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Kiana Khansmith
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Love Begins
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Today's Document
Cosimo Galluzzi
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he wasn't even looking at me and he found me
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@issacisrael
10 years ago, I came to Vegas seeking to work on my stand up comedy and be seen on TV one day. I am happy to say that my dream has come true. My comedy special has been released. In addition, there has been a documentary that was created about the comedy special. I am the producer on both projects. I am the second comedian to be featured in the special which takes place during the middle of Covid in June 2020. It is on 8 platforms now and will roll out to several more in the next 90 days. It is being played in 100 countries.
Here are the links where you can find the platforms where the special and documentary are playing:
Comedy Special (watch this first):
https://bit.ly/3IKKYIR
Documentary:
https://www.comedydynamics.com/catalog/drive-in-comedy-documentary/
The next shows at my club are on Thursday, March 24. You can get tickets to my comedy club at TickleMeComedy.com
Ten Things I Learned
Here are ten things I learned from the death of my father. Now, by no means, am I saying with this post "I should have" or "I could have". This is not a post to beat myself up. These are just matter-of-fact lessons I will remember as I move forward in life. At the end of these ten lessons, I share the eulogy that I wrote about my father for the church service. It is a quick summary of my father's 82 years of life and 50 years of marriage with my mother.
Before I share the ten things, I do have to mention something funny that happened today. I spoke to my mother and asked her, "Mom, did Dad say goodbye to you before he left? He seemed to be saying goodbye to a lot of people like he knew it was going to happen." She responded, "No. He didn't say goodbye. The only thing he said was that we would go to the movies tomorrow and watch the new Marvel movie 'Black Widow' with Scarlett Johannson. But instead of watching Black Widow, I ended up becoming a widow." Then she laughed. I am glad that she has a sense of humor about things.
So now onto the ten lessons. These are in no particular order.
#10 - Never pass up the opportunity to check-in on your parents.
For the last couple of years prior to my father's death, I was living with him and my mother. I brought him to the hospital and picked him up when it was needed; and my son and I were the first ones to discover that he died. During this time period, since I saw him every day, the times when I would leave the house or enter the house, I did not always check-in on my parents. I did my own thing in terms of work or parenting or my social activities. There were times I could have checked in on my father, and had I made it a habit, I may have noticed earlier on the day that he died - that his heart stopped. I might have noticed this an hour or two earlier - rather than the time I found him when he had already been dead - possibly one to three hours after his death.
#9 - Take the time to learn about your family member's medical condition.
I knew that my father had cardiovascular disease. I knew his arteries were clogged. I knew his heart was only functioning at 25%. I knew he was a ticking time bomb. And I knew he went to the hospital twice in the past eight months for chest pain. But this was only superficial medical information that I had received second hand verbally. I never really researched what was happening to my father and his health. I believe that had I known more, maybe my conversations and actions with him would have been a bit different because I would have felt a greater urgency to have things organized prior to his death or I would have thought of other ways to talk to him about managing his health.
#8 - Pay attention to the changes in the Matrix.
My father was a disciplined man of routines and habits. Whenever there was a change in any of this, he always had a reason. I saw these changes, but I really didn't think anything about them. Looking back, maybe I would have paid more attention. For example, my father was frugal. He didn't like to spend any money. We used to go to a weekly informal chess group at Jersey Mike's Sandwich Shop. He didn't like to spend money there. He was only there for chess. But during the last three weeks of his life, he would ask me and my son if we wanted to buy anything at the sandwich shop, and he said it was his treat. Also, on the day before he died, he asked me to play chess against him. He never asked me to do that at the chess club. My games with him were usually done at the house because we always saw each other. It was strange that he would ask me to play chess at the club. I told him no. Then I asked him to play against my friend Lee instead. Also, the day before he died, he asked my mother to go to the movies. He never liked paying to go to the movies. These little habits could have signaled to me that he saw his life coming to an end.
#7 - Refer to many sources before making a medical decision.
