Welcome to The Dark Side of Stand-Up Comedy: Submission 4

Thursday, February 8, 2018

Submission 4

Comedian Bio

Todd El Holley is 53. He has been doing mainly open mic for the last year at a small club in Pullman, WA called Etsi Bravo.

Story

I had done my first paying gig at a bar in Lewiston, ID. They asked me to do an hour which was insane as I had never done over 18 minutes, but I pulled everything that I had together and practiced my ass off. I get there and the place is packed and the sound is fucked. They had disconnected the karaoke system for the opening guitar player and I was left with 2 small PA’s on the stage. Nobody sitting over 20 feet away could hear shit. I gutted through it and they swore to me that in 2 weeks if I wanted to do it, they would have the sound fixed. A week later the manager calls and says that the sound is fixed and they're having a wake for a local popular bartender if I wanted to do a few minutes and check out the system. I had my doubts but he assured me that there would be about 200 people who all worked in the industry and would appreciate dark humor. By the time I got there, however, there were about 25 friends and family members left and they were on the mic telling stories about this guy who I had never met. AND, they had disconnected the sound for the DJ’s bass cab, which all the sound was coming from. The manager introduces me and as I'm walking to the stage, someone else was like, “I have a story about Joe.” So, I stood down and let them go. By the time I got onstage, half of the people that were left were outside smoking and the rest couldn't hear shit because they were on the far side of the bar. I told 4 jokes and the DJ chuckled a couple times. I figured it could never get worse, and so far, it hasn't.

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Upload a story/video about the dark side of stand-up. Top Prize -- $500 --- 5 Runners Up get $100

Are you a comedian with a great story about a time when things went horribly wrong? We want to hear about it. Selected stories will appear in a scholarly book titled The Dark Side of Stand-Up Comedy, under contract with Praeger. The co-editors of the book Dr. Patrice Oppliger (Boston University) and Dr. Eric Shouse (East Carolina University) will select winners based upon the quality of your story and the originality of the contribution. (Tip: We are more interested in vivid descriptions of “dark” experiences than laughs per minute.) The “dark side” of stand-up comedy can potentially refer to a comedian’s onstage performance, his or her offstage life, or the relationship between the two. Stories should be original works of between 500-3,500 words that have not been published elsewhere. Authors will need to sign a contract releasing all rights in order to be eligible to participate in the contest. All stories that fit the scope of the contest as determined by the editors will appear on the official The Dark Side of Stand-Up Comedy Blog.

Don’t like to write?

Pick up your phone and record yourself telling your story about the “dark side” of stand-up. Put the link to your publicly accessible YouTube video in the box where it says to “cut and paste your story” and you could win $500 without all that pesky typing.

We want great stories. We will take them however we can get them. So get cracking.

The deadline to submit is March 1, 2018. Early submissions are appreciated!

About The Book

The book, The Dark Side of Stand-Up Comedy, was motivated by comedians themselves. In autobiographies, interviews, and podcasts, stand-up comics regularly reference comedy’s “dark side.” Which raises the question: By what criteria is it fitting to call a comedian’s life or art dark? Answering that question is important because in popular culture comedians are regularly stereotyped as “sad clowns” with tortured pasts despite the fact that most comedians have fairly typical childhoods (Greengross, Martin & Miller, 2012). Perhaps more significantly, the stereotype of the “sad clown” covers over the various forms darkness can take.

Take, for example, the very different role that “darkness” played in the lives and stand-up performances of George Carlin, Richard Pryor, and Robin Williams. Although George Carlin’s stand-up was often dark (reveling in subjects such as death, suicide, and war), he maintained an admirable degree of lightness in his personal life. Carlin described himself as “a joyful individual” who “had a long and happy marriage and a close and loving family.” Richard Pryor, on the other hand, transformed the many tragedies he suffered in his personal life—including setting himself on fire while in a cocaine-induced stupor—into comedic material. And while Robin Williams improvisational style was the epitome of lightness on stage, he ultimately committed suicide. To say that there was a “dark side” to George Carlin, Richard Pryor, and Robin Williams is correct, but it wasn’t the same side.

There are various “dark sides” to be found in the lives and works of stand-up comedians. The “dark side” can potentially refer to a comedian’s onstage performance, his or her offstage life, or the relationship between the two. It is for this reason that we have assembled an interdisciplinary team of scholars who employ a wide range of methods to investigate this subject. It is our intention to present as wide an account of the “dark side” of stand-up comedy as possible, as well as to be genuinely polyvocal, allowing the voices of stand-up comedians and academics to speak with and inform one another.

About The Authors

Dr. Patrice Oppliger, Boston University, has been an active contributor to the International Society of Humor Studies conferences for over 20 years. She reviews articles and books for HUMOR: International Journal of Humor Research. She is the author of four books: Tweencoms: A Look at 25 Years (1991-2016) of female characters in the Disney Channel and Nickelodeon Comedies (Lexington Books, under contract); Bullies and mean girls in popular culture (McFarland Publishing, 2013); Girls gone skank: Sexual representations of girls in American culture (McFarland Publishing, 2008); and Wrestling and hypermasculinity (McFarland Publishing, 2004).

Dr. Eric Shouse, East Carolina University, draws upon cultural studies and rhetoric to better understand the role of humour in popular culture. He is a stand-up comic and a professional joke writer and an active member of The International Society for Humour Studies. His work has been published in HUMOR: International Journal of Humor Research, Comedy Studies, Text and Performance Quarterly, KB Journal (Kenneth Burke Journal), and M/C Journal: A Journal of Media and Culture, amongst others. He is currently working very hard thinking and writing about the dark side of stand-up comedy, whereas you have squandered your valuable time and energy reading his biography.

Thursday, February 8, 2018

Submission 4

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