Funny Guy
I'm For: Red Hot Chili Peppers, rediscovering music videos through youtube, baratsandbereta.com (plug), and my job.
I'm Against: The Mars Volta, nearly forgetting music videos existed because of MTV, not getting a chance to hang out with friends while they are in the same state, getting my car repaired in the ghetto, and being the "funny guy" at work.
It's my second day at work, I have no idea what is going on and I am running around like a deer in headlights. I get a call from one of my supervisors requesting that I help set up for a meeting. On the way to the meeting I run into my boss. He says whats up and wants to introduce me to someone he calls the Duke/The Nuge. I was a bit confused, but I figured he was important so I focused on saying my name clearly and putting out a firm handshake. I entered into a room of about 6 guys talking and my boss introduced me to the "Duke."My boss said Blah BlahNugen this is our new AAE Brian McCarthy. Going through my head was the last episode of VH1's "Supergroup" which featured Ted Nugent of Cat Scratch Fever fame. All of a sudden eyes focused on me and I knew I was supposed to say anything. Before I could get my head around to switching tracks I had already said "TED? TED NUGENT?" "No, Marc" he responded quizzically. I left not knowing what had just transgressed.
About a minute later my boss came up to me and in disbelief asked "Ted? where the fuck did you get that one?" "I was thinking of Ted Nugent, you said something about Nugent!" I proclaimed in defense."No, Marc DucNugeen thats our Executive Vice President, and you just called him Ted Nugent!"
Fortunately Mr. DucNugeen has a good sense of humor, and my nickname at work has been Ted ever since. I had a meeting with Mr. DucNugeen about two weeks ago, he was just checking up how my first couple of months have been and how they could improve the orientation process. After a little bit of formal chit chat he asked me if I was going to do anything for the company talent show known as the Creative Circus. Well I said, I wanted to do some improv comedy or a lip sync with a group of people but I didn't really know anyone to do it with at this stage. He told me if you have something you gotta do it, there is no better way to make a name for yourself then at the Creative Circus.
So I signed up to do some stand up comedy, it would be my 6th stand up appearance ever. This time the stakes were a little higher. The audience was going to be about 400 people, all of whom I would see in the next week. An inappropriate joke or a crash and burn could lead to a lot of long term embarassment which would make this whole Ted thing seem petty. One thing I do have above are balls the size of Cleavland when it comes to getting in front of people to do something. So just two months after my employment date I decided to get in front of my entire company and attempt to be funny. Stand up comedy is not like a lip sync or a skit or even karoke. You don't win many points or laughs by being bad. Like if your bad at karoke or your skit is corny that can still be funny and everyone can laugh. But if you have plotted and scripted jokes and they aren't funny, you're in a world of shit. So I was a bit nervous to say the least going into my performance.
The show started off with a couple VP's simulating playing the piano with their junk. I know that act has been done somewhere before, although I am not sure where. They were followed by some other skits with blatent sex, marijuana, and alcohol abuse references. Several of which were taken from SNL, Hee Haw, and other comedy shows.
After an intermission I performed. My routiene was pretty basic, crack some jokes about how old everyone else was in comparisson to me. Following that I did a bit about technology. I talked about going down on my Nintendo, the power of the "JK" just kidding, and my myspace and facebook russian conspiracy theory. My performance went well, I had pretty decent delivery I got a couple of good laughs and threw in some off the cuff stuff. I think that the free Coors probably had as much to do with the laughs I got as my writing did.
Afterwords, I was mobbed. Everyone was coming up to me and congratulating me and saying it was outstanding. People told me to screw my job and go on tour, or to perform at their favorite comedy club downtown. My bosses were all giving me pats on the back and telling me I had balls of steel. I tried to be as humble as possible and deflect the attention initially but pretty soon it got to my head and I started dancing along to karoke performances and acting like I was the shit. Anyone who has seen me dance knows that my dancing may not necissarily be "corporate friendly" especially when they are playing the soundtrack to the Full Monty.
After the beer wore off I drove home and laughed a little bit about what I did. Mostly I was just happy it was over. The next day at work I had become something of a celebrity. People were walking by my cube quoting my comedy. A couple people threw out the phrase JK in a meeting I attended. I got invited to a BBQ by my boss and he invited me to sit club level to the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Human resources gave me tickets to a charity dinner that had a value of $130. I am not sure how long this lasts, but I am pretty excited so far.
Before I leave some thoughts on the concert. The Mars Volta opened for the Chili Peppers, I had a couple friends who mentioned them before so I figured there was some potential. Unfortunately it was one of the worst live acts I have ever seen. If asked to describe their music I would say a jam band song structure with punk level instrumental skills. In otherwords it was a lot of distortion, screaming, and noise with songs that had no structure lasting over 10 minutes each. It was like James Brown, The Doors, Jethro Tull, Greatful Dead, and the Sex Pistols all had an orgy and created a fucked up baby. I am not sure how much acid you would have to drop to make them sound good but my guess is you would probably die before you reached that level.
The Chili Peppers on the other hand, were a great live band. Anthony Kiedis is one of the few lead vocalists that acutally sounds better live then he does on CD. John Friscante (guitar) was abseloutely incredible in spite of coming off like a bug in interviews as a result of his heorin addiciton. Flea is just crazy awesome, and the only guy who can wear a pink leopard unitard and pull it off. Chad Smith abseloutely pounded the shit out of the drums and bears a crazy resemblence to Will Ferrell. I have never been particularly impressed with the Chili Pepper on CD, but they are a great live band. Tons of energy and they produce a really great sound. They really benefitted from music videos because they found a way to translate the energy of their live performances into their videos in compelling and innovative ways. They made an arena with only sitting room rock, and that is a pretty sweet accomplishment.
