The Business August 28th 2013: The Back to Business Edition

Get your Trapper Keepers and your troll doll pen toppers, The Business is back in session.

We’ve picked a few teacher’s pets to celebrate with, like Kevin O’Shea!



Established in 1984 following the mergers of Steven and Cathy O’Shea, Kevin O’Shea has been one of San Francisco’s leading manufactures of mirth, laughter, hilarity and all around good times! Kevin has been commonly described as clever, absurd, awkward but in a funny way and too smart for his own good. He has been seen on the Independent Film Chanel and ComedyCentral.com. He is a favorite of comedy festivals such as: The SF Sketch Fest and the Bridgetown Comedy Festival. Go see him now as his 4th quarter productivity has never been higher!

From the Far East, Joe Alfano!

Based in New York City and proud native New Yorker, Joe produces “Thunderbird”, a monthly comedy show. He performs at The Broadway Comedy Club, New York Comedy Club, and Laughing Devil Comedy Club. In 2012, Joe was featured on James Holeva’s “Let’s Get Creepin’ Comedy Tour” and played “Abe” in the comedy web series “Happy Cancer Chick”. He was recently selected for the 2013 Laughing Devil Comedy Festival.

 
Friend of The Business and all around cool dude, Joe Tobin.

Originally from Philadelphia, Joe has become a regular in Bay Area comedy clubs, and he has been fortunate to work with such great comedians as Dave Chappelle, Jake Johannsen, Doug Benson, and Zach Galifiankis, to name a few. (Joe Montana once shook his hand and said, “good job.” This may have been the highlight of his career.)

Plus, rounding out her month long residency with The Business, Anna Seregina!

With all your Business regulars: Nato “A+” Green, Bucky “Milk Money” Sinister, Caitlin Gill* and Sean “Sharp Pencil” Keane!

This show is just $5. JUST $5. Get your tix in advance because we sell out.

BYOBurrito but only if you have enough for the whole class.

*in detention.

The Business August 21st 2013: The Wizard from the Far North Edition

This week’s show promises to be magical.

Seattle is full of wonderous creatures, Emmett Montgomery is a prize among them.

Utah born, Seattle based comedian Emmett Montgomery found the comedy stage in late 2004 and has been failing beautifully ever since. Emmett has been involved in a lot of things including critically acclaimed comedy collectives, post apocalyptic variety shows, underground wrestling leagues and family friendly comedy nights in pizza restaurants. Mr. Montgomery has been featured the film “Seattle Komedy Documentary”, the coffee table book “Seattle 100: a portrait of a city” and the Bumbershoot, Bridgetown Comedy and Sasquatch festivals. In addition to wandering the country telling jokes he currently curates and hosts a love letter to Seattle in the form of variety show/sharing party entitled “Weird and Awesome with Emmett Montgomery” at the beloved Annex Theatre and is a member of the Seattle chapter of the Bushwick Book Club, a collection of musicians and artists that create and perform original works based on literary sources. Emmett lives with his beautiful wife and hideous cat in a possibly haunted building in Seattle and enjoys making puppets.

We will also welcome funnyman Torio Van Grol.

Torio now resides in San Francisco, where he regularly performs the hilarious observations he's made about this Golden State of ours. He runs a monthly shows in Sonoma, titled Back Alley Comedy, featuring some of California's best headliners. He also finished runner-up in Rooster T.
Feather's New Talent Competition of 2013, almost finally making his father proud of him.

Plus the phenomenal and precious Matt Leib!

Matt Lieb is a comedian, writer, actor and street musician/Bone Thugs-N-Harmony cover band. He was named “one of my all-time favorite Bay Area performers” by the award-winning SF blog Courting Comedy and, in that same post, described as “extremely talented, charmingly dark and genuinely pleasant”.

And these wunderkinds plus your regulars and resident guest! “Annacadabra” Seregina, Bucky “Big Wand” Sinister, “SuperNATOural” Green, Caitlin “just gave you” Gills and Sean “The Magic Man” Keane.

