Stand Up to the Chain Gang!

It was an interesting evening at Beily’s; felt a little better than last time as my body slowly adjusts to the travails of a wage slave; could be worse ...it might have been the rigors of mortis! Things are picking up at Beily’s; last night audience was numerically superior to what it has been before. By a quick show of hands at the start of the show the Jester found that at least half of those in attendance had been there for earlier shows.


I arrived early and went over my notes while the other comics trickled in. Our Jester brought a young lady with him; she asked me, “Are you a comic as well?” Couldn’t help myself, I replied, “Yes I’m a comic, but, no ...not nearly ...as well!” It was just that kind of night. Heard that the Parktown is thinking of starting their own, ‘open mike’, night; that would be great, three nights per week in ToonTown!

All the usual suspects were at the table, with the welcome addition of Kelly Taylor from Prince Albert as our ‘Headliner’. We had the unexpected of a famous ‘slam’ poet from Ireland, ‘Finn McCoul’, who treated us to a reading some of his newest creations. Jim Fooks was again able to meet us half way ...from his new house! Then I was up, and, it went fairly well.

Again I talked about my, ‘slow’, delivery, but expanded it a bit and did material I hadn’t included before. It seemed to go fairly well, with lots of laughter, but, that may just have been residual echos from the set of Mr. Fooks before me. I ran it past my comedy Evaluator program, and was more than pleased with a par score of 25% for an average of 15 seconds of laughter per minute. Not bad for new and recent material, and a weary, unpolished delivery.

By then it was 10:30, and time to express my regrets and high-tail it back to Kinley and bed. Then, up this morning for a long day of rolling rocks with my ten new Pen-Pals! These are volunteers from the Saskatoon, Urban Camp, a minimum security prison for inmates nearing their release date. These fellows, provided you treat them in a civilised manner, are, for meagre reward, great workers, and I do enjoy both their efforts and company. The best part is that I get to hold the 12 guage!

P.S. I’ll have to check, but I believe that would be my 33 appearance on a live comedy stage – 34 tomorrow, ...if ...I can think of anything to say!