It's eeeeeeeleven o'clock. Time for a night shoot! Ryan Gossling took four years off from acting to spend time with his family. I took four years off because Hollywood was sick of me. That's not entirely true, but it has been four years since I shot a commercial, TV show, or movie. My hiatus was involuntary. Four years doesn’t seem THAT long until you realize that high school was a few months shorter than that. Anyway, I'm back, baby! Fun Fact: The last night shoot I did was in 2010 with P. Diddy and Aziz Ansari.
Wink Martindale and I met on July 2, 1996 while I was a contestant on the gameshow DEBT.
Wink was gracious and kind. He seemed like just a regular guy who happened to be wearing make-up and a tuxedo at noon.
DEBT had three contestants were in debt. The producers then came up with an average debt amount for us. We answered questions ala JEOPARDY but with all pop culture questions – and Wink. If we answered correctly, our debt was reduced by the dollar value of the question. I outlasted Tracy & Jean to get to the final rounds.
Wink gave me titles to love songs and I had to name the artist. I found that harder than I imagined and couldn't name ten in 30 seconds. That meant I had earned $3,000 that I could gamble on a final question on a topic that I said I was an expert. I chose the TV show M*A*S*H. If I got the question right, I would have walked with $6,000.
During the commercial break, I asked Wink, “If I don’t go for it on my expert topic, do I still get to keep $3,000?” He said that was correct. Well, $3,000 was a lot of potatoes 29 years ago. It’s actually the equivalent of $6,100 in 2025!
I had been living in Los Angeles for almost three years and was a year away from booking my first commercial or TV show. I took the bird in the hand.
Thanks for being a part of this fun chapter in my life. RIP Wink.
It was 20 years ago today… I shot a pilot called THE COMMUTERS. I played a poker player in a backroom bodega card game in New York City. Please appreciate the classic slow-roll of my winning hand against desperate David Arquette.
I found out that I booked the gig when my agent called me confirming that I would be working that week for Dan. Dan who? What project? I had no idea what he was talking about.
It turned out that, unbeknownst to me, Executive Producer & Writer Dan Bucatinsky called my agent and offered me this role on his new CBS pilot. Dan and I met a few years before when we were in a sketch comedy company at The Acme Comedy Theatre in Hollywood.
That was so cool of Dan to think of me. I was sucked into the poker boom a year before this shoot, so this role was a perfect fit.
If Dan Bucatinsky’s name is familiar to you, a few years later he’d win an Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series for his role of James Novak on SCANDAL.
Dan Shaner & Michael Testa cast me. Okay, Dan cast me. Stephen Kay directed. We shot at The Orpheum Theatre on Broadway in downtown Los Angeles.
And.... some photos!
20 years ago today… I shot the sitcom pilot UNCOMMON SENSE. Larry Miller and his wife Eileen Conn wrote a script so funny that I was disillusioned about showbiz when it did not get picked up.
Bill Hader and Jim Cashman were Valets. IMDB says this was one of Hader’s very first jobs. They were part of the guest cast that worked at the Four Seasons hotel, and were always angling for a tip. Tim Bagley was the Waiter. Andrew Friedman was the Desk Clerk. Finally, the Bellman were Ramon de Ocampo, Andrew Daly, Ryan Raftery, Andrew Hawtrey, and yours truly as Bellman #5.
Larry and Peri Gilpin starred. Andy Ackerman (whom I worked with on SEINFELD) directed.
Richard Hicks cast us. We rehearsed and shot February 24-25, 28-March 1, 3-4, 2005 at SONY studios in Culver City, CA.
20 years ago today… I shot the sitcom pilot UNCOMMON SENSE. Larry Miller and his wife Eileen Conn wrote a script so funny that I was disillusioned about showbiz when it did not get picked up.
Bill Hader and Jim Cashman were Valets. IMDB says this was one of Hader’s very first jobs. They were part of the guest cast that worked at the Four Seasons hotel, and were always angling for a tip. Tim Bagley was the Waiter. Andrew Friedman was the Desk Clerk. Finally, the Bellman were Ramon de Ocampo, Andrew Daly, Ryan Raftery, Andrew Hawtrey, and yours truly as Bellman #5.