Buy your tix in advance cause YOU KNOW WE SELL OUT.

BYOBurrito, if you use it as a wand, everything you point at will be burritos.

Multiplication Freezer Frenzy Freebie & A Back To School SALE!

Hopefully today's post finds you either settled in nicely to your new school year or getting excited about going back.  Either way, the TpT giant BACK TO SCHOOL SALE is happening this weekend...Sunday and Monday, Aug. 18th and 19th.  Be sure to visit your favorite stores and grab items for as much as 28% off.  I put EVERYTHING in my store on sale.  Be sure to check out a real steal on the BRAND NEW Accountable Talk Prompts.  There are 24 accountable talk stems that are sure to keep students engaged in the text...a goal of Common Core.  *Don't forget to use the PROMO CODE. Sellers will mark most of their items 20% off.  You'll get the additional 8% by using the PROMO code!  (See the beautiful button created by the very talented Krista Wallden at Creative Clips for PROMO code...Thank you, Krista!)
  

Teaching multiplication this year?  Be sure to grab my latest FREEBIE...Multiplication Facts Freezer Frenzy! My way of saying THANK YOU for your never ending friendship and support in the blogging world!  As students learn their facts, let them earn and add the corresponding ice cream to their base cone.  As a REAL incentive, I bought my students an ice cream from the cafeteria when they mastered all their facts!  Hmmmm....thinking I'll make a trip to Baskin Robbins tonight!  :-)

Bananas for incredible deals on TpT this weekend!  Happy Shopping!

The Business August 14th, 2013: The Between New Breaking Bads Edition

SURE this week won’t feel like a never-ending yawn of time stretching through the ages into the infinite as we wait for more Hank and Walt, but just in case, we put together an excellent mid-week distraction.

We are delighted that our guest for this whole month will be back, the delightful Anna Seregina. She will be joined by the HIGHLY ADDICTIVE Kate Willett.

Kate Willett is a San Francisco based comedian and actress. She recently appeared as a performer in SF Sketchfest, and regularly performs at clubs and theaters all over CA. As an actress, she has performed throughout the United States with companies such as Shakespeare and Company, Word for Word, Woman’s Will and the Samuel Beckett Theater in Dublin, Ireland. She is the host of a weekly radio show, called The Mission Position on radiovalencia.fm. She’s also the co-producer of the weekly Mission Position show in Lost Weekend Video’s famous Cine Cave, Comikaze Lounge, and Comedy at Deluxe.

We’ll also get a little bump of some new shit from the East Coast from guest Alex Grubard!

In 2013 Alex was the winner of LOL at The Grand Opera in Wilmington, Delaware, performed stand-up on mtvU’s “College Quickes,” and co-wrote the sketch show One Hit Wonder which will appear in the 2013 Live Arts & Philly Fringe. 2012 began with Grubard being named one of Philly’s “Comics to Watch in 2012,” “Top Philly Comedians of 2011” and “Top 10 Philly Comedians.” He was a fan favorite during the 2012 Cape Fear Comedy Festival, the 2nd F. Harold Comedy Festival, 2012 Live Arts & Philly Fringe and 2011 1st Person Arts Festival.

All this plus your regulars! “Cooklin” Gill, “Butane” Sinister and “Nitrogen”* Nato Green.

We sell out! Get tix in advance.

BYOBurritos, BITCHES!

*No idea if Nitrogen is a part of making meth or Breaking Bad. Just sounded cool. NITROGEN. NITROGEN! See?

The Business August 6th, 2013: The From Russia With Jokes Edition

JUST ADDED: Special guest Sheng Wang! You know Sheng from his half-hour special on Comedy Central, and from generally being the funniest dude in the world. We're glad to have him back at the Biz.

This week, and every week in August, we welcome friend of The Business and super cool lady, Anna Seregina.

