She So Funny

Well, my belly has outgrown most of my pants (not that I have many items of clothing).  I am so disappointed.  There was a time that my behind was the most protruding part.  But my belly took over.  I no like.  Not only did I have to spend some bill money on a few clothing items so that I can go to work with clothes on, but I was so hard to fit.  Damn.  This isn’t the look I was ever going for.  I have to do something more about this than I have been doing.  Ugh.  I was wondering if I should just go to the maternity section.

I have been fortunate to have been invited to participate in a number of things recently.  I was part of #SheReads at N.A.M.A. again this year.  They had come to know me as a comic, but this time I delivered poetry.  Some of it is humorous, so they were laughing anyway.

This past Friday, I was honored to read at a book launch for Bryan Cornel Fox’s book, The Political Romantic Tales of a Bronx Boy. 

The author was busy autographing and selling his book.  He also listened attentively to the invited readers.  The person who basically produced the event was Gabriel Don, and she was great at what she does.  She's the one at the mic with her shoes kicked off.

Listening to Gabriel’s writing, I liked her more and more.  Then she heard me read several poems, and she said I was a woman after her own heart.  There were good vibes all around.

It took place at Sensei Gallery Bar where I’d never been to before but would definitely go to again.  I gained some new fans.  One woman who actively listened and later, when I went to thank her, told me that what I read was “so on point” works as an assistant district attorney.  Always wonderful to meet folks from all walks. 

Speaking of mixing it up, I am adding comedy to a wonderful music show on Saturday, September 23^rd at 8pm at The Starving Artist Café on City Island.  Papa Guyo Guyocious of Days of Wild is a very talented, caring, community-minded, and fun person.  It’s his show, along with some accompanying musicians, and he enjoys my stand-up enough to ask me to join his party.  I really appreciate it.  

https://www.facebook.com/papa.guyocious/videos/10151851890276837/

Those of you who always wanted to stroll along City Island, do it before the cold weather arrives, and conclude it with dinner, music, comedy, and great vibes here:

No cover charge!  Just eat the wonderful food (at least $10); there are always some yummy things offered for vegetarians as well; you are free to bring your own alcoholic beverage if you wish.  It’s a very homestyle atmosphere. 

Posted by Mindy Matijasevic at 12:00 AM | Labels: #SheReads, book launch, Bryan Cornel Fox, City Island, Days of Wild, fat belly, Gabriel Don, Mindy Matijasevic, Papa Guyo Guyocious, Starving Artist Café, The Political Romantic Tales of a Bronx Boy | 3 comments | Email This BlogThis! Share to X Share to Facebook |

The Bronx has Yankee Stadium, a world class Botanical Garden, and an award winning zoo. I live in the Bronx - and I hate it.

I grew up in the borough of churches, Brooklyn, the county of Kings.

I can’t forget Paul Newman’s eyes in Fort Apache the Bronx or Melanie Griffith’s baby woman lilt in Bonfire of the Vanities. Those movies painted for me the soul of the Bronx and convinced me I preferred my gritty NY, Brooklyn style.

It’s not that Brooklyn was less violent, or had a lower drug fueled body count. I just loved the county of my birth.

Not really. As a child, “Bed-Stuy do or die!” was "Mostly die!" The violence, drugs and burned out buildings made me want to leave as soon as I could. And I did.

I left with Phil, my high school sweetheart, to a 5 flight walk up on E.110th St.  
The Young Lords collected our rent and junkies paused mid-fix to let us pass by. 

We were an interracial Romeo & Juliet, searching for our Camelot. When we said goodbye to Spanish Harlem, Brooklyn welcomed us back. For a time we lived rent free as sextons of an Ocean Ave. church, then moved to a 1 bedroom (in an elevator building!) on Linden Blvd. near Bedford Ave. When Flatbush began to feel too provincial, we found cosmopolitan cache in lower Manhattan. 

It was a short walk to Soho, China Town, The Village and Little Italy, but even taxis didn't know the route to our new home off the Hudson. No neighborhood stores, banks or streetlights for Washington Market area pioneers, made moving to Independence Plaza an even more romantic adventure. 

