Comedy Fodder

I'm not a regular blogger. This blog is to post irregular updates as it pertains to my filmmaking career. It's linked to my website. Ergo - I still have another Sundance Doc Labs report coming woefully late.

Why so late? Two reasons: First - I just started editing a new project, a feature documentary. So I've been working long days to try to keep us on a good pace before I start teaching part-time again. I'll write more on the project later, but needless to say, it limits my time to write and keep this blog up to date.

Second... Last Wednesday I participated in The Megaphone Show at the New Movement Theater here in Austin. I told true stories from incidents in my life on stage - three stories, about two minutes each. After each story, the New Movement's improv cast would act out scenes inspired by the stories. Some scenes would be directly lifted from the story I told. Other scenes would be loosely linked, maybe only one word or phrase I mentioned was at the center of the premise. It was fun to see what the cast - led by local comedian Chris Trew - came up with. The pace ebbed and flowed as it does with improv, but when the team got rolling in a direction that worked well they milked it for huge laughs.

None of the cast members had an inkling of what I was going to say before I said it. The only coaching Chris gave me (mere moments before the show began) was that I give them lots of details. Don't generalize any events; give them specifics. They will be hanging on every detail I give in order to build a scene.


Good thing I worked on my stories leading up to the show. I took this thing pretty seriously. See - Chris (who we cut from The Overbrook Brothers for pacing reasons, though his scene was hilarious) contacted me via Facebook message. Apparently, a friend from high school had tagged me in response to a post in which Chris asked if anyone had recommendations for people to tell true stories for this show.

When he described it to me, I immediately recognized the format: I had seen a similar show at UCB in LA in which the storyteller was actor John Krasinski. Pretty cool format and very fun night.

Then I sat on the decision for a weekend. I have a lot on my plate with this feature and with my own projects. I knew if I agreed to do it it would take up my free time because I would want to write my stories down, edit them, then rehearse them over and over.

While I thought it over, Chris would send the same simple message of un-bridaled optimism and encouragement: "Let's do this!"

So, finally... I did. It was a challenge, it would test my comfort zone getting in front of a crowd like that, and it would help me hone my storytelling skills.

One of the wonderful by-products of agreeing to tell these stories was making a list of stories that might work on stage or even just on paper. Now, if and whenever I can't think of what to write, I have a list of stories to draw from.

I narrowed down my list to four or five stories I thought I could tell in two minutes. Getting these stories within the ballpark time frame was tough. These were stories I had told to friends many times over but I had to leave out all the little extraneous details or tangents. I still wanted these stories to have an arc, though, so I included set ups and freely fudged facts to make it work as a narrative.

I did not do this on my own. I bounced these ideas off my wife who had very specific, unfiltered notes. Even though I knew I had to prune the details she really helped me with which details to cut. She also helped me with my endings. All of my stories were vignettes with either marginal pay-offs or no definitive end as you would see in a movie. But - as she reminded me time and again, gloating in fact - my wife listens to The Moth Podcast and other short storytelling shows. When I rehearsed in front of her she could quickly parse out an image or line of mine that we could emphasize at the start, then call back to it in our ending. It's something I typically look to do when writing fiction, but struggled to make work when writing from actual events.

I'm glad we rehearsed together. I walked in with three stories I was confident would work, plus a back up story in case I needed to shift tone or bombed during my first set.

It also maybe helped that I pre-gamed prior to the show with some whiskey and kept a Shiner in my hand when up on stage. I slurred, yes, but my nerves were in check. For anyone worried out there, my wife was designated driver that evening.

The first story I told was about me playing Jesus in a skit at Vacation Bible School at a church I never attended (hint: it was because of a girl). Got some laughs throughout this story. Good ice breaker.

Second story was about me falling asleep at the wheel coming off the freeway in LA, causing an accident, and holding up rush hour traffic. The crowd didn't laugh as much in this one, but I could still hear gasps when I mentioned I said I fell asleep, so I think they were into it. Plus, the cast came up with an awesome sea monster casting call sketch inspired by my having worked on NBC's ill fated Surface at the time.

My last story was about the time I was stranded in Mobile, Alabama and had an unexpected encounter in the mechanic's waiting room. This story is a classic amongst my friends, and while it doesn't contain laughs beginning to end, it does offer uncomfortable big laughs at just the right moment. I was proud of myself when I heard one of the comedians behind me laugh out loud, clearly into the story. I also think it has a rather poignant ending when I have enough time to let it breathe.

I'm glad I took it on. It spurred lots of creativity in a short of amount of time. I recalled moments in my life I hadn't thought of in years. Hopefully this is the start of a whole new volume of writing.

But maybe I'll go easy on the whiskey.