This past Sunday marked the one month anniversary of the opening of the Chuckling Priestman Comedy Club.  In that short time, the Chuckling Priestman has gone from a non-descript empty building in one of SL’s commercial districts, to the hottest comedy club in SL.  Offering live shows 5 nights a week, with more shows on the horizon, we have very quickly become the place to go for comedy in Second Life.

When we started doing shows at the Chuckling Priestman, we had a solid group of 6 comics, including co-owners Chuckling Darwin and myself.  Each comic provides a unique and interesting show.  From Orionalation Carver, a Muslim journalist and comedian from Karachi, Pakistan with a unique perspective on world events, to Salamander Maroon, a British comic who provides a hillarious look at the world of Second Life, and through New Orlean’s paramedic turned SL comic Quinn Lanzius and Athen’s Georgia based teacher turned comedian Anaka Blue, the talent level is international and very high.

Since our grand opening, we’ve seen a huge increase in interest, both in terms of the crowds, and also in terms of new people wanting to try a set.  Several American comedians of various levels have recently joined up with us to do shows, and after spending some time getting used to comedy in SL by opening some of our regular shows, we expect a couple of the newcomers to take over their own show fairly soon.  With any luck, by this time in July, we’ll be having shows 7 nights a week, with more than one show on one or more nights.

On average, we seem to be getting 20-40 people per show out, and the crowds continue to grow every day.  On one recent Friday show, Orion, our man from Pakistan, pulled in crowd of over 50 people who not only enjoyed his comedy, but also enjoyed the unveiling of his hand crafted, brass riveted, steam-punk penis.  While that is the high water mark for crowds at the club so far, recent shows have come close, and I expect us to regularly be hitting crowds of 50 or more by the end of the summer.

If you are already in Second Life, head over to the Collins area, and check us out on the main street (http://slurl.com/secondlife/collins/103/196/28/).  If you aren’t already in SL, but think this all sounds kinda weird and interesting, then head off to http://secondlife.com/support/downloads.php to download the client and try it out.

This past Thursday night, May 8, 2008, one of my SL dreams came true … I ran the first show in my spanking new comedy club, The Chuckling Priestman. Co-owned by my RL and SL friend and colleague Chuckling Darwin (aka Derek Sweet), we hope The Chuckling Priestman will become the #1 comedy club in Second Life. As a club for comics, run by comics we hope to be able to provide the best comedy experience you can find in SL. If Thursday’s show was any indication, we are well on our way to achieving that goal.

For an opening night, the crowd was amazing. We had a solid crowd of 25 throughout the show, with other people coming in and out for part of the show. Over the course of the night, we had close to 50 people wander through the audience and listen to part of the show, and for a hastily organized Grand Opening, I was thrilled with the turnout.

The line-up was very solid as well. We were one comedian short, as Orionalation Carver, Pakistan’s #1 comic, who was scheduled to take the bullet for the show, couldn’t make it. Rumour had it, the guy from the Party Poker commercial was in the middle of a game, and hence taking all of Karachi’s available bandwidth for his victory dance. However, it turned out the truth was a little more bizarre … apparently, Orion’s RL avatar (aka Sami Shah) was taking care of business for his day job, stuck in a tiny hotel in the mountains of the Punjab, researching a major story for his news room. The 12 bytes per second dial up commection he had at the hotel didn’t seem to cut it for SL, so he wasn’t able to make it in for the show. As we speak, he is probably trying to get some villager to open up to him, while bullets whiz by his head. I gotta say I have a ton of respect for Sami, but I gotta think that comedy is a nice release for his stress. I mean seriously, after a day job of investigating suicide bombers and trying to get Islamic militants to open up their hearts to him, I’m thinking the odd heckler at a comedy club has got to be pretty damn easy to deal with.

With Orion stuck out of comms range, the bullet spot fell to Salamander Maroon, our British comic, and she definitely lived up to her tagline … “Quite funny, for an amphibian.” Sal has a fascinating take on both Second Life and First Life, and I always appreciate her efforts to do my North American timed shows, since she is usually doing the show at about 2AM her time. She always does a helluva job for the middle of the night, and given that I owe everything I do in SL to her, as she was the person who offered me my first stage time in Second Life, she will always have a reserved spot on my stage. I just wish she didn’t make jokes about my alt-avatar, ILoveSex69-666.

