i am back
now in salt lake city, having arrived here from vancouver last night. the comedy festival was very cool and i got to see some old buddies from back in "the day" when comedy ruled. the first show i did was the "pot" show, THE BAKED SALE and it was at the YALE THEATER which sounds impressive but it is a music club and not a theater. i did the WGDS but it was mediocre at best. i should have done "die anyway" and knew that in my heart when i went up. the audience was situated where wham bam comedy was going to work much, much better than 'stories.' what happened was that i felt obligated to do the wgds because that is the material that got me up there. my old friend, tom markwalter, who is now with omni-pop, pitched me to the festival strictly on that story. in retrospect, it was a tactical mistake on my part and i should have gone with my instincts because i would have killed and then who cares what i did not do, what i did do worked... the next night i did a "guest set" at a comedy club out in the suburbs for both the first and second show and did newspaper stories in first show and die anyway in second and just blew the room away....the owner wants to book me which is, of course, the proof of the blowing...
so, sorry mike. we will have to get that film somewhere else.
sarasota went great, every show smoked. the crowds in sarasota are second only to san francisco for sophistication and aprreciation of the art of storytelling. they are, on the average, older and more "well-to-do" without being republicans than most clubs that i play. brett butler would describe them as liberals with platinum american express cards. they have read books recently and are aware of the world around them. it is a joy performing for them. they are not the "rock and roll" clubs of, say, fort worth (which is great in it's own way) but, to keep with the music analogy, more of blues and jazz. i did "ham and cheese", "jan and howard", dinosars, oral roberts, catholics, mortal and venial sin, car chase story and other long stories which i don't normally get to do.
i am going to do a new story this week in salt lake city which is "how i escaped from l. a. county jail." yeah, yeah, i know....everybody has done that but i did it with some real style. i have never told this story on stage but, while it lacks, at least at this time, a great punch line at the end, it is a great story and i have told it recently to several people and they encouraged me to try it on stage.
here is my CONSPIRACY THEORY of the week: this in regards to the israeli air strike against syria a couple of weeks ago.
israeli fighter bombers attacked "something" in syria.
syria complains to united nations but also says that their air defenses drove the israeli planes off and no target was hit.
since then neither israel nor syria has made any official statements. none.
bush flatly refused to answer any questions about it.
rumors are swirling about what the target was: nuclear materials from north korea, weapons destined for hazballeh, a weapons plant, etc, etc. none has been confirmed nor denied other than north korea said that they did not and will not supply nuclear materials to syria.
here is what i think happened.... it is all a sham and israel, syria and the united states are all in it. there was no real raid. oh, the planes flew into syria and dropped some bombs on probably empty desert and they did that so all radar in the area would record it whether they were ground or space based.
israel gets to show iran that they are willing to risk war to bomb what they percieve to be a threat to them.
syria gets to make iran think that they, syria, just might have nuclear weapons which would make tehran think twice about attacking either syria or waging some kind of retaliation against the sunnis of iraq.
while syria is, on paper, a ally of iran, when it comes to the iraq situation the schism of religion seperates them for all time; syria is sunni and iran is shiitte and the twain shall never meet, at least not in the hot sands of the middle east where religious hatred and warfare goes back almost a thousand years. syria does not want a right wing shiitte state on their bordor. they must keep iranian influence as weak as possible in iraq.
the united states get both of the above and has another card to play in bush's game of "middle east mucking about" against iran.
syria and israel have been "at war" for going on 40 fucking years. methinks that they have become indespensible enemies to each other. the israeli politicians can always bring up the syrian boogyman to scare the people into doing what they, the politicians, want. and the same goes for the syrian strongman in power. he cracks down on his own people and then tells them that he is doing it to save them from israel. (sounds just like bush don't it? dictators all have the same tactics).
the united states also gets to send message to north korea that we will look the other way if israel attacks or bombs anyone in the middle east that does nuclear business with north korea.
the dictators and the right wing politicians of the middle east all benefit from continious conflict in the area as long as it does not go into all out war. dictators stay in power by scaring their people with "evil empires" that are lurking out there and whom only the dictator can keep away.
if israel really had information about nuclear weapons or the ability to build them in syria they would make it public.
if syria really was bombed they would present the evidence to the world court.
if the united states really wanted peace in the middle east they would ......
the world is on fire
and
rats are running down the telephone wire
so there you go, i am back.
so, sorry mike. we will have to get that film somewhere else.
