I’m not sure if this comedy is allowed, but I’m going to try it anyway

March 24, 2009 by vongsundara · 1 Comment 

One more day before I film my first video production. On the great advice of a great friend, I have decided to film my comedy set about the SuperPowerBottoms, my gay volleyball team and not-so-subtle stab at promoting rights for bottoms everywhere. Haha, talk about the opposite of mainstream. The video will be targeted to a very specific demographic, but I’m hoping that that demographic will really appreciate it.

The big news of the week, though, is that I have found my own comedy muse: hot blonde actress and improv student Holly. While doing improv, I discovered how much I love collaboration which isn’t something I get to do at all in stand-up. While brainstorming with my muse, I’ve decided to try something off-the-wall and maybe even against the rules.

I’m going to write a stand-up for someone else. I will be the Tina Fey to her Amy Poehler (check Saturday Night Live). Writing stand-up for Holly is actually kind of exciting because of her great acting ability. She has a uniqueness to her look and great timing on her delivery, but at this point in time she is more of a performance artist than a writer. Writing for Holly will allow me to really push myself creatively. I’ve written for my own stand-up persona for so long, that I think writing from the perspective of a young, hot blonde will be very interesting.

The end goal for this writing project is to have Holly perform her material as an opening act when my one-man show debuts (now with a bonus woman!) at the end of this year or early next year. The fact that I’ll be writing both acts will lend itself to some great continuity and some comedy tricks that I’ve been meaning to try and which I don’t think have been done before, as a headliner generally doesn’t write material for their opening act.

Anyhow, with my two current projects progressing well, I’m getting excited and more inspired than ever. It feels great to be pushing the boundaries of an art form that I love so dearly.

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Deciding which set will work best on video is more difficult than I thought

March 22, 2009 by vongsundara · 2 Comments 

My spring and summer comedy schedule is starting to get really full, which is a great thing and not something I could have said about my comedy life last year. I end each of April, May and June off with a relatively big show and I have a bunch of off-stage projects on the go, the biggest of which is my comedy video production starting this week.

I have studio time booked with my video producer for this Thursday. The final video will consist of me performing one of my stand-up sets that will then be enhanced with animation and sound effects. It’s difficult to describe, but I’m excited that the project is moving forward.

The biggest difficulty for me is deciding which set will work best in a video format accompanied by graphics and sound effects. Some of my sets definitely lend themselves more to a visual format but may not be the best for a debut video, as I’d like the first video to skew more mainstream (otherwise I’d start the first video off on a skit about the SuperPowerBottoms volleyball team).

I think I’m down to two choices: the set about my sister Anne, which has never yet been performed, and the set about my time as an obituary writer, which has never been filmed or uploaded online. Both sets of their merit for sure.

The set about my sister Anne would probably be the clear choice in terms of what would work for this project, but it is in an unfinished state and hasn’t really been tested for kinks. The obituary skit works well too but isn’t as representative of my comedy style as a whole.

I’ll think about it some more tonight, and I’ll have to make up my mind by Tuesday, as I’ll need all of Wednesday to rehearse and memorise.

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