Following Salamander to the stage was comedy SL newcomer Akamu Hua. I first saw Akamu a couple of weeks ago at an open mic night at the Last Laugh, and his delivery is amazing for a comedy novice. His “off the top of his head” humour is pretty smart, and often takes a left turn from the expected direction, and its that unexpected punch-line and his solid delivery that made me sit up and take notice. I am hoping to have Akamu back for more sets as time goes on at the Chuckling Priestman, and I expect he’ll eventually turn into one of our headliners.

Quinn Lanzius hit the stage to follow Akamu, and showed us why he is quickly becoming one of the funniest comics in SL. Quinn doesn’t do comedy in the real world as he has a far more important job … he is a paramedic in New Orleans, regularly saving lives. In SL, however, he has developed into a solid comic with a strong stage presence and a very different perspective on real life. I have no idea how he manages to find humour in a day job full of car crashes and heart attacks, but he does an amazing job of it. I just hope, for his sake, that he eventually finds a way to get paid better for all his life-saving heroics, if only so his mother won’t keep telling him about his brother’s 401-K balance.

Anaka Blue took the stage following Quinn, and once again dove straight off into the extreme end of the pool. Anaka seems to have no filter between brain and mouth, and while I have NO idea how she manages to control herself enough to keep her day job as a teacher of 3 year olds, the stream of extreme consciousness works amazingly well for the comedy stage. Whether she is talking about Bush’s No Child Left Behind program, or about her parents blowing away her pet unicorn, execution style, on the side of the road, Anaka takes every bit to its most extreme end, with hilarious results.

I’d been doing MC duties through most of the night, but after Anaka was my time to take the stage for my main set. Following me, my co-owner Chuckling Darwin came out to close the show. As about the only comedian I know who can out-extreme Anaka, Chuck rocked the room as usual. I can’t think of anyone I’d rather be running this club with, so I am very happy he is a part of it.

It was a lot of work to put this club together. I’d initially bought a smaller building next door to the current club, and had it almost completely set up when i decided it was just too small. Since the larger space next door was open, I grabbed it, turning the original building into a private space for me and putting the club in the new building. I ended up doing a lot of the moving on my own, and put my virtual back out dragging all the furniture up the street to the new location. Still, given the success of Thursday night, and the reactions of the comics and crowd, I am thrilled with the way it all turned out.

I want to thank all the comics who came out, and of course the crowd as well. I couldn’t really have asked for a better opening, especially given how hastily I arranged it all, and I am looking forward to some great shows there in the future. I am slowly beginning to interest some of the other RL comics I work with to try the game, and I hope the Chuckling Priestman will become their default comedy home in SL. We’ve still not put together a regular schedule of shows yet, so stay tuned to the club’s SL group, “Chuckling Priestman Comedy Club” for details on upcoming shows, and if you aren’t yet a member of the group yet, head over to the club and click any of the Grand Opening cubes you see around for an invite and a free Chuckling Priestman T-Shirt.

Thanks again to all the comics, and crowd, that came out to our first show. I had a fantastic time, and I am looking forward to a lot of great shows in the future. Here’s to the future …

Monday May 5th, I filmed a segment for the SL Late Show with Angelico Babii (for SLTV). The show was taped live at the Blarney Stone Irish Pub in “Dublin in SL“. Its an amazing sim, and a beautiful little pub, created by Ham Rambler. The Blarney Stone is a recreation of an actual pub in Dublin, and the entire sim is intended to be as faithful a recreation of Dublin as is possible in a place like Second Life. I’d been to the Blarney Stone a few times before, but this was the first time I’d ever performed there. Joining me on this episode of the Late Show was the Blarney Stone’s, and Dublin in SL creator, Ham Rambler, as well as SL and RL author Madddyyy Schnook and SL music star Rich DeSoto.

I must admit, it was a ton of fun. It was a pretty short set for me, especially in SL terms. I’ve regularly been doing 60-90 minute sets for most of my SL shows, and about the shortest show I’ve done in SL, prior to yesterday, were 15 minute sets. I did about 5 minutes of material for the show yesterday, so it felt a lot like a “showcase set” in the real world. Because it was my mother’s birthday, I dedicated the show to her, and of course started the set off with a few stories about her. I also did some new material about my new car which went over really well (and to be completely honest, it wasn’t completely new … I’ve tested it with people at work, and I did it live at my show this past Saturday in Redcliff). I finished the set off with my Geek Rap and Spiderman songs. Given that it is a general audience TV program broadcast to PG sims, I stayed away from my racier material and actually did the whole show without swearing (well, truth be told, I did use “bugger” and “damn” at one point). Especially on SL, it seems I am swearing more and more in my shows, so it was nice to know I can actually still do a set without using the word “fuck.”

