I've always loved this sketch, but I never could get it the way I wanted it when I did it live. Well here it is, in all it's "earning Nick a ticket straight to hell" glory. And just in time for Easter.
I really love this sketch!
Friday, February 8, 2008
Lessons in Comedy #35
COMMON THEMES WILL BE REPEATED OVER AND OVER
At the core of all human life, there are basic themes that weave us together as a species. These themes can be seen over and over throughout history in literature and historical events. The most obvious of these are extremely simple themes like love, hate, jealousy, revenge, power struggles, or heart break. You'll see all of these themes echoed in every book, movie, song, play or tv show ever created. The reason for this is simple, we all identify with these themes. We all feel these feelings.
The same is true in comedy. Very basic themes and ideas will get repeated over and over. I have a theory that there hasn't been a new joke written in thousands of years. The only thing that changes is the way they are told and the settings in which they are contained.
Certain things will always be funny and thus will always be used.
My first realization of this was in a sketch class I took at the UCB in 2005. Years before this class, in Dallas, the Night-OH-Cabaret had done this character called The Southern Lawyer. It was an old southern gentleman that used colloquialisms and spoke very eloquently, but was in fact a very inept lawyer. We did this character at least 10 times, every script basically the same at it's core.
Flash forward to the class. It was the second class and we were assigned to bring in a sketch to read aloud. We went around the room and got to this one guy named Nick Nadel. He's a very funny guy and has found much success writing in the comedy world. I hope he read that and gets me a job. At any rate, Nick, Nick Nadel not me, proceeds to read his sketch. It was about an old southern lawyer, and I swear to God it was a carbon copy of one of the sketches we had done so many times before.
Had he flown to Dallas and copied down the script in the back of the bar? Had he somehow gotten a copy of one of the scripts from the show? No, he was just doing what all comedians do, writing funny material on a common theme.
I'm almost certain that everything I've ever written has been written 100 times by other people around the world. But the good thing is, I can't be everywhere at once, and neither can the audience. So people that enjoyed our southern lawyer sketch in a small bar in Dallas, will never see the other Nick's southern lawyer sketch. And the beat goes on.
The fact that themes and ideas get repeated by people that have no clue that they are repeating ideas and themes is the bane of my existence. I PRIDE myself on writing what I view as original material. I would NEVER EVER steal someones joke. That's the one and only cardinal sin in comedy. So when someone accuses me of stealing something I've done, it infuriates me.
The best thing about this new fangled interweb, is that it opens the door to the entire world. Now it's possible for a billion people to see me without my shirt on instead of just 68 people in a small theater in Dallas or New York. However, the worst thing about this new fangled interweb, is that it opens the door to the entire world. Now these themes and ideas that get repeated will all be readily available for everyone to see all at once. That means there will be overlap, and inevitably what ever a person sees first, they will consider the original and accuse anything that follows as a rip off.
The problem with the public is they don't care to dissect these issues. They don't have to. They act out another human theme that gets repeated over and over again, shooting their mouth off without all the pertinent info.
I say all this because the below sketch also fell into this category at one point. I wrote this sketch about 5 years ago for the cabaret. We did it once or twice to a pretty big crowd and it went over well. I got lazy and brought it into the sketch class I was talking about above. We read it aloud and it got a good response. The goal of this sketch class was, after 8 weeks we put on a live show at the UCB theater. The sketch of mine that got into the show was the Mr. Soose one that I posted earlier. So the below sketch, while funny, didn't make it into the show.
There was another guy in the class, who was in a sketch group from a school in New York. About a month after this class was over, I was at the theater for something and that sketch group was preforming. I stopped to watch for a second, and noticed they were doing the below sketch almost verbatim. I was livid. I nonchalantly asked one of the members of the sketch group who had written the sketch, and they told me it was the dude from my class. This made me even angrier. Long story short, accusations were thrown around, feelings were hurt, and eventually all was forgiven. Neither of us had stolen the others idea, we had both written our subsequent sketches years earlier. It was just a very basic idea and a very easy target for comedy. Same themes, same ideas, just repeated by humans as they have been for centuries, and will be long after I'm gone.
