Did we get distracted with real life stuff last week and forget to put up a BOOKED Comedy episode or do we just like jamming two tremendous stand-up comedy episodes together? You decide! Today we offer up Episodes 7 and 8 of the comedy series that’s been making us laugh heartily for weeks now. The first of the two features LA comedian by way of North Carolina, Tommy Wakefield. Tommy warms up the crowd with a little book store humor, and quickly mixes it with some audience interaction and, by golly, a keyboard. Wakefield may think the “Shadow War” by Sean McFate sounds fake, but just wait til he reads the author’s bio. Paratrooper and para-military contractor who earned degrees from Brown, Harvard and a PhD from London School of Economics? African warlords, raising armies for U.S. interests, conducting strategic reconnaissance, transacting arms deals in Eastern Europe, thwarting impending genocides? WHAT?! Can THAT be real?

Wakefield goes on to recount his own intrepid journey from the east coast to Cali. Being drawn to the call of the west (by way of flashy, governor-clad adverts), Wakefield had to grin and bear the drive through Vegas… in the daytime. *shudders* Luckily at his new home away from home, Wakefield could enjoy a little more anonymity, escaping labels like “Big Dookie” that one unsuspecting third grader in his hometown had to carry for life. We also learn about Wakefield’s decision to take karate and learn to fight. Luckily, it was nothing like his home town where “an old white due with a DUI” was the instructor. Hmmm, can anyone say Cobra Kai? Enjoy more jokes with the comic (who wasn’t blessed/cursed with a multi-generation 5-word name) below.

This week’s BOOKED episode features California native, Harper Drummond-Rose (The Clowncast podcast), who has been a standout on the LA comedy scene, as well as comedy festivals around the land. Harper starts the set referencing the trite nature of a recent cat calling incident and ups the ante with her own venture, intimidating a drunken creeper in the “dingey” home-adjacent alley. The audience is afforded the 411 regarding the comedian’s two major break ups in one year. Harper’s beaus may not have been of the highest pedigree, but the break up stories sure make up for that lost dating time. The skate boarder/musician with the low credit score may have been “light as a feather, stiff as a board” in the bedroom, but a confrontation about the relationship’s lack of intimacy sure did yield one whopper of a comedic interaction. When one’s boyfriend says “you are acting like a frat bro right now,” only a hilarious retort can follow suit. The second breakup story only gets better, where a cocaine-addict, who also has a penchant for tie-dye and shrooms, is faced with rejection when he doesn’t commit to calling his girlfriend “GIRLFRIEND.” Even with a clear-cut evidence, like admitting to driving the comic to the airport during rush hour, the denials were still flowing. Suuuuure it was just a reason for him ” to listen to Chance the Rapper’s album.” *head smack*

Did the comic learn to make better choices after those breakups? Well, as comedy would have it, over course not! After a conversation with her father on the reason for dating so many “gutter rats,” Harper was confronted with the question “what’s real rock bottom like?” Apparently, it’s dating someone like your dad, a friend who “real unstable, and shares personal dark information. Well, two drunken glasses of wine into the date may have revealed why this friend got into comedy, but it also opened the floodgates for a dark and powerful reveal of the comedian’s own. The shock and discomfort from the audience is quite evident during this eye-opening conclusion, but Harper does not hold back on the biting zingers, and it only adds to the empowering, cathartic nature of the comedian’s performance. Enjoy!

Mentions: Watch the episodes of BOOKED you missed HERE. Follow the series on IG. This series is produced by Granison CrawfordTheo Manhattan, and Sebastian Scott. Follow $10 or Less Bookstore, for the heck of it.