The last time I was at the hospital with my father two months prior to his death, the doctor and staff told my father what the medical staff told him 6 months prior at a different hospital. He needed to get an angiogram and then probably a stent. He had to decide whether or not to undergo this invasive procedure at the age of 82. The doctor and staff didn't take the time to explain the procedure or the consequences in depth. They didn't have time. The hospital was full. They just told him the basic information of what they believed needed to be done based on his EEG and the consequences of what could happen to him if he refused. They said if he did not want to listen to them, he would have to sign off that he would be leaving the hospital on his own volition. Basically, I tried convincing Dad as best I could to stay in the hospital and get the procedures done. But I did this with only the information given to me by the staff and the doctor. I did not really read extensively about angiograms or stents nor did I call many of my family members and friends that were doctors and nurses. I could have called them and gotten more information to help my father make a more informed decision that he would be comfortable with. My father, with the little information he had about stents and angiograms, decided to make his own gut decision to leave the hospital because he believed he would not be able to survive the procedures at the age of 82. He said he had a "bad gut feeling". So he left (and I let him leave) and two months later, he died.
#6 - Let your parent's spouse go with their gut on how to take care of their spouse.
When my father got home from the hospital, I didn't know what to do and I knew my father was a ticking time bomb as the doctor said. So I argued with my mother about putting him on an all-vegan diet. After much argument and yelling, she relented and Dad was on a mostly vegan diet for his last two months on this planet. We were arguing because I thought a vegan diet would give him his last fighting chance to stay alive with a clogged heart. My mother's argument was that she wanted to keep him on his non-vegetable Filipino diet because it was the foods that he loved and that made him happy. My father ended up dying two months after that argument. So maybe I should have gone with what my mother said and let him eat whatever he wanted and whatever made him happy during the last two months of his life.
#5 - Your life has a shot clock.
A shot clock is a timer in a basketball game that gives each team a certain number of seconds during each possession to shoot the ball and hit the basket. When the timer is up, a buzzer goes off and the team loses possession if the ball has not hit the basket. Everyone has dreams and goals, but our dreams and goals have a shot clock just like the basketball game. I wanted my father to see me accomplish many things before he died. I also wanted to do a number of things for him and and my mother before he died. But the buzzer went off before I could do those things. I didn't have a sense of urgency because one never things his parents will ever die. But they do, and when they do, will you be satisfied with what you showed them and what you gave them in your life?
#4 - It is okay not to be the same after your parents' death.
There is a quote by Elizabeth Kubler Ross about death and dying that was apropos for the funeral service which I read to my family and friends. Here is the quote. "The reality is that you will grieve forever. You will not get over the loss of a loved one; you will learn to live with it. You will heal and you will rebuild yourself around the loss you have suffered. You will be whole again but, you will never be the same. Nor should you be the same, nor would you want to be."
A parent's death does indeed transform you. It is powerful and can be positive in many ways. Take advantage of it and live a greater life from the experience you have gained from your parent's life and death.
#3 - Your parent has already seen a glimpse of what you will become or what you will accomplish.
One may believe that there is so much that has not been completed that he wanted his father or his parent to see, but he will not be able to. Have comfort in knowing that the mere fact that your parent has seen you at least begin your journey to these accomplishments is enough for him to know of what you may or will become.
#2 - Even though your parent is dead, they are still watching over your life.
Your parent is watching you beyond the grave. When big things happen in your life, they will see it and their spirit will continue to be with you for the rest of your life. No matter what you believe, their energy is still there.
#1 - Do everything as early as possible.
I got my father on a vegan diet two months before he died. Imagine if I would have gotten him on a vegan diet 17 years ago after his quadruple bypass, what might have his heart function have been? Could he have lived longer? Could going vegan have reversed the clogging in his heart? I don't know. But changing his diet two months before he died was not enough time.
This lesson also applies to the at-home activities I wanted to do with my father. I wanted to make a recording of him sharing his life to a video camera. I never got around to it because I really didn't believe he would die when he did.
And as annoying as it may sound, this lesson applies to funeral preparation, insurance, last will and testament, power of attorney, and all the other matters that a family does not want to discuss but should discuss for the sake of ease of transition after the passing of the family member.
