I performed a pretty solid set Wednesday night at Mark Ridley’s Comedy Castle in Royal Oak, and for the first time, I met Mark Ridley. He stopped me as I was walking back to my seat. I didn’t recognize who he was at first, because I had only seen older pictures of him. The exchange went something like this:

“Jim?” extends hand

“Yeah.” shakes hand

“Mark Ridley.”

shakes hand even harder “Oh man, hey, it’s nice to meet you. Thank you for having me.”

“You did a good job. You have a great voice.”

beaming “Thank you so much, I’m glad you liked it. I hope to see you again soon!”

“You will.”

That’s the boost of confidence I needed. My creative juices have been coming up dry and I’ve been really down on myself lately, but hearing that from Mark Ridley really gave me a push in the right direction.

To the people who rushed to get married today, 07/07/07: If you’re relying on superstitious luck to keep your marriage together, you probably shouldn’t be getting married.

I’m sure I’ll use it some day for something.

Person 1: Do you think chickens have feelings?
Person 2: Um. I don’t know, really. Why?
Person 1: I was just thinking…you know, people are always using the phrase “running around like a chicken with its head cut off,” I would think that if a chicken overheard that, it’d be pretty freaked out and offended, I’m sure.
Person 2: Seriously? Are you high?
Person 1: No, man, no. I’m serious. If I were a chicken and I heard that, I would be pretty fuckin’ wigged out. Like, ‘Shit, man. That’s gonna be me if I don’t watch my back.’
Person 2: Not only would you be ‘wigged out,’ you would also be offended.
Person 1: Yeah, it’s like, ‘Respect my death,’ you know. It’s kind of offensive to belittle something so–I don’t know–personal.
Person 2: You eat chicken, right?
Person 1: Hell yeah; of course. Who doesn’t?

I haven’t mentioned it here yet for reasons unknown (too lazy to log into Blogger.com?), but I have begun doing standup comedy again. My first show was on July 30th at the Improv Inferno in Ann Arbor, MI. It was five minutes of nervousnous and laughs, and overall I think I pulled it off pretty well. I did record the show, but the quality isn’t very good. I might be able to doctor it up (and maybe patch in a few extra laughs…ha!) and eventually post it. We shall see.

I plan on performing as much as possible. Performing at the Inferno on Sundays is easiest for me due to my work schedule. I will still try to get into other venues in the area during the week and just request the days off from work. It’ll be good to get back into the game after being out for so long. I’ll post dates/times/locations to this site and my MySpace page whenever they become available.

FOX is infamous for cancelling brilliant television series before their time. What was once a hip, edgey, alternative network is now just a rotting corporate whore. One of its many victims is one of my most favorite TV series ever, Undeclared. The entire series (one season) just came out on DVD this Tuesday, and since my broke ass got paid today, I finally got to pick it up. I’ve been tiding over my craving by reading the hilarious and well-written scripts online in anticipation this week. If you’ve never seen the show before and are looking for another reason to hate modern day television, pick up the set and watch. It’s brilliant. You won’t regret it.