Hey Everyone,

How's it going?
Have you checked out my new website yet?
Well in case you haven't, here it is:

http://www.valkappaart.com

Give it a look and see and let me know what you think.
It's mainly devoted to my paintings which I will be putting up in a gallery fairly soon.
I'm really excited to be art-ing it up again. :-)

Happy Memorial Day, Everyone!

Thank you to all the life riskers!

Yesterday I ran the "Boston's Run to Remember" half marathon. It was my 3rd year in a row doing this particular race. I almost chickened out and didn't run this year when I was saw that it was raining when I woke up in the morning. Oddly(or not odd at all), the reason I didn't back out was because when driving over Tobin bridge and paying the toll, the toll operator saw that I was wearing a running number and said,

Hey, good luck in the race!

It made me feel obligated to do it then. I thought,

I have to now!  The toll booth operator wished me luck. She'll be horribly disappointed if I don't go through with this. How will I explain it to her(even though I won't have to explain to her since we don't even know each other's name and will never cross paths again)?!

So I went through with it and ran it and am glad I did.

Here's a quick clip of my stand-up from about a month ago:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkM9iKhLm1A

Give it a watch.
I actually like this clip.

I remember before I had started doing stand-up I always thought it would be cool to do it and be able to do it in a conversational style. Which I thought would be VERY hard and it was hard. At least hard for me. So I think back then this is how I would have wanted my stand-up to be.

If I can dig it up, the next clip I will try to post is a quick segment from the first demo tape I ever made. It was taped in Los Angeles(back in 2000) at a venue called "Luna Park"(I'm not sure if that place still exists).
The best part of that tape actually wasn't even my stand-up...it was when i got a complimentary "heckle" from a woman in the audience. She yelled,
You make me laugh! at me.
The nerve!
She must have been really drunk.

I guess now that I told you what happened there's no need to post a clip of it...

Had fun at The Comedy Studio this weekend! Thanks to everyone who came out!

Last night I did some stand-up on a really fun show at Midway Cafe(in Jamaica Plain) via the Union Square Round Table. I usually get a bit worried when I do stand-up at a music venue because I fear the audiences that show up will just want to see music and will be annoyed when I come out and just "start talking".
This has never been the case though the audiences have always turned out to be awesome and into hearing/seeing some comedy. Luckily that was what happened last night too. Phew!

I'm trying to rework a story I wrote 10 years and fine tune it then tape it then NEVER tell it again. I had  forgotten about this story that is a bit of a time capsule for a moment of my life. Since it's such a part of my past it's been weird to tell it. I enjoy telling it but am looking forward to letting it go!
Am I being vague enough for you? :-)

Anyway thanks so much to everyone who came out to the show and to my friends at the Union Square Round Table for having me on their show in the first place!

In the winter I always walk about wearing an absurd amount of layers and looking as though I am about to embark on an expedition to the Arctic. I think this sort of effects my personality and the way I behave in those months. What I wear always has an effect on me in that way. I feel like I'm not myself in the winter.

It isn't until April when the multiple layers of clothing are no longer needed that I act like myself again.
I'm a lot more functional too. Wearing less clothes makes me an effective human being.

BOSTON,

Just a heads up...
I'll be part of the line-up at The Comedy Studio in Harvard Square in Cambridge on Friday 4/5 and Saturday 4/6.
Both shows start at 8pm.
$12 cover.
Come on out to a show(if you feel like it)!
I'll be doing a short set both nights(about 7-10 minutes).
If you decide to go to a show I HIGHLY recommend getting your tickets in advance off of the club's website: http://www.thecomedystudio.com

Yay for laughter and fun!

This morning at 6am a woman called me and left a message on my voicemail saying:

 Matt! Can you come into the post office at 7am?! We need you. Shelly can't come in today. Call me back and let me know you got this message, ok?!

After listening to the message, I thought, Poor Matt...I hope he doesn't get fired...

Then I went back to sleep.

This year at the annual Kappa-family-New Year's Day-superstitious-dinner, the "lucky coin" was found in my piece of bread.

I consider it lucky already in that I didn't accidentally bite down on the coin and break my teeth! I'll let you know if it turns out to be lucky in the way it claims to be though. :-)