ROMAN SOLIONGCO PEREDO, JR EULOGY
Here is the eulogy that I read for my Dad at the church service:
In the next 3-5 minutes, I seek to encapsulate the entire 82 years of my father’s life in this eulogy. I only have 3-5 minutes to do this because the barbecue beef brisket that we have for lunch is getting cold.
First, I would like to thank my son Grady (bring Grady to the podium). My son Grady was a brave young man as he was the one who first found my father and he was the one who helped me unlock the front door to my parents' house for the paramedics while I was upstairs giving my dad CPR compressions. I would like to thank my brother and sister, Perry and Pamela; my mother; my aunt and uncle, Tito Ben and Tita Vilma; and my aunt Tita Tita for being a tremendous support when we found out about my father’s death, for helping one another and organizing all the activities for today and for next week’s cremation.
I want to thank all of you for coming today especially everyone that changed their schedule within a 24 hour time period to attend these services today to pay respects to my father.
So, about my Dad. My father, Roman Soliongco Peredo, Jr. was born in 1938 in Pasay City Philippines. Pasay is somewhat similar to Las Vegas in that it has a casino, it has large buildings, it has a big mall, and it has a red light district. My Dad loved Pasay City and he loved Las Vegas.
Dad was born three years before the entry of the US into World War 2. He would tell us stories about how the shrapnel from the mortar rockets and shells from the Japanese bombings would fatally injure his family and friends during that difficult time. He told us about how during the Japanese occupation, there were Japanese soldiers that would knock him down on his knees as a child with the butt of their guns. But he also told a story about how another Japanese soldier was nice to him because my Dad reminded the Japanese soldier of his son. So Dad would get treats from him.
It is only recently that I found out my father was part of a Pasay City gang when he was a teenager. But then he grew out of that because he had to grow up fast as his mother died at the age of 25 and his father died at the age of 49. So he didn’t get to see much of either of his parents. His father was an engineer on the naval ships so he would be away from my dad for months at a time. But even though he was away, he was able to save enough money and secure enough clout with the government to help get my Dad into De La Salle college, one of the top business schools in the Philippines. And it is at that college, where he graduated at the age of 18 because he skipped two grades in elementary school and he was able to finish up his college courses a year early. My Dad did AP classes before there were AP classes. That’s why I think AP stands for At Pasay.
Since Dad graduated college so early, it was hard for him to get a job since he was so young, so he decided to study for the CPA exam and compete in the Philippine National Junior Chess Tournament. He passed the CPA exam and he placed 8th in the country in the chess tournament.
My Dad worked for a couple of banks in the Philippines. One of them was Peoples Bank, where he met many of his lifelong friends, including my Uncle Ben. My uncle Ben introduced him to my mother. They knew each other for 6 years and then got married on October 3, 1970 at Pope Pius Church and the Manila Hotel. They were married for 50 years. Last October was their 50th anniversary. They had three children and 4 grandchildren, 2 step grandchildren, and a partridge in a pear tree.
When my father and mother came to the US in 1975, they first came to New York and then New Jersey. My dad worked for a couple of different banks until he finally settled at the New York State Banking Department for 25 years. At the NYSB, he was the first Filipino-American to be named a Principal Bank Examiner giving him the responsibility to audit the largest banks in the world. Knowing this about my Dad, I never told him about the overdraft I had in one of my bank accounts a few years ago.
My father and mother took Perry, Pamela, and me on road trips all over the United States. Dad loved roller coasters and he wanted Perry, Pam, and me to always ride on roller coasters with him, but I was too scared of roller coasters. Eventually I realized I was more scared of my father, so I started riding roller coasters too. We visited the top 50 amusement parks in the United States during these road trips over a 12 year period.
My father retired at the age of 65 and enjoyed retirement for 17 years. He loved watching sports - college football, women’s soccer, the WNBA, the Olympics, the World Cup; and he also loved to watch the arts – the Academy Awards, Grammy Awards, and the Miss Universe and Miss USA pageants. He loved science-fiction and Star Trek and he loved learning about aliens and UFOs. I believe when he passed that he truly thought everything came from aliens and UFOs. He even thought my mom, Perry and Pam could be aliens from another galaxy. As for me, he knew without a doubt I was an alien because I am half a foot taller and 50 pounds heavier than everyone in the family.
