Just For Me

Sunday night's Top Story! Weekly (the news-based sketch show hosted by iO West in Hollywood) was a bit of an odd one for me. It was something like the tenth show out of 11 which featured one or more of my submitted jokes, but for a time I thought they had not taken any of mine. By the time I had come to terms with that, I found I was wrong. That was a pleasant enough way to wake up on Sunday morning.

The show was also novel for being only the second time I had a friend along expressly at my invitation. I think I will try to avoid that, because I feel added stress over the idea that my jokes and the show must live up not only to my hopes, but to the expectations of someone else. That's just too much for me to take. My part of the show is maybe thirty seconds long, which isn't much for someone who's there to see your thing.

Having a guest also meddles with my routine. I show up at 7:30 in order to settle my ticket, have a drink and chat with whatever people I know that are there. I like it nice and leisurely with no risk of being late. I can do that on my own, but any guest introduced into the equation is instantly a weak link. I should be more glad that friends every want to be with me or see my work, but like Popeye said, I yam what I yam.

On Sunday night I thought that I had two jokes in the show, but after considering things Monday, I decided that one of them was not in fact a re-written joke of mine, but a joke by someone else that was similar to mine. That left the other joke. Each show features a few jokes that offer a premise and have a cast member come out in character to deliver the punchline. This was my first like that. The anchor declares that Daryl Hall is opening a new restaurant.

As I wrote it, Hall comes out and says that oats will not be on the menu (in a reference to John Oates, with whom his relationship has sometimes been strained- I THINK). The premise was actually read by a castmember playing Kanye West, and in true Kanye fashion, he interrupted Daryl Hall so that the true joke was not mine but in fact a separate one about Kanye. I won't say it didn't work or wasn't better than if mine had been left pure (because it probably was an improvement), but I don't suppose I have to be happy either.

The night was capped off when I reached my limit for being out with people rather abruptly (and, internally, rather dramatically) and went home instead of seeing any more shows or trying to get to a friend's pumpkin carving party. I eased my jangled nerves by resorting to comfort food in the form of a sandwich and Triscuits from the grocery store before getting a couple things done and going to bed. It was... a day.