Trying to get the blog up to date, so I have my jokes from the TMI: Hollywood Minute videos from October assembled here...
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Got another bit posted over at The Big Jewel website: "Some Excerpts From The First Weeks Of Our Company’s New Message Board." I hope you can give it a read!
Just wanted to post the video I took featuring my Halloween Day decorations. I've been setting up variations on this since 1986, featuring a "mechanical man" I build out of odds & ends around the house. Originally I did it to better attract trick-or-treaters to our side door apartment, since we didn't have a single kid show up the first year we lived there. Now it's a thing I do because it's cool. I've been taping them for only a few years, first when I finally got a camcorder. I've been posting them since I got a iPad and could do it digitally and edit and upload them. They're up on Youtube. I used pictures and videos of the various set-ups over the years to create my book trailer for "Halloweenies," so, I guess that means I can write that all off as business expenses. You know what, American businesses? Stop harassing me about your employees' abilities. Or my experience at your store. I don't want to take your online survey. I don't want to stay on the line to answer a few brief questions upon the completion of our interaction. I don't want to evaluate your hires. I'm not your HR department. You keep telling me you're recording my call for possible quality evaluation, so evaluate it yourself. Just hire someone to listen. And I don't want to go to the site on the back of your receipt to take a survey that will then enter me into a sweepstakes where I might win a prize. I'm not answering your stupid questions on spec. At least Burger King will give be a Whopper if I answer its questions (I'm looking at you Wendy's). Hey, look, if I have a complaint, I'll write you a letter. And don't force me to rate your employee's performance when your company sucks and isn't getting my cable picture fixed. Most of the time it's not about that poor cubicle jockey forced to deal with the public, it usually about your management's crappy decisions, but none of your telephone surveys give that as a choice. I'm your customer, not your mom. You figure it out. This is one of those bits I wrote up that I really, really enjoy but no one else seems to. It's been bumping around awhile. It's not really topical but I've submitted it in one form or another to every venue I've been a party to over the years. It's a deep dive into my sarcastic passive-aggressive side that rarely gets unleashed in my bits but when it comes to watching pandering politicians who promise the moon but are just so insincere about it, I can go there very easily. Very. But it is election time, and autumn is here, which means falling leaves, a nip in the air and UFOs... Yes, we're here to plug my Nick Flebber mystery, Space Case, a X-citing investigation for all you X-philes out there. Available over at Amazon! The Sarcastic PartyA quickie song parody from 2008. Remember back in the day people had to make up shortcomings about a president? Good times. I actually had a run of these type of songs back there, it was a weird, weird time. But it is election time, and autumn is here, which means falling leaves, a nip in the air and UFOs... Yes, we're here to plug my Nick Flebber mystery, Space Case, a X-citing investigation for all you X-philes out there. Available over at Amazon! Barack be a Muslim Tonight
Ah, the excitement of of a new administration! The comedy troupe is always looking for female-heavy skits and I try to fill that niche. Sometimes. But the idea of a First Ladies Club seemed an obvious choice. So obvious, SNL did one as well, only more supernatural, with long-gone ladies appearing to Melania. Dated in certain ways, I note Barbara Bush is gone now. I don't know why I didn't have Rosalyn there. But there's stuff beyond the topical which still works. There's some snappy lines in there. The line about being the first lady but not the last is one I came up with for a political comedy play I wrote once. Nice running gags and character moments. It's not a classic, but it would have been a slick bit of comedy of its time...which has passed. But it is election time, and autumn is here, which means falling leaves, a nip in the air and UFOs... Yes, we're here to plug my Nick Flebber mystery, Space Case, a X-citing investigation for all you X-philes out there. Available over at Amazon! The First Ladies ClubRemember a time when Clinton and Trump were arguing about when to hold debates? Remember when when Trump looked like an idiot and we all thought Hillary was going to win? Boy, did this skit get dated! I mean it was bad enough that we were starting to inundate TMI Hollywood with political sketches, since they were mostly dealing with pop culture, but then 2016 was the first pop-culture presidential election. Hillary here is so confident. Trump is flailing. OK, so maybe not all of it dated. The biggest trick in these things is trying to find you're own take on a character and not just do an SNL sketch the way they were defining them. It's hard. I often find myself writing in the voice of the SNL version of the person. But the sketches were now better fleshed out, there was a decent POV and a good closing gag. So, there's that. And now it gets to see the light of day... And, of course, this whole celebration of fall is to help remind folks that my book, Space Case is available over at Amazon. It sure beats stepping on a rake! Debating DebatesA cute little trifle I wrote after the Democratic Convention concluded. It's short, a black out more than a sketch, but it was something everyone noted about the Clinton's and the balloon. The big meme was "Find someone who looks at you the way Bill looks at these balloons." So, a commercial parody. Who knew they would actually have to consider this as a job after November? So, Space Case, my second Nick Flebber mystery, which just happens to take place in the fall, is available at Amazon. Grab a copy today. I'll be glad you did. Clinton House of BalloonsHey, internet! I'm on a podcast! Mark Arnold, author and curator of pop culture, invited me to be on his Fun Ideas podcast! We talked about many things, but mostly me. We met online years ago when he was working on a book about Cracked magazine. So the podcast starts there and goes far afield. He posted it on Youtube. Also, I talked A LOT, so he broke it into two parts. What can I say, you get me wound up and that's what happens. |
Dan FiorellaFreelance writer, still hacking away. Archives
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