My other SL news of late is that I have finished building my SL comedy club, the Chuckling Priestman. Co-owned by Derek Sweet (aka Chuckling Darwin) we arem hoping to turn the club into SL’s premiere place for live comedy. With seating for 150 (including some upside down seating that gives a rather unique perspective on the show) it will be one of the biggest comedy clubs I’ve seen in SL, and as a club for comics, run by comics, I am hoping that it will become “THE place” for SL comedy. I’ve yet to have a show there … I am expecting to open the club this week … but all the renovations are done, all the furniture created and installed, and the tip jar rezzed and ready. All we require now is an audience, and we are set to go. I’ll post more details here when the final date for opening is set.

In my real life, I am switching modes now, from comedy mode back into geek mode. My day job is ramping up again for the summer, and while I miss the regular comedy, I have to remember that its my work during the summer that gives me the freedom I have in the winter. It certainly sucks to essentially have to take 5 months off comedy (I will do shows between now and October, but they will be few and far between, and always organized around my work schedule), but the freedom it allows me in the winter is something few aspiring comedians in my position have the luxury of. As annoying as the long hours t my day job can be, its important for me to remember that its those long hours in the summer that let me do things like fly off to Toronto for contests without really worrying about cost.

As a result of being back at my day job, my frequency of posting here will probably increase again, and I expect I’ll get back into more topics than just comedy. I’ve been pretty single-minded over the past few months, thinking about little else other than my comedy shows, and that has been reflected in the topics under discussion here. Now that I am getting back into my more “normal” routine, I expect my posting to come back closer to what it was last summer … a variety of topics with the odd post about comedy. So, stay tuned and peace out.

As many of my regular readers know, my mother passed away (somewhat suddenly) a couple of months ago.  Today would have been her 65th birthday and I wanted to post a few comments about her as a way of remembering.  She was always very supportive of my comedy aspirations, both the first time I tried comedy back in the early 90’s, as well as my recent jump back into the pool again.  While she never had a chance to see me before she died in this incarnation, much of the reason that I am doing comedy comes back to her.

Whatever else she may have been, my mom was very smart, very creative, and very funny.  She had a very “different” outlook on the world, and most of my sarcasm was inherited directly from her I think.  From my first memories, one of the main things I remember out her was the sarcastic way she looked at the absurdity in the world, and how she managed to stay sane despite the absurdity.  In an odd sort of way, even in death she has been helping out my career … the call for my set at the Great Canadian Laugh Off came, literally, while I was in the Funeral Director’s office making arrangements for my mother’s funeral, and just last week I was asked to be a part of a Second Life TV program called The Late Show, taping later today, on her 65th birthday.

Not only has she informed my general attitude about comedy, she’s even given me some material.  Some of the first material I ever “wrote” came almost directly from memories of her in my childhood.  She always looked at the world from a slightly different angle than anyone else, and that was as true in her child-rearing as it was for anything else.  Most parents, I think, have some sort of way to break the tension when their kids misbehave … I know one common line I have heard is “If you kids don’t settle down, I’ll hit you so hard I’ll knock you into next week.”  My mom took that one step further … perhaps just a little too creative for her, or my, own good.  One of her favorite sayings to break the tension around our house was “If you kids don’t settle down, I’ll rip out your arm, and beat you with the bloody end!!!”  Another personal favorite was “If you kids don’t settle down, I’ll pick you up by your heels, and beat your head against the sidewalk.”  And long before the line came out in the Terminator, I heard from her “If you kids don’t settle down, I’m applying for a retroactive abortion!!”

No matter what else is going on, that sort of thing is going to have an effect on a kid.  But as an adult, with the benefit of hindsight and experience, I can admit that I probably wasn’t the easiest kid to raise.  I’ve pretty much been a smart-ass since day one, and this final story illustrates that well.  Its more about me than my mom, but it might be a good illustration of why she came up with sayings like the ones above.  I was three when this happened … I was out playing in our yard, and I managed to wander off.  My mom caught up with me a block or two away and grabbed me, yelling “Why did you run away?!?!?!”  I can clearly remember looking up at her, an innocent look in my three year old eyes and replying “I didn’t run away Mommy … I walked!!!!”