OK, enough comedy school 101, here's the pretty basic, double entendre filled, sketch 101 skit for your consumption:
At the core of all human life, there are basic themes that weave us together as a species. These themes can be seen over and over throughout history in literature and historical events. The most obvious of these are extremely simple themes like love, hate, jealousy, revenge, power struggles, or heart break. You'll see all of these themes echoed in every book, movie, song, play or tv show ever created. The reason for this is simple, we all identify with these themes. We all feel these feelings.
The same is true in comedy. Very basic themes and ideas will get repeated over and over. I have a theory that there hasn't been a new joke written in thousands of years. The only thing that changes is the way they are told and the settings in which they are contained.
Certain things will always be funny and thus will always be used.
My first realization of this was in a sketch class I took at the UCB in 2005. Years before this class, in Dallas, the Night-OH-Cabaret had done this character called The Southern Lawyer. It was an old southern gentleman that used colloquialisms and spoke very eloquently, but was in fact a very inept lawyer. We did this character at least 10 times, every script basically the same at it's core.
Flash forward to the class. It was the second class and we were assigned to bring in a sketch to read aloud. We went around the room and got to this one guy named Nick Nadel. He's a very funny guy and has found much success writing in the comedy world. I hope he read that and gets me a job. At any rate, Nick, Nick Nadel not me, proceeds to read his sketch. It was about an old southern lawyer, and I swear to God it was a carbon copy of one of the sketches we had done so many times before.
Had he flown to Dallas and copied down the script in the back of the bar? Had he somehow gotten a copy of one of the scripts from the show? No, he was just doing what all comedians do, writing funny material on a common theme.
I'm almost certain that everything I've ever written has been written 100 times by other people around the world. But the good thing is, I can't be everywhere at once, and neither can the audience. So people that enjoyed our southern lawyer sketch in a small bar in Dallas, will never see the other Nick's southern lawyer sketch. And the beat goes on.
The fact that themes and ideas get repeated by people that have no clue that they are repeating ideas and themes is the bane of my existence. I PRIDE myself on writing what I view as original material. I would NEVER EVER steal someones joke. That's the one and only cardinal sin in comedy. So when someone accuses me of stealing something I've done, it infuriates me.
The best thing about this new fangled interweb, is that it opens the door to the entire world. Now it's possible for a billion people to see me without my shirt on instead of just 68 people in a small theater in Dallas or New York. However, the worst thing about this new fangled interweb, is that it opens the door to the entire world. Now these themes and ideas that get repeated will all be readily available for everyone to see all at once. That means there will be overlap, and inevitably what ever a person sees first, they will consider the original and accuse anything that follows as a rip off.
The problem with the public is they don't care to dissect these issues. They don't have to. They act out another human theme that gets repeated over and over again, shooting their mouth off without all the pertinent info.
I say all this because the below sketch also fell into this category at one point. I wrote this sketch about 5 years ago for the cabaret. We did it once or twice to a pretty big crowd and it went over well. I got lazy and brought it into the sketch class I was talking about above. We read it aloud and it got a good response. The goal of this sketch class was, after 8 weeks we put on a live show at the UCB theater. The sketch of mine that got into the show was the Mr. Soose one that I posted earlier. So the below sketch, while funny, didn't make it into the show.
There was another guy in the class, who was in a sketch group from a school in New York. About a month after this class was over, I was at the theater for something and that sketch group was preforming. I stopped to watch for a second, and noticed they were doing the below sketch almost verbatim. I was livid. I nonchalantly asked one of the members of the sketch group who had written the sketch, and they told me it was the dude from my class. This made me even angrier. Long story short, accusations were thrown around, feelings were hurt, and eventually all was forgiven. Neither of us had stolen the others idea, we had both written our subsequent sketches years earlier. It was just a very basic idea and a very easy target for comedy. Same themes, same ideas, just repeated by humans as they have been for centuries, and will be long after I'm gone.
OK, enough comedy school 101, here's the pretty basic, double entendre filled, sketch 101 skit for your consumption:
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Don't Die!
I did this sketch a couple times in a show called "Blackout" at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater.
I actually was able to shoot two sketches today, and this wasn't the one I originally wanted to post today, but it fell together faster.
There's some dude on You Tube that said he was getting tired of the drawn backgrounds in my sketches. I disagree. It's called a "look". I guess this dude must hate cartoons.
