blogging again but with little to say...
i am in middle of two week run through kentucky and indiana, started in bloomington where i did a show unlike any show i have ever done in a comedy club; all stories with no material. (sorry rudy, i got standing ovation...apparently they are of a different opinion of me than you) it was one of the very best performances i have ever given anywhere at any time.
next was louisville where i did 8 shows and taped the last 5 and from which i hope to release a new dvd. (sorry rudy, every show was different and over the 8 shows i did aprx. a total of about 3 and half hours of material...and gee whiz, they were so fooled that they stood as well)
this week i will be in lexington at comedy off broadway which is one of my all time favorites.
i never did like john edwards anyway; his eyes were always darting side to side and he blinked a hundred times a minute. (that is a poker tell that says he is bluffing..the blinking that is.) j.e. always struck me as insincere and slightly on the shady side...seems i was right. how in the world politicians think that these kind of things won't come out is just beyond me. and the gall of the man, he could have derailed the democratic chances for the white house, suppose the little son of a bitch had won and then the news come out! good fucking god. what a prick. (so to speak) to top it off, he drug his wife and kids around the campaign trail showing us what a good family man he was. man oh man.
i have been working on the trail, conviction, escape from l.a. county jail and sentencing story and it is flowing much better now. it is a hard story to tell in a comedy club because, like the world's greatest dope story, it goes a while before the first big laugh and my task up there is to keep the audience with me until that laugh comes...from there it becomes much easier and the laughs come closer together. as in twgds it has a completely unseen ending and, of course, the real power of the story as in twgds it is true. (it probably took a couple of years for the dope story to get to a point where it would work every time i used it) also, the new story requires just the right kind of audience, one who can listen and follow.
there is no way to practice comedy; you have to do it in front of an audience and long detailed stories are, far and away, the hardest thing to pull off on the comedy stage. the comic must be willing to face the silence of a listening crowd. most comics are afraid of that silence because they have always been told you must get a laugh every 18 seconds. (hell, i can't tell you my name in 18 seconds...)
when carlin died several newspapers called me as did sirius radio wanting me to tell them how carlin had influenced me. i told each one that, while i greatly admired his work and had the opportunity to meet him, geoge did not influence me at all. actually, cosby and hicks were my two main influences, cosby because he could tell a long detailed story and bill, of course, because he showed that no subject was taboo if you did it right. back when i was a kid, brother dave gardner was one of my favorites along with bob newhart. (the buttoned down mind of bob newhart is still one of the greatest comedy albums ever made...if you haven't heard it, do yourself a favor...)
i don't know about the rest of you but i am having a hard time "getting into" the olympics this year. (as my young fan, cody, said "bejing is showing that los angeles air isn't all that bad") i have watched some of the swim meets and some of the boxing and in the boxing the score keeping was just horrible. i want to see our basketball team play but that is about the only thing i am looking forward to. i was duly impressed by the opening the chinese put on...it was great! i am also impressed by how pretty everything looks there; i watched a bike race just to see the scenery.
oh well, i will get back to ranting about politics next time.
next was louisville where i did 8 shows and taped the last 5 and from which i hope to release a new dvd. (sorry rudy, every show was different and over the 8 shows i did aprx. a total of about 3 and half hours of material...and gee whiz, they were so fooled that they stood as well)
this week i will be in lexington at comedy off broadway which is one of my all time favorites.
i never did like john edwards anyway; his eyes were always darting side to side and he blinked a hundred times a minute. (that is a poker tell that says he is bluffing..the blinking that is.) j.e. always struck me as insincere and slightly on the shady side...seems i was right. how in the world politicians think that these kind of things won't come out is just beyond me. and the gall of the man, he could have derailed the democratic chances for the white house, suppose the little son of a bitch had won and then the news come out! good fucking god. what a prick. (so to speak) to top it off, he drug his wife and kids around the campaign trail showing us what a good family man he was. man oh man.
i have been working on the trail, conviction, escape from l.a. county jail and sentencing story and it is flowing much better now. it is a hard story to tell in a comedy club because, like the world's greatest dope story, it goes a while before the first big laugh and my task up there is to keep the audience with me until that laugh comes...from there it becomes much easier and the laughs come closer together. as in twgds it has a completely unseen ending and, of course, the real power of the story as in twgds it is true. (it probably took a couple of years for the dope story to get to a point where it would work every time i used it) also, the new story requires just the right kind of audience, one who can listen and follow.
there is no way to practice comedy; you have to do it in front of an audience and long detailed stories are, far and away, the hardest thing to pull off on the comedy stage. the comic must be willing to face the silence of a listening crowd. most comics are afraid of that silence because they have always been told you must get a laugh every 18 seconds. (hell, i can't tell you my name in 18 seconds...)
when carlin died several newspapers called me as did sirius radio wanting me to tell them how carlin had influenced me. i told each one that, while i greatly admired his work and had the opportunity to meet him, geoge did not influence me at all. actually, cosby and hicks were my two main influences, cosby because he could tell a long detailed story and bill, of course, because he showed that no subject was taboo if you did it right. back when i was a kid, brother dave gardner was one of my favorites along with bob newhart. (the buttoned down mind of bob newhart is still one of the greatest comedy albums ever made...if you haven't heard it, do yourself a favor...)
i don't know about the rest of you but i am having a hard time "getting into" the olympics this year. (as my young fan, cody, said "bejing is showing that los angeles air isn't all that bad") i have watched some of the swim meets and some of the boxing and in the boxing the score keeping was just horrible. i want to see our basketball team play but that is about the only thing i am looking forward to. i was duly impressed by the opening the chinese put on...it was great! i am also impressed by how pretty everything looks there; i watched a bike race just to see the scenery.
oh well, i will get back to ranting about politics next time.
posted by Ron Shock | 2:04 PM
4 Comments:
Ron--
Saw you at 11:45 at the Comedy Caravan this past Saturday. It was LATE and we were TIRED, but I loved it. I got very high before leaving the house. I was in awe and so glad to finally be seeing you live. I've enjoyed your work since seeing you tell the Peter Eaton story on Showtime's Full-Frontal Comedy. So it's about damn time.
Have safe trips,
Mark
hey mark,
those late-late shows can be a bitch but that one was pretty good as those things go. (p.s. i was pretty high myself). thanks for the nice words.
i am in lexington this week and the shows there are some of the best i do so if you get a chance shoot on over.
ron
My dad had Brother Dave Gardner records and they were among the first comedy albums I ever heard.
"Hey let's blow this joint." "Naw, baby, pass it on."
I didn't know what a joint was, but I knew it was funny. I haven't thought about him in forever, but now that I do, I think Ron White reminds me of him in a way.
Ron--
Thanks for the "invite." My girlfriend had a hell of a time and wanted very badly to head down there to see you again and get a room for the night, but we've got too much "real life" bullshit getting in the way of that this time. I guarantee you'll see us and we'll see you when you're in Louisville again.
Take care,
Mark
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