So, with the benefit of hindsight, experience and perspective, I can look at that situation and say with a lot of confidence that, if that was MY kid standing there talking to ME like that … I’m picking the bugger up by his heels, and beating his damn head against the sidewalk.  Frankly, remembering things like that reminds me to cut her a lot of slack, and gives some insight on why she needed such creative stress-breakers.

I tell those stories a lot on stage, especially lately, and she is never far from my thoughts, both consciously and sub-consciously.  Without her intelligence, wit, and skewed perspective on the world, I wouldn’t be doing comedy today in any form, so for that, I can’t thank her enough.  Rest in peace Mom, and thank you for the laughs, and for the love.

Yep, thats right, “I’m a loser baby, so why don’t you shoot me.” My preliminary round night is over, and I had a great set. I feel it was one of the best sets of my career and it felt great to get out on the stage in front of such a great crowd. Unfortunately, on my night, there were 7 other VERY funny comedians on the bill, and I didn’t make it into the top three, or into tonight’s final for $25000. That said, I have no issues with the way it was judged, and I am extremely happy with the way my set went, and for that matter, the whole week.

My intention coming out to Toronto was to do the best set I possibly could, and I feel like I did that. Winning the contest would have been great, but honestly, I didn’t come out here expecting to win the $25000 … I knew that i had a chance at it, but I also knew that there were 63 other very funny people who had a chance as well. My main purpose in coming to Toronto was to do a solid 8 minute showcase set in a big club, in front of Mark Breslin, and from that perspective, I did everything I wanted to on this trip. I had a very nice conversation with Mark after my set, and not only was he very nice and considerate, but he showed a lot of insight into me and my material, and gave me some excellent advice about how to move forward in my comedy. In that sense, I actually got more from the experience than I expected.

It was great to hang out, and have a chance to visit a few other clubs, and see a lot of other funny comics. I also had something of a surprise addition to the week, as an old friend from my Lagos days happened to catch up with me as I arrived in Toronto, and we ended up spending the weekend together. It was a really nice surprise addition to my expected week, and really made this into a VERY memorable week all around.

I also had a nice chance to catch up with some folks from my old school, Upper Canada College. Apparently, there is such a thing as a free lunch, as I discovered when I went up to my old campus this past Thursday. I had really just planned to say hello to a few people, and wander the grounds with my camera a bit (pictures will follow, for the record … watch my Flickr account). However, I was offered a free lunch in my old school cafeteria and it was actually very good. Some staff from the school came down to check out the show, and it looks like they may be interested in having me do an interview for the school magazine, and possibly some shows in the coming year. Will be interesting regardless, and was very nice hang out at the old school again for a bit.

I really couldn’t have asked for more out of this week, even given the fact I didn’t win. Granted, leaving Toronto with $25000 would have been nice, but realistically, I didn’t expect that to be the end result anyway. Its been a ton of fun, from the perspective of a vacation, comedy, and catching up with old friends. I want to say thanks to Mark Breslin, Kyle Harbour (who has put a lot of time into organizing the contest) and all of Yuk Yuk’s for the chance to come out and do that … I’ll definately take the invitation again if it comes around … even though I paid my own way to Toronto, it was well worth the expense, and I’d do it again in a second given the chance.

Tonight is the final round, and I’m looking forward to catching it. The winners of all the nights I’ve seen have been very strong, and tonights show should be one of the funniest I’ve seen in a long while. Tomorrow, I fly back to Calgary, then drive back to Med Hat Monday night (after a quick stop at Comedy Monday Night on the way out of town) before I dive back into my exercise season. The sad part of this trip is that this really marks the end of my “comedy season” and the start of my “work season” for 2008 … while I’ll be doing some shows here and there over the next few months, the comedy is pretty much at the pleasure of my work from now till October or November, instead of the other way around. I have to say, however, that so far, 2008 has been a great year for me, from a lot of perspectives, and this past week has just added to that.

