6 posts tagged “max deale”

Funk Fest 2009 

The Squirrel and I funk’d the night away Saturday as LA’s 92.3 FM (Old School and R&B) had their HOT SUMMER NIGHTS Funk Fest at the Greek Theater.  It was one of those kinds of nights where literally everybody in the amphitheater was dancing and groovin’.  I had heard of all of the band’s names but wasn’t sure what songs I was in store for until I heard them.  Here is a list of the line-up and one of each bands more popular songs:

Con Funk Shun (Ffun)

Midnight Starr  (No Parking on the Dance Floor)

SOS Band        Take Your Time (Do it Right)

Zapp (More Bounce to the Ounce)

Morris Day and the Time (Jungle Love)

There were only a few people on line selling tickets for the show, and those that were on line were asking way too much ($90 - $120 each).  We checked on Ticketmaster and found that there were a bunch of tickets still for sale, so we decided that we would forego the $22 “convenience charge” that we would’ve had to pay online and head to the Greek Theater box office instead. 

We parked in our free parking neighborhood off Vermont on Aberdeen Dr. (always free parking there, plus its way easier to get out after the show) and checked the box office.  Sure enough, there were tickets available in each of the sections.  The cheapest available ticket was $35.  We used that as the benchmark and set out to do a quick check to see if we could get them for less.

I walked up the stairs and the only guy selling tickets was one of the guys I had a run in with at the No Doubt show only a week ago.  They had threatened me last time that they were going to “charge the shit out of me” the next time they saw me.  Not much of a threat, but since he was the only one selling them, I sent the squirrel over.  She gave herself a $25 limit, and went in for the kill. 

I am proud to say that even though the dude started off at $65 for the ticket, she stayed true to her limit and walked away with one ticket in section B for $22.  She talked him down $43 in a matter of two minutes.  Atta girl.

While she was doing her thing, I noticed a group of guys handing tickets out to each other and it seemed like they were looking around for more friends to show up.  I strolled up to them and casually mentioned that if they had any extras, I’d be happy to buy one.  Since they had gotten them as part of a promotion, they gave me one and wouldn’t accept any money for it. 

So there we were.  We had spent $22 for a total of two tickets and ready to let the good times roll.  Our seats weren’t together, but that was not a problem.  We looked for the best available seats that wouldn’t cause a commotion if we had to move.  We ended up in section B, row D.  There is no bad seat in the Greek Theater but these were definitely better than average.  As we were sitting there between two of the bands, I overheard this group of four guys behind us.  One of them says “it always pays to show up day of the show!” That caught my attention.  I told them that we had gotten our tickets for $11 each, and it turns out they got theirs for free.  As they were approaching the box office, some guy out of nowhere walked up and offered them all free tickets.  One of the guys was so happy because now he could afford a carafe of wine to drink during the show.  We all laughed about that, but then it hit me that they were sitting in some pretty great seats for free.  I asked if this was their actual seats.  They all laughed and at the same time said “No.” 

We had found kindred spirits.  The show was so much fun.  We literally danced for three hours straight. Who would’ve thought you can have a great night of Funk Fest in Los Angeles on a Saturday night in the summer for $11?  

Thank you so much to Scott Ferrall (www.scottferrall.com) on Howard 101 Sirius Satellite Radio for lending his voice to the play by play action of this rediculously idiotic spoof commercial.  Also BEST ACTRESS nominee Angela Malhotra for putting herself in an embarrasing situation...all in the name of laughs.

This is the latest in the series of video spoof commercials for Sold Out SO WHAT! The secrets that high priced ticket brokers and scalpers DON'T want you to know!  I hope you enjoy it half as much as we did making it.

It has been an incredibly busy week since I got back from Seattle.  I followed up the Fox Morning News interview (that you see below) with back to back to back Dodgers games and then topped it off with a little 80s heavy metal on Saturday night at Gibson Amphitheater with Sebastian Bach, Dokken and Poison! 

I did a photo diary of one of my trips to Dodger Stadium last week.  Starting with the free parking, then maneuvering to  better seats until I am right there in the action. 

Big thanks to Jean Martirez from Fox Morning News Los Angeles for inviting me on to speak to the fans of Los Angeles.  Jean saw my interview on KTLA last week and emailed me asking "what do we have to do to get you on our show?" which I thought was pretty cool.  All you have to do is ask, Jean! 

Here's the segment that we did.  It was fun and I'm starting to feel a little more comfortable on camera.  Maybe it's the dumb Manny Ramirez wig that I got to hide behind for this one!?  Who knows.  Thanks to Evan D. for the interview coaching.  Just breathe damnit!

Let's see if this works.  I embedded the video here, but it's my first time trying it.  If it doesn't work, I posted the interview on my you tube page (www.youtube.com/soldoutsowhat).  I had a great time with the KTLA morning news crew Tuesday morning.  Here is the five minute clip.  This interview brought almost 1,000 people from Los Angeles to our website (www.SoldOutSoWhat.net) which was a new single day record!  Enjoy.

Today was my first television interview and it was a total blast.  KTLA invited me to come on and share some of the tips I have in my book.  I met the anchorman a few weeks ago when I was dropping off shirts at the dry cleaners.  He just happened to be doing a story in the parking lot.  We got to talking and he has a healthy disdain for Ticket Brokers and Scalpers.  Immediately I knew we were going to get along great!  He blogged about it on the KTLA site, and then yesterday I got a call from their Producer inviting me on the show.

I think I only ended up talking about two of them because we got caught up in the telling of the stories, which is a big reason for why I wrote the book.  The stories are so much fun to tell!  I gave a gift to the KTLA viewers and anyone else who may want to see an event in Los Angeles.  On my website you will find a link in the middle of the home page for KTLA viewers.  If you click on that, you can download a page that tells you where I park for free at most of the major venues in Los Angeles.  An added bonus for checking in.

Enjoy!

Max