We settled down and had a son. 

In the years that followed I was shocked to find myself in THE center of the universe, when Robert De Niro christened MY neighborhood - Tribeca. Now, we had stores; but just to buy coffee I had to pick my way through a gaggle of celebrities, like Naomi Campbell, John John Kennedy, Nathan Lane and that's just in August when no one is in NY.

Phil and I made it through 9/11 but not our marital strife. 

When divorce sent me packing back to Brooklyn I found a great one bedroom in a neglected brownstone. I was so depressed, the only time I laughed was when EVERY visitor and I do mean EVERYONE said, 
"You should rent your walk-in closet. You could get 7 or 800 a month."
"On Macon St. and Malcolm X?" (I laughed)

I was alone for the first time in my life. No husband, no work, no health insurance. My only comfort was that the hood reminded me of simpler times: Red Light Green Light 1-2-3! and Double-Dutch with that girl who was always double handed.

My life was in tatters. Emotionally adrift and so distracted, I didn't notice that the center of the universe followed me to Bed-Stuy. The lone white family on Macon St. should have been my 1st clue. Then, I missed a 2nd clue - The A train.

Usually on the A train, after Borough Hall, my fellow travelers were all melanin gifted. One night at my stop, Utica Ave., I looked at the crowd on the train and left wondering, "Where are all those white people going? Somewhere for Scientology?"

I finally got the message when the city repaved Nostrand Ave. and put benches at bus stops on Fulton St. I saw white people: walking at midnight, heads in i-phones - not even looking up! Blonds and redheads jogging in their little shorts and walking their little dogs; and that was just the men.

House after house was sold and bought changing the complexion of my block. For a minute I considered buying the brownstone I lived in. The broker said it didn't matter I was unemployed, because payments wouldn't increase until much later that year.

When the brown skin sister who wrote for the NY Post bought my building I thought, "I got this!" 

Little did I know I'd dodged a sub-prime mortgage bullet only to get hit with a rent increase cannon ball. 

When my lease was almost up, Sister Land Lady informed me I could stay another year at double the rent. Yes, double the rent! My random extra work on movies and TV, left me with a thousand dollar budget for shelter. 

Because white kids, from I don't know where, were eager to pay 3 times my "reasonable rent", I had 3 months to leave. 

"Mayor DeBlasio's Affordable Housing lottery is a joke." I tweeted daily. 
All I wanted was a nice 1 bedroom for a thousand dollars a month.

After 9 months of looking and a nervous breakdown, I bought a co-op in the South Bronx. Yes, I bought a co-op, because I didn't earn enough money for "affordable housing"; except the two times they told me I made too much???!!!
Yes, the Affordable Housing lottery is a joke.

The first week I moved to Soundview, there was a murder around the corner. After 2 years, I'm use to the helicopter noise and fleet of emergency vehicles investigating the monthly shootings.

When I notice I've no friends near, nor shops I prefer, not even my bank close by; I feel petty AND sad that I bought an apartment in Fort Apache, The Bronx. Speaking of movies...

Down the street on a lot just off Bruckner Blvd., York studios broke ground on a $100 million dollar studio for movie and TV production.

 No the Bronx isn't burning. 

The heat I feel is the center of the universe breathing down my neck. 

Rhonda Hansome (actress, director

storyteller & stand up comic)

Heard 2-5 PM Mondays on SiriusXM 

Ch 121 with John Fugelsang.

See Rhonda here, there and around.

Posted by RHC at 2:36 PM | Labels: Affordable Housing, Bed-Stuy, Black Women In Comedy, Bronx, Brooklyn, Robert Di Nero, Soundview, Tribeca, Women in Comedy, Yankee Stadium, York Studios Soundview, Young Lords | 7 comments | Email This BlogThis! Share to X Share to Facebook |

I can only suppose that my blogging absence has been partly due to trying to write my piece for the “What Were the 60s Really Like?” show.  It was the decade in which I grew up.  I wrote in my head for weeks, then kept running from it.  I was tempted to drop out of the show several times.  Yet I knew if I could get through it, I'd feel good.  At least one brick off my chest. 

