2003-08-20 | 11:52 p.m.

corduroy licorice's favorite uncle was a surgeon and amateur comedian. he kept everybody in stitches.

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shout out:

this week i had the honor of seeing star of stage and tv zero's roommate fadein perform with his improv troupe "the excuses" live and in person with tv and friends. in addition to bill's team's comedic chops, i was really impressed by their comedic cajones.

even though i've taken improv classes, i've never been in front of a "real" audience--just classmates who were in the same "oh my god, i'm up in front of everyone and don't know what to say next that'll make sense and people laugh" boat of horror. the classroom stage pressure was freaky enough for me, so extra credit to fadein and crew for being brave enough to get up there (even though he chided me saying that that is the kind of compliment you give to 6th graders). then how about this: "i'm amazed by your ability to show up."

(sorry, i'll just never get tired of that keanu classic.)

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shout out deux:

i've just accidently discovered the coolest writer!

let me start at the beginning. i was seeing a band at the troubadour in l.a. i think it was a weakerthans show. anyway, along with their band t-shirts they were selling zines. i picked one up, flipped through and figured it was worth a couple of bucks.

cut to two years later. i saw it in a stack of stuff and decided to read it. i know it's a cliche to say this, but i couldn't put it down.

his writing reminds me of dave eggers in its bitter wit, but this fella's a bit less smug than the staggering heartbreaker. the zine he puts out is called "burn collector." there is a book available that contains the first nine issues that's on amazon and at insound, although it's temporarily out of print at the moment.

his name is al burian. his main line of work seems to be playing bass for a punk band called milemarker.

it's been a long time since i found a writer (who wasn't on diaryland, of course!) who made me laugh, ponder and cringe like burian does just by telling simple stories from his life.

here's a brief interview with him that gives you a sense of his style.

and here is an excerpt from a story where he loses his parents' dog:

"as for me, i am desperately trying to formulate some way of accounting for my ineptitude. i decide that, if the dog is not recovered and reasonably intact by my parental units' return, i will confess to them that i've been a drug addict for years and have myself committed to a rehab clinic. this will probably explain a lot of things to them, actually, and will make the last few years of my life suddenly posess a newfound cohesion and narrative locomotion. i can emerge in a few months, glassy-eyed and docile, (now probably actually a drug addict, although it'll be some state-sanctioned crack-rock like paxil), wearing skinny ties and tucking my shirt in..."

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