Editor's Notes
As the comedians magazine enters its third year, it was decided that now would be a good time to try something different. Rather than continue to publish a magazine every other month, we’re switching to every month. Rather than simply providing feature articles from New York’s Comedy Scene, we’ve gone national.
Perhaps this move to hear from and reach out to more of this country is a result of the recent election. I stood in line at 5:40 AM outside an elementary school on a brisk, dark morning, waiting for my chance to vote. It seemed important enough to get up early and beat the rush – to bridge the gap! To vote for change! To freeze my ass off! There were about a dozen folks ahead of me online. Despite the hour and temperature, everyone seemed to be pretty happy to be part of it.
After a few minutes, a middle-aged woman in a leather jacket over pajamas, smoking a cigarette, walked up from the parking lot and stopped to ask me a question. For some reason, strange people like to talk to me. She asked, “Excuse me, is this where you go to vote? Or is this the line for the other thing?”
I told her, Yes, it was Election Day and this is where you go to vote. I wanted to scream at her that she was and idiot and a ninny. Why the hell else would we be there? As she stumbled off, I thought more about her question...other thing? What other thing? What could that other thing possibly be? Pizza Day! Auditions for career day failures? Some sort of NFL-style Draft for pedophiles?
In school, we were always taught there’s no such thing as a dumb question. That’s a lie! Every time you open your mouth you run the risk of being discovered for the freak or dork you really are. Like the time I stepped into an elevator in New York while reading a book. I didn’t think reading on the elevator was that unusual. I was reading an Alan Furst spy novel on the train, kept reading it as I left Grand Central, and decided to read it until I reached my office. A hefty woman whose horn-rimmed glasses were askew got on the elevator with me. We rode up in silence, me reading my book, her staring at me. When we reached her floor, she turned and yelled as she left the elevator, “Thanks for isolating yourself from society!!”
Regardless, this edition has been exciting to work on and we hope, like the new administration, the start of something better.
In this issue you’ll read about Tim Cornett from Portland via Kentucky, Emmett Montgomery from Seattle via Utah, Johnny Steele from California, and Jimmie Roulette from Austin. You’ll hear from The Cody Rivers Show, an exciting sketch group from Bellingham, Washington, and Jeremy Hotz, a Canadian from Los Angeles trapped in Connecticut. There’s a rapper from Cambridge, Mass, MC Mr. Napkins, and some funny words from New Yorker Ophira Eisenberg and Bostonian Sarah Blodgett.
From all those who have worked on it, we hope you enjoy it and we appreciate your comments. And if you fear your comments are bizarre and will prove embarrassing. Don’t worry, you’re probably so freakin’ nuts you won’t even notice it.
Ken Carlson is the editor of the Comedians Magazine.
editor@thecomedians.org