Sketchism

Been watching a good amount of documentaries lately, mostly on musicians. I rented Meeting People is Easy, which follows Radiohead on their 1997-8 Ok Computer tour. What fascinated me was how many interviews they have to go through on a daily basis, at the minimum three. I don’t know if I would be able to handle that kind of pressure on a daily basis, people caring about my opinions so much. It reminded me of my brief conversation with Reese of the band Roper. I was super excited to finally meet the guy so at the first opportunity I told him how much his music and attitude had inspired me to start performing comedy. All the time I was saying this, he had a blank look on his face, as if he had heard the same comment every day for the past 10 years. Hard as it was, I tried not to take it personal at the moment. In retrospect it seems understandable.

The other documentary was on Jimmy Eat World’s independent creation of the album Bleed American. This video had more of a home-movie feel to it, with constant footage of the band members telling their stories and clips of them in the studio creating piece by piece the album I have grown to love. The struggle in this film was less personal and mostly corporate, showing how they started off as a band and what steps they took to get where they were now. Radiohead just seemed annoyed and tired all the time. An awesome band nonetheless.

Something interesting happened this past weekend. I went with a group of 52 men from WKBC to the Promise Keepers conference in Orlando. It was an amazing time, filled with laughter and enlightenment as we had the opportunity to spend time together intimately as a group. The bus rides alone made the trip worth it. We joked around, watched movies, shared testimonies and took crazy pictures of each other sleeping and drooling.

At the conference I had the great pleasure of meeting and talking with the comedian Brad Stine. Again, I expressed my gratitude to him for being the final spark in my desire to perform stand-up. He asked me how it was going and what my plans were. We talked enough to make the autograph line stall a good minute or two. Most people just told him he was awesome or whatnot as he signed their copy of his dvd or book. I didn’t bother buying anything for him to autograph. An authentic conversation is the best gift a fan could ask for. That and of course a fun picture. I had to steal one while he was talking with someone else. Yes I know: N00b.