NEW SEASON (WHO DIS?)
What a weekend. Kechi and I have been working out a lot lately. I don’t know when we boosted our frequency to four sessions weekly, but we’ve been bouncing around between YMCA locations here in Baton Rouge. Kechi will attend an hour-long kickboxing, or line dancing, or Zumba class while I’ll hit the weight room. It’s difficult getting that much exercise, and it cuts into my walking time, but I like the way it makes me feel—apart from the soreness.
Of course, we spend a lot of time shuttling between Baton Rouge and New Orleans. We still miss the city desperately. The comedy scene here in BR is not what it is in New Orleans, and we find ourselves going back at least once a week to see shows, or spend time with friends, or both—before one even factors in Kechi’s frequent photography jobs. For a while, I was waiting for us to find our groove and settle down in our new city, and I thought that the trips back would grow fewer and farther between, but that hasn’t happened, and I’ve made my peace with the fact that it’s not going to—at least not anytime soon.
On Thursday, we went to New Orleans early, as Kechi had a work conference to attend. I spent the day writing in the hotel lobby, and then we grabbed a quick dinner and headed to the Joy Theater where we watched the famous podcaster, Kid Fury, perform standup. Taj Washington and Geneva Hughes opened for him, and everyone did a fantastic job. Fury’s standup leans more toward the storytelling side, and the entire hour is an overarching narrative about his recent suicide attempt and the learning and recovery he’s done since. While I always find him funny on The Read, I wasn’t sure how well his sense of humor would work for standup. I was hoping the show would either be good, or bad enough to be truly entertaining. His work is solid, though, and we both had a great time.
On Friday, we ran back to town again to see David Gborie at Sports Drink. Back when I was regularly doing standup, I was on a show with Gborie, and I’ve been looking out for his work ever since. I regularly listen to My Momma Told Me, the podcast he co-hosts with another favorite comic of mine, Langston Kerman. Gborie recently released a standup special and an album, so I was interested to see what his new material would be. At the 7pm show, Marcus Bond, Ryan Rogers, and an LA guy named Danny Sellers opened, and everybody did a fantastic job. I’d never seen Sellers before, but I’ll be looking out for him now. He has a special on Youtube that I’ll be checking out, as well. Gborie’s set was pretty loose, but the laughs were on point. He used his phone and was clearly testing material, but it was excellent to watch him work again. Afterwards, Kechi photographed everyone who had performed, and I even got to hand Gborie a copy of Ballad.
Kechi and I stayed home for the rest of the weekend, working to put together a new draft of her one-woman show, Pervirgin. We’ve never collaborated quite like this before, and the process was exhilarating. We both sat here in the office, sharing the script through Google Docs and spent two marathon sessions just banging it out. In the end, we came away with something Kechi is excited to perform. The script acknowledges and addresses the changes in her life since she first wrote the show, and I even get a nod. (Not my idea, but it makes sense.)
Last night, we rewarded our diligence by going to see Wicked. I loved the original novel, and some of the others in the series, but I’d never seen the musical. I’m not the target audience for that show, but there was a lot to like. The performances were excellent—especially Cynthia Erivo’s, but I did find myself wishing for a long-running non-musical prestige Fantasy series adapting Gregory Maguire’s Oz books—but that’s not what the public was looking for. The movie has been broken into two parts, with the next one due out next year. Overall, I enjoyed the film, but we did make the mistake of seeing it in 3D, and the transfer was not good.
The Holiday season is finally here. This week my brother Mikey is driving in from Atlanta, and together we’ll all head to Kechi’s sister’s house in Houston to celebrate. We’ll come back just in time to celebrate my birthday on Saturday, and then I’ll work furiously to get my new novel together in time for the close of the year. My family is still grieving the loss of my brother Brandon, and the holidays make those emotions all the sharper. There’s so much happening that I never thought I’d have to go through without him. I always assumed that between the two of us, I’d be the first to go—and in the summer of 2023, I almost was. What I’m feeling is not survivor’s guilt, not exactly, and at least it’s no longer quite so intense that, at night, when I try to sleep, I feel like I’m resting on a bed of burning coals.
That’s something, at least….
I’m not trying to end this entry on a somber note. There is much (so much!) I’m grateful for. It’s important to me, though, to avoid toxic positivity. Denying the tougher emotions and negative aspects of life makes the difficult things so much harder to bear. I hope that you and yours are well, dear reader, Please take care of yourself, and I hope you can enjoy the season whether you’re observant or not. Kechi has all the good photos from this weekend, and she’s not home, so the accompanying shot is just one I enjoy, of someone feeding a capybara who looks a little like Karate.