Shit that Pissed me off – 4/6/18
Anti Vaxxer asks Why Vaccines Aren’t the Bible
I think we all know that I find the anti vaccination movement one of the worst things in the world today. It’s hard that I can rank anything above our President but as of yet, he has done less real harm. He still has three more years, though (fuuuuuuck).
This particular anti vax kook has an argument that really puts her on the fringe of the movement since she has managed to combine being a naturopathic nut with being a complete right-wing Christian crazy person. It’s a neat trick!
She argues that vaccines can’t be good because god didn’t mention them in the Bible. Which, I must admit, is true.
What’s odd here is that right-wing Christians would freak out if I asked them why god didn’t mention cars in the Bible. Or airplanes.
And verily did Jesus say “I could spread my word more effectively if all my followers could help me buy a private luxury airplane.”
Because it’s stupid. Whether or not god wrote the Bible, smart people can agree he didn’t bring up stuff like vaccines and cars because it wouldn’t make any sense to the people who were reading it when it was written.
If god had written “Thou shalt yield to the driver on the right when stopping at a four way stop sign,” the hebrews would have said “what the fuck are you talking about god?”
And god would have said “It’ll make sense in a few thousand years.”
And they would have said “can we focus on getting out of this desert right now and then figure out what you mean by four-way stop sign?”
A similar conversation would have happened had Jesus said “How blessed are the unvaccinated for they shall have a lower risk of autism.”
But hopefully it would have involved a fact checker to tell Jesus that the study he was citing had been discredited. Read More…
Why do we want to Die Laughing?
I’m spending most of this week working on Die Laughing for Fearless Comedy Productions and that means I’m writing about the event. A lot.
So please forgive me if you’ve seen this information before. It’s important so I’m making sure that it shows up in a lot of different places.
Today’s blog is going to discuss why we are doing a fundraiser in the first place. It is really easy to ask people for money. It is a lot more important to make sure they know why we are asking for money.
Our goal for this event is $10,069, which is a juvenile joke. That’s our specialty! It also is probably not enough. We’d be much happier if we made closer to $15,000. I’m going to try to explain why.
Fringe Reviews – Days 10 & 11
I spent a lot of time at the Fringe this weekend and while reviewing shows makes no difference for anyone’s attendance at this point, I’m still going to write about what I saw.
I’ve developed a lot of friends at the Fringe over the years. At first, I would try very hard to see all of their shows because that’s what friends do. Over time, I’ve reached the point where watching every show by a friend could mean I’d never see anything by someone I don’t know.
So I reached the point where I realized that everyone I knew was in the same boat as me. Making a choice to miss a friend’s show isn’t personal. You are only going to see so many shows over the course of eleven days.
When you reach that conclusion, it takes a little bit of the pressure off.
So if you are a friend of mine and I missed your show this year, I’m sorry. If you missed mine, that is OK too. I’m sure we can all still be friends.
Fringe Reviews – Days 5 & 6
I have a lot of friends, old and new, who produce shows at the festival. I’m never sure how to review their shows because I would like them to continue to be my friends even if I didn’t like the show.
I try to remember that most people who write and produce work want to hear honest feedback because it helps them get better. When I wrote “Shroedinger’s Apocalypse” last year, I knew I was working far outside of my comfort zone. While I felt good about a lot of the writing, I also felt that it was an imperfect work and I really wanted my peers to help me explore what I could have done to write a better show.
All this is to say that I saw some shows by friends and I’m going to write reviews. The shows weren’t perfect, but they all had merit.
Friend a Day – David Traylor
Photo by Peter Verrant
David is another very new friend. I’ve known him for less than a year. He tried out for Vilification Tennis at this year’s amateur show. He didn’t make it into the cast because I only have room for one person this year but we did invite him to be a part of Fearless and that has proven to be a great choice.
I have so much respect for anyone who tries out for Vilification Tennis through the amateur show. It’s about the scariest possible proposition I can think of to try out for a show in front of a live audience. It’s a lot like American Idol without the slightest possibility of achieving any kind of celebrity.
David is well-known in geek circles as Captain America. He’s got the look and the costume and he clearly exercises a lot more than I do.
As a part of Fearless, he’s been willing to jump into just about anything we need him to do. When we wrote the halftime show for CONvergence this year, we decided to plug Captain America into the show because we had the perfect Captain America.
His small role underwent a whole lot of changes between first draft and final staging and he was a complete pro about all of it. As a producer, it is great to have people who you can plug into a small but important role and know that they are going to rock it.
There are a lot of people who try out for Vilification Tennis and only a few make it into the cast. The ones who don’t make it into the cast are typically pretty gracious and I don’t see much of them ever again.
The cool thing about Fearless is we have an opportunity to bring some of those new people with us into other performing opportunities. I’m really glad that we made that decision because it has allowed me to get to know David a lot better over the last few months.
Big Fun Radio Writers Wanted
About a week ago, I debuted my newest comedy show, Big Fun Radio Funtime. The idea behind the show is to have a quarterly show that features work by several different writers. That’s where this post comes in.
I know a good number of writers in the cities and I’ve contacted some of them. Mostly the ones I was pretty sure would enjoy writing something in this particular comedy sandbox. Actually, to be honest, they were the people who I could think of off the top of my head shortly after I had the idea for the show.
I missed a whole bunch of other people. Some pretty obvious. Some not so obvious. Maybe you were one of those folks.