sarasota went great, every show smoked. the crowds in sarasota are second only to san francisco for sophistication and aprreciation of the art of storytelling. they are, on the average, older and more "well-to-do" without being republicans than most clubs that i play. brett butler would describe them as liberals with platinum american express cards. they have read books recently and are aware of the world around them. it is a joy performing for them. they are not the "rock and roll" clubs of, say, fort worth (which is great in it's own way) but, to keep with the music analogy, more of blues and jazz. i did "ham and cheese", "jan and howard", dinosars, oral roberts, catholics, mortal and venial sin, car chase story and other long stories which i don't normally get to do.
i am going to do a new story this week in salt lake city which is "how i escaped from l. a. county jail." yeah, yeah, i know....everybody has done that but i did it with some real style. i have never told this story on stage but, while it lacks, at least at this time, a great punch line at the end, it is a great story and i have told it recently to several people and they encouraged me to try it on stage.
here is my CONSPIRACY THEORY of the week: this in regards to the israeli air strike against syria a couple of weeks ago.
israeli fighter bombers attacked "something" in syria.
syria complains to united nations but also says that their air defenses drove the israeli planes off and no target was hit.
since then neither israel nor syria has made any official statements. none.
bush flatly refused to answer any questions about it.
rumors are swirling about what the target was: nuclear materials from north korea, weapons destined for hazballeh, a weapons plant, etc, etc. none has been confirmed nor denied other than north korea said that they did not and will not supply nuclear materials to syria.
here is what i think happened.... it is all a sham and israel, syria and the united states are all in it. there was no real raid. oh, the planes flew into syria and dropped some bombs on probably empty desert and they did that so all radar in the area would record it whether they were ground or space based.
israel gets to show iran that they are willing to risk war to bomb what they percieve to be a threat to them.
syria gets to make iran think that they, syria, just might have nuclear weapons which would make tehran think twice about attacking either syria or waging some kind of retaliation against the sunnis of iraq.
while syria is, on paper, a ally of iran, when it comes to the iraq situation the schism of religion seperates them for all time; syria is sunni and iran is shiitte and the twain shall never meet, at least not in the hot sands of the middle east where religious hatred and warfare goes back almost a thousand years. syria does not want a right wing shiitte state on their bordor. they must keep iranian influence as weak as possible in iraq.
the united states get both of the above and has another card to play in bush's game of "middle east mucking about" against iran.
syria and israel have been "at war" for going on 40 fucking years. methinks that they have become indespensible enemies to each other. the israeli politicians can always bring up the syrian boogyman to scare the people into doing what they, the politicians, want. and the same goes for the syrian strongman in power. he cracks down on his own people and then tells them that he is doing it to save them from israel. (sounds just like bush don't it? dictators all have the same tactics).
the united states also gets to send message to north korea that we will look the other way if israel attacks or bombs anyone in the middle east that does nuclear business with north korea.
the dictators and the right wing politicians of the middle east all benefit from continious conflict in the area as long as it does not go into all out war. dictators stay in power by scaring their people with "evil empires" that are lurking out there and whom only the dictator can keep away.
if israel really had information about nuclear weapons or the ability to build them in syria they would make it public.
if syria really was bombed they would present the evidence to the world court.
if the united states really wanted peace in the middle east they would ......
the world is on fire
and
rats are running down the telephone wire
so there you go, i am back.
posted by Ron Shock | 10:42 AM
3 Comments:
I went to your show at Mo's Grill in Salt Lake Sunday night. Though, I was not fortunate enough to hear the "escape from L.A. county jail" story. However, everything else we heard was a gas. It was the most unique experience in stand-up comedy I have ever had. Not many comedians can do an hour set - let alone an hour and a half set, which is what we were treated to at Mo's.
To be honest, I'm a young guy (21) and I didn't know about you, that is, until my buddy told me to come to the show - to come see a legend. That I did, and that you are.
You told "the best dope story ever". I have a question about that... when you thought the groom was dead, was his heart ever really stopped, or were you imagining it because you were REALLY high off that Nepal stuff? Also, what does WGDS stand for?
Anyway, I think you can tell one hell of a story, after another, after another, after another, and soforth. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go eat a stranger and fuck a twinkie. Thanks for the laughs.
brian,
wgds = world's greatest dope story.
mike was dead! he told us later that he was floating above us and looking down as the mob descended upon us and realized that his friends were going to be in some very deep shit if he did not come back into his body so he came back.
everyone knew he was dead. there was no pulse, no breathing, his face was grey, etc. his dad, who was a cop, knew he was dead.
when he sat up i almost died!
I'm glad you could be here.
:-)
Sina.
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