A Special Place.

march 19th, 2016

i did stand‑up for the third time the other night at Cole's. i want my stand‑up persona to be as smooth as my poet persona, which means i might try rehearsing my next set like a poem. Try lots of things!

i did a long bit comparing the current US Presidential candidates to forms of birth control. Obviously this involved talking about vaginas. That's supposed to be a stereotype about women in comedy, that we just talk about vaginas and periods. But then i think of all the boring dick jokes i've had to sit through and feel a big WUTEVR.

i opened with a bit about the Friend Zone. Superfans will recognize it as nearly entirely lifted from last fall's poem Kill the Men (not all men?):

“Any dudes out here in the friend zone, stuck in the friend zone? Yeah, fuck you. That's right. That's what women do when we sexually alienate men: we're your friends. What is it that men do when they sexually alienate women? Don't answer that!”

One of the hosts recognized me from Twitter, others recognized me from The Moth and from Clinton/Cheney homoerotica. That felt amazing. Creative traction.

POLITICS

It's strange to watch the conservative USA establishment implode. i'm rooting for FOX News reporter Megyn Kelly and former Breitbart reporter Michelle Fields. Didn't see that coming as a life event, but here w'are.

i'm watching Ann Coulter's Twitter feed for hints at the human behind it. i call her “Annie” and every time she says something ignorant or immature i tell Vlad, “she's just trying to provoke me.”

i dunno whence my thing for Ann Coulter came. It arrived and i haven't fought it. She's in her 50s, engaged several times but never married. What happened, Annie? Why didn't you close? She treasures her independence as a writer and performer. “No one can fire me,” she's said. i've said that about the way i work. Those exact words. Consonance.

Her public persona is so racist, so childish. Is it a veneer? Is this the price of her independence? Did she try writing balanced intelligent political prose, and it just didn't sell? And this public Ann Coulter character/caricature and accompanying books are how she's figured out how to work her Writing Life?

i dream of interviewing Annie and asking her about all of this. It's a dream right up there with my dreams of improvising with Fred Armisen and leading a big dance number in front of a live audience.