John "Banana Bread" S.'s Profile

Sometimes you hear comics deride he very idea of a comedy class "You can't teach someone to be funny etc."  I wouldn't say I learned how to be funny in Gerry's class.  Anyone interested in being a comic must already be funny.  NO.  What Gerry taught me was how to find my funny in a way that was also true --- to dig deep and access it onstage.  That's the secret to connecting with an audience.  

On my own, I'm certainly capable of writing a clever joke, one that gets a few chuckles.   But what Gerry does is take that a joke like that -- one that is merely clever -- and show me how to get to the truth of it.  After Gerry works with me, that joke isn't getting chuckles anymore --- it's melting heads, people are spitting up drinks on one another, the joke is now ROCKING ROOMS.  And, to me, the sound of a room I just rocked is the sweetest sound in the world.  It's better than sex.  It's better than blueberry pancakes.  It's better than sex with blueberry pancakes!

I think what may be most amazing about Gerry is his patience and generosity.  You'll see what I mean when you take his class.  Every student is so different, yet Gerry works very closely with each them on their journey to the stage.  I feel it is this generosity of spirit that separates him from the rest.  It's not for nothing he's been voted "BEST COMEDY TEACHER" in Backstage Magazine for two years running now.

Getting serious about my comedy was one of the best decisions I've ever made.   It's only been two years since my class, and I now host a popular weekly comedy show in Hollywood, have appeared on a national radio program, done my first acting gig, and have been hired as the comedic spokesperson for a websiteI  I'm doing stuff!  And more importantly ---I'm having a blast.  You can too.  Trust me and sign up for Gerry Katzman's class.

John Silver
Twitter:BlueLanugo

People need to know about this place, because it is truly a gem.  I want it to survive, now that the neighborhood is filling up with dog yoga places.  El Chapin is authentic, hot food at a great price.   Even though there's a ton of Central American influence on the menu, it's filed here on Yelp under Mexican.  For those of you who care about such distinctions, it means you're going to be able to get things like PUPUSAS and PLANTAINS.   The family who runs it never fail to make me feel welcome.   I usually get the pupusas, but this morning I had the eggs with beans and plantains, and it was just perfect.   They give you a little bit of sour cream, a warm french roll with a cup of coffee... for $5.    FIVE DOLLARS.  Are you kidding me?   Try this place.  You won't be sorry.

While we were walking around Little Tokyo, when we noticed the banner outside Senor Fish advertising 1/2 price appetizers and margaritas during the Laker game.  We decided that we'd stop in on the way back and catch the game.  But when we arrived, we were told that the only drink available was beer, and that there were no specials.  What made it particularly annoying is that the server didn't offer an explanation or apology; it was almost as though she thought WE were crazy for asking about the specials.   She just kept laughing nervously and saying "no, no, no."  Maybe she was tired.  Who knows?    The point is that they were not following through on their promotion.   And to think we had passed up a bunch of delicious opportunities in Little Tokyo in order to come in for the promotion.  It was a bummer, and that's why I am only giving it two stars.

You know why I don't go around wearing a shirt that says I CAN JUGGLE?  Because if I did, someone would ask me to juggle, and I'd have to admit that I can't juggle.   I'd feel silly!   Likewise, Senor Fish should feel silly about his imaginary margaritas and 1/2 price appetizers.  

But the Lakers won, so that was nice.

Was excited to try this place last night, as it is only a few miles from my home.  The interior is quite charming, full of warm color and whimsical knickknacks ( e.g. luche libre wrestlers, drying chiles etc. )  It's a deli, so you order at the counter, take a number and go sit down.  The menu is crammed with delicious sounding things.  They have mole!  I went with the portobello mushroom sandwich.  I now wish I had picked something else.  The best thing about the sandwich was the bread - it tasted as though it has been recently baked.  However, I did not enjoy my sandwich.  For me, the spice was overwhelming.   I enjoy things with heat, but I want to have flavor too.  I feel that the sandwich needed something else.  I took the uneaten half home with me and, the next morning, put some egg in it.  That was much better.  I enjoyed everything else about the meal.  I am sure I just got unlucky with that sandwich, and I look forward to going back and trying something else.

It was cold outside, and the 101 cafe wasn't doing to go orders ( they were out of boxes - what a bunch of dorks ) ... So I ended up going here.  I ordered the lasagna on the phone, then walked down to pick it up.  

The menu said that it was going to be 9 bucks. When I got down there, I learned that they'd raised the price to an outrageous $12.

"Well," I thought, taking the bag of food back up the hill "it's probably really good lasagna for 12 bucks"

Ha.  What a joke.

The "lasagna" was essentially a tin full of hot tomato sauce, with a few bits of lasagna like chunks floating around in it.  There was nothing even closely resembling lasagna.

It was the most expensive soup in the world!

I know that times are tough.. but 12 bucks?!?!?!

My office used to be located right next to this place, which is tucked into the same lot as an auto body shop.  I went there all the time for the breakfast burritos.  

Today, even though our office has moved to the other side of town, I still regularly make the trek to UR Sub Stop, in order to get one of their breakfast burritos.

