LOGO one year later

On May 25th, it will be exactly one year since I released my first comedy album. I remember almost every single detail of that day. I had just performed at Neptunes in Raleigh, NC for the inaugural Oak City Comedy Festival. After my set, I headed down to the city's warehouse district and ended up at a bar/arcade called Boxcar. I was in a heated game of pacman when midnight hit, so I didn't get a chance to check iTunes and other platforms to see if my album was available yet. As it turns out, I didn't have to check. My phone started blowing up 5 minutes past midnight with texts, inboxes, and tagged posts from people who were waiting to download it. It was the absolute best feeling in the world. I didn't think so many people were anticipating it. My timeline was flooded with LOGO posts, and all I saw was my album cover with crying laughing emojis from approving listeners.

t's a feeling that I'll never forget. I don't think I even slept that night. Fast forward a year later, LOGO has been streamed over 200,000 times and was up for Grammy consideration. I still get tagged in the occasional LOGO post with people still commenting on the content. The best thing about the creation and release of the album is that it was all done independently. Steve Ziegler, a promoter in the Philly area who became my manager for a time, put together a live recording event in Center City. It was a two show event(for two album recordings), and we packed both shows. Steve did a great job of promoting. He got Metro Philly to do an article, which was huge, and he was selling tickets hand to hand and online. Steve is awesome. He's helped me out so much in such a short time.

While we no longer have a manager/client relationship, I'll always be grateful to him for helping me and I consider him a very good friend. A few of my comedy friends came through to perform on the album recording shows, and I appreciate them as well. Dave D, Andrew Fox, Brian Jenkins, Ariel Leaty, Spencer Prescott, and Chris Williams. One week after the album was released, we had a LOGO FEST in the same building as the recording, only this time it was in the actual theater. We had 4 shows in one day. The first was a live episode of The Drunk Unks Podcast. The next 3 shows were stellar comedy performances from some of Philly and Jersey's best comics. Steve did an amazing job one again promoting and planning for the shows. He also took tremendous care of all the participants of the festival. The Drunk Unks still talk about how dope Steve is and how he had the greenroom stocked with beer. Shane Gillis, Mike Brooks, Ariel Leaty, Steve Rinaldi, Andrew Fox, Nicole Phoenix and so many others did such an amazing job bringing the laughs.

It was an awesome and exhausting day. Since the release of the album, more than a few local comedians followed suit and recorded their own albums, and they personally came to me and told me I was a big reason they decided to do it. I'm always humbled when someone tells me I inspire them to try something. It shows that people are watching and taking notes, and they're doing that because they respect me and what I'm about. I set goals and I accomplish them. LOGO(LAUGH or Get Offended) was my biggest accomplishment in comedy to date. I'm very proud of the fact that people downloaded it, listened to it, and enjoyed it. I was very nervous about the criticism I would receive after the release.

Almost everyone showed love. I'm very happy about that. It's nice to know that I have something in place for people to remember me by long after I'm gone. That's the best part. People won't have to miss me. They can just listen to LOGO and I'll be right there making them laugh. I had a few detractors telling me this isn't how you do it. You have to wait your turn. You're not ready to record an album. I showed them otherwise. I didn't need major backing. I didn't need a huge network deal. All I needed was a stage, an engineer(Taylor, you're the man), and people who believed in me. I'd like to thank everyone who was involved in the process of creating LOGO....

Steve Ziegler

Andrew Fox

Taylor Kredatus

Saquion Gullett

Maleek Brown-Kwubiri

Cornelius Taylor

Red PettyGawd Foreman

Wildfire Radio

Matt Durkin

Chris Williams

Spencer Prescott

Dave D

Brian Jenkins

Ariel Leaty

And a very special shout out to my wife, my kids, my parents, my friends, and colleagues throughout my life who provided me with funny stories to tell to the masses.

And last but certainly not least, I would like to thank everyone who purchased LOGO. I'm so thankful for the overwhelming support of the album over this past year. It means so much to me, and I love you all.