The show was not a comedy show, so I’m often mixed about sharing it here.  Yet this “She So Funny” site is about the female involved in comedy in some way – it isn’t necessarily funny.  We all have a back story, a life that is not necessarily joke-filled.  Somehow, I did mix some humor in.

We were under a time limit, so many voices could be heard.  

The part I am in is below.  If you want to go straight to my presentation, start it at 14:50 where I get introduced.

The summer was sprinkled with many nice moments and days, but until my son and I are okay again, I carry a great weight on my heart daily.

In spite of much, I managed to cause laughter at Broadway Comedy Club in the Funny Underground Comedy Krew (F.U.C.K.) show and will be back there on Sunday, October 29th for a 7:30 show.

But don't wait that long.  I will be doing stand-up on Saturday, September 23rd during the break in an 8pm music show on City Island -- the Starving Artist Cafe.  Days of Wild with Papa Guyo Guyocious & Friends. 

Posted by Mindy Matijasevic at 2:47 PM | Labels: "What Were the Sixties Really Like?", Funny Underground Comedy Krew, Mindy Matijasevic, stand-up comedy, Starving Artist Café | 6 comments | Email This BlogThis! Share to X Share to Facebook |

For those of you who have asked, “Mindy, what do you have lined up?” I so appreciate that question and am putting it all in one place.  I was featured at two poetry readings last month which I didn’t announce here (sorry), but upcoming events include:

Monday, July 24, 2017 at 8pm, I will be a featured reader at the Saturn Series Poetry Reading at Shades of Green on East 15 Street between 3^rd and Irving Place, New York, NY.  Contribution $3 plus a menu item (drink or food).  Includes an open mic, so bring something to share if you like.

Monday, August 21, 2017 at 6pm “What Were the Sixties Really Like?” at Cornelia Street Café (downstairs) on Cornelia Street between West 4^th and Bleecker Sts., New York, NY.  I will be reading prose.  All female line-up that night.  $10.  Great food and drink available for purchase.  

Friday, September 1, 2017 at 10pm Broadway Comedy Club, 318 W 53rd Street, New York, NY. I am part of the line-up in Aaron Smith’s show, Funny Underground Comedy Krew.   $20 plus 2-drink minimum.

Saturday, September 9, 2017 at 7pm She Reads at NAMA, 107 West 130^th Street, New York, NY.  Not yet determined if I am reading my poetry or performing comedy.

If something fits into your schedule and budget, I'd LOVE to see you there.

Posted by Mindy Matijasevic at 8:24 PM | Labels: "What Were the Sixties Really Like?", Aaron Smith, comedy show, Cornelia Street Cafe, Funny Underground Comedy Krew, Mindy Matijasevic, NAMA, poetry reading, Saturn Series, She Reads | 4 comments | Email This BlogThis! Share to X Share to Facebook |

The first Wednesday in June on the N train to Queens. This is exactly how I like MTA travels, uneventful. We pull into the last stop and the sunshine of Ditmars Blvd. station.  Downstairs, 23rd Ave. is all cafes and lively Greek restaurants flanked by working class storefronts.

I cross the street and wave to my petite friend. Joan's casual elegance and quirky artistic sensibility drew me to her instantly, but her self-described "red diaper baby" humor sealed our friendship. 

Looking for a political firebrand as adorable as Gracie Allen? 

Comedian Joan Reinmuth

Joan's joie de vivre inspires her fearless comedy and her innovative wearable art.     My co-host/co-producer complements me perfectly. Her outside the box - no box approach balances perfectly with my controlling theater director / stage manager background. 

We surveyed QED Astoria and plotted the debut of our Comedy Faux Talk Show: Best Friends With Rhonda.*  We left QED satisfied the cozy community venue was an excellent lab for our experiment in group humor. Where to review our notes?  Over Greek appetizers al fresco before heading homeward.

