud of him, but you will
not see me I'm trying to be funny. We just dropped
a new one yesterday. Wayne Wigglebottom was reporting.
Did you see the video? I don't think I saw that
one yet. There's a local man dressed in a pickle
costume making everyone laugh hysterically. Wayne
Wigglebottom was on the scene. That's incredible.
We'll mix that in the episode so folks can see
that. While we're shouting people out, I just
wanted to plug something that you might find
interesting. Mike just went... 30 days in 30
states and did 30 different open mics. Holy shit.
They documented the whole journey. So I thought
that took a lot of courage. Wow. That's, you
know, here's what's wild. You guys mentioned
open mics and I went to probably a decade ago
now. Phil Farta and I went to O'Days back in
the day when that was a place. I miss that place.
And that open mic, dude, it's where, it's now
the rooftop bar on Tip Hill. Yeah, it's so big.
Before they renovated it. Got it. And it was
downstairs. And we walked in and there was, I
don't know, maybe a dozen comedians. The place
was dark as hell. And it looked like an opium
den, like right after everybody got high. And
I was like, this is the most depressing fucking
comedy room I ever seen in my whole life. And
people would get up and tell their jokes, and
the other comedians would be like pissed off
at them that they were funny. It was the weirdest,
wildest thing I had ever seen. And I'm like,
damn, these open mics are rough, man. Yeah, those
days was different back in the day. It was wild.
Then again, I will say, I also remember going
to ones at the Funkin' Waffles that used to be
on the hill. OK. That was an awesome venue. If
you remember that, it was sort of downstairs,
and it had that cool stage the way it was. It
was awesome. But that was an open open mic where
people couldn't be happier and it was a great
time and you know even the people that weren't
funny got cheered because yeah people were being
kind, you know, like it was it was an interesting
vibe, but Mike tell us just a little bit about
this this tour. What? Where'd you get that idea?
Yeah, so it's There's definitely a spiritual
aspect to it. Like I tried to make it short because
I don't you know, you're good our Is that how
long the story's gonna take? So like 2022 when
they all just like driving and my mind was on
like something that was stressing me out and
then just boom randomly I had like a visual of
me making that initial pose hey for 30 days I'm
traveling to 30 states getting on 30 mics and
I was like yes Lord I'll do that like I'll go
ahead and do that and it took some time. So like
I was telling Dylan before we got on here, it
was like three aspects to having that thing work
out. Like the faith that God will do it, the
money to fund it, and then the plan to see it
through. So like 2022 to 2025, those three things
didn't line up. But like, so like I broke my
finger. I hope y 'all can see that. It was December
20th, 2025. 2024, my bad. Wow. I love how you
looked at us. It's like we would remember the
day. Yeah, right. But short story is I broke
my finger and then I was on a, I was on a, not
unemployment, I was on a workers' camp. Yeah.
Out of work and stuff like that. Had a couple
surgeries and I was like, you know what? Let
me just put the plan together as if the money's
coming. Yeah. You know what I mean? And let me
just start there. So prior years I had, Jumped
in a bunch of Facebook groups and stuff like
that. So just started to Like do it the hard
way the ones that had list I wrote down the list
and all that and just put the plan together and
then like around I say late February around March
found out okay, I'm getting like a couple lump
sum payments sure and I had like a disability
on my disability insurance on my auto loan and
then also Shout out to Abdu, he let me know about
empty a notch of 401k. Not to put all your business
out there, but it's a couple aspects. It's a
thing you can do. Yeah, and I was like, you know
what? I think I might have the money to do this.
So I'm like, the plan's falling into place. The
whole just getting it to line up, just, you know,
to make it in 30 days when there wasn't like
that night and you can get to another state the
next day. That part seems to blow my mind by
itself, man. there was definitely a grind. And
initially it started off rough, I ain't gonna
lie. So it was putting it together all right
now and then quit my job, gave him two weeks
and said, you know, I wasn't gonna tell him the
day of, like, all right. But I was like, nah,
man. But yeah, so like day one, I didn't know
that June 1st was the start of Pride Month. So
they pretty much took over downtown Philadelphia
and it was, It was a little thottish. It was
a lot of butt shaking and beads. That's wild.
Cocoa butter everywhere. It's a strange combination.
I'll leave some of the details out, but the open
mic got canceled. I continued to try to look
for somewhere to perform. I'm working on that
story, but I just, I kept hitting roadblock after
roadblock, but I'm like, all right, this is day
one, and then day two was Rhode Island. That
worked out, I hit two mics in one day, so I had
to kind of get the - You got your average in,
yeah? Yeah, yeah, got the average back up, and
then next day was Boston, then it was Delaware,
then it was Maryland, then I had a show in Cleveland.
So that was like, I got four mics in or six mics
in and then. You didn't necessarily go and order
these states. You kind of jumped around, man.
Yeah, it was. Holy shit. It was like a heartbeat.
It was like in my phone and it's a heartbeat.
Yeah. Heartbeat, yeah. So it was definitely like
a whole loop around. Wow. The goal was doing
an open mic each day. It was like, how close
can I do that for each state if possible? I wanted
to do it in one circle, but that's not how everything
worked out. but my longest drive was 15 hours.