My father had amazing penmanship and an awesome signature. His writing was much like his life – it was elegant, exacting, and truly beautiful.
Tickle Me Comedy Club reopens tonight in Henderson with a clean comedy show at the Firelight Barn at 9 pm! Get tickets at TickleMeComedy.com! Stay tuned next month for our new location in Las Vegas!
Tickle Me Comedy – Comedy Club Las Vegas
PHP Agency National Convention at MGM Garden Arena
You have just a few hours left! Get your tickets for the One Year Anniversary of the Shiba Inu Comedy Show at 7 pm tonight in Las Vegas! Go to TickleMeComedy.com for tickets!
Tickle Me Comedy – Comedy Club Las Vegas
What is This Crypto Frenzy All About?
Vince Royale and I invested in Shiba Inu, but little did we know what we were getting ourselves into with crypto currency. I've always wanted to know why there was such a frenzy over crypto currency. Vince Royale helped me to begin my crypto jouney. He told me to invest in Shiba Inu because you could get 10 million coins for $1. And should the price go up, we become millionaires! But easier said than done. It's so hard to get Shiba Inu to a penny, let alone a dollar!
In order for a crypto coin to go up in value, people have to be actually using it. It seems like there is a large population of South Indians that use Shiba and a small population in the US that love it, but it's not a utility token yet. So I started to learn more about crypto. The next education I received was from FF Token. Eric Simon, a non-licensed financial planner in New York City, introduced me to the coin. Basically, it's a coin worth $30 a token, but has no real utility either. Its owner and founder is planning to use it for sports, gaming, and entertainment events, but that is still yet to be determined.
Then I met Art Rozenblum, the founder of ShitCoin 2021 conference. Bitcoin calls the other coins "shit coins", so Art decided to create a conference for all the other crypto coins and call it ShitCoin as a joke. It was well-attended by 2000 attendees and several sponsors for the event. It was put together in the same city and at the same time as Bitcoin's conference as a joke. But because of its success, he might continue to build it. Well, anyway. . . it was Art that gave me a whole education into the world of crypto. When I asked him why so many people found it interesting, it was because it is like a magic fountain of free money in the long term future! And the more the coins get utilized in the future, the higher their value will become. I saw Bitcoin ATM machines in Oklahoma at the Marriott Courtyard I was staying at this weekend!
As for the term block chain, what is that? It's basically the supply chain without using global currencies, but using crypto coins instead. It's how the online drug trade started in 2013 apparently.
I initially thought - why don't I create a comedy club and a comedy show regarding shiba inu's one year anniversary in August 2021. But then I realized crypto is much bigger than this. We really need to pursue this. So we decided to have the first ever crypto comedy show in Las Vegas!!!
For those people who actually want to attend, here is the link for show tickets: https://show-marketing-pro.wellattended.com/events/crypto-comedy-show-shiba-inu-one-year-anniversary
This comedy show is just the beginning. Vince Royale and I plan to organize the Global Crypto Con 2021 from December 1-3 at the Sahara Hotel or Southpoint, so be on the lookout for that!
Insider's Guide to Las Vegas
Are you in Vegas for just the weekend or a full week and you want to know what to do? Here is the insider's guide.
1. Go to the High Roller and get the all you can drink package.
2. If you are going to spend a lot of money on dinner, do it at Hugo Cellar.
3. At Area 15, go to Meow Wolf and find all the secret passage ways. Also, go to a show in there.
4. For breakfast, try out Hash House a Go Go.
5. Get all you can eat sushi and great Korean BBQ in Chinatown or get a $30-50 massage.
6. Buy live lobsters and crabs at Ranch 99 Market and cook them at home.
7. Go to Stoney's on Thursday's nights which is ladies' night.
8. Go to Sapphire for the Men's Show, the dancers, to watch the fights or national championship games, the pool, and the comedy show.
