Joke: Tire Iron

Here's another joke I produced back in the last century. It's kind of a lame joke but it was around the time I was experimenting with doing different voices and narrating over some of it. It didn't work out very well -- my voice sounds pretty distinctive in it's rhythm. If I did this one over, I'd probably try to get someone else to do the other voices.

Tire Iron

Seafood Joint

This is one of my favorite pieces, because it was one of the first original ideas I had that I wrote and produced based on a fictional-fantasy type situation that had roots in real life. Fact was, I did go to a Red Lobster with a black family -- their 9 year old was best friends with my 9 year old. Fact is, I got some dirty looks. I couldn't believe it. I now live in the south, but spent most of my life in the north. No one actually said anything to me, but I felt like they were pretty peeved I was eating at a table with these friends of ours. If you want to be ultra-liberal, you might make a case that I was the racist one, because in real life I may have felt something that didn't actually exist. Were the eyes booring holes through me my imagination? I maintain: no. But, make your case if you want.

At any rate, the thing that I most noticed was that these friends didn't even seem to notice or care. That's where the line "been through this too many times" comes from. I imagined that yes, racism probably still happens so much they didn't even notice anymore. What a shame. I also say toward the end of the piece that I understand how they must feel. Looking back, this is so ridiculous I wish I could easily redo the piece. There isn't any way a white male adult American can understand how 99% of the world feels. Guys like me are just about as free from repression as anyone has ever been.

Warning: I use the "s" word here -- a couple of minutes in. Some people have complained about the music, but I think it works. Like it or don't, but this piece is one of my favorites because now whenever I have one of these stories pop into my mind, I write it down. Seafood Joint was the first time I did that.

Seafood Joint

Parodies

Back in 2000 the big news was the Presidential election; the even bigger news was the way it ended, with a near concession by Al Gore, a prolonged fight in Florida with "hanging chad's" entering our vernacular and an eventual Supreme Court decision to stop the endless recounts.

In the middle of it all I decided to write a parody. It only took me an hour or two to get the lyrics, but I bet I spent several days trying to get the vocals right. I'm a better singer now, but then I had no confidence.

But, there's the result: Stuck in the Middle (of a Zoo)