I wrote a sketch this morning that's sort of a goof on the first "Saw" movie. It's really a basic sketchy sketch, not breaking new ground, but I think its cute. Basically I'm asking what you guys think. I'm not sure if I want to shoot it because it's pop culturey and the "Saw" movies have already been made fun of a lot. It's only like 2 minutes long though.
So leave me a comment and vote yes or no and I'll decide based on how many votes I get. Since only like 5 of you guys leave comments, it should be a tight race.
I actually was able to shoot two sketches today, and this wasn't the one I originally wanted to post today, but it fell together faster.
There's some dude on You Tube that said he was getting tired of the drawn backgrounds in my sketches. I disagree. It's called a "look". I guess this dude must hate cartoons.
I wrote a sketch this morning that's sort of a goof on the first "Saw" movie. It's really a basic sketchy sketch, not breaking new ground, but I think its cute. Basically I'm asking what you guys think. I'm not sure if I want to shoot it because it's pop culturey and the "Saw" movies have already been made fun of a lot. It's only like 2 minutes long though.
So leave me a comment and vote yes or no and I'll decide based on how many votes I get. Since only like 5 of you guys leave comments, it should be a tight race.
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
INDY!
This is by far my favorite one so far. I have wanted to do this skit for the longest time. It also contains the patented Nick Gibbons secret weapon of comedy. And that of course is Nick Gibbons without a shirt on. Comedy Gold guaranteed.
This one also has the highest budget of all the sketches so far. 39 cents for Kroger brand gelatin.
Enjoy:
This one also has the highest budget of all the sketches so far. 39 cents for Kroger brand gelatin.
Enjoy:
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Mo Stuff Fo Ya
Here's a character piece I did in my one man show last year. I love doing this bit, and putting it on tape was great because I got to do what I've always wanted with this bit at the end. You'll see...
I can hear you now...
I've had a cough for the past three weeks that won't go away. I'm probably dying, as usual. Nancy started her job, so we now have real insurance. After a week of trying to figure out what doctor to choose, several calls to the insurance's 800 number, and figuring out how the fuck to the insurance actually works I made an appointment with a doctor.
It was a female doctor, and I generally like male doctors, because they can carry me when I faint after being told I have ass cancer. Seriously, I do get woozey at the docs office. I have been know to turn pasty white and start to black out. I'm the biggest pussy I know. BTW the sentence in BOLD is wide open for someone to make a great comeback in the comments section. I know the correct one, and if any of you get it right I'll give you a gold star. Sam? Dicky? Aaron? Tom? Is this thing on?
Back to the story, I arrive 5 minutes early to the doctors office. The appointment was for 1:30pm. I enter only to be greeted by an empty waiting room and no receptionist. For the next 15 minutes, I don't see or hear anyone. I start to get a little worried. Finally a really nice receptions pops up behind the desk and takes my info and gives me some stuff to fill out. FYI I love checking the no box under "nipple excretion". After 5 minutes I'm told that my brand new insurance card says my insurance has been canceled. I hate this shit.
It's now 1:58pm. I call Nancy because I'm cripplingly retarded and shy in this sort of human contact situation. She tells me to call the insurance company. I do and go through the ridiculous automated system until I finally get to talk to someone. He straightens it out. Meanwhile THREE other people have gone in to see the doctor, including a chic that was there for a 2 o'clock appointment. I was freaking there 5 minutes early, no other patients were there for 20 minutes, and my appointment time had past by 45 minutes at this point. I was getting very annoyed, but I get annoyed at most things.
Finally at around 2:30 I get in to see the doc. They take my blood pressure and it is a little high, no shit. My temp is normal, but I weigh more than a Beluga whale. I'm sent to the little examination room. The doctor finally shows up around 3pm.
She's really nice and checks me out. She looks in my ears and says, "I can't see your ear drums." Which sends my horrible doomsday imagination into a tale spin of inflamed tumors, death and dismemberment. I start to feel light headed and cold sweaty. She hasn't said anything bad and I'm already thinking about what I want on my tombstone.
