Crossposted at Daily Kos

Over the years, I’ve heard many a comedian admit that performing stand-up comedy in a night/comedy club is one of the more frighteningly-difficult things to do.  Not only do comedians get instant feedback (good or bad) from a demanding audience but appealing to and holding the attention of a room full of (often) drunk people makes their job all the more challenging.

What exactly is stand-up comedy?

Rob Tornoe, Caglecartoons.com

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Stand-up comedy is a style of comedy where the performer speaks directly to the audience, with the absence of the theatrical fourth wall… It is usually performed by a single comedian, and usually with the aid of a microphone.  The comedian usually recites a fast paced succession of humorous stories, short jokes (called bits), and one-liners, typically called a monologue, routine or act.

Follow me for a few laughs.

Crossposted at Daily Kos

Give me 30 minutes of Seinfeld, Mad About You, M.A.S.H., Fawlty Towers, All in the Family, Happy Days and watch out Healthcare Reform Summits, Reconciliation bills, filibuster, cloture, and politics in general.  I’ll abandon you in a second.

George, Jerry, Elaine, and Kramer in Seinfeld

What makes for a good television sitcom?  What elements combine to make a sitcom successful as well as popular?  The criteria are many, the judgments all too subjective.  

A few guidelines

Characters.

Acting.

Writing.

Plot.

Directing.

Timing.

Edginess Factor.

Cultural and social significance.

Crossposted at Daily Kos

“Strike while the iron is hot.”

“Make hay while the sun shines.”

“Take time by the forelock.”

Or, as they say it in French, “Il faut battre le fer pendant qu’il est chaud.”

All are time-tested phrases in the English and French languages amounting to the same thing: the time to act and take advantage is now.  For timing is everything in peace, love, politics, and war.  Once the opportunity slips by, one may never get the chance again.  Simply put: use it or lose it.  

Patrick Corrigan, Toronto Star, Buy this cartoon

 

Why the urgency?  What is this terrific opportunity that’s been given to us and why must we act upon it right now?    

Crossposted at Daily Kos

Talk about love of retro money.

The Palmetto Scoop in South Carolina has this bizarre report

South Carolina will no longer recognize U.S. currency as legal tender, if State Rep. Mike Pitts has his way.

Pitts, a fourth-term Republican from Laurens, introduced legislation earlier this month that would ban what he calls “the unconstitutional substitution of Federal Reserve Notes for silver and gold coin” in South Carolina.

If the bill were to become law, South Carolina would no longer accept or use anything other than silver and gold coins as a form of payment for any debt, meaning paper money would be out in the Palmetto State.

Crossposted at Daily Kos

If you’ve ever seen the movie The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, based on John le Carré’s famous spy thriller novel, you’ll remember the movie’s central character.  Played by Richard Burton, Alec Leamas is a British spy coaxed out of retirement.

If so, you’ll remember this unforgettable quote by Leamas

What the hell do you think spies are?  Moral philosophers measuring everything they do against the word of God or Karl Marx?  They’re not! They’re just a bunch of seedy, squalid bastards like me: drunkards, queers, hen-pecked husbands, civil servants playing cowboys and Indians to brighten their rotten little lives.  Do you think they sit like monks in a cell, balancing right against wrong?

Even as his cynicism and self-loathing comes through quite clearly, notice the explicit references to political ideology by Leamas – something so evident in movies and literature during the several decades of the East-West Cold War.  

Crossposted at Daily Kos

Do words confuse you at times?  If you’re presented with two words having literally the same meaning, do you react differently to each?  If you answered ‘yes,’ you wouldn’t be alone.

According to a new CBS News/ New York Times Poll, the future of the ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ policy of prohibiting open military service by gays and lesbians may well rest on the choice of a couple of words, with one preferred over the other.

Crossposted at Daily Kos

Sarah Palin’s been responsible for so much poetry being written in the past two years that it would make romantic poets like William Wordsworth take notice.  The awe-inspiring poems written about her have captured the very essence of what makes her tick and appeal to so many Birthers, Wingers, Deathers, and Tea Partiers, however mad they might be in their political orientation.

After her breath-taking performance last weekend at the Tea Party Convention in Nashville, don’t be surprised that what we get next is a series of country music hits about Palin from Music City.

Tea Party Ogre in Nashville, TN



Adam Zyglis, Buffalo News, Buy this cartoon

Crossposted at Daily Kos

This is going to be a relatively short essay.  In a state where only a few months ago, a popular, moderate, establishment-oriented Republican Governor (Charlie Crist) was not only expected to get his party’s nomination for the U.S. Senate but, perhaps, coast to victory over any number of Democratic opponents, finds the governor’s party in crisis mode.

Lately, the news out of Florida has not been good for the Republicans.  The St. Petersburg Times reports this morning

As a volatile election season gets under way, the Republican Party of Florida is facing its biggest crisis of confidence in decades.

Donors and party activists are livid over newly revealed records that suggest outgoing chairman Jim Greer used the party as a personal slush fund for lavish travel and entertainment.  The records also show that executive director Delmar Johnson padded his $103,000 salary with a secret, $260,000 fundraising contract and another $42,000 for expenses – at the same time the once mighty Florida GOP was having to lay off employees amid anemic fundraising.