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Today's Guest: Ritch Shydner, comedian
Watch this exclusive Mr. Media interview with Ritch Shydner by clicking on the video player above!
Mr. Media is recorded live before a studio audience full of career opening act comedians whose concept of “killing” is the only way they’re ever gonna middle… in the NEW new media capital of the world… St. Petersburg, Florida! Today’s interview with comedian Ritch Shydner is unusual for at least three reasons.
First of all, Shydner is the first guest of my 10th year of producing the Mr. Media podcast.
Second, he may be the first guest I’ve ever connected with as a Facebook friend first and then invited to be a guest on the show. RITCH SHYDNER podcast excerpt: "It's 1977. Friends of mine have bar bands . When they t breaks, I jumped on stage and did comedy. It was all kamikaze stuff. One night, a bar owner came over and said, 'You want to open for a band next week? I'll give $50.' I was excited; I gotta do this. Next week came, I realized I didn't even know who the band was. Outside, on the marquee, it said, 'From New York City, THE RAMONES.' I walked in, the place was packed with punks. I didn't know what punk was yet. But there were mohawks, shaved heads, flannel and leather. I went back to the bar and the owner was laughing, 'They're gonna kill you, man! You're not gonna make 15 minutes!' But to me, it was like a rodeo event: I'm gonna stay on no matter what the bull did! The owner said, 'I'll go double or nothin'--you won't make five minutes!' I said, 'I'll take it,' and he introduced me. I don't know what he said, but all the audience heard was, 'Ladies and Gentlemen, NOT The Ramones!' I had to walk through the crowd to get to the stage and it was biblical. They were spitting', throwing' stuff, booing me. The whole crowd hated me before I got on stage! I'd only been doing comedy a couple of months--I didn't know what to do. It's not like I could do my special punk material that I w
