Here Again?

I can't decide how to pretty up my website! I am not a visual person. However, I am exceedingly lazy when it comes to such details so I went back and funkified this blog to make it the Shouts From The Lawn Somewhat Temporary Home Page.

I have links to old shows and I'll most likely update this way to the rare few of you who actually care. New show links will be posted by date; and any details, pics or bric-a-brac I think of I'll paste in here. For funsies. That's what this is about, right? Funsies. The new caramel coated snack treat.

I've gone off the rails a bit.

New shows start January 12.

Scratch Pad Stage

I have very little experience writing jokes to say onstage, but that is not to say I have no experience at all.

Many years ago, back before our country completely turned into the Hatfields vs. the McCoys, I did a little stand up back in Orlando. I had a notebook full of very hacky jokes and observations that I kept with me at all times. I never knew when a little comic gem would come to me and I had to write it down at that moment, for fear of losing to the ether. "7-11's are lame!" "'Nub' is a funny word!"

One day I took a trip downtown on a bus and while i roamed the street seemingly looking for a much-needed job I found a little theater that had open mic nights. I came back the next week to see the show as a patron, then I came back with 3-5 minutes of knee-slapping hilarity. It actually went well.

This time around, when I'm older and I take up more space, not much has changed. Well, that's a fat lie. A lot has changed. I've learned a lot about my style and what I want to talk about. But the gathering of material is similar. Also, a blatant lie.

I've had opportunities to at least try out this material out loud on the podcasts, if not to all the unfortunate humans that interact with me in my life.

Here's the thing. the material has to be good, but you also have to car about it at the time. At least at this stage in the game. The 'I don't know what I'm doing' stage.

I have a bit about the Y2K scare that I like. Its old but I can tie it in with the 2012 nonsense that's floating around out there. I have to hammer out some fish out of water stuff. Being from Florida could actually be an asset for once.

I've planted these in the podcasts but never tried to whittle them down. Oi.

If the set is as entertaining as this blog entry, I'm screwed.

You Should Never Do This. (Or Should You?)

This rhino has no business being here.

I thought I bailed on this thing for good.

I have used any and all of my creative energy (i.e. complaining about minutiae) for my Shout From The Lawn podcast. I've enjoyed the results. But recently, through genuine introspection, therapy and and countless days staring out a window; and after a lifetime of putting things off, I have discovered that I need to venture out.

So after 16 years or so I am going back to stand-up comedy. By that I mean, hitting the half dozen or so places in Portland that actually have open mic nights.

Normally I would advise against anyone who would ever write down their intentions. Its almost always a mistake. Your failure is now shared with everyone you blurted your half brained cockamamie ideas to. You should always reports on events after they happen. Take that, cable news.

But sometimes you just don't care. Its succeed or bust and bust doesn't hurt that much.

So why write about it in here? No reason. Its up. I'd like to chronicle things as they happen: First hone down a few sets. I have to scrape the good material from my podcasts, and turn the switch on in my head that sniffs out the funny. Its usually on, but now I have kicked into oversniff.

I'll also include when I sample the locations as a patron. This sounds uninteresting, and it is. But I haven't gone out in any adventurous capacity since Clinton was president. ('Member those days...ahhhh....) I've been in work and dad mode for a very long time.

Its just like The Natural, except I'm not really a natural. And there's no Robert Redford or Glenn Close. Or baseball. And it doesn't take place in the thirties. And there is no sign of Wilford Brimley anywhere.

Finally, I'll detail the show. I'm pretty scared about it, but I was when I was 22. Kinda makes me feel 22.

I'm sure I'll write other things in here. I think I feel it again. But podcast first, because it actually costs me a few bucks.