Tag Archives: Grandma’s Basement

Keywords: A Monthly Review

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I’ve been in the web site business for a long time (something like 15-16 years). Nothing about the internet “creeps me out,” and by that I mean I don’t care that Gmail scans your email to find relevant ads to show you or that Facebook displays ads to you based on your profile data. It’s no biggie. Seriously, not a big deal at all. So when I give you a little “inside baseball,” don’t get scared. People who own (or rent) their own server space, basically anyone with their own .com or whatever like me, typically have access to all kinds of information about their visitors: the websites that people came from, the web browsers they used, the time spent on the site, the pages visited, and all kinds of other things.

One of the most fun things I like to look at is a summary of keywords and phrases typed into sites like Google, Bing, Yahoo, and whatnot that people used to end up on my web site. For instance, a common one that makes sense is people searching for “matt aromando.” That’s my name, so they should end up here. Why they are searching for me, I do not know, but I’m grateful. As a website grows in popularity and content, more and more keywords become relevant to it. I used to get some good ones when I ran TheMTA.com and I had the idea to write about them back then but I never had a good space for that, though now I have this little blog. I think this site is just far enough along where I can start a monthly post summarizing all the best ones of the previous month. For example, a few I’ve received thus far, from March through August:

  • “grandma comedians” – I’m not sure what this person really wanted, but they probably ended up at my article about Grandma’s Basement, a comedy venue that I occasionally perform stand-up at.
  • “aromando entertainment” – The word “entertainer” sounds like I’m doing something sexy, that can’t be true.
  • “naked comedy showcase” – Well, maybe someone does want to see more than I usually allow.
  • “cheap words for words with friends” – Someone no doubt looking for my expertise in the area of “za.”
  • “happy cactus” – Ah, my internationally known drawing.

Look forward to the September review in early October!

First Time at Grandma’s Basement

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I’ve been to many of the venues for open mics in (and around) Boston, but I feel like every time I do a show I hear of at least one place I haven’t been yet. About a month ago I was recommended to try out Grandma’s Basement inside the Hong Kong Cafe on Boylston St. near Fenway Park. I was there last night and it was probably the best open mic I’ve performed at yet, mostly because it had a real crowd. A lot of open mics just have a crowd full of other comedians who tend not to laugh very much and typically aren’t as much fun to perform in front of as people there just to see a show.

It’s my understanding this venue isn’t always this way, but I intend to return anyways. There were a lot of other cool comedians there and it’s a nice place too with a reasonably priced bar, a very comfortable and small room feel, and a good location. I was told that one reason for the big crowd was the presence of a camera crew from The Steve Kastos Show, which was there to record some footage for a piece they would be airing about the venue. They did film my set so who knows, I might be on TV and/or YouTube for that, I’ll be sure to let everyone know it that ends up happening.