What do you get when you combine a silly specialty store skit with an old joke?  You get Smith, Smith & Smith!  This is a short, flakey bit that's redundant as all get-out but I was compelled to write it up.  I thought I had a decent shot and made it sound as Keillor-esque as possible. PHC passed, as did other radio markets.  In fact, one turned it down because he did a quick search and found there were law firms called Smith, Smith & Smith and he didn't want any legal hassles from a bunch of lawyers named Smith, Smith & Smith.

It's the holiday season, and I posted this sketch during a string of posts leading up to Thanksgiving.  For continuity's sake, I'm posting a link to it here.  It's one of those bits I thought up, in my theme of goofy specialty shops that existed back in the time we were allowed to go out and shop in person.  I've hustled elsewhere, but never got a bite.  I like it.  Here's the link to House of Stuffing

I had forgotten about this one.  It was such a PHC-centric/9-11 bit I couldn't have peddled it elsewhere.  As I've stated elsewhere, I always figured a-can't-miss-way to get a skit on was to play the radio sound effects card.  Weirdly, it always missed for me.  Obviously, PHC enjoyed doing them.  They were silly and fun to right, but I tried to wait until I had a decent premise to hang the bit on.  And the rash of post 9/11 benefits seemed as good a premise as any.  Reading it again as I prepped it for the blog, I like it.  But GK didn't, I suppose.

Not an outstanding week for me.  I got a solid joke in about the medal of Freedom, but I got aced out of a couple days' videos.  Zip, zilch, nada.  Then the next day, I'd get two in, so I guess it evens out.  Not much to add, except ​to remind you, TMI: Daily is on the TMI: Hollywood Facebook Page weeknights at 6pm on (Hollywood time).  And here's my contributions for last week:

She was boisterous and had a raspy voice that sounded like she had to explain things to lots of people over the years and had to make herself heard. And made a fuss over everyone she came into contact with.
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This is the woman who asked me to write up an idea she had for a short horror comedy, which became "Steamed." It just started making the festival circuit this year, and we couldn't fully enjoy it because COVID. She did go to one festival in Scranton, PA, just last month (October 2020), where she told us the film got great reactions and she looked like she had a good time. I didn't attend. I hope COVID wasn't involved.

It's been a couple of days since I found out and I'm still processing it. Shock, sadness, anger. To be truthful, I guess we were more co-workers than friends and she was always had some hustle going on; most I sidestepped. She often made my introverted self retreat and that's on me. Just last week she emailed me about setting up a website for the movie and what would be a good time to call. It's not something I'm good at beyond Weebly, but I gave her a time. There was no call, which wasn't unusual for her, she always eventually did call.  A while ago, I did set up a page on my site to promote the movie, Steamed, which is about the peak of my abilities.  Before that, she called me a few weeks earlier, as I was building my backyard shed, and she was so pleased about the reaction to the short that she was making plans to produce more and wanted to know if I wanted to be part of it.  I said "Sure."  

But, to be honest, my first reaction to the news of her passing was selfish and now I have that guilt on top of all the other feelings. I read the email from the member of the production team telling me about her. When it finally registered, I thought, "crap, there goes the movie." Awful, right?

Then, naturally, her producing partner just found out the film got into another festival. They're still figuring things out. She was a tough cookie and was always working to make her next break. She saw an opportunity to use some of the chit she had from her horror fame and try to build off of that. And she thought that I might be able to make something of it. I'm sorry the timing didn't work out for her.

I had been noodling with the idea of doing a couple of blog posts about how Steamed came about.  I still made do that.

​Some year, right?

