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April 14, 2015April 14, 2015

GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS title attempt #BrokenRecordShow hits 48-hour milestone at The East Room

BROKEN RECORD COMEDY SHOW -NashvilleStandUp.com's World Record Attempt: "LONGEST STAND-UP COMEDY SHOW – MULTIPLE COMEDIANS” April 12-19, 2015 at The East Room.

You guys, WE’RE DOING IT.

Beginning noon April 12th, Nashville StandUp began our attempt to take the GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS™ title for “LONGEST STAND-UP COMEDY SHOW – MULTIPLE COMEDIANS” at The East Room in Nashville, TN.

As I type this it’s early afternoon Tuesday April 14th. That means the BROKEN RECORD COMEDY SHOW has been going for over 48 hours so far. Unbelievable. We’re having such a great time.

NewsChannel 5 did interviews and shot show footage around noon and a live shot during their 5pm show, helping spread the word.

Last night was incredible. Jessica Watkins is an East Nashville native, now living in NYC and she did an hour telling stories from her walk across the country when she did comedy and avoided being murdered while filming her documentary “Burning Daylight.” Louis J Gomez was absolutely hilarious and delightful as he explained how his baby is fifteen times cuter than yours. The house was PACKED for home town boy who done good, Nate Bargatze. A lot of Wild West Comedy Festival people and Zanies staffers supplemented the huge, huge crowd who squeezed in to see Nate. It was pretty awesome.

Our good friend KILLER BEAZ dropped in and did a 30-minute surprise set, followed by Nashville favorite Mike James. Ahmed Ahmed (TBS’ Sullivan & Son, The Axis of Evil Comedy Tour) dropped in to do a fun set where he hilariously woke up a sleepy audience member in the front row. Ahmed is an absolute beast on stage and any comic would hate to have to follow him, but that didn’t stop Zanies co-owner Andrew Dorfman who jumped up to do a very funny set.

This show is the greatest, dumbest thing we’ve ever done, but it’s also been a lot of fun and cathartic. Nashville comedy has really pulled together to make this a reality. The comics deemed as being ‘professional’ according to GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS™’ guidelines (20 paid credits in a comedy club, theatre or bar and at least one year’s experience since their first paid gig), have done shows at all hours of the day and night.

DJ Buckley has not left the building since Sunday morning at 8:30 am. Chad Riden has only left for 2-3 hours each day to sleep and shower at home and run his daughter to and from school. Several comics have slept in The East Room’s fancy new comics’ lounge in the balcony. Many have been here all night. Several Zanies servers spent the entire night helping us make sure we had over 10 people in the audience at all times, saying, “we’re all in this together.” We truly are. The East Room staff, the fans, the volunteers, the comics. It’s really been touching watching everybody work to make this stupid thing happen. THANK YOU.

If you’re in town, STOP IN! ANY TIME. We’re here. If you can’t come by, photographer Jamie Hernendez is documenting the show on her Instagram account. She does incredible work and is here at all hours doing a fantastic job taking photos and posting updates on twitter. We’re also streaming video of the event on YouTube and on our special #BrokenRecordShow site. Go now to see the lineup for the rest of our schedule this week.

ALSO: the BROKEN RECORD Comedy Show is honoring ANY Wild West Comedy Festival tickets as valid tickets for our world record breaking show at The East Room. Any and all WWCF ticket holders need only flash their WWCF2015 ticket stub or laminate to be granted free admission to The East Room with no additional purchase necessary. Hope to see you at the show!

June 15, 2011June 17, 2011

Louis CK defends Tracy Morgan; Chad Riden to discuss controversy on tv tonight

EDITORIAL NOTE: This is an opinion piece written by comedian Chad Riden, who does not represent or speak on behalf of anyone, including sometimes himself.

Today, comedian Louis CK took to twitter to defend Tracy Morgan. Over the course of several tweets, he said:

Tracey Morgan said something wrong, evil, cruel, ignorant and hilarious. He was on a comedy stage, not at a pulpit. You have a right to be offended, sound off. As a man who hates violence and discrimination against gays or anyone, I was not offended.