That night, in the Bronx, I connected with She So Funny Blogger 

Mindy Matijasevic

I'd been trying to get together with my friend Mindy, who created Divorced Divas of Comedy, for quite a while. Finally our schedules jibed. At Isla Cafe, a bustling Westchester Ave. night spot, we caught the Product of Evolutions comedy show 

Headliner -  Mike Yard

From The Larry Wilmore Show

Edwardo Infante the show's producer gave us stage side seats, which made us easy foils for the cavalcade of comics. We took their ribbing in good nature and networked with them after the show. What could be better? On our way to the 6 train Mindy shared her survival job's new potential.

To ALL my comedy buddies, thank you for the precious time spent laughing, creating or just having a beer. 

Speaking of being with cherished friends...
Mon. 7/10, my birthday I'm with the satirical powerhouse 
                                        John Fugelsang

Tell Me Everything 

2-5 PM on SiriusXM ch 121

Looking for a completely new storytelling experience?
Join Us For
What I Learned About My Mother
 7PM Wed. 7/12 - Generation Women

*Best Friends With Rhonda Are Proud was a great success.

Posted by RHC at 9:21 AM | Labels: Edwardo Infante, Generation Women, Joan Reinmuth, John Fugelsang, Mike Yard, Mindy Matijasevic, QED Astoria, Rhonda Hansome, SiriusXM Insights, Tell Me Everything, Wythe Hotel | 3 comments | Email This BlogThis! Share to X Share to Facebook |

I went to the Cannabis Parade in May. 

My buddy Judy and I went together which made it more enjoyable.  Plus she takes good pictures.

           Check out the suit.                         

Check out the socks.

 

The largest “joint” I’ve ever seen.

The issues affect so many people, even beyond those who partake in the pleasures of cannabis.  There are people lingering in jail for what is now at least decriminalized in many places.  Their families are without them.  People of many walks of life come together.

We were invited by cannabis activist Paul Gilman.  (You can contact him on Facebook if you want info about next year's march.)  After the rally at Union Square Park, we went to a friend of Paul’s apartment to relax before an after-party.  I really was glad to get to know his friend Svetlana.  Quite a cool and intelligent woman. 

It was my 2^nd time going to this event, first time with Judy.  It’s always an adventure.  Judy and I got something we wanted out of the experience… to be able to sit in a park downtown and smoke a fuckin’ joint in peace like it used to be in the 70s and 80s.

Hope you are having a safe 4^th of July.  I’m staying in.

Posted by Mindy Matijasevic at 6:06 PM | Labels: Cannabis Parade, Mindy Matijasevic | 5 comments | Email This BlogThis! Share to X Share to Facebook |

I am sorry that so many men are obsessed with penis size. They worry about the wrong organ. There needs to be a Viagra for heart size and dysfunction.

I know many might tell me that penis size does matter to women.  If you are abnormally small or large, yes that would likely be an issue.  We do need to feel it, yet we do not want to need the ER. 

The size of one’s humanity matters more to so many of us.  If any woman ever made you feel bad about the size of your genitals, that was a rotten thing for her to do.  It is her flaw, not yours.

I’ve known men who wouldn’t work on their main relationship in a genuine way, but would take pills with unknown side effects to make sure their dick worked.  I often thought what about trying to have an honest relationship where your dick isn’t weighed down by all the lies and cheating and being shitty in general.  But that doesn’t come in pill form.

Some of you may want to tell me about all the women who alter themselves – boob jobs, nose jobs, etc.  They also are focusing on the wrong parts most of the time.  Nobody I know looks forward to wrinkling, but when messed with too much, some people end up looking much worse.

I believe there is a good place for plastic surgery – burn victims is one example.  But deciding you need a bigger anything due to standards set by others is where I feel we’ve been pressured into a view that may not have authentically been ours to begin with.  I know of no newborn who cares if the feeding comes from a small, medium, large, or extra-large breast.  As long as that mammary gland is working and its owner is loving, don't mess with a perfect happening.

Posted by Mindy Matijasevic at 11:53 AM | Labels: Mindy Matijasevic, size | 61 comments | Email This BlogThis! Share to X Share to Facebook |