She leaves the room and comes back with this little plastic tooth pick looking thing that lights up. It looks like something you'd take to a rave. She says she's going to clean out my ears. She proceeds to jam this thing in my head. The scarping begins and a minute later she produces one of the biggest, nastiest looking balls of brown congealed wax I've ever seen. And I've seen a lot of balls of brown congealed wax. It was awesome and gross at the say time, like kissing your hot cousin. I was happy to have it out so I could hear better, but that was pretty much shot, because the doctor yelled "Eureka" after she pulled it out, forgetting her face was an inch from my now clean ear.
The other ear wasn't as easy and hurt a bit. Sure enough after about three minutes of spelunking, she pulled out another colossal sized ear wax ball. This one had hair in it as well. I wanted to ask to keep them to show Nancy, but I didn't want to freak out my new doctor. I'll save that for my physical.
The craziest part is the doc said cleaning my ears might help cure the cough. She prescribed an inhaler, but told me to wait 2 days to see if ,in fact, the cough subsides. Only time will tell.
On my way out, I paid the co-pay, which I found out that night was only 10 bucks, but they charged me 25, so now I have to call and ask for my 15 bucks back. I hate shit like that.
I got my parking ticket validated and headed to the Fit. I stopped at the booth to leave the parking lot and handed my validated parking ticket to the woman. I get ready to leave free and clear, when I hear from my left side, "That'll be a dollar fifty". At first I wanted to say, "But it's validated, it should be free." But I confusedly start to looking for money. Literally all I have is a dollar.
She then says, as if it is supposed to make me feel better about paying an irronious ammount of cash, that it would have been $7.50. That did not make me feel at better.
She asks if I have a check book. No shit, she wants me to write a check for a dollar fifty. I don't have any checks, so she makes me fill out a form. For 50 fucking cents. What a bitch. Meanwhile some poor sap has to wait behind me to leave while I fill out this retarded form.
Unfortunately I'm very honest and I actually put my real info on the form. I should have made up some bullshit name and address. Oh well.
Is it just me or does validated mean free? Has anyone out there ever had this happen to them. I've never experienced the "Validating Coupon" before, but I feel like I've grown as a person because of it.
I can hear molecules bumping into each other! STOP IT! THE NOISE IS KILLING ME!
It was a female doctor, and I generally like male doctors, because they can carry me when I faint after being told I have ass cancer. Seriously, I do get woozey at the docs office. I have been know to turn pasty white and start to black out. I'm the biggest pussy I know. BTW the sentence in BOLD is wide open for someone to make a great comeback in the comments section. I know the correct one, and if any of you get it right I'll give you a gold star. Sam? Dicky? Aaron? Tom? Is this thing on?
Back to the story, I arrive 5 minutes early to the doctors office. The appointment was for 1:30pm. I enter only to be greeted by an empty waiting room and no receptionist. For the next 15 minutes, I don't see or hear anyone. I start to get a little worried. Finally a really nice receptions pops up behind the desk and takes my info and gives me some stuff to fill out. FYI I love checking the no box under "nipple excretion". After 5 minutes I'm told that my brand new insurance card says my insurance has been canceled. I hate this shit.
It's now 1:58pm. I call Nancy because I'm cripplingly retarded and shy in this sort of human contact situation. She tells me to call the insurance company. I do and go through the ridiculous automated system until I finally get to talk to someone. He straightens it out. Meanwhile THREE other people have gone in to see the doctor, including a chic that was there for a 2 o'clock appointment. I was freaking there 5 minutes early, no other patients were there for 20 minutes, and my appointment time had past by 45 minutes at this point. I was getting very annoyed, but I get annoyed at most things.
Finally at around 2:30 I get in to see the doc. They take my blood pressure and it is a little high, no shit. My temp is normal, but I weigh more than a Beluga whale. I'm sent to the little examination room. The doctor finally shows up around 3pm.
She's really nice and checks me out. She looks in my ears and says, "I can't see your ear drums." Which sends my horrible doomsday imagination into a tale spin of inflamed tumors, death and dismemberment. I start to feel light headed and cold sweaty. She hasn't said anything bad and I'm already thinking about what I want on my tombstone.
