Perry will host each show to get it rolling and keep it rolling and interesting. He’ll also close each show with some form of improvised music that he will make up about whatever the audience is doing AS they do it and get them singing along.

The other main attraction is the venue. It takes place at The C.I.A., or CIA in North Hollywood. That stands for California Institute of Abnormalarts, and is clearly the strangest theater in Los Angeles. It sports a real theater room with a real stage, sound man, and theater lights, a separate room for beer and wine distribution, so there is no vending chatter in the room during the performance, and, mostly, an array of very unusual artifacts, including a mummified person in a glass case as you wander towards the patios. Lighting comes from above and through the walls with a strong Asian feel, giving the place the alter-name of Chinatown East. Colors are bright everywhere and it truly feels as if you are on a different plane of existence, with the ability to return to Earth by leaving the premises. You enter the establishment by passing a giant 15 foot plastic head from an old TV show, where the owner speaks to you from inside the head THROUGH the eyes and takes your money through an ear on the left side of the head.

Showtime is 9pm and admission is only $10, not bad for a really funny 2 hour show without having to travel downtown. The CIA is at 11334 Burbank Boulevard, just east of Lankershim blvd. and The Holiday Inn Express in North Hollywood, 91601, phone (818) 221-8065. This is adult material, but also some of the funniest in L.A.

As for the C.I.A., here ‘s a link to show you what’s in store for behind the giant head.  https://www.facebook.com/CIAbnormalarts   

In this blog, writer/comedian Steven Alan Green has the password to good writing: Wi-Fi.

As a writer Wi-Fi is essential.

I spend at least 5 hours a day at the laptop.  I write blogs and screenplays.  Like any worker out there, I like to have the best working conditions.  Those conditions include having good Wi-Fi.  I don’t like to write at home. Never have.  I like to be out around people.  Coffee houses are the best for me.

Wi-Fi and Coffee

I’m a creature of habit.  I know who I am and what I like.  In order for me to be completely happy and ready to write, I need to have conditions just right. Good coffee is a must. A decent place to park, where I don’t have to keep worrying about the meter.  And great Wi-Fi.  There are plenty of great coffee houses in LA.  My experience dictates that it’s very hard to find one with all three elements.  Coffee, easy parking, and free Wi-Fi.

I’m not the only writer out there

Obviously I’m not the only writer who likes to write in public.  Writing in public makes me feel like I’m part of some imaginary writing office.  I’m usually seated next to other writers.  We’re all typing away with our magical fingers. We all want that big Hollywood deal.  I might be sitting there writing a comedy and the guy next to me is writing a drama.  You can almost tell what others are writing by the way they dress.

Casual fashion usually means comedy

Ten to one the guy sitting there tapping away and wearing a T-shirt and jeans is writing a comedy.  The girl sitting nearby and wearing a buttoned up sweater is writing a drama.   Me?  I’m wearing a black leather biker jacket, a shark’s tooth around my neck and black ladies tights.  Don’t judge.  An important part of writing is research.  Need Wi-Fi for that.

Some coffee houses Wi-Fi sucks

It’s hard to find all the correct working conditions you want.  The first point of call is good free parking.  That’s tough in LA.  Sometimes there will be a lot, but they usually only validate for an hour.  Street parking can be like jumping up to feed the meter on the hour and that is annoying.   Great uninterrupted Wi-Fi is key and sometimes there are too many writers all working on the same signal.  Can slow things down a bit, which can be a real creative drag.

We all want the same thing

Everybody out here is reaching for the brass ring.  Their imaginations are on fire and fueled by a double espresso over ice.  It’s really rather inspiring because none of us know who will be the eventual winner.  In order to find out, you’ll have to Google it one day on Wi-Fi.

Find a good coffee house in LA with Wi-Fi

For The Hollywood Dog this is Steven Alan Green 4/17/17 

One of the most reliable ways to make money is to save money. 

Take me for example.  I used to actually feel guilty saving money. I thought it was some kind of admission that I was cheap or something.   These days, with my income?  I need to save money every single day.  It’s one of the tools I use to get through the day.  I’ve actually developed quite a skill of saving money whenever I can.  One thing I’ve noticed in doing this daily ritual is that – underneath it all – if we’re not careful, we’re all being ripped off somewhere every day.

Save money and get more coffee

So, I don’t have an office.  My “office” is my local Starbucks, Coffee Bean, Peets or my local independently run hipster coffee house.  I’m a writer.  I need a place to work, access to coffee, free Wi-Fi, and, as I’ve said in other blogs, a place to work where there are other people around me.  Perhaps because writing is such a lonely enterprise.  Ever since moving to New York City in 1991, when I domiciled at the legendary Hotel Chelsea, where some of the former residents included Mark Twain, Arthur Miller and Dylan Tomas, and started going down each night to the Caffe Reggio (two “f’s”), I knew writing was my mark on the world.  Just next door was the legendary Comedy Cellar, where newish comedians Ray Romano, Jon Stewart and Sarah Silverman would work out to NYC Village crowds.  I sat at my little marble table, with the latest gizmo, a one megabyte Everex laptop.

I knew writing was my salvation.

Nobody could stop me.  Nobody had to give me permission to be on their stage. I had my own stage; my mind.  And my fingers danced the ballet of beautiful and dangerous unexplored combinations.  I was hooked.   Now that I’m a writer for a living, I have to think more like a businessman.   And since I need the Wi-Fi and the table space and the air conditioning and the most important thing, a space to work away from home, I’m a volunteer slave to coffee houses.   And literally selling words, I need to keep costs down.   A penny a letter.  That’s why I order coffee in a very precise way.

Medium coffee in a big cup

For years I would do like millions of others do and order a Starbucks “Grande” (medium) coffee “with room”.  With room meant that instead of filling my coffee cup all the way to the top, they leave about a half an inch so that I can put milk in my coffee the way I like it.  Only recently did I figure out that is unfair to me. Why should I pay for 100% of something yet only receive 85% of it?

Your wish is their coffee command

That’s why what I do now is order a Grande coffee in a Venti (large) cup. Let them pay for the extra paper for the cup and let me have all the coffee I pay for. Does it save me thousands of dollars a year?  Probably not.  But I bet it does save money somewhere down the line.  And, after all, if you can’t be creative in your life as you are on paper, you’re really missing half the fun in life.

For The Hollywood Dog, this has been Steven Alan Green, 4/19/17

Time Out LA Best Coffee Houses