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 is actually one of my favorite audio pieces. I really thought PHC would go for this. A Halloween tale. SFX. Giving GK some narration story telling. I told it was a great twist on the type of sound effects bits they've done so often. But they didn't go for it. I rewrote it a number of times to submit to different venues, including a stage version. But actual productions would always fall short, until a couple of years ago, when I was able to include it as an audio streaming program, "Spooky Time Theater."
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Halloween was on its way, and because of various issues at home, it's been sort of on the backburner here. Yeah, I finally put up some window decorations, but didn't pull out the figures or the lights. I've barely watched any real Halloween-related shows or movies, but I've seen the promos for all the Fright Festivals, including the slasher movies, like "Friday the 13th." And the 14th. And the 15th. And the 16th...Finally, an idea popped to mind and I wrote it up and sent it to Weekly Humorist. And they liked it. So let's head on over to Camp Lake Crystal and see how they're holding up:
The comedy website The Big Jewel (.com) ceased publication back in 2019 and it was missed as an outlet. They were always pretty cool about my submissions and helpful and not too judgmental. They did keep the site up and functional as an archive for everyone's work but I noticed this week, when I tried to link to a (suddenly pertinent) piece about the White House, the site was no longer there and was giving my security software the heebie-jeebies. Wisely, I had downloaded the pdf files of my articles from the site and tucked them away on my hard drive. Now, with the site off-line, I've decided to set up a page on my domain for all the bits (that hopefully I'll be able to link to as holidays and news cycles come around). So, my little bit of the Big Jewel now resides at My Work at The Big Jewel. Enjoy. 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 is another of those submissions I knew from the start wasn't going to get picked. It's totally silly and off beat, but, deep down, I knew PHC wasn't going to go for it. But as I said elsewhere, I was really threaten by the idea of missing a "deadline." I was submitting in a vacuum, kind of fed up with the lack of attention paid and was traveling beyond the point of caring, frankly. But, it was Halloween, so it seemed worth a try... The Attack of the Headless Zombies 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. Now that we are in Spooky season, WH is sidling into the holiday with their usual horror-themed hashtag games. It gets tricky to do puns with horror films these days because so many titles are one syllable word titles and you really have to work at it. On the other hand, my love of older movies comes into play and it's easier to pun off a title that everyone is aware of. I got 5 included in the latest batch, so, I'm holding on. And I should have an article being posted soon, as well. Happy Halloween!
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...
Naturally, as Halloween approaches, it was time to roll out my Halloween sketches. From the Halloween slush pile. I don't know why I even bothered submitting these. Song parodies of rock and disco? What was I thinking? There was no way this would be in GK's wheelhouse but the idea of me missing a submission really drove me still. Sure, maybe he didn't like my stuff, but he knew it would be there.
Just for fun, I ran the lyrics through AI to create a song out of them, posted below. Musical Double Feature 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... Pretending anyone is actually reading this, I've been offline for awhile dealing with stuff. So, to hit the blog again, I present a sketch that parodied a TV show no one remembers. Even people who remember the show "30 Rock" may not remember that it was only one of two shows that premiered that year that was a "backstage look" at a fictional SNL-like comedy show. It came from the team that put together "The West Wing" and, I'm sorry to say, they liked to pretend that the stakes of running a comedy show were on par with the stakes of running the nation. Which means it was very again of its time, since today we have a comedy show running a nation. Anyway, the show was kind of self important and had a habit of people talking about comedy but never actually showing anything funny. The perfect fodder for a PHC parody sketch! said no one ever. Yeah, I tried to merge that premise of the show with the idea that PHC would admit they have writers. The title is the name of the theater and the street it was located. Sara Bellum was a name GK would use when he pretended to give writers credit. It's the kind of quick sketch, too steeped in a failed TV show that would not make the cut. And it didn't. Studio Fitzgerald on Exchange Street 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 is one of those sketches I wrote and forgot about. It's certainly in the vibe of my Titmouse sketch or Mel's Dinner sketch. Restaurant sketches are a staple of mine. Whether is a good place to have odd people meet and interact (Blind Date) or just be faced with weird goings-on (TGI-Friday the 13th), it's a great way to hammer out a bunch of jokes and lines quickly and efficiently. I don't know why PHC couldn't see it. I may have to address this to submit to short play festivals or something, it holds up. The Cheesecake Hut |
Dan FiorellaFreelance writer, still hacking away. Archives
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