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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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
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 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... Man, I thought doing TV parodies was too modern for PHC, I don't know why I would submit a bit about blogging. Blogging was turning into a thing, giving everyone a voice, each those who had nothing to say. It was ridiculous. Telling people you had a blog back then was like telling someone today you have a podcast. And that's why I still blog. Blogging Institute
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...
Back in the fall of '06, there was an outbreak of E-coli in fresh spinach. So, naturally, I had to rush out and write up a quick song parody to submit to the song that week, as a second submission. That also was rejected.
Popeye's New Spinach Song
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...
We got to see the big Broadway musical "The Producers" and I really enjoyed it a lot. It was fun and wacky and broke the 4th wall. And the songs were really good, simple with hooks that pulled you in. I didn't get to see it with the original stars, Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick, but what are you gonna do? This one tune hit me. It's the "Want Song," where a character realizes what he wants to get from the story. Here, it's literally called "I Wanna Be a Producer." Also at the time, the big movie for the period was "Pirates of the Caribbean." Naturally, I decided to combine them for this wacky musical parody. And try to turn it into a useable PHC sketch for the start of the 2006-2007 season. It didn't get picked, but it's a cute little ditty, even though I can no longer recall the tune. And now? Pirate musicals are all the rage.
I Wanna be a Pirate 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 was for the 20065-2006 season finale, and I don't know where my head was at. This sketch was from the files. I had written it as a one act for a theater group Pen to Stage. An actress there saw it and really liked it. She was part of a group in NJ called Style Without Substance and wanted to know if she could use it for that. I agreed. She got to do it in one of Style's shows and because of that, I got to submit other material to the group and become a writer member of the group. But I must have really felt drained that I would pull it this off the hard drive. I played with it to make it audio. I've kind of forgotten about it because I should certainly pull it out to submit to all the mini-play festivals I'm submitting to now. I'll have to keep this one in mind. It's not like anyone heard it on the radio, because PHC passed... LADIES OF THE HOUSE 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... Okay, the show didn't run this late into June, but apparently I actually submitted multiple sketches as the season ended. And look now: how timely is this sketch? It's about eliminating the penny. To remind everyone, they have been talking about stopping the minting of pennies forever (certainly since 2006). But now, because a certain South African got involved, it's suddenly the best idea since sliced bread. Additionally, this was a road show, there were in Illinois that week and I was trying to come up with a geo-centric sketch, thinking that might get me some consideration. Pennies were in the news, Lincoln is on the penny, hey, you see where this is going, right? I don't know if they did, but I wasn't used. Lucky Penny |
Dan FiorellaFreelance writer, still hacking away. Archives
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