bob's burgers, season 1, episode 2, "at least you're holding me now." just made me die laughing. seriously, haven't laughed this hard in a long time. so good, on so many levels.

January 20th, 2011: Jake Farmer gets his first applause break in stand-up comedy.

july 8th, 2010 - got 2nd place at the weekly qualifier for Battle of the Comics. beat a lot of seasoned guys.

henry miller's constant relevance in my life never ceases to amaze me. i haven't read him in a few months and what should the next passage be about? comedians.

"He was the whole show and it was a show that contained more therapy than the whole arsenal of modern science. They ought to have paid a man like this the wages which the President of the United States receives. They ought to sack the President of the United States and the whole Supreme Court and set up a man like this as ruler. This man could cure any disease on the calendar. He was the kind of guy, moreover, as would do it for nothing, if you asked him to. This is the type of man which empties the insane asylums. He doesn't propose a cure - he makes everybody crazy. Between this solution and a perpetual state of war, which is civilization, there is only one other way out - and that is the road we will all take eventually because everything else is doomed to failure. The type that represents this one and only way bears a head with six faces and eight eyes; the head is a revolving lighthouse, and insead of a triple crown at the top, as there might well be, there is a hole which ventilates what few brains there are. There is a very little brain, as I say, because there is very little baggage to carry about, because living in full consciousness, the gray matter passes off into the light. This is the only type of man one can place above the comedian; he neither laughs nor weeps, he is beyond suffering. We don't recognize him yet because he is too close to us, right under the skin, as a matter of fact. When the comedian catches us in the guts this man, whose name might be God, I suppose, if he had to use a name, speaks up. When the whole human race is rocking with laughter, laughing so hard that it hurts, I mean, everybody then has his foot on the path. In that moment everybody can just as well be God as anything else. In that moment you have the annihilation of dual, triple, quadruple, and multiple consciousness, which is what makes the gray matter coil up in dead folds at the top of the skull. At that moment you can really feel the hole in the top of the head; you know that you once had an eye there and that this eye was capable of taking in everything at once. The eye is gone now, but when you laugh until the tears flow and your belly aches, you are really opening the skylight and ventilating the brains. Nobody can persuade you at that moment to take a gun and kill your enemy; neither can anybody persuade you to open a tome containing the metaphysical truths of the world and read it. If you know what freedom means, absolute freedom and not a relative freedom, then you must recognize that this is the nearest to it you will ever get. If I am against the condition of the world it is not because I am a moralist - it is because I want to laugh more. I don't say that God is one grand laugh: I say that you've got to laugh hard before you can get anywhere near God."

feel the urge to catalog and brag about my comedy accomplishments in the last week, so i might as well do it somewhere where no one is listening anyways:

1. did a solid set at Meatheads. got off 'stage' and Myracle handed me an application for the Battle of the Comics, saying i should enter. also, another comic named Shelly got my number because apparently she is the local comedian rolodex. she said i was really funny and she'd be in touch about shows. who should call the next day but Shelly to offer a set at Tommy Rocker's on friday.

2. did really well at Tommy Rocker's. booked another set for two weeks later. the host liked me. ended up being the best night of my life (6/25/10, in case you wanna know later on).

3. the monday before i went to Mulligan's Landing to check out their comedy night. inquired, got a dude's name, found him on facebook, messaged him, ended up being a very nice guy and he got me a slot at the next show. didn't do terribly well, but one of the guys, rhino, who is helping start up freevegascomedy.com said they wanted to showcase new and interesting comedians, took me aside for an interview, and said he'd post my whole set on the site in the next couple of days. and he ended up doing this.

4. did Meatheads open mic. again, didn't do terribly well, but as soon as i got off stage, Angie and Myracle asked if i wanted to host next week. who knows if this will actually end up happening, but that would be crazy.

now, i realize these are pretty modest accomplishments, but i've done stand-up seven times, i'm not good by any means yet, but all this has happened. not sure what it means, but i gotta realize it doesn't mean anything. i just need to keep doing my thing.

man this ride is bumpy. but damn. those ups are fucking worth it.

get up, stand up

March 10th, 2009:
"i'm addicted to stand-up.
i'm gonna be one."