I'm so sad as I write this...

Today I found out that Michael Jackson died due to cardiac arrest in Los Angeles, CA. I have a hard time comprehending the fact that he is no longer with us. I was eagerly awaiting video of his tour run in London, which he announced would happen soon. I was a fan since I was a kid. I remember playing the old 45's from his "Off The Wall" album. I remember when "Thriller" was released. I remember when every Saturday morning, I would watch Kasey Kasem's "America's Top 10 Video Countdown" show and seeing "Billie Jean", "Beat It" and such EVERY week. The posters, the "glove", the videos! Wow!

I was too young to know Michael's early music with the Jackson 5, unfortunately. Thank goodness I was introduced to his early work when I got my first radio job at Mega 95.5 in Albuquerque, NM. The station played Old School, and I became a HUGE fan of early, young, Michael Jackson. As a DJ in Old School you get to play a lot of great artists. Michael Jackson was probably one of the 3 most-played artists on Mega 95.5, as well as the last Old School station I worked at, Hot 95.1.

No one I knew could deny the fact that Michael Jackson was the best entertainer on Earth. He transcended music like no other artist in music in my opinion. All artists wanted to work with him...directors wanted to do videos with him...if Michael attended your awards show, you practically begged him to perform. As a fan you watched "Thriller", the entire 17-minute video, the day it was premiered on MTV. MTV should send the biggest bouquet of flowers to his funeral for all he did for that channel. Axl Rose once won an MTV Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award as a member of the rock group Guns-N-Roses, and had the audacity to say "Oh yeah. This award has nothing to do with Michael Jackson." How wrong he was. EVERY artist who ever made a music video should thank Michael Jackson the next time they make a video or perform a song. The man was all about perfection.

I will go on. The world will continue to go on. However, the world of music will NEVER be the same. Rest in peace, Michael. You are truly missed here on Earth. However, the party in Heaven can officially begin. With all due respect to James Brown, Marvin Gaye and others, the "entertainment" has arrived!

Stand Up is da shit!

You know what? I still have only experienced "bombing" on stage once in my entire life. You know...bombing? The feeling that every joke you tell, whether you think it's good or bad, absolutely does not connect with the audience. You've studied the joke. You've asked your friends about it. You've tested it privately. And, the only thing left to do is to get on stage and let it rip for a new audience.

I stood up there, and no matter what I said, no matter how funny it sounded when I first thought of it, it was a complete...absolute...piece of crap in the world of comedy. At the time it happened to me, I was on stage in a bar that wasn't a comedy club. It was a bar that had a great $2 drink special (ANY drink in the bar). They were supposed to be my people. We were all minorities. Yet, I couldn't connect.. I tried my best stuff. It fell flat. I kept asking myself "What am I do doing wrong?" The truth? I didn't prepare to perform for them the same way I had prepared for audiences before. My mistake? Thinking that ANYTHING I had done before was gonna work again. The saddest part? I was in front of a crowd of African-American and Hispanic-Americans.

How is this possible? An Hispanic-American should NEVER fail reaching a crowd who should respond favorably to his/her comedy!

Truth? ANY comic should not only study who they have performed in front of, but also the crowd they are supposed to perform in front of! The most inportant crowd you perform in front of is...the NEXT ONE! Don't let up...keep your foot on the gas!

Alright...here we go, family!

Well, I'm gonna try this blog thang...again. The last time I tried it, it was at political time, and I was going crazy trying to be all "Hey! I'm Anderson Cooper of CNN!". I realize now that it was a mistake to create a blog that was so heavy on the politics and nothing else. Barack Obama was elected President (YEAH!), and I stopped working on my old blog. So I'm gonna give it another shot.

I hope you will find a way to check out the blog and hopefully subscribe to it if you'd like. I'm gonna have random thoughts here. Some funny stuff. When I get angry about something, I will rant here. I decided to call my blog "Unfiltered!" because of my past in radio. Back when I worked in radio, I created a "blog" on my station's website that I called "Unfiltered!". However, I was really not able to rare back and give it to you with both barrels. When you're on the radio and your blog is monitored by the boss, you really can't give your actual thoughts (the fear of getting fired is too great). Well...I'm unemployed from radio now, so I won't have any problems telling you exactly what I think.

So, what can you expect from "Unfiltered!"? Well to start, I'm a radio guy, so I will probably have info on radio things going on...my opinion on certain songs being played on the radio. When I get ahold of new music, I will keep you informed of it. I'm also a budding stand up comedian. I've always loved stand up, and will give you random thoughts on any gigs I do and what not.

If you want a sample of what I think, you can log onto my Twitter account at www.twitter.com/bigbennyradio. Thanks for checking out the blog, and we'll talk to you soon, family!