Anna Seregina is a San Francisco-based stand-up comic and performer. She was born in Moscow, Russia, which could explain her deep-rooted cynicism. It could also explain nothing. After being involved in theater and improv for nearly a decade and being funny for nearly a lifetime, she decided to take the plunge into stand-up comedy. Her style can nearly be defined as vocal and un-lady-like, drawing heavily on what little life experience she has. She has been described as having the "worst aura." She has performed in the 2013 & 2012 SF Sketchfest, the inaugural SF Comedy & Burrito Festival, the 2012 SF Comedy Day Festival, and the Bruise Cruise Festival. She is a regular performer at the Porchlight Storytelling series, and has been picked as one of six emerging stand-up acts in the Bay Area comedy scene by Bold Italic. Most facts about her are true. Most truths about her are facts. She is a sensational dancer.

We are also very please to serve up a tasty dish, Johan Miranda. Johan is some top notch, home grown talent.

And who knows?!?!? We may have A VERY SPECIAL GUEST!!!!!?!!!! (Maybe not... BUT MAYBE!!!!!!?!!)

All our regulars will be there, Caitlin Gill, Sean Keane, Nato Green and Vladimir Putin. JUST KIDDING it’s Bucky Sinister.

Just $5

“THIS SHOW?!? $5?!?! YOU CAN’T MEAN IT. “

We do. We really do.

We also sell out. Get your tix in advance.

BYOBorscht.

The Business July 31st, 2013: The Summer Fun in the Sun (or maybe fog) Edition

Come join us for hot fun in the Summertime before its not summer anymore and we have to have fall time fun. What I’m really saying is, let’s kill some time together before the return of Pumpkin Spice lattes!!

YOU KNOW WE GOT GUESTS.

George Chen has finally found a proper outlet for his brand of sarcasm and self-deprecation. These traits were ill-suited to the other worlds he has occupied as a musician, writer, and filler of 1099 forms. As a promoter he has organized comedy shows on a moving bus, at a still-life drawing session, and inside a comic book store. Of these attempts to put on comedy in unlikely locations, the best thus far has been the weekly showcase Cynic Cave at Lost Weekend Video (organized with Kevin O’Shea). He also co-produces the monthly multimedia show Talkies.
As a performer he has appeared at Holy Fuck, Venice Underground Comedy, The Business, and the Porchlight Storytelling Series.

Bart Freebairn is a stand up comedy comedian. He has been doing comedy for a while now and travels around Australia doing comedy to people and whatever else is around. He’s had the pleasure of performing at festivals like Melbourne comedy festival, Adelaide Fringe festival and Brisbane Comedy Festival.

He is very excited to be back where the toilets spin in the right direction. THE AMERICAN DIRECTION.

Andrew Holmgren, comedian, is a sharp-shooting merrymaker, hardboiled in the San Francisco Bay, that finds utmost joy in disseminating his humor across the country. One-part noble knave, one-part calming confidence man, and one-part evergreen mocker, Holmgren speaks with frank sarcasm and idyllic crassness. A budding star, Andrew Holmgren has performed at the San Francisco Punch Line, Noise Pop Festival, the International Hemp and Cannabis Festival, San Francisco Indie Fest, San Francisco Comedy Day, and the Sacramento Comedy Festival (earning the Best of Fest award). Also, he has opened for the reputable Will Franken and Moshe Kasher and curates the popular Get Yucked Up comedy showcase under Bay Area comedy outfit, Sylvan Productions, of which he serves as producer/artist.

And of course Steve Hernandez. When you see him, you will laugh, and you will want to hug him. He will be into that. He is big into hugs. He’s also big into producing some of LA’s best comedy shows, including the spectacular Chatterbox.

And your regulars! Nato Green, Sean Keane and the lean mean Bucky Sinister machine.

Just $5! ONLY $5.

We sell out! Get your tix in advance.

BYOBurrito and dress it in a miniskirt. It’s summer, let it all hang out.

The Business July 24th, 2013: The Put Your Hand In Your Mouth Edition

This week The Business welcomes a home town hero and co-host of one of our favorite shows, Hand to Mouth, the indomitable James Fluty!