9. Go to Max's Fried Chicken for the best Filipino food.
10. Go to Hofbrauhaus for a great beer garden and German food experience while getting spanked by the Frauen.
11. Reach out to Showtime Marketing, House Seats, Fill a Seat, Vet Tix, and Plug in Vegas for free tickets to shows.
12. Go to the Tickle Me Comedy Club for a great comedy show.
13. Go to STK for a cool place to eat steak.
14. Hang out at Cosmo to see all the bachelorette parties.
15. Be ready to pay $1K to $10K for Encore Beach Club, but they have the best bodies at a day club in Vegas.
16. If all the restaurants are full at the Ballys and Paris, go to Wahlburgers on the Bally's Promenade. They'll seat you and feed you.
17. Go on Instagram to find promoters and free entry to nightclubs.
18. Go to Hotwire.com for the best hotel rates.
19. Look up timeshare hotel rooms in Las Vegas for free hotel rooms.
20. Go to Circus Circus with the kids but don't stay at any of the outside towers. Stay in the main tower.
Parenting and Entrepreneurship
We entrepreneurs have everything scheduled out. Our days are planned. We will be successful today. How about our son or daughter that is not going to school in the summer that is with us 24 hours a day until next week when the camp starts? That's no problem. We've drafted a document with fun learning activities that they can engage in while we are working on our businesses. Not a problem, right? Wrong. They don't want to do the fun learning activities. They just want to watch YouTube all day, play video games, and eat junk food. Is that okay?
(my seven-year-old son, Grady, and me)
No. It's not okay for me. I don't want him wasting his time on YouTube all day. But how do I get my work done and have him get his work done when he has no motivation or when he needs a lot of hand holding? My current calendar does not allow him to have hand holding. I have allotted time to certain meetings and activities. So what do I do as a busy entrepreneur?
I need to schedule the hand holding time with my son into the calendar or it doesn't get done and I get stressed out. But once it's in my calendar, and I don't feel bad about helping him. It is an important activity that must be executed in the time period I give myself on the calendar, and it doesn't interfere with my business activities. It becomes equally as important as a business activity. I don't want to try to help my son while doing a business activity. It is a disservice to my business client and a disservice to my son.
Who Am I?
For those of you that are just starting to follow my blog, here is information about me. I am an investment banker with a lower middle market investment banking firm. I am also a stand-up comedian. I own a comedy club in Las Vegas called the Tickle Me Comedy Club and I also own a couple of businesses - a Mexican restaurant called Sombrero's and a catering and mobile bar business called West Coast Beverage in Orange County, California. I live in Las Vegas and I have a seven year old son.
Prior to living in Las Vegas 10 years ago, I lived in New Jersey most of my life. I worked in Manhattan and lived in China, the Philippines, Spain, and Venezuela for anywhere from 3 months to two years at a time. I speak four languages conversationally because my proficiency has diminished with three of them due to lack of use and probably some alcohol consumption, otherwise they would be at a higher level.
I have been an entrepreneur most of my life. I did spend about 15 years in New Jersey, New York, and DC politics as a White House Intern under Bill Clinton (he never even winked at me), a Congressional Staffer, political operative, and a political candidate.
My goal with this blog is to share my experiences, thoughts, and goals with my life in the fields of entertainment, corporate finance, investment banking, personal finance, stand-up comedy, hospitality, parenthood, politics, entrepreneurship, mental health, marketing, and business.
I hope this blog can help people take shortcuts in their lives after learning from my mistakes and failures, and I hope I can provide value to everyone who reads it.
The Problem with the SBA and the Government Grants
I just received the following message from the SBA:
The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) is announcing the closure of the Restaurant Revitalization Fund. Through the American Rescue Plan Act, the SBA launched the Restaurant Revitalization Fund to provide funding to help restaurants and other eligible businesses keep their doors open. SBA received over 370,000 applications from restaurant owners across the United States.
The program provided critical funding to over 105,000 restaurants representing $28.6 billion dollars. The program supported 3,777 small restaurants with gross receipts of less than $50,000 in 2019.
Due to overwhelming demand, the SBA was unable to fund all qualified applications with the original appropriation provided in the American Rescue Plan Act. Those applicants who have not received funding as of this email will have their applications held within the application platform to allow for processing in the order received if additional funds are provided by Congress.
The Restaurant Revitalization Fund application platform will remain open for the next two weeks to allow applicants to check their status, address payment corrections, or ask questions. The SBA will disable access to the platform on July 14, 2021.
