Kevin Tienken "Archiving the Effort"

Husband, Father & Stand up Comedian, Categorizer:Write, Perform, Review, Repeat.

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Skunk in a Bag! Listen to ep. 16 of Rip'n & Skip'n with Evan & Kevin (at Hollywood)

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Rip'n & Skip'n with Evan & Kevin Podcast: Ep5: "Freedom Fest" Rip'n & Skip'n Cruise Line For the full episods go here. https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/ripn-skipn-with-evan-kevin/id1114419104?mt=2&i=370598892 (at Los Angeles, California)

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It Still Berns #berniesanders #feelthebern #election #bummer

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It still Berns. #feelthebern #berniesanders

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Seriously the funniest podcast ever recorded.

Check out this cool episode: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/ripn-skipn-with-evan-kevin/id1114419104?mt=2#episodeGuid=tag%3Asoundcloud%2C2010%3Atracks%2F267810677

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The Thing About Love

Love is there for you if you want it. Love both is and isn’t earned, it is acted out through the hearts directing of your words and movement. And the heart can be a terrific lier who’s easily persuaded to truth. Begin in an act and the heart will follow in time. Love is also a gift that should be accepted with wide arms. Follow loves appreciation of love. Let it be a mirror giving very little attention to false reflections. 

"No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us." 

Love is manufactured through the act of giving love. The feeling of love is priceless as in it’s worth; and as in worth as most things is temporary. Love is now in the actions of now. I may feel I love you but love so little in my un-motivating feelings that I do not show love in my actions. Love should motivate or not be called love. Let feeling come as the tide. Feeling of love can’t be made any more than low tide can be made high tide. All one can do is be present in love to receive it as a man would receive the tide by standing on a beach. No one while standing on a mountain should complain of a lack of ocean tide but many will complain of a lack of love while standing miles from it. Act in love and it will be yours.

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HBO Orders Pete Holmes Comedy Pilot “Crashing” To Be Directed and Produced by Judd Apatow

(via Deadline)

We knew it was only a matter of time before Pete Holmes got another show.

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Yea!!!!!!!

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Readers’ Choice: Best of SFComedy in 2015 (So Far): Stand-Up.

In addition to spotlighting whom the SF comedy community’s tastesmakers collectively revered as “Best Stand-Up Comedians of 2015″, we’ve also organized a reader’s ballots with a variety of categories. Some straightforward, some intrepreable, all in good fun. A lot of joke answers, self-voting and spam, but it’s to be expected with readers of Courting Comedy.  Thanks everybody for voting. Check out what 72 people with unique Google accounts had to say!

P.S. If you enjoy my work, please help me recoup some of my costs producing this piece at my Patreon account or with a one-time donation.

Best Open Mic: Penelope’s (Wednesdays).

Runner Up: Brainwash Cafe (Thursdays). Weirdest Answer: “Punchline”. Never in my life has the San Francisco Punch Line had a open mic night. Maybe they mean “punchline” as in “insert end of joke”, which is a bit too early to get meta.

Best Weekly Show: Mission Position.

Runner Up: San Francisco Punch Line Sunday Showcase. Weirdest Answer: “my mom”. This marks a pattern of irreverence.

Best Monthly Show: Hand to Mouth.

Runner Up: (Tie) Ladies Love the Layover and It’s Just Two Minutes. Weirdest Answer: Shit Talk. Not for any reason other than it’s a funny name for a show, especially out of context.

Keep reading

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Yea!!! Matt, Torio and Audry!

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Naps are important #parenting #parenthood #parentlife #children

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#fatjewish #bandwagonhater #justice

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Where's Nicki? #scared #nickiminaj #americanpoltergeist

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My to do list is crazy today.

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Dad look what we got you!? Your favorite things. Ibuprofen and Ranch! She knows me so well.

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Understanding = Comedy

  At night I leave my home and go to bars and clubs to try and make people laugh. It's really important to me to make people laugh. I love the community of comedy and all the friends I've made in comedy but thats not why I do it. I do it because I feel like I'm fitting into the correct space of my life or of life in general. There's no second thought about comedy, I simply enjoy it. The only flavor of a second thought I have while attempting comedy is about my evolution as a human being. If I don't make people laugh at a show is it because they don't understand what I'm saying or because I don't understand their perspective. I think I'm pretty smart but there is always a chance that I'm way off in what I'm saying on stage. My concern is always that I might be offending someone. People say you shouldn't worry about offending people when you're a comic but I disagree.  There is a possibility that what I'm saying is wrong. I'm aware that I am not able to see every point of view on every given subject but I try hard to do so. When I offend someone it's usually because I was unable to see something from their point of view. That bothers me and it's a challenge to me to see another persons point of view. It will be a life challenge for me to see as many points of view as possible before I die. With that being said, if I feel that I am taking an individuals point of view into account and I feel their point of view needs to be challenged then I will most definitely push on their view point even if I offend them. Comedy is a good way of challenging view point because laughter lowers defense and allows the message to come through. If that message is love and understanding then offending temporarily is okay.