So if anyone out there is waiting for an invitation, here it is. Do you want to write for the show? Tell me so. I need four original 10-12 minute scripts per show so I’m going to run out of people on my first contact list in a hurry.
You don’t have to be local, either. I can direct the script and I’ll make sure you get an audio copy of the show so you can impress all of your friends.
Drop me a line. Comment on this blog entry or on Facebook. Send me an e-mail at bigfunradio@fearlesscomedyproductions.com.
I’d love to feature your script at one of these shows. I just didn’t know you wanted to write one!
And on a separate but equally important note – I want to feature solo songwriters and voice actors at each show as well. Do you do one of those things? If so, you could be doing it for me!
Stories from a Fearless week of Fearlessness
This entry is going to be pretty long because the last week was a pretty massively amazing week and even though I’m just trying to sum all of it up, there is a lot to sum up.
Last week, we launched a theatre company.
Interesting how I say that so casually. We launched a theatre company. Sounds easy, doesn’t it? Any yahoo can launch a theatre company.
That is quite possibly true. Fortunately, when I tossed the idea at a bunch of other yahoos I knew, their initial response was not to laugh at me and tell me that I was a crazy person. Instead, they told me they liked the idea and that they wanted to help. Still sounds pretty casual, doesn’t it?
It is Monday Morning – Must be Time to Gloat
It’s been over a month since we recorded a Vilification Tennis podcast and even though we were tired as hell, we decided we should record it after the Fearless launch party on Saturday. This could have been a horrible decision had the event been a disastrous failure.
The event was instead a huge success. Thanks to a great many people, we raised better than half of our operating budget for the year and it is rumored that the wacky comedy to which we subjected our audience was both wacky and comedic.
All things considered, we were blown away by the success of the event. That meant we were pretty euphoric when we recorded the podcast. Which beats the alternative. Eric had also prepared humus and salsa. That goes a long way to creating a positive podcasting environment.
So if you are a fan of the podcast, you should listen to this week’s episode. I think we were somewhat amusing.
Fearless Comedy Launch – What is happening?
I’ve been talking about Fearless Comedy for a while because it’s a big deal and I’m really excited about it. This Saturday’s launch party is the “official” start for the company. I think we have a great lineup of entertainment for the evening.
So if you’ve been reading/hearing about Fearless and the launch party and you are thinking “man, that sounds awesome but I really want to know more,” this is the post for you!
The event takes place at the Amsterdam Bar and Hall in downtown St. Paul. It starts at 6:00 and runs until midnight. The event is a fundraiser and the suggested donation at the door is $20. If you can’t pay $20, pay what you can and come anyway. The best way to kick off this company is with a room full of smiling, laughing people.
So what the hell will we be doing for six hours? A lot! We’ll have a silent auction. We’ll have Fearless T-shirts and stickers for sale. The Apropos of Nothing podcasting crew has cooked up drink specials for you to try! We’ll be hanging out and talking and laughing. And there will be comedy. Oh yes, there will be comedy.
To ensure there is time to both laugh and talk, we’ll be doing 30 minutes of entertainment every hour. The whole event is hosted by Fearless Partner Bill Young, who is funny. So there’s that. The rest of the night lines up like this:
6:30 PM – Live recording of Geeks Without God with special guest Aric McKeown. Also featuring a live performance of the Geeks Without God theme song by me and Geoffrey Brown!
7:30 PM – Fearless Partners Courtney McClean and the Durty Curls will serve up some naughtybilly musical musicness.
8:30 PM – Live Recording of the Obsessed with Joseph Scrimshaw podcast. Joseph will be interviewing a random audience volunteer about their obsession.
9:30 PM – A Fearless Comedy Showcase featuring Stand-up Comedy by Bill Young, original music from Big Fun Radio Funtime by myself and Geoffrey Brown! We’ll also be introducing the winner of the Fearless Fringe Sponsorship.
10:30 PM – Fearless partner Ian Rans presents the $50 pyramid! You’ll have a chance to compete for fabulous prizes including actual cash money! We’ll also play two rounds of PowerPoint Karaoke featuring presenters Joseph Scrimshaw and Aric McKeown! They will not have the opportunity to win cash money.
So it’s a big night with a lot of exciting entertainment. Can’t come for the whole thing? Come for a couple of hours! Can’t afford $20? Spend less!
The show is 18+ so if you are younger than that, you still have time to acquire a convincing fake ID. Ask your mom! It’s for a good cause!
Tell your friends to come and make a date night out of it. Our goal is to raise a lot of money and shoot some comedy in your face.
I know – that last part sounded pretty dirty.
Geeks Without God and Appropos of Nothing – Together Again!
In preparation for the Fearless Launch Party this Saturday, we scheduled an epic podcasting EVENT with our pals over at Apropos of Nothing. Last week, the three of us were guests on their podcast. There was a lot of drinking and rambling conversations about all sorts of stuff. It was fun but none of us had enough. The only solution? Another podcast! Only this time the podcast would be on our terms!
So the three of them joined us and we recorded an episode of Geeks Without God featuring our first theist (Jena) and our “first” returning guest (Matt is actually our second but the episode with our first hasn’t aired yet). By virtue of being a returning guest, Matt was tasked with asking us five questions. And with Jena and Salsa being new guests, they had to answer our five questions. That was four people answering five questions apiece. So what you get is an episode nearly that is nearly an hour-long and involves nothing more than answering a bunch of questions.
I swear it is a lot more interesting than I just made it sound. Listen for yourself!
Grail Diary 