She leaves the room and comes back with this little plastic tooth pick looking thing that lights up. It looks like something you'd take to a rave. She says she's going to clean out my ears. She proceeds to jam this thing in my head. The scarping begins and a minute later she produces one of the biggest, nastiest looking balls of brown congealed wax I've ever seen. And I've seen a lot of balls of brown congealed wax. It was awesome and gross at the say time, like kissing your hot cousin. I was happy to have it out so I could hear better, but that was pretty much shot, because the doctor yelled "Eureka" after she pulled it out, forgetting her face was an inch from my now clean ear.
The other ear wasn't as easy and hurt a bit. Sure enough after about three minutes of spelunking, she pulled out another colossal sized ear wax ball. This one had hair in it as well. I wanted to ask to keep them to show Nancy, but I didn't want to freak out my new doctor. I'll save that for my physical.
The craziest part is the doc said cleaning my ears might help cure the cough. She prescribed an inhaler, but told me to wait 2 days to see if ,in fact, the cough subsides. Only time will tell.
On my way out, I paid the co-pay, which I found out that night was only 10 bucks, but they charged me 25, so now I have to call and ask for my 15 bucks back. I hate shit like that.
I got my parking ticket validated and headed to the Fit. I stopped at the booth to leave the parking lot and handed my validated parking ticket to the woman. I get ready to leave free and clear, when I hear from my left side, "That'll be a dollar fifty". At first I wanted to say, "But it's validated, it should be free." But I confusedly start to looking for money. Literally all I have is a dollar.
She then says, as if it is supposed to make me feel better about paying an irronious ammount of cash, that it would have been $7.50. That did not make me feel at better.
She asks if I have a check book. No shit, she wants me to write a check for a dollar fifty. I don't have any checks, so she makes me fill out a form. For 50 fucking cents. What a bitch. Meanwhile some poor sap has to wait behind me to leave while I fill out this retarded form.
Unfortunately I'm very honest and I actually put my real info on the form. I should have made up some bullshit name and address. Oh well.
Is it just me or does validated mean free? Has anyone out there ever had this happen to them. I've never experienced the "Validating Coupon" before, but I feel like I've grown as a person because of it.
I can hear molecules bumping into each other! STOP IT! THE NOISE IS KILLING ME!
Monday, February 4, 2008
New Episode!
Here's a silly cute little sketch. It ain't brain surgery, but it made me giggle.
Apparently according to some guy on the internets my last video wasn't up to my normal "standards". I had no idea I had any standards at all. I'm just trying to pass the time until I get a job.
At any rate, that internet dude will definately not like this video, it's to plain jane, but like I said, it made me giggle a little. Hope it does the same for you.
I'll tell you guys about my doctors visit tomorrow.
Hugs.
Apparently according to some guy on the internets my last video wasn't up to my normal "standards". I had no idea I had any standards at all. I'm just trying to pass the time until I get a job.
At any rate, that internet dude will definately not like this video, it's to plain jane, but like I said, it made me giggle a little. Hope it does the same for you.
I'll tell you guys about my doctors visit tomorrow.
Hugs.
Sunday, February 3, 2008
Mr. Soose
Here it is kids, the second episode of the awesome new show starring me, The Nick Gibbons' Players!
This is a sketch i wrote several years ago. I did it in a sketch show at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater in New York a couple years ago called Famous People Are Assholes. Here is the flier I made for the show:
Understated yet gross.
My favorite sketch in the show wasn't written by me, but I was in it. It involved me waking up one morning next to Jeff Goldblum, who I had apparently took home the night before but could not remember anything that happened. It was really funny.
So here it is:
I'm on a roll! I really would like to get at least 3 new sketches up nest week, but it's hard to shot these things all by myself. Maybe I'll meet a nice homeless camera man that I can offer a sandwich to if he'll help me make sure I was in the shot and in focus.
This is a sketch i wrote several years ago. I did it in a sketch show at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater in New York a couple years ago called Famous People Are Assholes. Here is the flier I made for the show:
Understated yet gross.
My favorite sketch in the show wasn't written by me, but I was in it. It involved me waking up one morning next to Jeff Goldblum, who I had apparently took home the night before but could not remember anything that happened. It was really funny.
So here it is:
I'm on a roll! I really would like to get at least 3 new sketches up nest week, but it's hard to shot these things all by myself. Maybe I'll meet a nice homeless camera man that I can offer a sandwich to if he'll help me make sure I was in the shot and in focus.
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