Ep. 233: Good to Goals (Ft. Aaron Rufus “MadDog” Graham)

My guest is a long tenured employee at one of the finest comedy clubs in the world, Denver Comedy Works.  He threw down his ‘Door Staff’ sash long ago, climbing up the rungs to his position of bar manager.  A longtime lover of comedy, he performs stand-up whenever he gets the chance & has opened for lots of nationally touring acts; put your hands, feet, & anything else you can find together & welcome to Top Shelf Studios for his fourth ever podcast: Aaron Rufus “MadDog” Graham!Follow Aaron on Instagram @rufusspiderman & on other social media: Aaron Rufus “MadDog” Graham — Watch out on his Instagram for when he will be performing in round 2 of Comedy Works annual “New Faces” contest.Lots of shop talk.  Hear about the many roles Aaron has navigated through his 13 years working at Comedy Works, the weirdest questions he has been asked by patrons, how strange it was to work & perform comedy during the Covid-Era, and we learn that Aaron “can talk words,” because he has a degree in English.  Journalism is dead.  At least that’s what he was told by the professor on day one of ‘Journalism 101’ in the early 2000’s.  InTALLerable is not dead because we are powered by our supporters!  If you’d like to get the full uncut hang with every guest, some awesome hand-made in the USA merch, and help put more smoked meat into the mouths of future guests, join at Patreon.com/InTALLerable Our supporters make it possible, we make it InTALLerable. FO & BW0:00 — Guest Intro1:15 — Aaron’s Many Roles at CW3:00 — Night Owl3:45 — “NATIVE”5:00 — Shreddin’ Pow6:15 — Cat Lover for Life9:00 — Moved to Denver for Comedy Works11:00 — Chaos of working at a comedy club12:30 — Food at Comedy Clubs14:00 — Comedy in the Covid Era21:00 — Nobody is Against You23:00 — What Aaron gets asked most?24:00 — 6-7 Frank Azar Billboard26:00 — Weirdest Questions?27:30 — Servers not Waitress29:00 — Wing Flip29:30 — Magical Place31:00 — Decade of College32:30 — Journalism 101: ‘Journalism is Dead’35:00 — “I Can Talk Words”38:00 — Sean’s Sound Book41:30 — Best Story from the Book42:30 — Ari Shaffir Poster Story44:00 — Being a Sponge45:00 — Hoping for a Job at Comedy Works46:30 — Visiting Clubs around the US48:00 — No Ticket & a Job Offer49:45 — Advice: Get Around It52:00 — Door People: Two Buckets54:00 — Starting out & making mistakes57:00 — Why do we keep going back?59:00 — Pod arc (trippy)1:00:00 — Cat Recovery1:02:00 — Aaron’s Family “Tried” Dogs1:03:30 — Cats Live Long1:05:00 — Shouts to Ryan on the Drums1:07:00 — EATIN’1:08:15 — After-Hours & Wing Review1:10:00 — RIP best wings in Denver (Wide Right)1:11:00 — Aaron’s Comedic Path & Reps1:14:00 — Late night Mics1:17:30 — “Making It”1:19:00 — Compound Growth Strategies1:21:00 — Colorado’s Micro-Scenes1:22:30 — New Shows1:25:00 — DenverStandup.com1:25:30 — ‘Heighting’1:27:00 — Shouts to Ratio Brewworks1:28:15 — Plugs!1:29:15 — FO & BW1:29:30 — Supporter Credits