So, to remind people that Halloween is coming and I have a Halloween book to sell, here is...,
Again, in October 2014, I was inundating TMI: Hollywood with Halloween material, but I was still trying to get back my scene legs. This bit is very much a black-out gag and really not much more. Again, The Walking Dead was the hot new show, and zombies never really go away, do they? Perhaps some day I'll expand it out, but that day is not today. So, to remind people that Halloween is coming and I have a Halloween book to sell, here is...,
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So, I decided to parody it in song. I originally went with a Mad magazine attitude, where no matter how good the movie actually is, you write the parody as if it were awful. Some of the edges got sanded off by ACN. Originally, ACN was iffy about doing it at all, saying they didn't have a "Steve Martin" voice guy. But they had done an earlier skit of mine, where I goofed on Steve Martin movies and they had a guy that said "Well excuse me!" really well, and I said that sounded great to me, so they went ahead with it. Or visa-versa.
Anyway, all in good fun and here to remind you to get a copy of Halloweenies today! October 2014, with a comedy troupe in sight, I did start trying to turn out season-specific sketches when the whole "Hollywood Current Events" premise didn't interest me. They did do an annual Halloween show, and I know I over-submitted the first year I dealt with him, writing new and resurrecting old bits. This was one of the new bits, a mash-up of two popular reality show tropes; paranormal shows and practical joke shows. As well as goofing on the idea that the SYFY channel was drifting away from its Sci-Fi roots. It's a commercial parody, which means I was still writing sketches that were too brief and needed to work on that. So, to remind people that Halloween is coming and I have a Halloween book to sell, here is... Ghost PunkersQUnlike topical sketches, holiday sketches have a shot at being utilized the next year. Or the one after that. Or maybe... You get the idea, a holiday could have a longer shelf life, but, like most sketches in the world, it'll never see the light of day. And, as you may have guess, I'm kinda a nut about Halloween. So, if I had a venue, I would inevitably start churning out new Halloween skits or recycle some off the hard drive. To mixed results. As I stated with the TMI: Hollywood group, I was still feeling my way, still churning out the shorter skits, but come September, I would begin handing in Halloween bits. Like this one from 2014. Somehow the name popped into my head; of course zombies were all the rage, so eventually a skit followed. The formatting is off for a stage piece. Did I think they would do it as a video? Or did I just automatically fall into a movie template. Who knows? Anyway, I present it here as part of my Halloween themed promo for my book, Halloweenies. Aberzombie & FinchSeptember 2014: A news story came out that a Russian scientist was claiming to have evidence that Bigfoot is real and lives outside Moscow. This was in addition to reports that scientists had been sent to Siberia to look for proof of Bigfoot’s existence. Perfect sketch material, right? Exceptin' that the comedy troupe only did mostly show business current events and no song parodies (at all), so this little gem was put to the curb after the radio people turned it down. Anyway, it's about a monster, so let's make it part of our Halloween theme! All to tout my book, Halloweenies, available at Amazon.com! BigFootloose!
I always got a nice reception to this bit. Written for and produced by the Prairie Home Companion team in October 2002. Granted, it's more of an Autumn piece than a Halloween piece, but, hey, 'tis that season. I was very excited when they did this bit, it's the first time of a very few, that they did one of my scripts verbatim. Such a talented group.
[ETA 10/8/19] I pulled out my journal from this time and I did make a note about submitting it. I had written it the previous year, but too late for autumn. I sat on it for a year. As noted, I was always a fan of Halloween, so I was going to bury them in Halloween sketches. They rarely used them. Weirdly, I don't even mention about them using this. Towards the end of the month I note that a check is on the way. Another, at the time, desperately needed check. That was my measuring stick then. I missed a lot of the joy back then because of finances.
This is a lovely little bit I wrote years ago. I've tweaked it, reformatted it and reworked it for many reasons. It was a prose piece originally; a parody of the old Hallmark specials (i.e. The House Without a Christmas Tree). I would rewrite it as a radio bit, (I thought it would have worked perfectly on Prairie Home Companion), a stage piece, a sketch and back to a prose piece for an anthology book, Something for the Journey. As a prose piece I posted it everywhere, ThemeStream, Yahoo Voices, the thing that existed before Yahoo Voices. I would link to it every Halloween. Once the book came out, I would send out links to that every Halloween. I'm just sorry I never got it on its feet as a sketch. So, for Halloween, I present: The House Without a Pumpkin Tree
The directors cut of the On the Air Radio Players production of 1/3 of my submission to that year's contest...
This piece was actually written in May (2014) and we were at the tail end of a TV fad where shows were doing musical episodes, where the cast all broke into song. As a comedy writer, this is something to parody and naturally you have to pick the least likely show that would do that kind of stunt. And what was the hottest show in town at year? The Walking Dead. Granted, I'm still in my short-sketch period, cranking out promos of a show instead of doing a straight-up parody of it, so it's brief. But, like that show that inspired the bit, it will be entered in our Fright Fest lead up to Halloween. All part of my effort to bring awareness to my book, Halloweenies, available at Amazon.com. P.S.; the comedy troupe passed on it. The Singing DeadHalloween is coming and that means all the Halloweenies will be coming out! And you can read all about them in my book, Halloweenies! Ebook or paperback...we're easy! Let me tell you about it... Get your copy today!
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Dan FiorellaFreelance writer, still hacking away. Archives
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