I'm Against: The Mars Volta, nearly forgetting music videos existed because of MTV, not getting a chance to hang out with friends while they are in the same state, getting my car repaired in the ghetto, and being the "funny guy" at work.
It's my second day at work, I have no idea what is going on and I am running around like a deer in headlights. I get a call from one of my supervisors requesting that I help set up for a meeting. On the way to the meeting I run into my boss. He says whats up and wants to introduce me to someone he calls the Duke/The Nuge. I was a bit confused, but I figured he was important so I focused on saying my name clearly and putting out a firm handshake. I entered into a room of about 6 guys talking and my boss introduced me to the "Duke."My boss said Blah BlahNugen this is our new AAE Brian McCarthy. Going through my head was the last episode of VH1's "Supergroup" which featured Ted Nugent of Cat Scratch Fever fame. All of a sudden eyes focused on me and I knew I was supposed to say anything. Before I could get my head around to switching tracks I had already said "TED? TED NUGENT?" "No, Marc" he responded quizzically. I left not knowing what had just transgressed.
About a minute later my boss came up to me and in disbelief asked "Ted? where the fuck did you get that one?" "I was thinking of Ted Nugent, you said something about Nugent!" I proclaimed in defense."No, Marc DucNugeen thats our Executive Vice President, and you just called him Ted Nugent!"
Fortunately Mr. DucNugeen has a good sense of humor, and my nickname at work has been Ted ever since. I had a meeting with Mr. DucNugeen about two weeks ago, he was just checking up how my first couple of months have been and how they could improve the orientation process. After a little bit of formal chit chat he asked me if I was going to do anything for the company talent show known as the Creative Circus. Well I said, I wanted to do some improv comedy or a lip sync with a group of people but I didn't really know anyone to do it with at this stage. He told me if you have something you gotta do it, there is no better way to make a name for yourself then at the Creative Circus.
So I signed up to do some stand up comedy, it would be my 6th stand up appearance ever. This time the stakes were a little higher. The audience was going to be about 400 people, all of whom I would see in the next week. An inappropriate joke or a crash and burn could lead to a lot of long term embarassment which would make this whole Ted thing seem petty. One thing I do have above are balls the size of Cleavland when it comes to getting in front of people to do something. So just two months after my employment date I decided to get in front of my entire company and attempt to be funny. Stand up comedy is not like a lip sync or a skit or even karoke. You don't win many points or laughs by being bad. Like if your bad at karoke or your skit is corny that can still be funny and everyone can laugh. But if you have plotted and scripted jokes and they aren't funny, you're in a world of shit. So I was a bit nervous to say the least going into my performance.
The show started off with a couple VP's simulating playing the piano with their junk. I know that act has been done somewhere before, although I am not sure where. They were followed by some other skits with blatent sex, marijuana, and alcohol abuse references. Several of which were taken from SNL, Hee Haw, and other comedy shows.
After an intermission I performed. My routiene was pretty basic, crack some jokes about how old everyone else was in comparisson to me. Following that I did a bit about technology. I talked about going down on my Nintendo, the power of the "JK" just kidding, and my myspace and facebook russian conspiracy theory. My performance went well, I had pretty decent delivery I got a couple of good laughs and threw in some off the cuff stuff. I think that the free Coors probably had as much to do with the laughs I got as my writing did.
Afterwords, I was mobbed. Everyone was coming up to me and congratulating me and saying it was outstanding. People told me to screw my job and go on tour, or to perform at their favorite comedy club downtown. My bosses were all giving me pats on the back and telling me I had balls of steel. I tried to be as humble as possible and deflect the attention initially but pretty soon it got to my head and I started dancing along to karoke performances and acting like I was the shit. Anyone who has seen me dance knows that my dancing may not necissarily be "corporate friendly" especially when they are playing the soundtrack to the Full Monty.
After the beer wore off I drove home and laughed a little bit about what I did. Mostly I was just happy it was over. The next day at work I had become something of a celebrity. People were walking by my cube quoting my comedy. A couple people threw out the phrase JK in a meeting I attended. I got invited to a BBQ by my boss and he invited me to sit club level to the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Human resources gave me tickets to a charity dinner that had a value of $130. I am not sure how long this lasts, but I am pretty excited so far.
Before I leave some thoughts on the concert. The Mars Volta opened for the Chili Peppers, I had a couple friends who mentioned them before so I figured there was some potential. Unfortunately it was one of the worst live acts I have ever seen. If asked to describe their music I would say a jam band song structure with punk level instrumental skills. In otherwords it was a lot of distortion, screaming, and noise with songs that had no structure lasting over 10 minutes each. It was like James Brown, The Doors, Jethro Tull, Greatful Dead, and the Sex Pistols all had an orgy and created a fucked up baby. I am not sure how much acid you would have to drop to make them sound good but my guess is you would probably die before you reached that level.
The Chili Peppers on the other hand, were a great live band. Anthony Kiedis is one of the few lead vocalists that acutally sounds better live then he does on CD. John Friscante (guitar) was abseloutely incredible in spite of coming off like a bug in interviews as a result of his heorin addiciton. Flea is just crazy awesome, and the only guy who can wear a pink leopard unitard and pull it off. Chad Smith abseloutely pounded the shit out of the drums and bears a crazy resemblence to Will Ferrell. I have never been particularly impressed with the Chili Pepper on CD, but they are a great live band. Tons of energy and they produce a really great sound. They really benefitted from music videos because they found a way to translate the energy of their live performances into their videos in compelling and innovative ways. They made an arena with only sitting room rock, and that is a pretty sweet accomplishment.
posted by IrishZag at 8:57 AM
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