The Muslim and The Redneck

I just had my first class in Meisner with Tom Radcliff. As if I dont have enough other stuff going on. This was another one of the many things I get excited about when I see an ad pop ito my inbox and decide I can just about afford it. I then I remember I have to do it 3 months later. Them my wife gets upset that I forgot to mention it to her.

The Meisner technique is a type of theatrical training taught by Stanford Meisner before he passed away in 1997. Previous students include the likes of Jeff Goldblum, Stephen Colbert and Amy Shumer. And Tom flipping Cruise. So says Wikipedia anyway. So don’t come after me please..

As a non actor why am I bothering with this? I remember one of my Improv mentors Frazer Robb being quite enthusiastic about it as an excellent way to learn to be connect with my scene partner in the land of improv.

Why do I bother with improv? Initially I did because I though it would make me a better stand up comic, and while i think it can do that (over a long period of time) I think it more quickly helped me to learn to communicate better as a doctor.

Tom Radcliff was student of Meisner himself and I like that he himself was a health professional before as well, mentioning that he once worked as a social worker as well as having a successful career as a stage actor.

So far the class seems full of wisdom on performance and we have explored what acting is, the difference between comedy and tradgedy and exploring the meaning of truth and honesty in theatre. It seems to be about getting back to the 2 year old version of me, sans the shitting myself every day and falling on my face. When I am plastered I tell people I am just getting back to my inner child.

We have done a few of the famed repetition exercises where you emotionally react to to your scene partner using the same words as them but varying the underlying emotion. I appear to be completely shit at this, but the group and teacher are thankfully pretty patient with me so far.

Tom has been encouraging us to let go of control and to be more in the moment being more focused on our scene partner. I dont think too many patients want to see see an out of control doctor nor audiences an out of control stand up. I am pretty sure most audiences and patients would prefer if I was more present and in the moment. So I am optimistic this will be worthwhile journey. If it doesn’t get me removed from the medical register.

Unfortunately I thought that doing this for 3 hours a week on a Saturday for 6 weeks would be enough. Sadly Tom has told us we need to meet up individually online every day to practice if we are going to make the most of this. I better break this to the wife gently.

Weight loss report. It is going good and it is going slow. Since I started at the beginning of the year I am down 38 pounds or just over 17 kg for you Europeans. Since I have refocused myself on July 26th I am down 19 pounds or 8.6 kg. I have been doing intermittent fasting of eating once a day and also eating low carb meals and it has been working well for me. With an average of 1.9 pounds a week weight loss. Have I been perfect with it. No, of course not. But I feel I have been 90% on the ball with it and 10% a bad boy.

But what I feel I have learned is to not let when I am weak and slip up to be the excuse to just go off the rails all together and say “Feck It”. Now I try to use those time as a means to refocus myself and continue on. Learning to not strive for being perfect but just striving for good enough.

I am now viewing my weight loss as not a diet program but as trying to reprogram how I live my life. So for all of us out there trying to loss weight, remember to not let the times that you fail dictate how you are doing.

That has always been my biggest failing. I screw up and then I just say “Feck it” and before I know it I have been eating poorly for a week or two and put some of the weight back on. Admit to yourself when you screw up, forgive yourself for when you screw up, and then refocus yourself and continue on your way. You do not need to be perfect, just good enough. Take care all.

Is it just me, or has 2020 pretty much sucked as far as years go. Now I know a lot of our ancestors would be looking at us going, “Man, you have no idea what sucked means.” And they would be right. For the most part most of us has just been stuck at home, bored out of our minds and watching the world go nuts on social media.

I am getting to the point that I am tuning out for the most part. That is not correct. I am still watching what is going on. It would be more correct to say that I am getting to the point where I am no longer wanting to engage with the world. What is the point. No one wants to talk and learn. Everyone just wants to be right.

The news sources for the most parts are just feeding us shit. I am not attacking left or right with this statement. They are all feeding us shit. And us mushrooms seem to just love it.

