A Little History: “The Nick Madson Thing” Part 1

Hey I have one follower! How cool is that! I dunno how you managed to find this but hey *high five*. Well you “b.vikki vintage” have inspired me to post something, I hope you’re not too bored by it. So here is a little tale about Nick Madson a.k.a. “The Guy Who Stole From Patton.” hope you find it interesting. This may be a bit long so I may post in parts.

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It all started with a facebook message, I was asked If I was interested in opening for the touring comic/stage actor Nick Madson. The guy who they originally wanted to open for him (Jim Petersen) had to do a benefit show that night so he recommended me to take his place. $30 for 15-20mins. This was to be my second official “gig” and I was excited, he was said to be getting his own Comedy Central special and was named in the “Top 100 Comedians” on Comedy Central, all of which of course turned out to be a lie.

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Hahaha look at all those credits! I still chuckle at the fact that my face is smaller than the Bulls’ balls.

Ok lets fast forward to the show. April 27th.

The day of the show I get invited by Nick to have a pre-show drink/get together at a bar across the street from the theatre. I met him outside, chatted for a little bit, and we went inside and met up with a few friends of his. He seemed nice and personable, I sat down and finished organizing my set list while he talked to Tristan and a few others. A short while later at about 7:30ish we all head over to the theatre.

I walked into the theatre and found a good place for my setlist, Nick went into the greenroom. I remember asking Tristan if it was ok to have a setlist, he didn’t mind it and he pointed me to the table where Nick had his notes. Pages and pages, I didn’t look at them at the time but we all know what they were. After that I found a good place for the camera and set it up, it didn’t have to be pretty as originally it was just going to be a part of my archive.

So I entered the green room, Nick was looking in the mirror applying make-up to his eye lids (swear to god) and I took a seat. I asked him about how long he’d been doing comedy and where he’d been, and he told me about L.A. and writing for Patton Oswalt and Louis C.K. I was really taken back when he said that. I’d heard that some comedians would buy bits off one another but them? He said that he was going to do a couple bits of theirs which he wrote for them in case I noticed. I said “alright” I’d never been out of Iowa to do comedy really so why not? I suppose it’s possible. I never thought they’d buy bits but what do I know? I asked him other questions about comedy abroad and he answered them all, really nice guy.

5 minutes to showtime—

I peek through the doorway into the audience, about 12 or so people. A couple I knew in college and my father were there. Nick was finishing putting on his face and wished me luck.

The set went fine, I was really happy with what I got, small crowd and a few big laughs. There was one guy right up front who had the greatest laugh of all time, after every dry one-liner he made the same face, kind’ve like a spit-take but to the side.

(P.S. My comedy has improved since then… just saying..)

Anyway. The emcee comes back up and introduces Nick.

So I take a seat in the back and I start noticing bit after bit after bit. Finally I caught on, he’s no writer. I started texting a fellow comedian about the gig, “He’s doing Giraldo.”, “He’s doing Cross.”, and after a short while he gets to the bulk of his act (Pattons material). I was shocked. I sat there in awe. What the f*ck was going on?

One long and I mean LONG hour later the show was over. I had my voice recorder on me so I slipped it in my sleeve and went backstage to talk to Nick. I asked him about the bits and he still said he wrote them. I asked about the Dave Attell bits and the David Cross bits and he claimed to have written for them too. I still have the recording with me passive-aggressively confronting him, (I don’t think it’d be legal to put it up since he didn’t know I had it). I had such a hard time making eye contact with him, I felt so embarrassed for him I just mostly stared at the ground. It was so painfully awkward and I hate confrontations.

Anyways we said good-bye to each other. Made a joke about crashing at his place if I was ever in New York and I left. I told my father about what just happened but not being a comedian or fan of comedians he didn’t understand why I was so upset.

So I went home, uploaded the show footage to my computer, and just sat there. I wasn’t sure what to do. After thinking about it for a few hours I decided to try and contact Patton. I remembered I asked him for advice over MySpace when I first started stand up so I went on there, found his page, and wrote a message titled “I think I’ve caught a guy stealing your material (Nick Madson)”.

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I think that’s enough for now. If you find it interesting I’ll continue, all there’s left to talk about is the correspondence with Patton, his blogs, and meeting him (and a few other comedic geniuses) in Chicago at the Just for Laughs Alt. Comedy showcase. Oh! And when I met Dan Telfer! He happened to be in town at Penguins Comedy Club when this whole thing went down. Really cool guy.

Again thanks for checking out the page, please come back!

Andrew King.