Shit that Pissed me Off – 11/10/17
After Historic wins for Transgender Candidates, a Minnesota Politician is a Douche on Twitter
It should be no surprise that Twitter is where people go to be insufferable assholes. I mean, our President has made it his career (because he clearly doesn’t enjoy being President).
This week, off-year elections went pretty well for the non ruling party. I mean we are looking mostly at city council races, mayoral races, and a few governor races but still, the Republicans didn’t do great.
One could argue that happens when the highest ranking member of your party is an incompetent, bigoted sexual predator but perhaps that’s just me.
In case you were wondering, this is the incompetent, bigoted sexual predator I was taking about.
In Minnesota, Representative Mary Franson was a bit disappointed by the fact four transgender candidates won elections this year so she took to Twitter. Because that’s what you do when you want to make sure as many people as possible know you’re a transphobic jackass.
She tweeted “A guy who thinks he’s a girl is still a guy with a mental health condition.”
Which was her way of saying “fuck these transgender candidates, I’m going to publicly call them crazy.”
She didn’t call them “crazy,” of course. She used the more acceptable term “mental health condition.” Which I suppose I should applaud.
But everyone knew she meant crazy. And in an environment where the conservative talking points around gun violence are always about mental health, there is a veiled implication these people are one step away from shooting up a school.
Would she have made the same tweet if even one of these candidates was a Republican?
My guess is yes. Because she’s an awful person and if she wasn’t a Republican state representative in a heavily conservative district, she’d probably be out of a job in the next election cycle. But she is. So we’re stuck with her until she decides to quit.
Sigh.
I Know What I’m Doing This Weekend
First off, we made our pre-event goal for Die Laughing and that is amazing! The board offered a $500 matching grant prior to the opening of Die Laughing and we have already raised $500. That means we’ve actually raised $1000. Which is amazing.
This blog entry is about my weekend schedule. I’m not just the Artistic Director of Fearless Comedy Productions, I’m also a performer. I’ll be performing a lot this weekend so here, in tiring detail, is what I’ll be doing.
Friday, March 6th
7:00 PM – We kick off the marathon with Fearless Lab. I’m going to be judging a Vilification Tennis match featuring the last four winners of our amateur show – Nick Glover, Molly Glover, Eric Thompson and Duck Washington. There will also be stand-up comedy, short form improv and a variety of other stuff. We also kick off the marathon with a $250 matching grant so help us get started right!
Saturday, March 7th
Midnight – PowerPoint Karaoke. I’m one of the presenters in my favorite improv game of all time. Presenters are given a series of slides that make no sense and must make up a presentation based on the slides. Also presenting will be Windy Bowlsby and Dawn Krosnowski. It should be amazing. Also, we have a $250 matching grant from CONvergence during that hour!
Money Makes the World Go Round
I hate asking people for money. It makes me uncomfortable. I know I’m not alone. Asking for money is hard.
But one thing I’ve learned in the last several years is this: The best way to get people to give you money is to tell them you want it. Nobody has unlimited funds but everyone is prepared to pay something for a thing they feel strongly about.
The Dregs are able to get five dollars per requested song because we have set the price and people want to pay it. We make it clear that there is a price for our services.
So what I’m asking for today is your money. Fearless Comedy needs your support this weekend and there are a lot of ways you can help us out. As I wrote yesterday, we have a lot of plans for the funds we are raising.
First, if you are thinking about donating at least $50, consider a matching grant. Pick an hour during the event and match donations up to a certain amount. This has a great impact because it means people are more likely to contribute because their donation is effectively doubled. The donation you were going to make anyway is also doubled.
Your donation can be anonymous or we can put your name on it.
If you would like to set up a matching grant, e-mail tim@fearlesscomedyproductions.com and I will help you set it up.
Friend a Day – Eric Thompson
Photo by John Solberg
I’ve only known Eric for a little over a year. He tried out for the Vilification Tennis and won the amateur show in 2013 and he’s been another one that surprised me.
Eric appears to be pretty laid back and I didn’t know if that would work on stage. With the material he writes, it works tremendously well.
Since he joined the cast, he has proven to be an asset because he has good ideas for more than just Vilification Tennis. He brought the idea for Double Blind Improv to me and it was clearly a great fit for Fearless Comedy. Then he went through the trouble of setting up everything for the show.
It’s great when someone comes to you with a good idea. It’s even better when they are willing to do almost all of the work to make it happen.
He’s got a dry, patient wit. He will sit back and wait for an opportunity to be funny, which makes him dangerous because the audience loses track of him. Then he says something wickedly clever and they fall in love with him.
Eric has a lot of irons in the fire. In addition to working with Vilification Tennis and Fearless, he is also doing a regular podcast and, apparently also has a job. I guess I like him in part because I’m a little bit reminded of myself.
Another trait that impresses me is his willingness to do just about anything. He’s a cast member I can count on to just stand up and make something happen. When we needed someone to handle challenges for Die Laughing, he was the person who stepped up and coordinated.
It was a lot of work. But Eric is someone who will put in a lot of time when he believes in something.
I’m glad that Eric tried out for Vilification Tennis. He’s a great guy and I probably wouldn’t have met him any other way.