I can have two thoughts simultaneously. 1. Gay people have a right to grow up and live in confidence happiness, honesty and equality. thought 2. Tracey Morgan is ridiculous and I love watching him just go to wrongful and crazy places in his mind and I can laugh.

If every word a person says has to be right and balanced and fair, I will jump off a tall thing onto a hard place. It is clear to anyone with an ability to reason and understand people that he didn’t mean a word of what he said. he was fucking around.

Louis is 100% correct.

I was at the show and although the bit in question did not get laughs from ME, it DID get laughs at The Ryman that night. His “tone” wasn’t any different from when he was talking about butt-fucking “retards” or when he was talking about how women should be at home cooking. Where is the outrage from the retards? Why aren’t we talking about women’s rights right now?

The Tracy Morgan controversy is NOT about Tracy. It’s 100% about TN HB 600 / SB 632 & Stacy Campfield’s ridiculous “Don’t Say Gay” legislation — Both Tennessee state bills are terrible, hate-fueled legislation proposed by Republicans and GLAAD is using Tracy Morgan as a pawn to further their agenda in the state. I do not disagree with them on the real issue at hand, but I do dislike HOW they’re doing this.

LGBT rights / equality is important and Tennessee is a hotbed right now.. but by demonizing Tracy Morgan, the new victim has become free speech. Comedians – and all artists of any medium – must be able to communicate whatever they want, however they see fit. As soon as one subject/word/idea is “off limits” then it’s ALL taboo. Tracy’s words were in the context of a show, NOT a political statement.

Tracy’s act was paraphrased second-hand in text by someone who was offended by a performer who has said similar things many times before. Yes, it was “violent imagery” and it would be “disturbing” IF you thought he would act out literal interpretations of his ACT in REAL LIFE.. but what moron actually believes that?

Sometimes I say the exact opposite of what I mean and exaggerate view points I totally DISAGREE with, but sarcasm doesn’t translate to text. We can’t take the literal meaning of the text of the words comedians say in their ACTS and use that to try to judge their REAL WORLD opinions. Johnny Cash did not kill a guy in Reno. Steven Wright didn’t have a pony. Tracy Morgan wouldn’t stab his kid to death. Use your brain.

If special interest groups who exist ONLY to be offended by things are allowed to dictate what artists can say.. Freedom of Speech is dead.

I have been outspoken in the Nashville media this week. A lot of people I’ve talked to feel the same way. I find it ironic that because of this controversy comedians are now being bullied by the LGBT community.

I’ll be on NewsChannel5’s “Open Line” show tonight from 7-8pm Central (on NC5+) discussing the Tracy Morgan controversy. You can call in: 615-737-7587.

[ UPDATE: Here’s a link to video of the first ten minutes of the show. ]

Gay or straight, sane or crazy, I love you – each and every one. Your pal, Chad Riden

June 14, 2011June 14, 2011

The Tracy Morgan debate continues..

BOY did Tracy Morgan stir up some controversy on June 3rd at the Ryman.. I’m sure you’ve heard. NashvilleStandUp’s Chad Riden (hey, that’s me!) has been very vocal about the situation.

I’ve been interviewed by The Tennessean (who just had to copy and paste my email but STILL spelled my name wrong. Way to go, lamestream media.*), US Weekly and NewsChannel5.

You can read my initial reaction to the controversy here on N’Sup.. and NewsChannel5 (CBS) here in Nashville will air part of an interview we shot today on their 6pm newscast tonight (Tuesday, 6/14).

THEN, I’ll be at Zanies telling jokes / crazy stories about Tracy Morgan during my set on the 6/14 N’Sup Showcase (doors @ 6:30, show @ 7:30 – $5). NewsChannel5 will probably come out and tape some of that show tonight and might interview people about their reactions to what has been going on.

Wednesday, I’ll be on NC5+’s “OpenLine” show debating the issue from 7-8pm.

UPDATE: here’s the link to the transcript of the package that aired on NewsChannel5’s 6pm show and here’s the video:

* Unfortunately, sarcasm doesn’t always translate in print. Imagine me saying that while doing an impression of Tina Fey doing an impression of Sarah Palin.