I arrived in Toronto late Tuesday night in preparation for my set Friday for the Great Canadian Laugh Off, and so far, its been a blast. Most of my day yesterday was spent wandering the streets of Toronto with my camera … it was raining in the morning, but cleared up into a nice day as the day went on. Wandering Yonge Street yesterday really brought back some old memories of wandering the same street as a teenager here in Toronto, attending Upper Canada College. Today I plan to head up to the old campus with my camera to get some pics … UCC is talking about discontinuing boarding in the near future, so I really want to get some pics of the boarding houses before they disappear.

I got back to my hotel room in late afternoon, in preparation for an SL set at Tony’s Jazz Lounge. It was the first time I’d ever performed there, and it went really well. By invitation of Salamander Maroon, Tony’s had a comedy contest to look for their “house comic” for April, and in what I hope is foreshadowing for the rest of my week, I ended up winning the contest. As a result, I’ll be adding another weekly show to my schedule for April, in addition to my regular set at Last Laugh on Saturday’s, and my regular spot in the lineup at Laugh Lines on Fridays (its worth noting that I won’t be at Laugh Lines’ Friday show this week, as I’ll be somewhat busy this Friday on a real stage here in Toronto, competing for $25000). I’m very glad to be adding Tony’s to my regular schedule.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to stay for the whole SL show, as I was heading down to Yuk Yuk’s to catch the show and scope out the format. I was also there to support my local Calgary friends Lori Gibbs and Dan Guiry doing their GCLO sets. It was a very fun night, and I must say the caliber of comedy was very high. Along with Lori and Dan and several other Canadians, there were comics representing New York, Los Angeles and the United Kingdom on the bill last night as well. All performers did a GREAT job, and it must have been very tough for the judges to make a final decision … in the end, local Toronto comic Steve Patterson was the man who walked away with the big prize last night, a trip to Sunday’s final round. That said, there were 5 or 6 other comics who easily could have walked away with it as well, depending on what the judges decided to focus on. I didn’t see the score cards, but I’d be surprised to hear that there was more than 10 points separating first and last … after watching the show, from my perspective, every set was a 90+ set, and the difference between first and last was very small. Just want to send a shout out to everyone who was on last night and say good show.

It was also very cool to hang out at the club last night, even outside the show. One of the cool things was seeing the number of other comics who came out to support and watch. Big names like Bill MacIntosh, a GCLO finalist from a few years ago, were in attendance (Bill was actually at Lori’s first ever show), and Kenny Robinson (a HUGE name) also came down to check out some of the show. After the show was over, a bunch of comics and Yuk’s staff went out to Spirits on Church Street for some after show entertainment. Aside from the beer, I have to say its pretty cool to walk into a bar and see Kenny Robinson on stage doing a set … sort of like an amateur musician popping out for a drink to find someone like Gord Downie entertaining the crowd. Definitely a highlight of my trip so far.

One more day, and I’ll be doing my set. Tonight, I have a warm-up set at McVeigh’s Irish Pub in downtown Toronto (special thanks go out to Laura Prosko, the organizer of Comedy Thursday’s at McVeigh’s, for the chance to “shake out the flaws” before the big night) … show starts at 9PM, but I don’t know what the order will be, so I really have no idea what time I’ll be on. I’m looking forward to trying out my set for a Toronto crowd at McVeigh’s, and I certainly appreciate the chance to warm up before Friday. So far, it’s been a great week … here’s hoping it just keeps getting better.

It’s going to be an interesting week.  Last night, I spent my evening at Dickens Pub, doing a set for Comedy Monday Night.  As usual, a good time was had by all, and it was great to see some of my friends like Derek Sweet, Dustin Hertel, Marc Hallworth, Karen O’Keefe, Dan Guiry, and Amanda Perrin.  Last night was also a prep night for a few of us … Dan, Derek, and I, along with another local comic, Lori Gibbs, are all on our way to Toronto this week for the Great Canadian Laugh Off, the national comedy contest sponsored by Yuk Yuk’s.  Dan and Lori do their preliminary round sets on Wednesday night this week.  Derek is on Thursday, and I do mine at the early show on Friday.  I am also doing a warmup set at McVeigh’s Pub in downtown Toronto on Thursday, April 10th … I’d rather see you come out to the Friday set (or both) but if you are busy Friday, come down and check out my preview of the Friday show at McVeigh’s on Thursday.

