Today’s exercise is to put your music collection on shuffle or open up an internet radio station on Spotify or Pandora. Listen to the next song that plays without writing anything. Notice whatever feelings the song brings up in you. Notice any thoughts that pass through your mind.
When the song is over, grab your journal and do some free writing. Answer the following questions:
•How did the song make you feel? Melancholy, excited, irritated, angry?
•Did the song remind you of anyone or anything? Who? What?
•What do you think the song is about? What do you think the song means?
When you have answered those questions, see if your free writing could lead you to a story. Write down any characters, situations, or images that come to mind. (Variation: Do this exercise with three different songs.)
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I’m going to try a different tac today. I’ve been doing exercises without focusing on the ideas that I already want to write. So today, I’m using the exercise from Sara W. Crawford to fit into one of my own pieces that I wanted to do on education and using comedy in the classroom.
NOTE: I already started writing this on my computer but I found it lacked the focus I wanted. So I’ll start over and try it again on my phone.)
When I went to my Pandora to do today’s exercise, I chose my favorite channel- Stars of Comedy Radio. I was listening to this while driving to pick up my daughter, and heard a favorite but by Shayne Smith called “Alligator Boys.” When I first heard this bit a few months ago, I thought it was perfect for a lesson in my English 12 class. I’ll make the argument for that here:
Whenever I ask my students to write “something funny,” I invariably get choruses of “I’m not funny.”
I recall Stephen King writing that he is necessarily more twisted or evil than anyone else, but that he tends to view situations through the horror lens that has treated him so well. I recall some comedian stating that comics are not necessarily naturally funny, but view life and it’s situations through the slightly off-kilter lens of comedy. And I recall writer Neil Gaiman once opining that his ilk have no more ideas than anyone else, but that the writer takes the time to write the ideas down and flesh them out.
Using those three lenses, I tell my students that it’s not necessarily something that you’re born with, but rather a mindset to develop.
And why not choose a comedic mindset? Why not choose looking at the humorous sides of life?
There are psychological arguments about humor being used as a defense mechanism, and that many famous comedians have mental health issues that they try to subsume with their jokes. But the ability to see everyday things as silly, or to be able to see the humor in the most difficult of situations, can be life saving. JK Rowling knows what I’m saying. In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, she had Prof Lupin teaches the Hogwarts third-years the Riddikulus charm. This charm allows its user to diminish their greatest fears into a safer, comic version. So Ron Weasly turned a giant stalking spider into a fumbling creature trying to maintain its footing with roller skates on each of its eight legs. In essence, he taught them to banish their fears by making them appear ridiculous.
Ridiculous is something that is easy to aspire to. It’s almost natural in little kids, and they only start losing this gift when they start wanting to be grown up. We, as we educators and responsible adults, should seek to hold the line on turning students into adults - with emphasis on the middle part of the word, dul(l). As Robin Williams used to say, “You’re only given one little spark of madness. You mustn’t lose it.”
That brings me to Shayne Smith.
Shayne had a Dry Bar standup comedy bit called “Alligator Boys.” The bit originated from a headline he spotted at a newsstand that read, “Local man robs Wendy’s with an alligator.” This is just one of the many strange stories that appear in news. But while most people might chuckle and forget it, Shayne develops a story of almost 10 minutes reconstructing different aspects of it:
Who robs a Wendy’s?
Who tries to rob a place by going through the drive-through?
Did he use the gator as a weapon or an accomplice?
Where do you just get a gator for something like this and what kind of place is a state that has readily available alligators?
Did he buckle the gator into the backseat (because otherwise how could he drive without getting bitten)?
What must the woman at the drive through window have thought?
Imagine being the car in line behind this guy?
How did he imagine he would get away with this when he wasn’t even wearing a mask?
I would be very curious to give me students the headline and the article and see what questions, comments and thoughts they come up with. (You can find the article on this story at https://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/palm-beach/fl-loxahatchee-alligator-drive-thru-20160209-story.html. I’m sure I’d have to have them in the right mindset so they can see and project things into the Ridiculous Zone.
Then they could compare their answers with what Shayne Smith created. (Find the full bit at https://youtu.be/c2zsmXHAqg8.)
I bet the students would have a number of the same observations as Shayne, and probably some new ones as well.
Little spark saved for another day.
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