First!!!!1!!1!

Welcome to my Chris McBlogagle
First things first, let me tell you a little about myself, and why I created this blog:

   My name is Chris Mcgonagle, I am 24 years old, and I recently fell in love with the idea of performing comedy. This has, in a way, been a dream of mine since I watched Comedy Central Stand Up specials/shows all the time as a ~15 year old pothead. I never fully realized that it was an option to attempt this stuff, or maybe I was subconsciously avoiding it for fear of being ridiculed. Either way, 2011 for me has become the year of trying to do things I love.
   Now I know what you are probably thinking: just because you love watching it doesn't mean you are going to be any good at it. Believe me, I know better than anybody that I can be painfully unfunny at times. But I am not completely inexperienced with writing comedy ideas, as many old film projects I was part of as a child can attest to. They were sometimes school projects, sometimes random projects with friends, but there was always a comedy element to all of them.
   That all said, I am completely selfish in my goal of trying to get into the comedy field. I made a realization in the last year, while searching for a career that interested me, that one of the three things that makes me happy is making people laugh, followed closely by music and puppies. Unfortunately, all of these things I love are nearly impossible to make a living at. But (as I'm sure I may regret) I decided I would rather attempt to try something I love than make a guaranteed living. I am 100% doing this to get off on peoples laughter, both figuratively and literally.
   Now, as to what I've been doing to try and take the "aspiring" away from comedian...
   I recently started a podcast called Analysis Inconclusive with Mr. Martin Thresher and Mr. Paul Thresher. We have yet to release an episode, but we have a few fully recorded which just await us to get off our lazy ass-butts and edit. This podcast is almost a variety show of sorts, with some improv type games we play together, some conversational elements, and some written out segments which we work on. This podcast has been great for the writer side of me, as every few weeks we all need to write out some sketches. We meet every week, and we are each responsible for a pretty well-written-out sketch based on our episodes topic. Writing things that I have to show to the Threshers also adds a bit of challenge to it, as I am selfish and want to make them laugh, probably even more-so than the podcast listeners. I also write out a interview segment for each episode, based on the topic. Not anything serious, more like a set of things for us to talk about and answer, and have a little fun with. Since its all questions I have never asked them, the first episode was a bit clunky(more because of my questions than them, ill admit). But after recording only one more interview, and writing out another one we have yet to record, I noticed that I've gotten quite a bit better(Or maybe I should leave that up to the listener to decide...). Now if only I can work on my improv skills for the podcast, I would feel a lot better about myself.
   I also have another podcast in the works, this one much further from completion. I am co-writing this with Dennis Bruno, and it is going to be an entirely scripted podcast. I don't want to get too far into details, but so far we've talked about a 5-15 min comedy narrative, telling an ongoing story. Kind of like an exciting TV show, but entirely audio, with way more dumb jokes, and not coming from your TV. This idea definitely has been testing my creative fluids(in fact, all my bodily fluids),  as I've been working on joke-writing for this a ton lately. This is definitely good though, as I noticed I would always suffer from writers block working on sketch ideas. But since Mr. Bruno and I have set out the basics of the story, I always have something I can pop a few ideas out for.
   The final thing I have been working on, though admittedly not as much as the podcast writing, is some Stand-Up material. So far I only have done one open mic, and it definitely taught me a good amount. Unfortunately, being as broke as your usual aspiring comedian, I haven't been able to go out as much as I have wanted to (Read: Ever! its been a month since that open mic). I had so much fun my first time, despite the crowd of seven people(other comics mostly) I had, and the complete lack of anything other than the mildest of chuckles. I definitely have been trying to work on a more punchline-y style for standup, as I don't feel my timing (or for that matter anything I wrote) was very good. From what I hear it takes Stand Ups a long time to develop their style on stage at first, and that makes me feel a lot better. Also, the fact that I heard crickets chirping for 5 minutes really put everything into perspective... I mean, what's the worst that can happen?
   My first set I did jokes about a shitty car I was driving around in, and my lack of a sex life. I definitely want to stick to the truthful style of comedy, I feel like listening to WTF? with Marc Maron made me realize that. Not that he's one of my hero comics, in fact I haven't seen much standup of his. But I am definitely a fan of WTF? and feel like he's a close friend just from the amount I know about him. I don't actually believe he's a close friend, obviously, but I know more about him than some close friends. And usually in conversations I'm a little too truthful, so I figured that would transfer naturally. The problem is that I tend to write somewhat absurd sketches, but I want to make the stand up real, while still having my style of humor in it. Just need to be more determined I guess!
   Now that I've typed your fucking face off, Ill tell you what I hope to accomplish with this blog. I feel like this might be useful to somebody to hear my thought process, learn from my mistakes I make as a beginning comedy writer/blogger/stand up comic/podcaster, and if I get lucky, learn from the things I do successfully. I may use this Blog as a place to put some quick funny things I come up, and I may use it as a motivational tool to set goals for myself.

This weeks goals:
Solid sketch for Analysis Inconclusive- Longer than last sketch, with more jokes
Meet with Dennis to work on our podcast project
Work on Standup routine- come up with 5 funny minutes(or rework the stuff I have), perform 5 minutes at open mic or 2(Free time permitting, I have another job you know!)
Write article/sketch/something funny unrelated to podcasts or standup (I've been looking at submitting comedy articles, but also just to have a few solid sketches or ideas written out incase I ever need them)

I will update this blog at some point and talk about what I did actually accomplish. Thanks for reading, hope this has been interesting and/or informative to someone.
Chris McGonagle