…not sure what to write today…it’s been a nice, gentle day. Got up early with my son, who didn’t have school today. We hung out and had some QT, worked on some stuff for the class I’m teaching at E.M.U. Then we took lunch to Jeanne at school, but couldn’t find her (she was in another teachers room chatting), so we played with the stuff in her room for about 15 minutes before we left. Teachers now (well, the ones in Jeanne’s building) all have these great little wireless mic’s they can wear around their neck, and when they talk their voice is amplified from speakers all around the room. It’s awesome, no more yelling for attention, or throat problems from talking loudly enough for 7 hours for a whole room to hear you! So, since Max and I had the room to ourselves for a bit, we played with the microphone for a while. He loved it!

Let’s see, then we went and ran some errands, rented the LILO AND STITCH 2 DVD, and brought it home. When Jeanne and Maggie got back from school we all watched it, and had a great time! Such a fun, sweet couple of movies…

Then Dan Walker, the Set/Light designer for Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol, came over to meet about the set. We had a nice meeting, and after he left we all had dinner, then went outside to play frisbee for a while. After we put the kids to bed, Jeanne was working on school work and I updated the WTP Website. Then, Jeanne was going to bed, so I went to The Michigan Theatre in Ann Arbor to see The Aristocrats. Very, very fun.

THE ARISTOCRATS
I’ve said many times, I once heard Paul Reiser give one of my favorite definitions of comedy: Pick any situation – think of the worst thing you could possibly say in that situation, then come up with something WORSE, and it’s funny.

With that in mind, any joke that’s largely based on “How offensive can you be?” does that marvelously! The documentary is about a tradition among comedians that goes back many decades – there’s a joke that they share with each other, it’s almost an urban myth thing, because lots of them know about it, but it’s very underground – anyway, the joke is this: A guy walks into a talent agent’s office and says “Hi! I’m here with my family, and have we got an act for you!”, and the talent agent says “What do you do?”. From then on, each telling of the joke is different, but basically the goal is to make it horrific! A general rule is that it has to include a Mom, Dad, Son and Daughter, plus possibly their pet. Then, the “Act” the family performs is described, and it’s usually something long, offensive, gross, sexual, silly, or…well, go see the movie! Then, after the horrible act is described, the agent asks the name of the act, and the man answers “The Aristocrats”. So, the worse the act, the better the punchline is – still, the joke isn’t so much about the punchline, it’s about the telling of the story! Really interesting, and very, very funny! I’ll refrain from posting any of the different variations on the joke – trust me when I say the audience laughed a lot!

Now, I’m back, and trying to go to sleep, but not having much luck…*sigh* Guess I’ll go give it another shot.