So I'd like to start blogging about stand-up comedy. I'm not famous and never made it big in NYC or LA, but I did perform somewhere in the neighborhood of 500 shows around the US over a 5-6 year year period and made enough to pay the bills just from comedy! Frickin awesome right?

Anyway, I'm under no illusions that some advice that I may give would turn someone into the next Seinfeld, but I'd like to help new stand ups get over the open mic wall. Help them hone their first 5 minutes and turn it into 15 minutes. Help them get to a point where they might have something worthwhile to submit to an agent. I still keep in touch with a few agents I knew back in the day and hope to get them to weigh in here as well.

I plan to write about joke-writing pitfalls, structuring your act, stage presence, "the business of comedy", and even getting an agent. Most of this was sparked by me stumbling upon a great community over at Reddit known as /r/StandUp. In fact, that's my first piece of advice: check them out over there. It's worth your time.

Fetzer Gym T-shirts

If you went to UNC in Chapel Hill, North Carolina you know these shirts were very popular. They're given out by Fetzer Gym at Carolina and people used to steal them all the time to wear them around. Now you can get these shirts online the honest way:

http://wackychimp.spreadshirt.com/fetzer-gym-t-shirt-A6034478



Pretty cool eh?

Across the Sea - Still Lost With 3.5 Hours To Go

Overall I was disappointed.

I was expecting (and shame on me as Lost has taught me never to expect something) that the mythology would be explained in this episode and the final 3.5 hours would be wrapping up the main characters' story lines. However, they've just muddied things up for us.

We've essentially had 2 new characters introduced to us late in the game. Sure they've been around but we didn't really know them until this episode. We wanted to know who/what they were, but having us try to figure out how they fit into everything else is just frustrating. Getting to know them should have cleared things up for us rather than making it harder on us.

The cave of light can only be found by the guardian. That much is clear as MIB wouldn't find it after years of searching. Mom didn't realize that you could dig and find the light too... and she can't have "regular people" getting into the light. But WTF is the light? It will likely never get explained becasue there's nobody left who can explain it. Maybe smokey can since he came from it, but we'll need a real James-Bond-villan pontification speech to do it.

I feel like Jacob needed a scene to explain his motives. "Mom, I'll do whatever you ask no matter what!" or "Brother, you're wrong! The light must be protected because... (reason)." Now it just seems that he was saddled with a responsibility that he doesn't want. If he didn't want it, he should have just made Richard his replacement 1000 years ago and been done. He's been the key to the mystery for about 3 seasons and now he's shown to be just as in the dark as we are. He doesn't even really know why he's guarding the light other than his mom told him to.

I like that the two boys are shown to be human before they become super-human. I'm glad that they aren't eternal beings that have been on the island forever. Or God & the Devil. It fits with the rest of the mythology we've seen about a replacement candidate.

Favorite line was mom's in the beginning: "Every question I anwser will lead you to another question." Nice nod from the writers. Maybe mom is the personification of the TV show Lost.

Oceanic Airlines Luggage Tags

I'm having a Lost finale party and plan on putting some (empty) suitcases by the front door... all with Oceanic Airlines luggage tags on them. Subtle, but it'll help set the tone. Don't forget to include Flight 815 somewhere in there. :)

Here are the tags if you want to use them. Just print on cardstock, cut them out, and attach with a rubber band or string.

Click to download the larger version for printing.

Lost - Reflections on the Lighthouse

A few random Lost thoughts:

I think that the "someone" Jacob wanted Hurley to lead to the island is Jack. Earlier in the episode, Jack dismisses the island saying that he had been broken and thought the island would fix him. Jack needs his heart & mind to come back to the island (his body is already there).

Hurley was supposed to turn the lighthouse dial to 108 - this is the same number as what the clock would reset to after typing in the code.

Sawyer's acting (ok, Josh Holloway) just keeps getting better. Emmy that man!

Loved Hurley actually addressing the idea that the bodies of "Adam & Eve" might actually be bodies of some of the Losties. This is a leading theory & I love the the writers threw it directly into the show.

I knew that The Locke-Dressed Monster was Claire's "friend". Interesting though that he somehow convinced her to leave Aaron in the jungle while she calmly chilled out in the cabin with him as the "Christian-Dressed Monster".

Interested to know why The Locke-Dressed Monster can't change into anyone else and how Ilana knows that.

Looking forward to seeing more of "Ben X", the teacher.

What Kate Might Have Done Differently

Interesting show was Lost's "What Kate Does". I think it was a huge let down in action/answers etc. for some... but how could you possibly keep that hype level going?

My suspicion is that the pill was full of the mysterious ash that we've seen the monster have trouble with. If Sayid takes it, will it kill him and the "darkness" or just the "darkness"? It makes me wish once again for some straightforward conversation from the characters.

Dogen: Have him take this pill.

Jack: What is it?

Dogen: It's some magical ash that we've discovered keeps that freaky smoke monster at bay.

Jack: Oh yeah, I don't like that thing.

Dogen: Neither do we. That's why we're all freaking out around here. We're afraid that it's coming to get us.

Jack: Really? How can we help?

See? Just some simple straight talk can really help people get along and work together to achieve a common goal.

We also see Ethan again and he's still a doctor, but this time not a creepy baby-jabbing one. Seems that he's taken the "opposite" that that Hurley's on (or believes he's on). Some of the flash-sideways characters are complete opposites of what they were on the island. Some are not. I wonder if this will play out, or if it's just for some comedy relief?

The Locke Dressed Monster

I finally watched the 2 hour Lost premiere "LA X" (I didn't realize the space between the A and the X was important but it is).

A few thoughts:

I'm glad to see that others think of this season's flashes as "flash-sideways". That's how I took it. First flash backs, then flash forwards... now flash sideways.

I didn't take it that the whole island was sumberged. As the camera is zooming down, you can still see trees above water. So to me the island wasn't completely destroyed. Not sure how that might play out.

My guess is that the flash-sideways will show that the characters are really better off for having crashed on the island. They will show that their lives turned out much worse. Those who died will still die but under much worse circumstances, etc. Those who lived will go back to meaningless or terrible existences. And all flash-sideways' will be filled with coincidence meetings of characters.

Loving Locke as the smoke monster. My new name for him is "The Locke Dressed Monster". Use it. I'll pay you ;) I hope that they are able to do some really cool stuff with him this season.


TOTAL SPECULATION: I think it will come down to "The Locke Dressed Monster" getting killed right before getting off the island. Somebody will sacrifice themselves to prevent it thereby bringing balance to the force, or whatver.


Great start to the final season!