Even without getting any jokes on the 10th, it was a pretty good week.  I suspect I had a number of set-ups used but without the punchlines I wrote beyond these on the video.  There's some re-wording, but not as much.  And, to be truthful, sometimes I am racing to get these jokes out on my lunch hour, so not all of them are exactly syntax-friendly.  It was an insane news week, so we all had a lot of material to work with, and they look to keep the monologues tight and only a few minutes, so a lot doesn't make it through.  The group is attempting to steer away from Trump and his issues and get back to their pop-culture roots, but it's hard with the fact that Trump won't go.  Joe Biden doesn't have to acknowledge Trump's embarrassing behavior, but it's hard for us not to, and mock him for it.
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And, to remind you, TMI: Daily is on the TMI: Hollywood Facebook Page weeknights at 6pm on (Hollywood time).  And here's my contributions for last week:

Okay, let's rant.  Sean Connery dies.  It's 2020, so I write a joke about double-oh seven being taken out by 2020.  Not the funniest joke, but I liked the play on 007 vs. 2020.  I mean, I even wrote it out as double-oh seven.  They changed it to 2020 took out James Bond.  How's that even a joke?  My logic is there, 2020 being so bad it's killing indestructible people like James Bond, but I wanted to bump it up a bit.  But, no, no, they rewrote that.  It wasn't better.  Just different.  Maybe worse.  I know, I know, writers get re-written, but it just gets to me after awhile.  I write alone.  I tend to fall in love with my words, so I feel it.  It's been this way since junior high school.  I joined the school paper as a way to express myself.  My first assignment was to interview a teacher about an upcoming school event.  I clumsily did the interview and submitted it.  When the paper came out, my byline was there, but there was not a single word I had written.  They event had changed and the teacher spoke to the supervisor of the paper directly to update the information.  She explained it to me, but I feel...bad.  I didn't get a shot to rework it.  I'm reading it for the first time with no idea and I felt it was wrong to have my name on it.  

Otherwise, it was an average week dealing with the election and its aftermath.

And, once again, TMI: Daily is on the TMI: Hollywood Facebook Page weeknights at 6pm on (Hollywood time).  And here's my contributions for last week:

Re-reading this script, I realized I did something I'm usually very sloppy about, setting up the premise of a topical bit.  Usually I just throw myself into it and never consider what might happen a few years down the road when the moment has long passed.  I guess it's the hazard of writing topical sketches.  But I had forgotten that the Carol Burnett Burnett show often introduced a sketch, giving us the theme or the premise up front.

But, then, this being a song parody, it must have occurred to me that I couldn't squeeze the premise into the song and I needed to set it up.  I totally forgot this was ever an issue in the sports world and I'm pretty certain it didn't happen anyway.  I should note here I'm not a sports guy.  But I thought it was news that would have been important to the people of Minnesota, so I made sure the context was there.  So, here's another bit PHC didn't use, with the introduction meant to be read by GK.

An average week for me, but with a higher level of aggravation for me.  I'm seeing a lot of my topics used, but the punchlines go off kilter.  I mean, there was a joke about Tucker Carlson losing his big, important documents in the mail.  Everyone heard about it.  I wrote a couple of punchlines;
-Oh, well, back to just making things up.
-Apparently along with Trump's healthcare plan, stimulus package and tax returns.
-Man, that Postmaster General can't get nothing right.
So how do they rewrite the joke?  With a line about the dog eating the report, just like every third tweet and post online.  And a shout-out to the Canadian girlfriend thing.

Look, there was a thing I learned, from actual comedy people, that you don't go with the first idea that pops into your head, because, odds are, it popped into everyone else's head, too.  And I really try to do that, I try to let a premise rattle around in my skull until I can figure out how to come at it from a different angle.  That's why I like working on ComedyWire, I get to see how other people's minds work and to see who else came up with my kind of punchline.  And avoid it.  Do I get too obscure or inside?  I don't know.  But I feel like I'm making an effort above and beyond and it's just not being noticed.  

It was a trying week also, because I got nothing in for the first two nights.  Zip.  Finally starting on Wednesday, I started seeing variations on my material, so, I'm including those.  

And, as per usual, TMI: Daily is on the TMI: Hollywood Facebook Page weeknights at 6pm on (Hollywood time).  And here's my contributions for last week: