Evening rumbles of rattle snakes, comedians and yes, improv writing.

From the archive: Originally shared on 2013-01-05 through improvwriting. Language, links, and opinions reflect their original context.

I want to learn to write one whole page every day, it doesn’t matter what it’s about. I just need to write and keep writing and keep writing. And keep writing, like my high school math teacher: Mr. Asamini would say, with an almost stuttering voice, wavering a piece of chalk in the faces of my fellow classmates, while gesturing a parabola curve. He was a brilliant man. He however seemed to have the patience of a rattle snake. Not like I know what rattling snakes do that is particularly impatient, but their hissing sound, coupled with the sound of their rattling tail in an alert stance captures the idea of impatience in my mind. In any case, I am drifting away with my thoughts. Not like I had any one particularly to begin with. This is what is colloquially known in my country as freestyle. Not necessarily this, since I am really not trying hard to organize my thoughts about a single topic, but yeah; that is what free style in Ghana is all about: Trying to organize one’s efforts precariously in an endeavor that is one is called upon to act unprepared. The term itself must be an English phrase, which may be used by traditional English people- I am not sure. But I do attribute it to my country anyway.

Interesting how tiring typing out a whole page can seem to be. Even in today’s modern world where people seem to type away their lives on cell phones, tablets, laptops and atm bank screens to mention a few. “Narcistically” speaking, I could write an event from my day, and present it as an idea. I don’t know why I am not doing that- I should. But I honestly feel lazy to do so. I rather seem to enjoy this ongoing outpour of words in no coherent manner. I do enjoy my improv-writing. Much like a comedian on stage without a script- I guess that is improv. A real comedian probably is jam packed with prepackaged materials in his head. All he needs to do on the stage is try and not only remember them but perhaps try and deliver them in a way that is appealing to the audience.Looking at it from a  more experienced comedians view, the comedian has to control the audience in order to prepare them for upcoming materials. It’s no wonder why sometimes when I listen to except of some comedy stand ups I have seen, and previously liked, they tend to be rather bland and boring. Is it because I didn’t get warmed up to the comedian’s jokes from the beginning? Does this apply to experienced comedians or just novice ones? Examples that come to mind is Louis C K. I saw his comedy stand up once, and thought he was brilliantly funny. Not sure if I should blame being drunk at the time, for my loose comedic expectation or dude isn’t just funny the second time around. I had another friend who also saw the stand up, and saw it with me the second time, when we were both disappointed. Other comedians such as … I seriously forgot the comedian’s name. But he is also an African American actor and was in Madagascar and Shrek. Got it! Chris Rock. Yes, his jokes seem to hardly wear out of touch if you only watch except of his stand up. I think comedy much like talking is less about what you are saying and more about how you say it. When I imagine a Chris rock joke, I imagine the expression on his face as he tells the joke, much like George Carlin.

In any case, I must seek to conclude this useless, seemingly endless rant about nothing, which I couldn’t even do very well. You know what? I read somewhere about how it isn’t necessarily hard to publish a book once you have it, because apparently most people who want to be authors, don’t have a book to being with- They don’t appreciate the amount of work it goes into writing. When they think about being an author they think about ideas and publishing. I guess it’s the stuff in between that is most difficult- much like my apparent struggle to try and write materials to fill out this page. Trying as hard as I can but can’t seem to get there. Even as I try hard to provide filler words. Words I used to use back in college to try and express ideas in lengthy fashion so as to meet a professors word count. And look- I have reached the end of my page. But I just started with my college analogy  I could have gone somewhere with that, and written more material. I guess the less on today is the fact that, you write from ideas. And although wannabe authors may be naive about what it takes to write a book. They may be right about one thing: It beings with an idea. Good night.