The secret is the mysterious green salsa!   I'm not sure whether you should even call it salsa, because it tastes more Asian than Mexican.  
I hate that word "fusion" when it comes to cooking, but I'd have to admit that this breakfast burrito has a bit of Asian "fusion" going on, when paired with that salsa.  

I've asked for the secret, but the owner, Soowon, just smiles.  She knows how to keep customers coming back!

Maybe it's not fair to harp on a single thing.  But I'm about to do it anyway.  Awful chairs. My chair would have been perfect for an interrogation chamber.  It's a communist theme.  I get it!  But do I really need to feel like I'm eating at a prison camp?  I would have confessed to anything, just to get the hell out of there.  I confess to you now that the food might have been tasty.  I can't quite remember, since it was all experienced through the prism of pain that was my seat.  Maybe the chiropractor across the street is giving them a cut.  I walked out of there with kung pao breath and a twisted back. They should call it "OW! Kitchen"

If you see a handsome guy walking down Walnut with a burrito in each hand and a smile on his face: that's me!  I just came from Rick's.  In my right hand is a spuderito ( aka the french fry burrito ), while in my left is a bean and cheese.  I alternate my bites between left and right.  The structural integrity of their burritos is sound, meaning you can eat while you walk!  It's the perfect food delivery system.  Its a double barrel shotgun blast to the flavor receptors in my brain. And for these 2 burritos, I paid less than five bucks.

* * *

One thing: Why is it called a "Drive-In"?  There's no drive-thru window.  There's just a place to park your car while you order.  A "parking lot".  Big Deal!   Maybe, at one time, they used to roller skate out to your car and take your order.  

But, what was that, like fifty years ago?  

Can the sign really be that out dated?

Can anyone shed light upon this?

The knock on this place is that the staff is crappy.  That hasn't been my experience.  They're not surly, just indifferent.  They're normal teenagers!    I guess the adults are in back, working on the food.  I'd rather have a yummy sandwich, served by an indifferent teenager, than a crap sandwich served with a gracious smile.

And the the sandwiches ARE yummy.  My favorite is the portobello mushroom on olive bread.  A miracle of texture and flavor.  All the flavor of steak without the taste of DEATH.

Ha!

Just kidding.  I eat meat once in a while. But it gets to me - sometimes.

But anyway....

The breakfast burrito is delicious too.  They put it into this press thing so it comes out all toasty.  But it's very expensive.  I mean: 8 bucks for a burrito?!?!

NUTRAGEOUS!!

You guys are being unfair.  The place, at least the workout area, doesn't smell that bad.  It is, after all: a gym.  People are bench pressing, stretching, running around and working up a sweat! What is it supposed to smell like?  Potpourri?  A freshly baked loaf of bread?  

It smells like, well, a gym.  It's got everything a gym usually has: plasma screens tuned to the most mindnumbing drivel, conventionally attractive females in Lycra outfits, smarmy membership salesman in a bank of desks behind plexiglass.  It's a gym!

If you want to know what stinks IN PARTICULAR about this place, you have to take the stairs down.  Down Down.  When you go down the stairs and you'll find yourself looking at the disgrace that is: the swimming pool.  

Down here, deep underground, you'll find an environment that would be perfect for growing mushrooms.  It's less ideal for housing a pool.   You want smells?  Here, in this shadowy room of cinder blocks, the odors of mildew, dust, and chlorine compete for dominance.  The water itself is greenish and uninviting.  

Nearby a Jacuzzi was kicking up a froth.  "Well," I thought "the pool is crap, but at least I can lounge in the Jacuzzi."  Then I went to sit in the Jacuzzi.  It was like someone's old bathwater.  Tepid and weak.  I looked around for some kind of temperature control panel, but found none.  I sat there for a while, feeling ridiculous.  Then I saw used Band-Aid float by, and decided I'd had enough.  

Still, I was willing to cut them some slack.  Maybe the low temp was an effort to conserve energy, maybe it was wasteful to have the heat on when no one was in the hot tub.  I could get behind that.  Conservation!  Just tell me where the temperature dial is, so that I can turn it up when I need to use it.  It seemed so simple.  But when I called in to ask about the hot tub temp, all I got was attitude from the staff member I spoke with.  

"The temperature is right where it needs to be.  It's checked twice a day.  Members have no control or say over the temperature."

"Checked twice a day?"  I asked, incredulous at the snottiness I was hearing in her tone, "who do you have checking it -- a penguin?"

She just kept on with her humorless corporate doublespeak "No sir, it is not a penguin who checks the hot tub."

The pool dungeon at 24-hour fitness suggests some 60s era secret Siberian training facility for Soviet Olympians. Perhaps most absurd of all is the enormous print of shimmering blue pool water on one of the cinderblock walls -- a feeble attempt to give the room some warmth and color.  The water in the print reminds me of the gorgeous water at the nearby Rose Bowl aquatic center.  If I want to swim this summer, that's where I'm going. I'd rather pay a little more and enjoy myself than risk catching God-knows-what in that 24-horror-fitness pool.  

At the Rose Bowl, they keep their hot tub nice and hot too.