Larry and Peri Gilpin starred. Andy Ackerman (whom I worked with on SEINFELD) directed.
Richard Hicks cast us. We rehearsed and shot February 24-25, 28-March 1, 3-4, 2005 at SONY studios in Culver City, CA.
It was 20 years ago today… I shot a commercial for Peter Piper Pizza with my TV son Ben Brady. The spot was directed by Ben’s real life dad, Jordan Brady. This was the 4th spot I shot with Jordan.
This commercial booking broke my streak of being “on avail” for ELEVEN other spots without booking them. In the commercial world, an actor gets put “on avail” if he is one of the final 2 or 3 people up for the gig. One’s hopes soar when that call comes in from your agent saying you are “on avail”. Those same hopes plummet when the next call from your agent includes the words, “We’ll get the next one.”
Carol Rosenthal cast us. The ad folks called this spot: “Big Switch”. We shot it in a Peter Piper Pizza in El Cajon, CA. Ben became a filmmaker and I got really good at eating pizza. Oh, and it was actually January 25, 2005, so… It was 20 years and 12 days ago today…
A few days ago, comedian Dave Goodman passed away. He and I met working the week of October 19-23, 1994 at Stanford’s Comedy House in Wichita, Kansas.
In 1997, Talent Coordinator Judi Brown-Marmel cast us in MTV’s THE JENNY McCARTHY SHOW. Here is one of the sketches that Dave and I appeared in, called “Menstruation Party”.
At 55 seconds, you’ll see us behind John Ennis (Dad), Jenny (daughter), and Jack Plotnick (Mom). Dave and I are flanking another fresh-faced comic, K P. Anderson. We all knew each other from doing stand-up on The Road. Other party-goers include series regulars Paul Greenberg, Michael LoPrete, Lou Thornton, and the writer of this sketch (if memory serves) and future SNL cast member Will Forte.
It was always fun working with Dave. He and his wife Ivy are in my prayers.
It was 20 Years Ago Today… (okay, last week. Damn you photo date stamp!) I shot an episode of the CBS sitcom STILL STANDING.
Sometimes the worst gig turns out to be the best gig. I don’t mean to sound ungrateful, but I wasn’t excited about doing this show. That’s because the script changed after I auditioned, and my role turned out to be much smaller than originally written.
This was my 40th TV show and I felt I had done enough five line parts. Much to my surprise, it turned out to be one of the coolest jobs because of whom I met.
STILL STANDING was shot on the CBS Radford lot in Studio City, California, along with a lot of other shows. When I got to the set, I discovered a friend of mine from my Bud Light campaign, Stoney Westmoreland, was shooting an episode of RODNEY on the next stage over. During a break from STILL STANDING, I went over to say hi.
On the way, I ran into Jack Impellizzeri who was also working on RODNEY and Billy Gardell who was on YES DEAR. We all knew each other from the audition lobbies, and snapped this photo between stages 18 & 19.
Stoney and I were sitting on the floor in his dressing room when there was a knock on the door. It was Mac Davis. MAC DAVIS, Mac Davis! Apparently, he had the dressing room next door.
Mac asked if we wouldn’t mind hearing a new song he was working on. We walked over to his dressing room. Mac and I took a seat on his couch. He place his yellow legal pad of lyrics on the cushion between us and started playing his guitar.
I was officially star-struck. This was surreal. My head was kinda spinning. To me, Mac was cool. Mac was funny. He had his own variety show in the mid-70s when I was wee. He was in NORTH DALLAS FORTY. He’s in the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. He had hits of his own and wrote songs for Elvis!
After Mac finished his song, he hung out with us. Like the saying goes, actors are paid to wait – even Mac Davis, Mac Davis.
Now that we were best buds, I confessed to Mac that I owed him a dollar. I told him that I had illegally downloaded “In The Ghetto”. He said not to worry about it, “My treat.”
Big thanks to my old friend G. Charles Wright for casting me. STILL STANDING was created by J
Here’s the video of when 17-year-old David Chappelle opened for me for 8 shows over two weekends. I wrote about that in my book, CHARGING MOUNT STAND-UP: MY FIRST YEAR ON THE ROAD, and included a photo from my journal of my assessment of Dave and my thoughts on his future.