So what is going on in my head? Not a whole lot to be honest. I have decided to try fasting for the time being. Right now I am 36 hours off of food. Shooting for at least 72 hours. Will evaluate the situation if and when I get to that stage.

Why? Not sure. I have been working for the last year to get my weight under control. It has been up and down literally. I will sit at 315lbs if I don’t do anything about it. And over the course of this last year I have been doing good and getting myself down to about 285- 280lbs. Then I seem to hit a wall and then loose motivation and then put the weight back on and wham, 315lbs again. A yoyo it seems.

So I have been looking at Intermittent Fasting for a while, and I think it appeals to me. Kind of makes sense to me. So I think long term I am going to do the eat once a day plan. And be more selective with what I eat. But to be honest the idea of fasting has always appealed to me. I think it comes from my childhood and the teaching of how Jesus fasted in the wilderness for 40 days and 40 nights. I always found that story strange as a kid, as to why? But also I think I always kind of fancied the idea of trying it. Who knows I might get a wild hair and feck off into the wilderness for 40 days yet. Then probably start a religion when I get back.

For the time being I have decided to just fast for 72 hours at least just to experience what it feels like. So far 36 hours in it feels okay. I am a bit hungry, avoiding the kitchen like it is a covid center but all and all I feel okay. So we will see. Will update you how it goes. Assuming I do not die of starvation.

Well, today is July 4th, growing up it was my favourite holiday. As a kid it was a baseball tournament, at one of the neighbouring small towns. Unless it was my towns year to host the tournament.

A hot July day of playing baseball. Between playing games. Watching the others teams to see who we had next, a sandwich or two, to keep us going, with a bag of chips and a cold pop. Heaven on earth it seemed to me.

After a great day of baseball, a huge pot luck was provided by all of the families that had come for the baseball. Food, food and more food. What a day.

As the sun begins to set, we watch the men from the local fire department set up the fireworks, getting ready for the sun to go down. You begin to see and hear a few bottle rockets going off around town. You find yourself running around with some of the guys from the other teams. Seeing can we sneak a few bottle rocket from the firemen. The firemen are cool with us. Sure they are all local boys and remember when it was them trying to sneak a few crackers.

The families begin to settle down in the stands or around their cars in the parking lots. More folks from around town begin to show up. There is a nice buzz.

Finally, it is dark enough. The firemen begin to light off some of the fireworks to get our attention. All of us kids begin to lose interest in the few fireworks that we have. Now the big boys are starting to play.

They begin to light up the sky. Colours and explosion that you feel in your chest. Slowly at first. Giving each firework a chance to dance across the sky on their own. There is music in the back round, but you hardly notice. As you watch the firemen pick up the pace with the display.

Several go off at once. Before they are done more take off. Thunder echos across the field as reds and blues and all colours light up the stands and all of us in them.

Now, fireworks are taking off as fast as the firemen can launch them. The music is drowned out by the roar of all of the display. Finally a huge billboard at the fence of center field begins to light with fire. Row after row of coloured fire begins to burn on the billboard until finally it makes up the image of the American flag burning at the fence. Then finally one giant firework is launched. It screams as it roars into the sky, louder then anything we have yet heard. Higher and higher it climbs until it finally explodes with a thunder that shakes everything, it even sets off a few car alarms.

It is the end. The American flag begins to go out. But as it dies, the sparks fall onto the ground, setting the fence at center field on fire. So one last display as the Firemen grab their truck to put out the fire. What a day.

It seems so long ago, like a dream to me.

Mustafa Saed

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While we can’t perform live comedy at the moment I am indulging myself in doing some online comedy courses during lockdown to try and tighten up my writing at least.

Full disclosure: I dont get any money or sexual favours from Logan despite my best efforts.

I have just finished day 4 of Logan Murray’s 5 day comedy writing immersion which he runs quite frequently at a cost of £180.

Logan himself has been in comedy since 1984 and has numerous film, television and radio credits. His previous Alumni include Rhod Gilbert, Greg Davies and Andy Osho.

