Friday, August 10, 2012

First Final 30 Feet podcast

As part of an online class I am taking, I made a podcast.

It's horrible. TRULY HORRIBLE.

But it will get better.


I hope.

Monday, August 6, 2012

Who am I to judge?


Blogging is a lot harder than I imagined it to be.

I had made one other post, which I apparently forgot to publish and then accidentally deleted it when I realized it never went up. So not only have I failed to update weekly as was my original intention, I wasted extra time making up a heartfelt update and then weeks later sending it to a virtual trash can without giving anyone a chance to see it.

Also, I am too dumb to figure out how to get said update out of the virtual trash can. Meh.

My plan had been to update by watching each set I've done, linking it here and then critiquing it. Where I was and how I was able to preform there. What I thought I did wrong and what I thought I did well. 

That's going to have to put that on the back burner for now. Something else is rattling around in my brain at the moment.

I'm not sure how to go about doing this; I am no great writer. I don't want to mention names because things like this have bitten me in the ass before. But I just have to get this off my chest, send it out into the void and see how it resonates with those who read it. 

The other day, a local comedian asked other local comedians to help him out with a simple favor. He wanted to do a 5 minute guest spot for Patton Oswalt when he came out to Virginia later this year. He had already contacted the venue, but they said they don't do guest spots unless the headliner requests it. So this young up and comer asked fellow up and comers to tweet Patton Oswalt, hoping to get a chance.

Oswalt was recently lauded by the comedic community for the keynote speech at the Just For Laughs comedy festival, in which he wrote two letters.  One was for young up and coming comedians and the other for those that he called "The Gatekeepers", the managers, the agents and the development executives whose decisions open or close doors for those who reach for the brass ring.

I'd already been a follower of Patton's for awhile and I greatly enjoy his tweets and every time I stumbled onto an appearance of his I had a good time. I really enjoy what he does! The documentary behind his "Comedians of Comedy" tour had been inspiring and educational for me. The message I had taken from it is "Comedians are just people too. People trying to succeed at what they love."

I quickly sent off a tweet. Something I thought would be a little funny and help get that message out there:

"Hi, you don't know me or (other comic's name here), but he would like to open for you in VA. I just want to smell you. That's cool, right?"

I honestly didn't expect much to come from it. I felt good because I might've helped another person get a step closer to their dream. I knew the chances were slim to none, but what did it hurt?

Later, another person in the Baltimore comedy scene mentioned how they had been blocked from viewing Patton's twitter feed. I then wondered at how my feed, which is normally dominated by Patton, had been very quiet. I had a quick moment of fear and then had it realized. I had been blocked as well.

Here's where my brain has trouble figuring out how to feel. On one hand, I didn't know I had done anything that wrong.. just one tweet. But I realize that most likely anyone else that had lent their support to this endeavor had been blocked as well. I can see that it might be annoying to see a spam of one message flooding your connect tab in twitter, but the guy has over eight hundred thousand followers. It couldn't of been THAT out of the norm, could it? I acknowledge the fact that any positive response could start a very annoying precedent, soon anyone that had aspirations would recreate this activity when Patton comes into their area. 

I just feel it could've been handled a different way; perhaps a tweet saying something like "Hey, I heard you but I'm afraid I can't do what you ask. I already have someone else I promised.. I don't want this to become a regular thing.." Or just scroll past these voices on the internet. But I got blocked. I got blocked for tossing out less than 140 characters for someone I don't really know directed at another person I don't really know. Maybe I shouldn't of asked to smell him.

I can still read Mr. Oswalt's tweets on his webpage, if I want to. It's just that I feel confused that the guy who said that the rules of comedy are changing and we can do it on our own if we try became a gatekeeper and shut the door on a group of squeaky voices that called to him.

He told me, "Hey, you. You don't matter to me. And I don't want you to read what I think."

And really, who am I? I'm just some schmoe that's done four open mics. He's been doing this for twenty three years. I guess after gaining eight hundred thousand followers, one person just doesn't mean that much.