My flight leaves later today (Tuesday April, 7th), and I’m really looking forward to the trip.  Aside from the contest (really, can YOU think of a better time than hanging out with 63 of the funniest up and coming comics in Canada?) there are a few personal reasons for me to go to Toronto.  I spent a few years there as a kid, as I’ve mentioned on here before, attending Upper Canada College, a private boarding school in the middle of the city.  It’s been a few years since I’ve been back to the city, and I am looking forward to wandering the streets with my camera.

I’m not really expecting to win.  I certainly don’t think it’s impossible … in fact, I’m certain that on any given night, anyone in the contest can kill, or die … but I am also not deluding myself that it will be an easy contest.  Even just the 3 others coming from Calgary make for seriously tough competition.  Lori won the local rounds of the Laugh Off, earning her the “default slot” in the contest from Calgary, and her Granny Panty Blues is a well written, seriously funny little tune that will serve her well in Toronto.  Dan came a VERY close second to Lorin in the local rounds, finishing so close to Lori in the scoring that they ended up having to do an extra 5 minutes each to break the tie.  His confident style and smooth stage presence will make Dan very tough competition out east.  Derek and I are both more “wild card entries” from the province, but that doesn’t diminish Derek’s chances down there.  In the six months or so I’ve been watching him work, he’s almost never given a bad show, so I am expecting him to score highly in Toronto as well.  And I have no doubt the other 60 comics will be of the same high caliber as my colleagues from Calgary.

All that said, I feel very comfortable with my own material at the moment, and with the material I’ve chosen for this set.  It all comes down to doing the best show I possibly can for Friday night, but thats really no different than any other set I do.  My job when I go on stage is to do the best job I can, and I really can’t do any more than that, whether its a contest in Toronto worth $25000, or a set in a hotel bar in small town Alberta worth gas money and beer.  It will probably be my biggest crowd ever (though the Foley Loaded show last year, and the Pauly Shore shows earlier this year, were fairly big as well) and it will certainly be the first time I’ve performed in front of TV cameras.  Of course, there is the big cash payout at stake as well.  But at the end of the day, when I step onto the stage on Friday night, it really is no different than any other show.  If I can go up there and give the best show I possibly can, then thats ALL I can even hope to do.

Even in a contest environment, there is a larger common purpose amongst the comics.  We are all there to compete against each other for the $25000 … no question about that.  But the main point of this show, and any show really, is to entertain the audience, to go on stage and do your best material as well as you can.  The better the comics ahead of me do, the easier it is to keep the momentum going, and the better the comics that follow me do, the better the whole night looks, my set included.  So I really do hope the other comics heading out to Toronto this week can do great shows as well, especially my friends from Calgary heading down there with me.  In the end, as much as we will all want to win the big prize, it IS all about the show.  Good luck to everyone heading out to Toronto this week (the first night actually happened last night, though I haven’t heard any details on how it went).  In the immortal words of Deep Purple …

No matter what we get out of this
I know we’ll never forget

It’s become clear to me in the last 24 hours that there is a very good reason for bald people to wear hats, and it’s got nothing to do with a lack of self-confidence about the baldness. The MAIN thing that has surprised me since I shaved my head is how cold it actually is. It’s not like I had a lot of hair up there to begin with, keeping my heat in, but apparently, I had more up there than I thought … the difference between yesterday and today in terms of temperature is more than remarkable. So, for the record, when you see me wearing a toque all over the place now, its because I am COLD!!!!!

HeadShave Canada ‘08 went off with great success yesterday. The pics at the top of this blog entry are a few of my shots from the event (for the record, thanks to Blake Ransom of My96 radio for wielding my camera while I was getting shaved … nice job buddy … the pics turned out great), and I’ll add a few more farther down the blog, but you can also head over to my Flickr page (or Facebook if you are hooked up with me there) to see all my pics from the event (almost 60 in total), and you can see some other pics of the event at the My96 webpage for it as well. At the end of the day, over $10000 was raised for cancer research for the Medicine Hat event alone. Just wanted to send out a quick “Good on ya” to everyone who participated or helped organize the event, and a special thanks to all the people who pledged as well … without the pledges, it was just a bunch of people getting their heads shaved, so its really the people who pledged that are the true “heroes” of the event.