There is an argument that you could get as much out of his comedy writing book. This can apply to most courses of any kind that i have done as most  comedy coaches i have trained with all write books and teach courses.

For me if I invest time and money I am a lot more likely to do the exercises, and its always useful to have the person who wrote the book tell you if you are doing the exercises in the way that was intended and give you direct feedback.

That said i just finished reading the book and it really enhances the course as you would expect if studying before a lecture.

I strongly recommend it as it gives a unique insights into joke construction I have not seen elsewhere.

If you are interested you can get his book here

https://www.amazon.com/Started-Stand-Up-Comedy-Logan-Murray-ebook/dp/B00RTY12Q6/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=logan+murray&qid=1593714721&sr=8-1

Logan himself is very funny and encouraging and each day is efficiently broken efficiently into three 75 to 90 minute sessions with ‘homework ‘ sometimes being timetabled into the breaks and for the next day.

Most of the other delegates had some stand up comedy experience and the level of delegates was very high compared to other stand up courses I have done.

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While Logan is a very entertaining teacher and there are a lot of aha moments what I really love about this course is the short writing exercises. You do a lot of these. Logan suggests 15 minutes a day in the real world and this is about the time he sets for most of the writing exercises.

Through the design of the exercises and doing a lot of them, everybody on the course was producing very funny content quickly. For someone with a job as busy as mine this is invaluable skill set.

I was also pleased at the quality of first draft material that was being produced as well as my improved confidence in writing funny material. Hopefully it will stick after the coarse ends tomorrow.

I took this coarse on my week off of work. A lot of people told me “thats not really taking a break”.

The writing exercises are sometimes challenging. But I have enjoyed doing the them and I have laughed my ass off every day. It feels like I have some more tools to help me write funnier and more frequently.

I have also got to work with other comics who I will hopefully get to do some further collaborations with.

This is an excellent course useful for anybody keen to get more laughs out of your writing

For a good time check out

Loganmurray.com

I usually do not like to get involved.

I have been doing comedy here in Ireland for the last three years. I love it and I regret that I did not start doing comedy years ago. When you are new to something, you go into it with a zeal and an ignorance of what is going on. You are happy just to be involved.

You keep your head down. Don’t rock the boat. You are working and hoping to get invited into more and more comedy clubs around the country. So you keep your mouth shut. It is not my place to say anything.

You hear rumours. About this guy running this club. That guy running that other club. Or this comedian well she did this to him over there. But you keep your mouth shut. Might get me a gig.

Comedian by our very nature are a bag of mixed fruit. We can be sharp and we can be sweet. And quite often fairly bruised up. So you don’t pay attention to the rumours. Because well, it might get me a gig.

I love standing in front of a crowd and getting them laughing. The rush I feel from that is addicting. I wish I was night after night gigging. But what about principles? What about what is right?

Up until know I have not payed to much attention to the complaint that female comedians have made about how hard the comedy scene in Ireland is. I ignored it by thinking that sure, we are all eating a shit sandwich here, it is part of the game. But I have been wrong. Part of the game is not getting a gig because maybe you just are not funny enough yet. Or because hey, as in my case, my views are other then what the promoter wants to promote.

But part of the game should not be putting up with being sexually harassed or abused, by people in positions of power. This makes me sick. We have got to do better.

So I ask myself, is a gig worth my principles?

I am trying to make myself write. I don’t know why. Because as you can probably tell, I am not a writer.

Words…more words…meaning…more meaning…purpose…I doubt it.

In my youth, as I approached 20, I thought I knew everything. Had all the answer and had the confidence to let you know about it. As I approach 50, I feel that I know nothing. Ya, I now have years of life experiences, that is something. But the more I experience the more I realise that I don’t have the answers, to anythings.

No one wants to listen. We all just want to be right. I include myself in that statement. I just want to be right.

