L. James, Blackwater and comedy
l. james is the real thing. as kobe fades into juvenile callowness, james shows class manifested in many ways from his obvious desire to make his TEAM better to his willingness to except blame when he makes mistakes. when he first came on the scene i didn't want to get on the bandwagon because of all the hype surrounding him but i was wrong, this young man is the real thing and it is a pleasure to watch him play. i don't think the cavs can win more than 2 games at the most from the mighty spurs but i will be pulling for them nonetheless.
you might check out the philidelphia enquirer for yesterday and go to the opinion page and read WILL OUR MERCANARIES TURN ON US which is a great piece on BLACKWATER our off the books army in iraq. scary stuff. it was a mercanary army that helped bring about the downfall of rome. remember it is you and i who are funding BLACKWATER. we have the marines, the army, the air force and the navy all involved in iraq so why do we need a 126,000 member private army there as well? who do they answer to? in a de facto way they represent us but who do they answer to? bush? cheney? a neo-con cabal? the religious right? why are they building posts here in the united states? pay no attention; it is only our nation that is at risk.
finished the week at the COMEDY STOP AT THE TROP here in vegas. had great shows! i grade myself hard and brothers and sisters i was 14 out of 14 this week. i did nothing new except for one time i did RDS (restless dick syndrome) and one time i did both DOG STORIES which i very seldom do in vegas even though they are two of my favorite bits. on this coming two week tour i plan on doing some of my rather obscure stories, car chase, jan and howard, ham and cheese sandwich and the story of my trial in los angeles. i am getting tired of my regualr stuff, newspaper stories, gonna die anyway, sex is good etc and am working on some new stuff. i have a little over 5 hours of material and want to write at least three more hours. eventually before i die i would like to have ten c.d.'s out. (a little something to leave behind). wealth and fame go away and death makes strangers of us all but art endures and can endure for centuries. in the future whenever people study or enjoy stand up comedy from the last part of the 20th century and the first part of the 21st century my name will come up. not in a major way but at least as a footnote. hopefully, a hundred years from now someone will say, "you know, mrytle, i wouldn't be a bit goddam suprised ....."
ramblings on a monday morning.
may drive over to san diego and watch dodgers and padres go at it. great race in the west with 3 teams tied for first right now. the power of the national league is in the west this year even though the mets are the team to beat overall. boston in the american league is just running over people. i love baseball.
you might check out the philidelphia enquirer for yesterday and go to the opinion page and read WILL OUR MERCANARIES TURN ON US which is a great piece on BLACKWATER our off the books army in iraq. scary stuff. it was a mercanary army that helped bring about the downfall of rome. remember it is you and i who are funding BLACKWATER. we have the marines, the army, the air force and the navy all involved in iraq so why do we need a 126,000 member private army there as well? who do they answer to? in a de facto way they represent us but who do they answer to? bush? cheney? a neo-con cabal? the religious right? why are they building posts here in the united states? pay no attention; it is only our nation that is at risk.
finished the week at the COMEDY STOP AT THE TROP here in vegas. had great shows! i grade myself hard and brothers and sisters i was 14 out of 14 this week. i did nothing new except for one time i did RDS (restless dick syndrome) and one time i did both DOG STORIES which i very seldom do in vegas even though they are two of my favorite bits. on this coming two week tour i plan on doing some of my rather obscure stories, car chase, jan and howard, ham and cheese sandwich and the story of my trial in los angeles. i am getting tired of my regualr stuff, newspaper stories, gonna die anyway, sex is good etc and am working on some new stuff. i have a little over 5 hours of material and want to write at least three more hours. eventually before i die i would like to have ten c.d.'s out. (a little something to leave behind). wealth and fame go away and death makes strangers of us all but art endures and can endure for centuries. in the future whenever people study or enjoy stand up comedy from the last part of the 20th century and the first part of the 21st century my name will come up. not in a major way but at least as a footnote. hopefully, a hundred years from now someone will say, "you know, mrytle, i wouldn't be a bit goddam suprised ....."
ramblings on a monday morning.
may drive over to san diego and watch dodgers and padres go at it. great race in the west with 3 teams tied for first right now. the power of the national league is in the west this year even though the mets are the team to beat overall. boston in the american league is just running over people. i love baseball.
posted by Ron Shock | 12:00 PM
7 Comments:
You can be damn sure my kids will know who you are, and if I live to see them, so will my granchildren.
"....airplane don't fall on our fucking head today."
That stuff is to good to let time swallow it up.
OK. So I'm going to blow a little bit of my cover -- though I'd rather not give my ID away to the savviest of Internet searches. I work for a newspaper. And one day I am going to write a column about the death of stand-up comedy.
It won't be a secret, by any means: Corporate geeks in business suits saw an opportunity to get rich, and in the wake of the watered-down comedy that followed, club attendance plummeted and good comics couldn't make a living. Ron's been more of an exception than a rule.
I have all of Showtimes Comedy Club All-Stars on tape, and I'd just like to take all the comics from those shows and do a "where are they now" bit.
Bill Hicks has been an exception, oddly enough gaining a massive cult following after his death.
But there has already been an entire generation go through that's never heard of Ron, or to whom "Texas Outlaw" is nothing more than a Myspace alias for a 40-year-old hitting on cheerleaders.
I think that's crap. It's just a lesser-discussed version of the mainstream dumbing down of music.
Ron's not the only one, and this isn't meant as a kiss-ass rant. He did happen to be my favorite, but I'd put Ken Rogerson up high on a list of comics whose popularity has been unjustly disproportionate to their talent.
In fact, I'd probably pay to see all four of the comics on the "Comedy Club All-Stars" that Ron was on. (I think it was 5, but I ain't digging through the basement for the tape, so fuck off) ... The guy who looked like a nickel ... the comic who impersonated about six other comics doing the same joke ... a fine fine collection on that stage that day, and some of them we never heard from again.
...
How we got from THAT to "Git R Done" (which doesn't make any goddamned sense in ANY fucking context, any time, ever, fuckity fuck fuck fuck) in about 10 years is mind blowing.
Oh SHIT! I forgot about the guy who looked like a nickel. HAHAHA!! Damn, I need to find my tape of that show. If I could buy it on DVD I would in a heartbeat. If you can, please point me in the right direction.
I'm pretty sure Rogerson was on that one too.
fred greenlee is the nickel guy and yet another one from houston. fred went on to write for greg and darma but is now selling cars because he has a disabled wife to take care of and cannot make enough money as comic to do so. tommy blaze, kenny rogerson, myself and michelle boudrea (sp) were on showtimes comedy club allstars V. kenny is my favorite working comic and incidently, a great guy and the fact that he isn't a huge star is a goddamn shame.
My children will definitely know who Myrtle is, and will tell the funniest damn Van Seat story that's ever been told. ;)
I think Fred Greenlee was on the same regular Comedy Club Network show as you, too. The one where you just did the newspaper stories bit ... I think from Baton Rouge.
Greenlee's routine was outstanding. The nickel was hilarious, but he also had that part about the elevator that crashed into the ceiling, and then there was the whole "I have no lips" part too. I still pass those bits along to my friends, 15 years later.
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