There were a couple of notable exceptions amongst the shavees however. First into the barber’s chair yesterday was a 10 year old boy named Chase Fockler, who raised almost $3000 to shave his long red hair. Thats a pretty traumatic experience for someone that young, but Chase stepped up to the plate for a great cause, and he was certainly one of the inspirations of the day, both for his fund raising ability and for his courage. The last person in the barber’s chair yesterday was a woman by the name of Delee Schall. Delee managed to raise over $3000 in pledges, making her the top fund raiser for the event, but beyond that honour, Delee sliced off a 3 foot long braid of hair before shaving the rest of her head. It was an act of sacrifice and charity that I could only marvel in awe at. Two other notable shavees were Jonas and Ben Skalrchuk, two brothers involved in the event for a very personal reason … to show support for their other brother who is currently battling cancer.

It’s one thing for someone like me to get involved in something like this. As a comedian, my standard line has been that since “Mother Nature has already made a good start, I may as well finish the job for a good cause.” But the truth is that my hair was pretty short anyway, and there was very little trauma involved for me to shave it off. It was the people like Delee and Chase, and Ben and Jonas, who really stepped up yesterday and did something truly amazing, both in terms of the money they raised, and the amount of self-sacrifice involved. I am proud of my involvement in the event, but I am happy to step back into the background for the real heroes to get their applause. Chase, Delee, Jonas, and Ben you humbled the rest of us, and did us proud.

There were a couple of other moments worthy of mention as well. Grant Buchanan, the morning news man from My96 was on hand for the event, initially just to watch and lend support to his colleague and roommate Blake. However, in an impromptu bidding war, we managed to raise over $100 on the spot for Grant to shave one of his legs … I’m not sure if that was planned prior to the event or not, but I am thinking that with Blake working afternoons a lot, and Grant on early mornings, Blake may pay for the idea through lack of sleep. In all seriousness, it was nice to see Grant step up and add a few extra dollars to the pot.

After seeing Delee, Chase, Jonas, and Ben, as well as all the others, I realized that I really was kind of wimping out on the deal. As people who know me will attest, the head wasn’t a huge deal for me, and its something I was considering anyway for the last 6 or 8 months. Shaving off my beard was a bit more of a step for me … of my 25 years of adulthood, well over 24 of them have been spent with some form of facial hair. But that said, I’ve also shaved it off by choice on a couple of occasions in the past, even if I did grow it back almost immediately. So, after watching the sacrifice of others, I decided I needed to up the ante a bit as well, so when my time came, I decided to take ALL the hair off my face, eyebrows included. I DO still have eye lashes, but thats the only hair left on the outside of my head (she wasn’t going anywhere near the ear/nose hair, try as I might). It wasn’t even close to the sacrifice of others there yesterday, but it was my little way of trying to step up a bit.

Overall, I think the day was amazing. Special thanks to Blake Ranson and My96 for setting the event up and running it. Also, of course, thanks to Medicine Hat Mall who donated the space we used, and special thanks to the stylists from MasterCuts who did an amazing job with everyone. Blake said he will be doing this again next year, looking to double this years collected total. Just wanted to say, I’ll be there with bells on Blake … that is, assuming my hair ACTUALLY grows back by then.

Secrets
by Lyle Bateman 2008

secrets
burn deep
with white hot guilt
and volcanic anger
charring craters
in our soul

One of the places I post my videos online is over at YouTube. For the most part, my YouTube page is fairly low-profile … I get a few hits from people looking for me, but not a ton of general traffic. In recent days, however, there has been one notable exception, my “modified” theme to Spiderman. Its always been my most viewed clip, but in the last 3 weeks or so, my hits have almost doubled to over 1100 for it, and it seems to be gathering momentum.

Ironically, the clip is of literally the first time I’d ever performed the song. The words have changed in a couple of places since this version was posted, and given that this was the first song I wrote for my comedy act, this is also the first time I’d ever sung on stage. I was super nervous about the whole experience, if I recall correctly, and I’ve got to say from my perspective some 9-odd months later, its not the best version of this song available.

At the same time, however, there is a certain energy to the performance, and the crowd response on the video is actually better than I remember from the actual performance, though thats not terribly odd for me. I love the fact that its getting so much traffic, especially given that I don’t really promote my YouTube page a lot anymore. In the interests of trying to add fuel to the fire, I’m reposting the video here. Its pretty raw, and pretty primitive, and truth be told, there’s a “better” version of the song in my Comedy Cave set but there’s still something I like about the raw energy of this one. Hope you enjoy too.