Part 2 – Something to look forward to

So, when last we left the story, I was working a day job and at night I was pursuing a stand-up career that no longer really interested me.

Around this time I decided that people need something to look forward to, and the fact that I had nothing obvious on the horizon might account for my consistently foul mood. As such I proclaimed that my wife and I were going to Disneyland.

We went to Disneyland. It was, as always great. Looking forward to it had lifted my mood some, but not all the way, and I came to realize that I was dreading my stand-up gigs. I thought a lot about this in the weeks immediately after our Disneyland trip. On the way home, the airline bumped us, and gave us first class seats and 2 free tickets anywhere in the country for our trouble.

That Christmas, I had the second worst gig of my career. I was the entertainment at a holiday party for a meat wholesaler. I won’t get into the details, but I will say that the proceeds from that gig, and the free tickets an Alaska Air made for a really nice trip to Disneyworld. (Yes, my wife and I are obsessive, but also it was our 10^th anniversary by this point, and Disneyworld is where we honeymooned.)

Also, around this time I decided I was done with stand-up, and started thinking seriously about pursuing a comic strip. My first thought was to re launch Basic Instructions, but I thought I should give the mainstream, syndicated daily strip one last good shot. My strip was called “Guy” and I was set to start daily production as soon as we got home from Disney World.

While at Disney World, we noticed how many jobs there were there for Improvisational comedians and actors. Disney even runs a comedy club that shows nothing but Improv. My wife has been in Improv comedy groups for longer than I have known her, and If I do say so myself, she’s really good. Anyhoo, I made one of those statements husbands make. You know, supportive and complimentary without actually meaning much of anything.

“If you ever get the chance to audition for Disney World” I said, “you’ve got to give it a shot.”

Next time: God may not answer your prayers, but he’ll always call your bluff.

What I've been doing.

So, you’ve most likely noticed that I haven’t posted anything to the Basic Instructions News blog in several months. This is true for two reasons. One is that I am a lazy, lazy man. The other is that I have in fact had far too much news to report. These last three months have been the most eventful of my adult life. My lifestyle has changed in such huge and fundamental ways that it is practically unrecognizable. Rather than just list the changes for you, instead, I intend to tell the whole story in a serialized format, starting with this post.

Part 1 - Necessary Background Information:

I moved to Seattle from my home town in Eastern Washington in the early 1990’s, intent on becoming a stand-up comic. Within a year I had a small but sturdy career as a stand-up comic going and I was quite proud of it. One night a friend of mine introduced me to a member of his improv comedy group named Missy. Within a year Missy and I were married.

The first vacation we ever took together was to Disneyland. I had never been a fan of Disney films, and growing up Disneyland had been this bizarre, almost hypothetical place that you only got to go to if your parents were rich AND you were dying. My only exposure to anything that even resembled an amusement park was the Central Washington State Fair, which was held yearly in Yakima Washington, and boasted an assortment of about twelve rusty metal contraptions designed to make you scream and vomit, sometimes simultaneously.

We both enjoyed Disneyland so much that we honeymooned at Disneyworld. A little trivia here, my favorite ride at Disneyland was the Indiana Jones Adventure. At Disneyworld, my favorite was the Tower of Terror.

Fast forward to three and a half years ago. I had been a stand-up comic for over 10 years. The thing about stand-up is that it’s the greatest job in the world as long as you love it enough that you’d be willing to do it for free. If you stop loving it that much, it becomes a pretty crappy job very quickly. Just for fun I started a little web-comic called Basic Instructions which I enjoyed enormously for about 3 months. Then, I decided to take on a day job, which limited my free time. I took a job as the office manager for a firm who’s business made (and still makes) very little sense to me. I only had time for one non-day job activity and since I was still making money at stand-up, I decided to keep it and drop the comic strip. This was a decision I would often regret over the course of the next 2 years.

That brings us up to about a year ago.

Next time: Part 2 – Something to look forward to