
![]() 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... Leading up to Christmas time seems like a logical time to make fun of some of the Christmas gift commercials that actually get on the air. Except at PHC, where topical is atypical. The idea was silly and funny and I thought short enough to get too analyzed. But it relies way to heavily on pop culture and TV, always GK's blind spot. Needless to say, they didn't use it.
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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... ![]() I forget what triggered this skit, but I remember liking the idea right away. It was silly, but I thought it made a solid point about conservation and the Bush White House, where drilling was their solution to everything. People forgot, that things were always being referred to as crisis back then, to the point where the White House set up a color-coded chart that would inform us as to exactly how panicked we should be, especially around election time. So much foreshadowing back then to what the GOP was capable of and what it would evolve (devolve) into. It felt good to get silly again and start ramping up the brain again. But it didn't get picked. So, here we go: Digital ShortageFrom 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... ![]() Halloween was a big deal for PHC. Halloween was a big deal for me. I pulled out all the stops for October 2001, I created a couple of sketches that I kinda knew wouldn't work for them, but they were Halloween and where else was I going to place them? Then I came up with a anthrax-inspired horror movie parody (at the time the National Enquirer and NBC were receiving anthrax in the mail). Here's the thing; I posted these bits on the blog before, so, back when I was doing it all as Skit Happens for a big Halloween countdown to push my book, Halloweenies. I'm just going to link them below: 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... ![]() After the horrific terror attacks of 9/11/01, the entertainment industry kinda shut down. There was too much to process and too many to mourn to allow ourselves to simply slip back into day-to-day life. But, even in the darkest tragedies, people get antsy for something more. Our basic needs still exist, to eat, to drink, to be among others. And social interaction leads to other things; the need to enjoy. The need to laugh. In so many ways, all eyes were on New York City. Not just for what had happened, but for what and who we were. NYC is one of the broadcast centers of the nation. And, slowly, the media began to shake off the darkness. We all know how Letterman, John Steward, SNL and even Howard Stern started up their shows-both trying to acknowledge the change while conceding that some things, like the need to laugh, never change. Half way across the country, PHC had been on its hiatus with reruns for the summer. Their season opener was set for 10/10/01. Not for nothing, but by that time, my day job had been back up and running in Lower Manhattan for weeks. We were pressing forward, step by step, with the ashes and smoke still drifting out of Ground Zero. Work pushed us forward. But, on the freelancing front, try writing comedy. I tried. I alternated between bits that acknowledged the attack and others that didn't. It wouldn't be until the end of the month, with Halloween, that I went back to normal. Until then, it was working it out through the show's established characters. And a theme became the near-commercialization of the tragedy. Everyone and every business seemed to be jumping on the patriotic wagon, so that became a subject that I could poke fun of. As is a theme of these posts, this wasn't used. I thought it quite topical and whimsical, but it didn't make the cut. So, I've been trying to post these around the time they were created, (in lieu of the actual anniversary of 9/11), we present: Cafe BoeufFrom 1999 to 2004-ish, I was one of the contributing writers for Garrison Keillor's renowned radio show "A Prairie 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... ![]() It was the season finale so I decided to go all in and do a parody of season finales. Right off the bat, it was a tough sell, GK wasn't much of a TV guy, and that's what I was selling. I have vague recollections of using it for Style Without Substance. Which came first? I don't recall and I didn't make a note of it. It has a Style feel to it, using the whole cast, the silliness, the meta aspect. Obviously, it wasn't PHC enough, 'cause it didn't get picked. Season Finale! 7/7/01From 1999 to 2004-ish, I was one of the contributing writers for Garrison Keillor's renowned radio show "A Prairie 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 2000-01 season was finishing up and this was my last shot before the summer. I had done weight-loss parodies before and I think the idea just grew around the phrase "cramming food into my pie hole." I don't know what I was thinking. It's kinda rude, there were a number of typos and I should have had the woman say at the end, "Wait, what?" Don't even know if "Wait, what?" was a thing back then. It's one of those (now) comedy clams that people throw in everywhere, but I really like it, because it comes with a sense of befuddlement. Anyways, they didn't take it, so here it is... St. Paul Weight Loss Program![]() So, here I am, in lock down, with time enough at last to write some fresh comedy material. But on the other hand, with all the theaters shut down, there's no where to send it to. Oh, well. Good thing there's an internet, right? So, watching the news, it's almost like the whole virus response thing is being run by the Three Stooges or something. And that's what was the inspiration for our next sketch, which is some repurposed Stooge bits with some new jokes. Give it a read and let me know what you think. And if you're producing a comedy show, drop me a line... Pardon My PandemicThis sketch may have been rejected in more formats than any other sketch I've written. It's a massive, epic, pop culture undertaking that probably was never going to get off the ground. Even the title came uneasily. I finally settled on "Christmas Corral" because it sounded like "Christmas Carol" and I thought corral sounded like I had to "round-up" a bunch of characters. It was a stage sketch that no group I knew had the resources to perform. It was a radio skit, where I figured having people voice multiple characters might make it viable; however it was too pop-culture (so forget PHC) and too long (forget ACN). Then I pitched it to both Mad and Cracked, thinking it might work as a comic story. Both passed on it. So, it just sat on my hard drive...until now! Enjoy this wacky, silly sketch! ![]() We present this holiday comedy to remind you that my Christmas Comedy Caper, Lost Claus is available over at Amazon. So buy your copy today and avoid the holiday rush! A Christmas Corral![]() TMI: Hollywood produces a live TOPICAL show each week, every Sunday. And by "every" we mean "many." Not everything submitted gets in. And not everything that gets rejected has a shelf life. Again, I'm really satisfied with this sketch. Back in that summer it had been mentioned to me, as I noted in the forward of the skit, Politics is unpredictable. Like, did you ever notice that the mayor in "Jaws" is still the mayor in "Jaws 2?" How’d that happen? It was something my son-in-law pointed out to me and it started to flesh itself out into a sketch over time, a perfect Halloween/Election Day combo that seems more common now as horror and politics have gotten more intertwined. Sure, there's a couple of typos and I left the name "Watt" in one place after I changed it to "Carla." So many Jaws Easter eggs in it. And it had some decent bits for the woman in the cast. And some really good throw-away lines and the Abby & Grace characters came out of left field, but really work in this context. Alas, it wasn't produced, but I hope you'll enjoy it now. 1977 Amity Mayoral Debate![]() Who would possibly write TWO North Korean song parodies? Me! Back in March 2013, things were ever dicey with the Axis of Evil, so North Korea was in the news a lot. Man, pundits were going nuts that we weren't just going in and invading them. I had a joke somewhere about doing it so we could make a sequel to M*A*S*H. Now we go around trying to woo them. How times have changed. Anyway, here's a ditty I wrote up for the radio producers. It didn't make the cut. Korea! |
Dan FiorellaFreelance writer, still hacking away. Archives
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