So that was from Denver to Austin, Texas. And
the reason why it was 15 hours and not 14, like
if you Google it. Oh wow, that made it shorter.
Yeah, if you Google Denver, Colorado to Austin,
Texas, where I was going, it was 14 hours. However,
when I was in Denver, on the journey, my tire
blew up. Of course. Yeah, potholes, aggressive.
aggressive, potholes, blew my tire out. That
was the whole thing. Had to put a boot on it.
So I was like, all right, you know, this is the
part where somebody would be like, ah, you know
what, tire blew out, ah, you know what, it didn't
work out, fuck that. I'm sorry, can we? All right,
my bad. After that, I kept going. I went to the
over, Mike. Short story is, my bad, this is all
supposed to be a short story. Nah, you're good.
That's not true. So yeah, Tyra blew out and then
I'm like, all right, let me just post real quick.
I put my name on the list, post real quick. Um,
and I do all the posts and I get there, back
to the venue and it's empty. Everybody left.
I missed my opportunity to perform. I was pissed.
And then, you know, talking to the person running
the mic, uh, they let me know what is actually
another one over here. Okay. All right. There's
still hope. And then, uh, went to that open mic.
It was a little different. So it was like a little,
uh, bucket mic. You put your name in the hat
and stuff like that. And yeah, so if you did
good, it was like they called you in three. So
if you won that round of three people, you won
$20 and stuff like that. And then you get called
back. Almost like a kill Tony sort of situation
where they call you up randomly and give you
a few minutes, that deal. So it's interesting.
I was going to Texas to do kill Tony. And after
that 15 -hour drive, it was the longest. Reason
why it was 15, because I was driving gingerly.
I didn't want to bust out that donut. I'd be
messed up. Yeah, man, you got to start to shake
around 50. Right, right. I got all the way to
Austin, Texas, and they said, oh, no, no kill
Tony tonight. I was like, damn. All right, and
I just looked up the list. All right, where else
did they have? They got other open mics. and
every place that I went to, it was a closed door.
It was, one place wasn't even open. Damn. Like
they even had a light sound. Like, did they open
today? Like I just can't. I didn't know that
was the Kill Tony night. That's crazy. Oh yeah,
yeah. So that was, that was a, but they had,
they had another open mic. Like there was an
open mic before Kill Tony. They were having that,
but you had to be there like, you know, a couple
hours before I got there. But yeah, so, but.
That's incredible. And side note, I got a bunch
of footage on this thing right here. That's awesome.
But also, I got an external hard drive and got
some of it on my phone. So I documented the journey,
working on it and putting the documentary together.
Yeah. And afterwards, if y 'all wouldn't mind,
I'll probably do a video with y 'all or something.
Sure, sure. You guys got to talk to our man,
Brian Ink, if you don't know. You know Brian,
of course. I really love how he's taking it seriously
and doing, of course, you were on his special
that he recorded and learning about that whole
world of shooting your own special and then shopping
it around to these different places. I didn't
even know it was a thing. And it's pretty cool
what he's got going on. Yeah, it's really dope.
Before we go, Abdul, where can folks find you
aside from the show? Anywhere in particular they
should go to follow you and all that fun stuff?
Yeah, you can follow me. I'm on Instagram. My
name's Oscar winner Sean Penn. It is a hilarious
Instagram, too. I was just going to say that.
I don't like the actor. That's mainly... My whole
comedy goal is just to get a cease and desist
letter from him. And then I'll quit comedy. But
yeah, Oscar winner, Sean Penn on all forms of
social media. Nice, nice. And Mike, you as well,
where can they find you? So Instagram, MikeCherry7,
Facebook, M -I -K -E -T -E -R -R -Y. Some people
call me Mike Perry and stuff, MikeCherry. I don't
know where it gets confused, but yeah, Facebook,
MikeCherry. It's a pretty simple name. Yeah,
I'm on YouTube, Mike on YouTube. at Mike on YouTube,
and then TikTok, Mike's Voice 7. I should probably
get one name. Also make it a lot smoother, but
getting the process, man. Dylan, and one more
time, where can folks find you, and give the
details for the show one more time too, if you
could. Absolutely, so Dylan Wirtz on Facebook,
W -E -R -T -S on Instagram, DilPickle3737. And
then the show is the Cuse Comedy Throwdown presents
Night of Champions on Thursday, July 24th at
CMY Jazz Central. And you can get tickets at
nightofchampions .card with two R's, .co with
no M. Nice. Thanks for having us on, Matt. Appreciate
it. Absolutely, man. And of course, the links
will be in the description for all the videos
as well. So people don't have to do that R math.
And they're typing. Guys, thank you so much for
joining us. Thanks for having us. This has been
awesome. Come back any time you got any of you
guys. Got shows going on. Anything you want to
talk about, you want to just shoot the breeze
and spread the good news. In New York state here,
we'd love to have it. I feel like I could sit
up here all day. You're made for it, buddy. You're
good at it, dude. Makes you feel chatty, these
headphones. That's what's up. That's how it works.
Folks, this is Good News York. I love you guys.
Thank you so much for joining us. This has been
Good News York. We will see you tomorrow. Peace
out. Peace.