These days so many try to surround themselves with people who think the way they think. “Agree with me or leave” seems to be the mantra. If I do not agree with you. I will label you. I will slap some term that is intended to disrespect you and demote you to something intolerable in mine and my friends eyes. That way I can dismiss and ignore you. It is so much easier then having to listen to you and maybe having to face some hard truths about the things that I believe.

It is good to be challenged. To hear things from another’s viewpoint. We all view things through the prism of our own life experiences.

It is okay to disagree. I love being able to have a deep conversation over a pint or two with an individual or group of individuals that might have different viewpoints then me. We can talk and discuss. Order another round and continue to agree to disagree all the while treating each other with respect and dignity while exploring each others thoughts. Sometimes it changes my view of things, sometimes it doesn’t. But always it leaves me with plenty to think about.

It is good to think. Now I don’t consider myself a great thinker. It is why I try to do silly comedy looking for the laughs, rather then more cerebral comedy. Besides, being serious is way overrated. It is better to have a laugh or two.

Besides, none of this is permanent.

Would someone tell my wife, that I am not just some sort of toy!

The wife and I are pushing on in years. She will be pissed at me for admitting this, but 50 is the next big milestone. We are creaking on up there. I don’t mind, the world keeps turning like. But I think the boss and I are starting to run into a problem.

The problem is Sugar Baby is turning into one of those cougar types and I am turning into one of those grumpy old fellows that just wants to be left alone. “Feck, just give me some peace!”

Like the other day, I was in the kitchen doing the dishes, because that is the type of washed up punk that I am. Next thing she walks on by me and drops the palm. God damn it. I jumped and got soapy water all over the place. It ain’t right! And I don’t care how many times I might have dropped the palm when we were young. It does not make it right now. Two wrongs do not make a right. Although three lefts do make a right.

I can’t keep up. I keep telling her she needs to get a boy toy. Give me a break. But for some weird reason she still just wants me. God damn it, for being so desirable. It is a curse.

It is tough being objectified all of the time. But for the most part I just grin and bear it. Besides it is mostly my own damn fault. I poured the honey on thickly when we were young. It gave her a sweet tooth, and now I must deal with the repercussions. Damn me and my wicked ways. But I have made my bed and now I have to sleep in it. IF ONLY SHE WOULD LET ME SLEEP IN IT!

Well, to say that 2020 has sucked so far, is probably one hell of an understatement. For us in the First World anyways. Otherwise, for the rest of the world, it has probably sucked as much as normal.

It is getting to the point, where I am done talking, I think. Why talk? No one wants to listen or learn. Everyone just want to be right. Myself included.

What do I know? About as much as John Snow I wager.

I envy my Grandfather. Ya, he had to go through World War II. he fought in the Pacific. According to his brother, my Grandfather was so changed by the war, that he walked right by him at the Train Station. Did not recognise him.

But he went back to being a farmer. Raised a family and was just the salt of the earth type of man. I envy the lack of information he had to deal with. Wake up in the morning, listening to Paul Harvey, as he had his breakfast and got ready to face the day. Then work the land, and or fix equipment. He worked part time in town as a mechanic on heavy equipment. Then after a hard day of working he would be home in the evening and after supper turn on the 9 o’clock news to find out what went on in the world that day. That was it. No bombardment of information. Well, maybe the odd conversation with a neighbour or two.

But these days, it is none stop. And maybe that it is my own fault. Turn off your god damn phone you stupid SOB. So much information at your fingertips. Anything you want to know, just type it in and look it up. Hell now days you don’t even have to type it in. “Hey Siri,” All this power in my hands, and I am chained to it.

We are so connected and yet never so far apart. I want to go back home and just head off into the mountains. The dream has always been in the back of my head. But I won’t. Truth is I have become soft. Soft in body and soft in the head. I am a whore for all this contact. I love it and I hate it. What a punk.

Anyways, can we ever get some of these comedy shows going again. I think the problem is I have not had a crowd in front of me, for so long, to be able to talk shit too. I am tired of trying this thinking BS. Can we ever just talk smack and laugh.

“You know nothing, John Snow.”

Anyways, take care you all.