Check out the High Five Guys Podcast!
Putting it Together – Die Laughing
I’m moving my Putting it Together blog to Sunday. It used to be on Monday but I decided to switch things up. If you are OCD, this is probably messing with you. Otherwise, you probably don’t care.
As I write this, we aren’t even halfway through Die Laughing. I don’t know if we’ll manage to raise the funds we hope to raise with this insane idea. I really hope we make it (looks like we will). I’ll tell you one thing about this crazy show I already know – I want to do it again.
Running a theatre company is expensive. And the more you want to do, the more expensive it gets. I would love to tell you that everyone can raise all the funds they need from ticket sales but the truth is, there is hardly a company in existence that makes all of their money that way. Fundraising is a reality that most companies will have to face.
So we have to raise money. The idea, however, is to find ways to make the fundraising enjoyable. Because nobody likes asking for money all the time. And people get tired of being asked.
Making it enjoyable for the audience is obvious. I’d like people to show up for some percentage of a fifty hour marathon. I’d like to believe they will enjoy some of it.
But it also has to be enjoyable for the people putting on the event. Any event that lasts fifty hours is a lot of work. If you aren’t having any fun, you probably shouldn’t be doing it.
Shit that Pissed me off – 4/4
Idiot Climbs a Rock, Injures Himself and Sues the City for Creating Unsafe Conditions
This moron is probably going to win, too.
He saw a rock sculpture and thought it looked like a lot of fun to climb around on it. I don’t blame him. I would have thought the same thing. I would need a taser and some bungee cords to stop my kids from climbing on something like that.
Here’s a picture of one of my kids on a rock at Yosemite National Park. There are a lot of rocks at Yosemite National Park and he’s climbed on damn near every one of them.
There were no signs telling him he couldn’t so he jumped on the thing, landed awkwardly and tore his Achilles tendon. Ouch!
Now he’s suing the city. Because he did a reckless thing and hurt himself. Also because he probably has crappy health insurance.
Look dude, if you are going to jump on a rock because it looks like fun, you need to recognize the risks. If you don’t want to get hurt, don’t jump on the fucking rock.
The only unsafe condition the city created was they one they created when they allowed you to leave your house every morning.
Putting it Together – Big Fun Radio Funtime
Big Fun Radio Funtime is just over a year old and just performed our sixth show. I’m at a bit of a crossroads right now because I think that we are getting a lot better artistically, but I can’t figure out how to get people to come watch the show. While I know I want to keep it running through the end of the 2014, I’m not certain of our fate beyond that.
The major problem I face is the amount of work compared to the level of attention that work receives. We are averaging 20- 30 audience members per performance. Can we get more? I just don’t know. So I’ve been doing a sort of cost/benefit analysis on the whole effort.
One more Fringe Show!
I was not seeking to saturate the Fringe this year but sometimes things come up and someone needs to put together a show with a week’s notice. I’m there to help out.
John Newstrom, who is directing Shrodinger’s Apocalypse also co-created another show at this year’s Fringe. I’m not sure exactly what happened but one of his actors had to drop out of that show last week. And it was a two man show.
Not wanting to lose his Producer’s fee, John asked me if I’d be willing to help mount a last-minute thing. I said yes.
So we present Stop Talking: The Game of Talking!
If the show sounds familiar, that is because we did it at last year’s Fringe. Not to worry, though! The show is an improvisational game show and that means it is different every time!
We’ve pulled together a whole bunch of very talented comedians and performers to help out with this show and if it is anything like last year, it will be a ton of fun.
Hosting duties will be shared by Joseph Scrimshaw and myself. My lovely wife Pat will be handing the timekeeper and scoring duties.
A whole lot of people will be playing the game including (but not limited to): Allegra Lingo, Ben San Del, Phillip Andrew Bennett Low, Molly Glover, Nick Glover, Sharon Stiteler, Bill Stiteler, Levi Weinhagen, Windy Bowlsby, Courtney McClean, Jena Young, Eric Knight, Johnny Packard and Jerry Belich.
We’ll be at the Music Box Theatre on the following dates:
Sunday, Aug 4th at 4:00 PM (hosted by me)
Tuesday, Aug 6th at 10:00 PM (hosted by Joseph Scrimshaw)
Thursday, Aug 8th at 8:30 PM (hosted by me)
Friday, Aug 9th at 10:00 PM (hosted by Joseph)
Saturday, Aug 10th at 1:00 PM (hosted by me)
The show is fast paced, silly and just got added at the last minute. So do us a favor and check it out, OK???
I am Fearless
So if you look at the right hand side of the page, you will see a new button that says I’m a proud supporter of Fearless. You probably don’t care what that means but I’m going to tell you anyway.
Fearless Comedy Productions is a new theatre company conceived to bring together several different comedy companies under a single umbrella that will, we hope, help increase the visibility of all of the. It is also a company that will be producing and supporting new work.
The idea for this company was mine but I was lucky enough to be working with a bunch of other comedians who thought the idea was a good one. We’ve been talking about the idea for about six months now and we’ve finally reached a point where we can tell everyone about it.
Grail Diary 