So er uh hey what about them things that don't make sense when you give them a cursory analysis?

Wow...

So yesterday involved a lot of barking my shins up against familiar and unfamiliar obstacles in both the writing and the performing side of things. This is good, really, since it's always better to get as much of that out of your system as possible - in general, but especially during the planning stage.

It also drilled home the fact that I hadn't seriously written comedy in well over a year - in fact, all my big writing efforts while in England fell into horror, dystopian and post-apocalyptic genres! These are not genres that are generally known for Big Komedy Laffs (with some notable exceptions). It also reminded me how much easier it is to write something that is character or plot driven rather then pure, uncut humor. When I mentioned this monologue thing to some folk over the weekend I was told by some that I'd basically just have to rant off about whatever, to just "be myself" for a few minutes and hey presto an episode.

But I'll tell ya, the time to space-filled-on-the-page ratio is easily the most unforgiving for writing a comedic monologue...or so I was finding yesterday. I'd wager this is at least partially because a story will always suggest several next steps while a joke does not come with this guarantee. Oh sure, it might lead into more general blather on the topic being dealt with but maybe not a joke. However, a lot of the grunting involved in the process was probably mostly due to my having to work out the kinks in my komedy muskles.

Not to mention that I was trying to write a broad, non-topical bit when my strengths lay in anecdotal, topical humor. Luckily my collaborator and I hit on that last night and as soon as I was able to unclench and let myself know that the latter style would be suitable...the ideas starting coming a lot easier. That being said, we're keeping the episode length to between two and three minutes, at least at the start. That may make it sound like ADD theater to some, but pay attention to the length of something like what Rick Mercer does or ZeFrank. An awful lot can be said in that time.

We're filming again on Thursday with the intention of getting at least one workable episode put together. As we're not concerned with a big launch, per se, y'all may very well get a preview of what is to come sometime not long after (depending on how much the holidays get in the way).

The style is still being refined, but let me show you someone whose set design I considered imitating and whose interview style I just plain admire - Charlie Rose. More and more I find myself digging through his archives on YouTube, his calm and friendly manner is a rare treat amongst all the screaming on TV these days.

In this clip he talks with Edward Norton about the High Line, a section of railway in New York that displays what would happen if nature was allowed to start taking back the domains of man. They show some clips but you can also check out a gallery here.