We're not too far away from Baker's Dozen tryouts (and the Fall Show wasn't even a week ago), and I'm feeling a little nostalgic, so I decided I'd go over skits I'd written in previous shows.

Fall Show 2006

Epilogue
This was about a teenager who kills his grandfather at the grandfather's request. Law enforcement interprets this as murder, and the boy is imprisoned to a cell in an asylum. The twist is that (to his horror) the Grandfather must watch all of this as a ghost.

This was the first ever skit I wrote entirely on my own that got into my show. Admittedly the skit is kind of ridiculous in an implausible sort of way. Originally it was even more implausible; the teenager was mean to be a young boy. Ted called me out on the craziness of this and requested I make the boy older. I flat-out said "no", which kind of sort of maybe might have pissed Ted off. (It took him aback at the least.) Needless to say, his change was eventually noted.

Implausibility and craziness aside, the point was the emotion behind the skit. Apparently it made a few people cry, which I've never really succeeded in doing again.

Also neat was the way it was interpreted. Some took it to be a "we need better assisted suicide laws" sort of parable, while others took it as a "this is why assisted suicide is illegal" kind of thing. I find that kind of interesting, since I didn't really stand on either side of the debate when I wrote the thing.

Mind Reader Quickies
The first Mary/Jordan/Thomas collaboration. This was written the day before we shared skits around the pool table in my basement. I believe that was the first (and last) time we succeeded in writing a good skit so quickly.

Spring Show 2007

Childhood Lost
Written only days after my first show in Spring 2006. It was about a boy with an imaginary friend. Unfortunately, this imaginary friend thing is a little disconcerting to the boy's parents, so he's given medication, presumably to treat ADD. As a result, the boy is engrossed in his school work, his parents are proud, and his imaginary friend (now depressed) walks her way into some abyss.

This one was incredibly difficult to organize - that is to say it was hard to put it into a clear beginning, middle, and end so that the audience could easily follow the plot. As far as writing skits go, this one was the most frustrating. The end product, though, was worth the heartache and near mental breakdown I experienced.

Inappropriate Music Quickies
This was 3/4ths written for the Fall Show, but I wanted to make sure it was 4/4ths written before it was performed. (Plus, I wanted to see Mind Reader Quickies performed.) Anyway, as far as skits go, this one was surprisingly easy to pull off. On top of that, I was really proud of this one - the first funny skit I ever wrote on my own. Great work by Em and Pichler in terms of keeping consistent with those cues.

Baby Boomers
Another Mary/Jordan/Thomas collaboration. For such a silly concept, we sure did spend a lot of time talking about how we wanted to execute this thing. That's the thing I love and loathe about writing comedy - sometimes it's hilarious to analyze the facets of blowing up a baby to the nth degree, and sometimes you can't help but go "Why the hell are we discussing this?"

Frustration for the sake of the mime show, though, usually ends up being worth it. No exception here.

(Part 2 will come tomorrow.)