Available at Amazon, Audible, or via ChipChinery.com (Link in bio)
Here's what people are saying about my book CHARGING MOUNT STAND-UP: MY FIRST YEAR ON THE ROAD. (website link in bio) .
“Fantastic book! I loved it! The detail in the book is mind blowing. It should be in some kind of national archive as a window into a very specific time and way of life.” - Alex Reid – Stand-up comic, Emmy winning TV writer (Malcom In The Middle) & director (Young Sheldon)
“Very entertaining from beginning to end, with a very notable chapter entitled ‘Billy Hicks and Sinbad in Bizarro Nashville’ which will leave you howling with laughter! Great book!” - Kirk Mangels – Telly & CINE award winning Documentary filmmaker of Bourbontucky
“Chip’s Charging Mt. Stand-Up: My First Year On The Road is so eerily accurate, just reading it gave me the same knot in my stomach I would get driving from bad gig to bad gig during my first year on the road.” - Jimmy Pardo – Stand-up comic, Host of Never Not Funny podcast
“A behind-the-scenes look at the minor leagues of comedy. Dead-on accurate (and thoroughly entertaining). This is the most realistic depiction of the actual highs and lows of being a stand-up comic I've seen in any medium.” - Grant Taylor – Stand-up comedian, WGA award winner for Hollywood Game Night
“Amazing memoir. What a delight. I worked with Chip many times back in the 1980's and 90's. I loved his show. I had no idea he kept such obsessive notes about EVERY act he worked with. AND snapped pictures too. Chip bares his soul about the doubts, fears, triumphs, and ambitions of a comedian at the very beginning of his career. Plus, he quotes some of his favorite jokes from his act as well as some of the acts he worked with. Highly recommended.” - Mac King – The #1 Comedy Magician in the world today - MAGIC Magazine
“Fantastic Book! I loved it! This memoir provides hilarious, first-hand insight to the life of a stand-up comic. As a lifelong fan of stand-up comedy, I recommend this book to likeminded fans everywhere!” - Jon Schroeder – Emmy winning writer for Bob's Burgers, and stand-up enthusiast
“A fun and wonderfully crafted book. One of the best comedy memoirs I've re
Did you ever wonder what it would be like for me to whisper sweet nothings in your ear about Jokers in Dayton, Ohio? Now's your chance.
I narrated the audiobook version of my memoir CHARGING MOUNT STAND-UP: MY FIRST YEAR ON THE ROAD. You can get that immediately (link in bio).
Here’s another hot tip: I added a PDF to the audiobook - inside Audible.
The PDF contains over 500 images: Photos of the comics onstage at the gigs, our group photo, comedy club calendars, ticket stubs, matchbooks, newspaper ads, my personal calendars, and maps of the drives from gig to gig. It’s all the content that is in the book without all that “reading”.
As you listen to the book, you can have a look-see at the photos – in living color! You can also zoom in extremely close and the image quality is crisp.
If you have the audiobook and wanna see the attached PDF, here’s where to find that:
1. Open your Audible app and select my book
2. Click the three dots at top right
3. Select “Accompanying PDF”
4. Then click the launch thingy in the top right
5. Enjoy!
Audiobook: https://amzn.to/3QwwPEf
Paperback (COLOR): https://amzn.to/3X6nR2w
Paperback (Black/White): https://amzn.to/3CKQGtf
Hardcover (Color): https://amzn.to/3CI6HzO
Kindle (Color): https://amzn.to/3GXt5H5 FYI: You don't have to own a Kindle device. Read the book with the free Kindle app on your phone, tablet, laptop, or desktop.
Hey CURB fans ~ Susie Essman & Jeff Garlin host a fun podcast called "The History of Curb Your Enthusiasm". I was in the Season Two Premiere, so I got a little love on the podcast. Jeff and I met in Chicago in the '90s when I lived there briefly, before moving to LA.
https://youtu.be/MSvJSGv78p8?si=t3wSVyQ_V9j07hnO&t=1338
