From 1999 to 2004-ish, I was one of the contributing writers for Garrison Keillor's renowned radio show "A Prairie Home Companion." I learned a lot of things there, mostly how to spell 'prairie." It was a solid gig and I'm proud of my work there. But, like any other job, there were...things... Here's a sketch about a problem that that didn't go away. Back in 2005, people were complaining about how the amount of time between a movie's theatrical run and its appearance on home video was shrinking. Theater owners were mad because this was cutting into their profits. Studios were concerned because the DVD goldmine was just about mined out as VOD was launching. And this was all beyond streaming was a glint in Blockbuster's eye. Hollywood still hasn't figured it out. The sketch is pretty good, but there's a lot of pop culture references to it (which GK wasn't fond of) and a lot of references to TV, which seems counter-productive for a radio show. What can I say? It was original. It was snappy. It was topical. But it didn't get selected.
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Weekly Humorist, a humor magazine I often submit to and occasionally get in, runs these Hashtag Games on Twitter (X), where they name a topic and we submit humorous responses. These games play right into my gag reflex, so I always throw up something. I've taken to setting my calendar to get online every Wednesday to "play" (and by "play" I mean submit content to their website for free--I like to think of it as pun bono work). I always submit a bunch of them on X (Twitter) and some of them get selected for inclusion to their online site. I was offline for a couple of weeks, so I missed those hashtags, but I'm back pretty strong this week. Yeah, it's one of those weeks where people went with different definitions of "hot." Hot in terms of temperature vs. hot as in spicy or hot is in attractive. I stayed with temperature. Submitted a bunch, got 5 in. So, in honor of the heat wave and the fact that there are no superhero movies this summer (?) we present:
From 1999 to 2004-ish, I was one of the contributing writers for Garrison Keillor's renowned radio show "A Prairie Home Companion." I learned a lot of things there, mostly how to spell 'prairie." It was a solid gig and I'm proud of my work there. But, like any other job, there were...things... What can I say, there used to be commercials for the Chubb Institute for work skills. What could be more natural than to add the "y" and still present it as a training institute and weight center. Again, a short bit as the season was winding down and I wasn't fully engaged at this point. It had been months since I had a piece up. And even longer since there was any true contact with me. Or acknowledgment of me. My heart wasn't in it, but I still felt compelled to keep submitting material. Oh, well. The Chubby InstituteCongrats to The Radio Theatre Project and Matt Cowley for being awarded "Best Mixing" for the production of my script, "The Nick Files: Lost Claus" at the Atlanta Fringe Festival 2024!
You can hear the episode and learn more here: From 1999 to 2004-ish, I was one of the contributing writers for Garrison Keillor's renowned radio show "A Prairie Home Companion." I learned a lot of things there, mostly how to spell 'prairie." It was a solid gig and I'm proud of my work there. But, like any other job, there were...things... This week's was a quickie, a silly idea that's probably been kicked around before. I wrote it up but there wasn't much to it and I didn't have the gumption to try and build it up beyond the slight idea it was. But it was treated like a heftier sketch, rejected. Ikea MotorsFrom 1999 to 2004-ish, I was one of the contributing writers for Garrison Keillor's renowned radio show "A Prairie Home Companion." I learned a lot of things there, mostly how to spell 'prairie." It was a solid gig and I'm proud of my work there. But, like any other job, there were...things... Back in 2005, a long held secret was finally revealed. FBI guy Mark Felt was outted as the character "Deep Throat" who guided The Washington Post through the ins and outs of the Watergate scandal. Many were shocked, others not so much (like writer Dawna Kaufmann, who reported on Felt ages before anyone else). Now the trick becomes, how does one make comedy of it? With a 1950's Doo-Wop song parody, of course. Slipped in another jab at GW Bush, just because he usually deserved one. Deep ThroatWeekly Humorist, a humor magazine I often submit to and occasionally get in, runs these Hashtag Games on Twitter (X), where they name a topic and we submit humorous responses. These games play right into my gag reflex, so I always throw up something. I've taken to setting my calendar to get online every Wednesday to "play" (and by "play" I mean submit content to their website for free--I like to think of it as pun bono work). I always submit a bunch of them on X (Twitter) and some of them get selected for inclusion to their online site. This is one of those topics I didn't think I'd do well in. Sure, I like meat, but I don't know much about Metal music. I had to pull of a Wiki-page of UK and US metal bands and scan them. And some pretty much popped into my head. Then I pulled up a list of common beef cuts then mixed and matched names and cuts. It went pretty well. Check it out:
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Dan FiorellaFreelance writer, still hacking away. Archives
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