CURRENT MISSION

To make you laugh

ABOUT ME

I've been telling stand up for five years now, always looking for someone who understands the art of joke. I've spent a lot of time in Germany and am now fluent in German, which is really only a plus if you live in Germany. I seem to have become infatuated with hip hop music in the past several years and am even experimenting with beat boxing beats on loop machines. History is the field I have chosen for myself, with the hope of becoming a professor at some college somewhere. The real life goal (because who goes to college for their dreams anymore?) is film. I've always wanted to make movies but also have always wanted to not be broke when I got out of college, so I had to compromise. I've been trying to write the great American movie, but that, as all creative things, takes more time than anyone can foresee.

Again, big fan of comedy, both watching and performing. Truth be told, I have great respect for any kind of performer, be it music, comedy, poetry, what have you. Getting up and making people happy is a hard job.

I started brewing beer recently and it has become a very near and dear hobby to me. Some call it the onset of alcoholism, I call it delicious.

PHILOSOPHY

I'm of the school of thought that double standards are the bullshit.

Live your life, it's yours. Don't let other people interfere with your life, but also don't do things that interfere with others. Social Karma, if you will.

I live my life to do great things and then retire so rich that I have a guy who irons my underwear. Now that's money, when you're so rich that you have a guy whose only job is to iron your underwear.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I am trying to host now primarily. If money and time become available, I'd like to go out and bum around, but until then I will just provide a good place for others to bum away.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

We (my 2 roommates and I) have been host for a little while now. So far everyone has been nothing but polite, fun and interesting. I think you get out what you put in.

Interests

My stand up 'career' (if you could call it that) has really gotten more serious in the past year. I'm not headlining shows in Boston, but I'm really trying to tell as many jokes as I can to any audience.

I'm a big traveler, or was until life got somewhat serious. I've driven across the country a few times, I've lived in Europe, and I respect the people who go outside their comfort zones and tackle the unknown.

I'm not a big activist, but growing up in Vermont makes you a liberal no matter what you think. I'm into community outreach and actually spent a year with Americorps before starting college.

• arts
• poetry
• beer
• movies
• homebrewing
• music
• surfing
• boxing
• teaching
• history

Music, Movies, and Books

I'm a big movie buff. I really love any kind of movie, from old, black and white movies to the latest blockbuster. You can't judge a movie unless you see the whole thing. None of that 'Oh, I'm going to turn it off in the first three minutes because I didn't like the credits' millarkey.(If you're curious, top 5: Reservoir Dogs, The Wackness, Be Kind Rewind, The Lives of Others, Good Burger)

As mentioned, really into the underground hip hop. I'm not really against any kind of music, but I've found out that I need a good bass beat to get into a song. Hip hop and rap fit that bill but other genres can achieve that too.

Top 5 Artists:
RJD2
MF Doom
Wu Tang
Danger Mouse
Ratatat

Top 5 Songs:
Ghostwriter [RJD2]
Money Folder (Four Tet Remix) [MF Doom]
Crazy [Gnarls Barkley]
Seventeen Years [Ratatat]
Fuck Shit Stack [Reggie Watts]

As far as books go, I seem to gravitate towards non-fiction mainly. My love for history makes me really enjoy biographies and memoirs, but I'm not too picky. I am a HUGE fan of Hunter S. Thompson (not in a pretentious way, I swear), and have read all of his stuff, but I'm really open to anything.

Top 5 Books:
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas [Hunter Thompson]
The Dao of Wu [The RZA]
The Rum Diary [Hunter Thompson... again]
The Autobiography of Malcolm X [Alex Haley and Malcolm X]
Ethan Frome [Edith Wharton]

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I did a year in Americorps, stationed out in eastern Washington State in a small town called Colville. For a year I crawled under trailers, inspecting them for structural integrity and environmental awareness. It was far from a fun job, certainly not pretty, but it did build character and I'm glad I did it (and that it's over).

Living in Europe is something that really can't be considered all that awesome. I think that couch surfing beats living in Germany, but it's something I've done, so there.

The variety, size and awesomeness of the American landscape from coast to coast is probably the most amazing thing I've seen. I was actually brought to tears (for some reason) by the vast expanses of corn fields in the Midwest.

Teach, Learn, Share

I'm looking to practice my German with someone. Living here doesn't really give me all that much access to native German speakers, and I'd like to keep it up so that I don't forget everything I worked so hard to learn.

I'm always looking for someone to work with on comedy. Not meaning that I want to create a duo or trio, or whatever, but talking to comedians about comedy (or non comedians about comedy) is the pinnacle of awesome.