I recently had a good talk with a friend of mine, she’s going through the MFA program at Salve Regina and moving into a new house so the fact I was able to get any of her time is astonishing, where we drank anything that wasn’t coffee in a coffee bar. She sipped from the lip of a hot mug filled with hotter cider, while I chugged back a few Arnold Palmers in the back of the shop as we listened to the clatter coming out of the kitchen. I also had a bagel but it was nothing to write about.
As we talked about friends of friends, what we were doing with our lives and the inevitable approach of death, I told her I started a blog. She asked me what the name of the website was, and I replied “Jim Burdick isn’t funny.com” which left her in hysterics. She said, “I have never heard of a better blog name before, it fits you too well.” Incredulously, I asked really? “Yeah, because when you tell people what the name of your website is, it’s going to stick in people’s heads.”
So here I am, writing away at four in the morning while my dog Grace sleeps on my leg, cutting off circulation to my body but finally asleep, and something hits me. Am I funny enough to get away with saying I’m not funny? I think back to the old masters of comedy, George Carlin, Charlie Chaplin, the first caveman to fart during an awkward silence, could they say something like that. Would they say they weren't funny?
No, those guys were hilarious, but I don’t know if I’ll ever match them. Yes, I’m more of a literary writer than a stand-up comedian, but the act of storytelling is similar to each other.
So I ask, I know I’m funny, but will other people find me funny too?
As we talked about friends of friends, what we were doing with our lives and the inevitable approach of death, I told her I started a blog. She asked me what the name of the website was, and I replied “Jim Burdick isn’t funny.com” which left her in hysterics. She said, “I have never heard of a better blog name before, it fits you too well.” Incredulously, I asked really? “Yeah, because when you tell people what the name of your website is, it’s going to stick in people’s heads.”
So here I am, writing away at four in the morning while my dog Grace sleeps on my leg, cutting off circulation to my body but finally asleep, and something hits me. Am I funny enough to get away with saying I’m not funny? I think back to the old masters of comedy, George Carlin, Charlie Chaplin, the first caveman to fart during an awkward silence, could they say something like that. Would they say they weren't funny?
No, those guys were hilarious, but I don’t know if I’ll ever match them. Yes, I’m more of a literary writer than a stand-up comedian, but the act of storytelling is similar to each other.
So I ask, I know I’m funny, but will other people find me funny too?
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