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... 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... 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 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 ideas I had kicking around for a while when I was able to utilize the talent pool at PHC to help reenforce some stereotypes. It was a goofy, fun piece that meant no harm and spun back on a Midwest twist. I worked in some SFX, which I thought would lock this down. It didn't. But I do like the school slogan. I think it's pretty funny. Hollywood School of Accents 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... I don't remember this sketch at all. And with good reason. Sure, sure, the Dan Brown books were out and doing well. But he was getting a lot of backlash. A couple of authors sued him for taking their research as his plot. A bunch of people were taking the book as fact (and this is before Tom Hanks got involved). Meanwhile, another author was being lambasted for his fictional memoir. So naturally I had to write a sketch that included Amos and Andy references and a song parody. Oh, and seal-clubbing. Upon re-reading, I can see why it wasn't selected. I mean, I didn't even begin it right. I just interrupt a movie trailer with a producer without telling anyone he's the producer? Or that you're changing the trailer randomly for a supposed movie that's already in the can? I can only imagine I wrote the song first, then came up with a sketch as an intro. But it's such a weak intro to the point of the song. But the song is pretty solid The Michelangelo Code 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 2006, we were still all about demonstrative patriotism, where every business and event had to display how American they were, while things like Freedom Fries and the Patriot Act and the birth of the America First kicking around. And capitalism being capitalism was going to figure out a way to make a buck all around. If you're a florist, you need to figure out how to ride the wave. So, we started to see more attempts to make any holiday an excuse to send flowers to prove your love...of America! I think this started out has an attempt to capture the spirit of my "Bag o'leaves" sketch but instead became a "Patriotic Shoes" bit. It was unable to achieve either. Memorial Day Bouquet 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... All righty, I have NO recollection of this sketch; where it came from, what inspired it, how I put it together. It's like I'm reading it for the first time. And I like it. Was there some big plagiarism scandal going at the time? A quick google search says yes there was. A Harvard student, Kaavya Viswanathan confessed to cribbing parts of a book for something called How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life. I have no recollection of this either. Oh, well. Anyway, I ran with it and turned it up to 11 with some nice bits of cross talk in it. Sort of Pythonish, but not really. TOME TIME 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... Here's me making fun of the dot.com bubble, by taking an idea I had, then grafting it onto a running character PHC had, Larry.com. Ebay was a big deal. Grubhub hadn't become a thing yet, but I wondered about how I could profit off of used-food. Eat-bay seemed like the perfect vehicle. Then I pull a big twist and have a second PHC regular show up! And then I goof on Napster for a minute. It's not a bad little sketch, considering how little I know about technology. And I'm actually surprised it's as long as it is for such a goofy idea. Eat-bay 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 one of those ideas that kicked around in my head for a long time, waiting for a way to express itself. I submitted this for the April 8th show. Easter was April 16th, and Greek Easter was April 23. There would be no show on Easter weekend, so I had to send it for the 8th. It's a quick, silly bit and I thought I had properly couched in in standard PHC form but it didn't pass muster. Man, checking the calendar, both Easter and Greek Easter fall on the same date, April 20th, so I can't even repurpose it for another year. Drat. Eastern Orthodox Easter 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... The show was advertising that they were on a Minneapolis micro-tour doing this show at the Orpheum Theater (a famous vaudeville house). Knowing that, I worked it into my sketch about those new fangled digital cameras. There was a time portable phones only made phone calls! Can you believe that? I worked in a comment someone made to me about the shutter button when I first tried to use a digital camera. And, of course cutting off heads. I mean, we always cut off heads in photos, but we wouldn't find out about it for weeks. The characters aren't exactly Minnesota nice, more like those east-coast tourists. Again, a quick bit, in and out. I liked with GK was dealing with odd ball characters, it was very Bob Newhart-y, and I often wrote him that way. Say Cheese |
Dan FiorellaFreelance writer, still hacking away. Archives
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