James Fluty is a San Francisco comic and co-creator of Hand to Mouth a monthly, topic-based comedy show. He was described by tonegazer.com as “funny and intellectually stimulating” and described by the New York Times as part of a “shockingly high percentage of adults without health insurance”. He has performed at major clubs including the San Francisco Punchline, the Purple Onion and Rooster T. Feathers. He’s appeared on Current Television and KOFY TV and in the award-winning short film Tiger Cop which can be seen at Funnyordie.com. He also co-wrote and starred in the mockumentary Awareness of the Outer World which became a You-tube featured video.

Plus we are making new friends! We have two guests this week in town from New York ON BUSINESS.

Amaya Perea writes for Cracked, Hahajk, Hello Giggles, Funny or Die and her own bio. She’s performed at the Bridgetown Comedy Festival and her jokes have been featured on the Huffington Post, Splitsider, Witstream and Timeout New York.

Boris Khaykin is a comedian and musician based out of Brooklyn, NY. His stand up has been featured on the “Live at UCB” Stand Up Showcase, Collegehumor Live, Huffington Post Comedy, North Carolina Comedy Arts Festival’s “All Star Showcase”, and more.

Plus all of your regulars, with all their hands and mouths.

$5. JUST $5.

Get your tix in advance! We sell out!

BYOBurrito and use your hand to bring it to your mouth.

The awful Zero Hours Contract

This eminent and good friend has often remarked that I have turned into a socialist (even a communist) in my old age. He claims my writing in this blog is veering constantly to the left. Other readers of my blog ,might wonder, if this is left leaning then what will the true loony left be called. But I know I am going to get a mouthful from him for this post, which is admittedly leftwards tilting.

On matters relating to labour and worker law, I have often argued that countries have brought excessive legislation defending the existing worker and making it expensive to employ any more.Who in his right mind will employ a worker in France, for example. All this misguided legislation only keeps out a large portion of the young out of the workforce. Companies need some flexibility to ramp their worforce up or down based on conditions of their business and marketplace. Minus this flexibility, no modern company is going to hire.

But companies have gone to the other extreme and misused the flexibility to create completely unfair job practices. Take the case of the "Zero Hour Contract" - a British invention and used to the hilt by a wide swathe of so called respectable companies. As a worker you enter into a contract with the employer . but there are no working hours guaranteed, hence the name zero hours contract, You are expected to sit glued to the telephone. When they want you, they'll call you. You have to jump like a jackrabbit and run to the office or factory or store or whatever and you work for the hours they tell you to. You get paid (often the minimum wage) for the hours that you do. Then off you go without knowing whether you have to return tomorrow or not. Back to the vigil by the telephone. During this time, you cannot accept any other employment, even if the phone never rings. And when it rings, if you cannot come to work, you've really lost it and won't get an opportunity for quite some time.

Sports Direct has become the notorious poster boy for this with apparently 20,000 of their total 23,000 employees on Zero Hour Contracts.

This sort of behaviour is why companies and businessmen are hated by the general public, who think they have no scruples or morals in the eternal quest to make more money. Flexibility in the labour pool is one thing. But to keep 90% of your workforce 'flexible" and not even telling them whether they have to come to work tomorrow or not, is surely extreme. There is no business in the world which cannot know how many workers it needs for the next one month at least.  Some sort of rostering is surely possible. And preventing the guy from finding work elsewhere when you have nothing for him, is positively outrageous.

In such an atmosphere, how can there by any training or skills building. What sort of employee commitment can you expect.  Will the worker have one good word to say about the company. And you think this is an efficient business model. And this is a sustainable approach for success . Only a moron can think so.

Peculiarly, one of the organisations discovered to be using this rather widely is Buckingham Place !!  Pip Pip, Your Majesty - this is just not cricket !

Employers have to understand, and demonstrate, that if they want softer laws, they will have to behave reasonably and not exploit. If they can't, or won't, then they should stop moaning about excessively rigid labour laws.

Business Jazz – 8th August 2013 – Hitting the Pause Button

TOPICS: The podcast is put on hold.