  I wish I could be the authority on what was correct and what was incorrect but no one will ever be that person because no one person will be every person. However, trying to understand perspective will get us closer to understanding that we are all so different and all so similar at the same time. We all think we are unique and that no on will understand who we are of what we are going through but I would like to push on that mentality. People may be able to understand if we explain it to them. What is your point of view? What is it fueled by? Who is responsible for it? Is your point of view based on a flawed understanding of another persons point of view? Why are you holding on to your point of view? Can your point of view be changed by information? I hope every ones point of view can be changed by new information. If you are so set in your point of view that you are unable to take in new information then you'll never grow as a person and you'll never become a better version of who you are today. I'm not saying change who you are, I'm saying become a better version of that person. Open your mind, allow people the comfort to explain themselves and express their viewpoint. Understanding is very powerful in life change so If you've got it all figured out then you will always be as you are now. Let go of preconceived notions and grow. 

   I could be wrong. If being wrong about the possibility of being wrong is wrong then I don't want to be right.

  So the next time you don't win over the entire audience and you go home and think that the people who didn't laugh were all idiots, consider the possibility that it was you. You were the reason they didn't laugh. Should you beat yourself up? NO!!!!! DO NOT LET THIS THOUGH EFFECT YOUR AFFECT. Don't let it demoralize you, let it motivate you. Listen to me. If you blame the audience for not laughing then you have zero control over them not laughing in the future. If you take responsabiliry for their laughter or non-laughter then you give yourself control. If it's their fault then you can't do anything and you might as well quit now because you're a victim with no control. Don't be a victim, take control and make them laugh even if you have to change your point of view (as long as it's a view you can feel good about).

  This is all too much, I need a break.

Good luck, take care,

Kevin Tienken

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Me and my sweetheart wine tasting like some classy folks during O & C's wedding weekend.

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Chunk from my standup.

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Do it

There comes a time in everyones life when they think they know what they want to do for the rest of their lives. For me it came just about two years ago. I stood on stage and told some stupid stories and people laughed. I felt full and free and a justification for my life. So dramatic and so shallow I know but it's how I felt and I've been told by marriage and family therapists that if you start a sentence with "I feel or felt..." then it's a truth, to at least you. I have a degree in Psychology (Yea! good for you Kevin). I'm a father of two seriously amazing kids and I'm not saying that just because they're my kids; they really are amazing. But you can't ever find true fulfillment through anyone but yourself. if you're married to someone amazing or your mother was amazing or you have two amazing children then good for you, thats honestly a great thing. But, it is way different than being fulfilled through what YOU have done. You get it, I'm just trying to distance myself from any thought that I'm not grateful for the amazing people that surround me. I love my wife and I love my kids but I wanted to love myself and comedy gave me that. Okay so where was I? i felt fulfilled on stage telling jokes. So then I was thinking "this is it! I finally know what I want to do! Yes!" Now, two years later I often second guess that. I forget how pointless life felt before comedy and how useful I feel after a great show. So why does this happen? Because we're (me) all pretty lazy people. Usually my feelings about myself translate to at least one person in the world so I'll generalize. We're all lazy! It's so much easier to do nothing than it is to do something, even something that we love. I recently went to an open mic to do some comedy and I really didn't want to go but I was "doing my work" and forced myself to go. Sitting there being boring to the people around me and obviously a little down I started to think that maybe comedy isn't for me. I know that it is. It's all I want to do and all I can imagine myself doing but I was being lazy. I wanted to sit at home or with friends and shoot the shit but here I was at this bar with a bunch of people who were about to be ambushed with a comedy show and I felt discouraged. This happens to everybody everywhere in every job. We show up to work and thing 'O f*! I don't want to be here." Sometimes work is work even if it's the work we love because we're lazy. In conclusion, do something! At the end of your life you will have an impact on this world. Good, Bad, Big or Small you will have an impact. Pick something that you can see having a positive impact on the world and your life. Something that you love or have loved at one point and go hard on that thing because doing something is always better than doing nothing. I guarantee that you will go through times where you struggle with what ever it is you do so pick something that you know you have loved because it will be easier to love that thing again and feel those feeling you felt at that time. The best predictor of the future is usually the past. Go hard, push and be the best version of your self you can be because it's your life and you can control your destiny. Even if that's not true it will make you a better person than you would have been. Do work, be blessed, you've got a big 'ol dick! Kevin Tienken