_____________________
Of course, my restaurant was not included in this number of $28.6 billion dollars distributed. I bought and opened a Mexican restaurant in September of last year right in the middle of the pandemic. I thought I was doing the right thing to help out the owners, but the state of California did nothing to help me out, and neither did the federal government.
My issue with this message from the SBA is that it seems like this fund helped the restaurants who did not need the help. These are restaurants that have the savings and funding to continue through the Covid even without government help. As a matter of fact, they have so much funding that they were able to open up other restaurants because they received the funding. And I thought the funding was supposed to go to the supposed truly struggling restaurant owners.
Did California and New York restaurants get priority with this funding? I wish the government would make public the statistics of exactly which states and what kinds of restaurants the funds went to and how the funds were used.
As other restaurants are opening new restaurants with grant funding monies, I have been evicted from the property the restaurant has been on for the past 43 years.
To add insult to injury, I found out one of my cooks, who had been with the restaurant for 25 years, Rafael, contracted cancer and died on the same day that I received this notice from the SBA.
I don't know what greater argument I could have given for my restaurant to receive grant funding:
-- ethnic Mexican restaurant
-- community staple for 43 years
-- located in California
-- maximum 49 person capacity
-- bailed out former owners in the middle of Covid in September
My restaurant was the model restaurant for what the Restaurant Revitalization grant was created for. Yet I did not receive a penny. All the other grants were willing to give me money but only after I spent money to get their paperwork done. The very reason why I needed the grant is because I need the monies to pay for things - not to pay for paperwork for the grantor.
I do not believe the local and federal governments administered the funding properly. What should have been done is the following:
-- given priority to California and New York City restaurants
-- given priority to minority owned restaurants
-- given priority to restaurants with a capacity of 100 people or less
The owners who struggled the most with their restaurants did not receive the funding. These are the restaurants that do the accounting themselves, repair issues in the restaurant themselves, and have people in the 15% tax bracket working in the restaurant.
The government did not do a proper job to truly investigate how the funds were being used and who was using the funds. Their reasoning is if the restaurant was able to use an expensive accounting firm and payroll company to produce the books in exactly how they wanted to receive it, then they would fund the restaurant. Books aren't in order? Too bad.
How about the restaurants who were scraping by on to go orders just to pay the payroll? How about those restaurants whose paperwork for the grant funding was the last thing they were concerned about because they needed to figure out marketing and operations for the restaurant in the pandemic to make sure their employees were being paid? How about those restaurants?
It's really sad that the government discriminated against restaurants who really needed the money versus restaurants that had the money to meet their grant funding requirements because they could afford to pay for the documents that were needed. What a disservice to the truly struggling restaurant owners.
#sba #smallbusinessadministration #congress #SBAfailure
Comedy show tomorrow night at the Tickle Me Comedy Club at the Art Houz Theaters at 9 pm! 814 Third Street, Las Vegas. https://show-marketing-pro.wellattended.com/events/tickle-me-comedy-club-showcase?fbclid=IwAR2hky6Ffy7RSgnXK1EfBeNWVDJGoj4GwGFfHCO_jfnn-t40oM4_xeBDQYc
A smooth buying experience for your patrons and easy to set up. You’ll be selling in 5 minutes.
Happy Easter from Grady and Me!
I used to be an intern in the Clinton White House and a Congressional Staffer. After 15 years I left the political world, but now I'm back again with a different role! Check me out as I host the liberal and conservative comedians in this debate watch party and comedy show on Thursday!
I’m on Amazon Prime!
I am on the first episode of Season Two for Comedians Doing Comedy on Amazon Prime. Thank you Cliff Yates! Check me out here: https://www.amazon.com/Phil-Peredo/dp/B0791V9KMN/ref=sr_1_2?s=instant-video&ie=UTF8&qid=1516552535&sr=1-2&keywords=comedians+talking+comedy
Lewis Howes and me at Amplify Live! Lewis is giving advice to restaurant owners and entertainers! #lewishowes #slslasvegas #sls #amplify (at The Foundry SLS Las Vegas)