All good things come to an end. Or at least have the Pause button pushed.

So it is with this podcast as well.

Producing a podcast takes time and energy. We knew that going in. However, our schedules have conspired against us and we find ourselves needing to focus our attentions elsewhere. For the moment, any road.

Will the podcast return? We can't say it won't, but we don't want to give false hope either.

For now, we'd just like to say "Thank you" to you for taking the time to listen to the podcast. We truly appreciate that you did. It means more to us than you can ever imagine. You star.

Jane, Mark, Paul and Roger

What the Washington Post and Boston Globe Sales Tell Us About the New Breed of Owners

The sales of the Washington Post to Jeff Bezos and the Boston Globe to John Henry raise the question why people would want to own newspapers if they aren’t doing so for obvious financial gain.

 

There are clearly people who want to own papers for political purposes so they can directly influence debate and policy. This is certainly the case for the ultra-conservative Koch brothers, who have been trying to buy the Los Angeles Times this past year. But Bezos and Henry don't seem to fit that mold.

 

Bezos’ purposes for buying the Post are not the pursuit of profit. He certainly would produce better returns putting more effort into Amazon or another commercial firm. John Henry can expect far more returns from effort in his investment firm or his sports empire than the Globe. So why are they buying legacy media? 

 

The answers lie in human traits.  All of us need diversions. We need toys to play with; things to spark our interest and imaginations. 

 

Bezos can clearly bring ideas and expertise gained from shifting the mail order catalog concept to the web and contribute his innovative spirit to the Post.The challenges of learning the media business and trying to transform its distribution and operations are clearly interesting and attractive. And the price for the Amazon creator isn’t high. 

 

John Henry doesn’t bring great digital expertise to the Globe, but he does bring strong organization, marketing, and turn-around skills and experience to the effort.  He also has strong local community ties and bringing ownership back to Boston is a gift to the city. Especially because hating everything associated with New York is the city's pastime.

 

The newspaper ownership will also make both of them more respectable as citizens, not just as businessmen. There is a long tradition of wealthy U.S. merchants, industrialists, and traders playing citizenship roles in public life and philanthropy after achieving immense personal success. These range from Andrew Carnegie to J.P. Morgan and J. Paul Getty to Bill Gates.  

 

Some who moved into public roles have done so to gain respectability that eluded them because of harm they caused while climbing to the top; other because of a genuine desire to make society better. 

 

The sales of the Post and the Globe reveal a breed of owner who wants not just respectability or making contributions to society, but a place to use their knowledge and abilities to tackle new challenges. Whether it will help the newspaper industry remains to be seen, but it will at least inject new ways of thinking into the industry. 

Business Jazz – 2nd August 2013 – Blending the Offline with the Online

TOPICS: How be genuinely attractive by not being online

Do you need to be online?

Really?

After all, we managed to survive without the internet for centuries. People were contented. Businesses succeeded.

In this episode, Jane and Roger talk about how we still need to be active offline to make our online work.

The video

Here is the video of the Google+ hangout recorded during the recording of the podcast episode:

First go:


Second go:

New rallying point

You are a big part of the story of this podcast. We'd like you to be an even bigger part of it. To help with that, and to help us have discussions about being genuinely attractive in business, we've established a LinkedIn group. Please knock on the door and we'll let you in.

Country tally

We're hoping to get a listener in every country in the world. The amazing, super, fantastic, wonderful Phil Sorrell has produced an interactive map for us. If you have a Twitter account, you'll be able to add yourself to the map. Hurry – maybe you can be the first in your country.

You can find the map here: Business Jazz Global Listener Map.

Listening to the podcast

You can listen to this week's podcast using the player at the top of the post or download it directly here: Business Jazz – 2nd August, 2013.

We're also in iTunes. We'd love it if you subscribed or left some feedback.

Business Jazz Players

This podcast is a collaboration of people dotted around the world. Most of us have never met each other. It's quite a story and it's still evolving. 
If you'd like to read what's happened so far, you'll find it here: Our Story.