Laugh Tracks

At Batdorf & Bronson’s, Friday 7/11/08

What I learned from Steve McLellen on the eve-afternoon-never-at-dusk of the Long Goodbye Part One to Laugh Tracks on KAOS.

Although they could have continued longer, their final show will be within a day of their actual 10 year anniversary on the air.  They both liked the symmetry of that.

He’s old friends with Robyn Albro of the New Old Time Chautauqua and Fighting Instruments of Karma Marching Chamber Band/ Orchestra.  She had studied clowning but moved into corporate Fun-sultations, pitching creativity.

He recommended “Crazy Wisdom Saves the World Again” by Wes “Scoop” Nisker.  And the short stories of Thom Jones, who had been a janitor for the Olympia school district while he composed his art.  I’ve added both to my GoodReads feed.

He recommended ME: “You’ve got follow through!” ~ Steve McLellen, author, comedy consultant, radio host, and tennis coach.

He was actually referring to my 10 years as the producer of Dance O’ Dance on TCTV.

Since he has an adult son, I asked him about the average price a parent could expect to pay for a premium birthday party.  Without much deliberation he replied,

“Oh, easily between $250 and $300.  For 10 kids.  After all, even at Chuck E. Cheese’s it’s $20 each.  You could spend less.  You could spend $150 and make all the goody bags yourself, or you could just write a check, sit back and watch the thing unfold.  When we were both working full-time we couldn’t have done it.  Oh, and don’t make the mistake of putting healthy snacks in the goody bag like fruit leather.  Ewww.  What they want is candy.  You don’t need to get paralyzed by PC.  However, could, for instance, offer bubbles with that special cachet.  [i.e. eco-friendly, recycled bottles].  If you want to use the buzz words, it’s interactive.”

And he enjoyed my new Coby Keychain slideshow.  It’s got about 15 of the Laughter Yoga visual prompts and 45 pics of Jusby in action.

The Randy and Steve blog has finally been getting entries, and, ironically, it will grow more after they no longer produce a weekly radio show.  I’ve added it to my sidebar blogroll, and I anticipate they will RECIPROCATE THE LINK SOON! ;)

Tune into K.A.O.S. 89.3 FM on Saturday, July 19th a 9 AM Pacific for their last original hour of Laugh tracks.  Or listen on-line at http://kaosradio.org