I see great potential in you.
Vomit in Love, a Christmas Song
I wrote the dumbest lyrics and the amazing David Hale turned it into something beautiful.
It’s my favorite Christmas song.
And no, it’s not based on a true story. I don’t know why people always ask me that.
What are you really yearning for?
In her book, I Might Regret This, Abbi Jacobson describes the long road trip she took alone to hopefully find healing after a bad break up. While staying in a cabin in Utah she goes outside in the middle of the night to really take in how beautiful the sky is.
The stars out there, out west, are different, they’re brighter and bolder, and they make you feel that the world is so much more than you ever could have thought, that maybe you’d only been focusing on a tiny little corner. I know all those starts are there too, in my New York sky, but I don’t see them. There’s too much in the way. This was the space I was longing for and had been seeking out. But I could see now I hadn’t been yearning for that expanse to escape into, but rather to remember that I was a part of it.
I’ve been trying to figure out what it is about that last line that is so beautiful to me.
Two scriptures come to mind.
We all try to escape into the expanse, to get lost in it.
Psalm 139:7-8 says
Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
There’s no way to escape. But that’s not really what we’re after. What we’re REALLY yearning for when we stare at the beauty around us is the comfort of knowing we belong.
Psalm 8:3-4 says
“When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?”
He knows me. He cares for me. He doesn’t want me to hide from Him.
The God who made it all wants to me in His family. How crazy is that?
Now I want to go out into nature and see what it makes me feel.
SNL Gets Surprisingly Sweet for Christmas
There were two moments that really stood out from this week’s Saturday Night Live. The show got surprisingly sweet. They were able to embrace the warmth and beauty of Christmas without losing laughs.
I think that’s a pretty common fear: you can’t be earnest and still be funny. You’ll sacrifice the jokes if you try to say something meaningful. And that’s not what people want from a comedy show!
But that' doesn’t have to be true! You can laugh at your cake and cry while eating it too.
Obviously I think the pendulum can swing too far in the other direction and you CAN get so wrapped up in making something important that you forget to also make it funny. But this week’s SNL found the perfect mix. It’s not too much. Just two small moments: Matt Damon’s monologue and the end of the Best Christmas digital short.
A Thrill of Hope
I love this phrase in O Holy Night.
Hope is the belief that something good is coming. The only thing more exciting than that anticipation is when it finally arrives. And that's what Christmas is celebrating. He's here. The one you've been waiting for, who will change everything, has arrived.
Worst Experience in a School Assembly
People always want to hear horror stories from the road. They want to know about my worst experience on stage. I tell this story in my shows now (it’s what I use to transition to the message at the end), and I wanted to post this as proof that it really did happened. And we really were on the news.
I was so nervous when I first started telling this story on stage. I wanted to make sure it was clear that the joke wasn’t the fact that the teacher said this horrible thing. The joke is how none of us knew what to do. We were in shock. The actually assembly hadn’t even started yet. How do you move on after that?!
It was the craziest.
If you want to hear the whole story and find out how this ties to message, I guess you’ve got to see me live.
Joke Writing and Inspiration
Laurie Kilmartin shared a list of joke transitions that are commonly used in the writer’s room at Conan. I am fascinated by this. I’ve never been good at writing joke jokes. On stage I mostly tell stories and a few observational bits. But good old fashion set up, punchline? It’s so hard for my brain to work like that. I’m jealous of people who can do it.
I love that she posted this list. Inspiration isn’t always magic. When you feel stuck you don’t have to climb a mountain to recover your passion before you work on something creative again. Some times you just need a list and an understanding of the structure and rules of what you’re creating. Some times art is just math. Set up + transition leads to joke.
Read This Blog (not mine)
My friend Cameron Combs, pictured here pretending he knows how to read, has finally made his blog public. I made an impassioned plea a few months ago for him to start one because he is one of the smartest and most well read men I know. For a while there the blog was a secret. He was just testing the waters to see if he’d actually enjoy it. But now the secret is out.
And you have to go read it.
Up until Cameron started his, the only blog I consistently read was Austin Kleon. He posts every day (and he has good reasons for doing it) and his weekly newsletter is a big influence on mine.
But now I’ve got a strong thoughtful Christian with a blog worth following.
Every time I finish one of Cameron’s posts I feel excited about my relationship with Christ.
Read his post JESUS AND ISRAEL and tell me you don’t feel the same.
Feeling Good
Feeling good. Not stressed at all.
Whenever I get really frustrated about something suddenly I’m so much more sensitive to every little annoyance in my life. All the things I could easily brush off are now ABSOLUTE NIGHTMARES because my bad mood is ruining my perspective.
Thats what happened to me today. It took a while to calm down. I knew it was important I find something to chill me out because I had to do standup at a Christmas dinner. I don’t think “on edge and ready to snap” is a good look for me. I’m not the type of comedian who can pull it off.
First I recognized that I was feeling frustrated and admitted to how it was affecting my attitude all day. I complained loudly to someone I trust. And then I listened to Andrew WK because his music is so positive and wonderful, I know it can always put me in a good mood.
The picture is from another time I was feeling the same way. I didn’t do that whole step by step to get through it. I just grabbed that dog as it walked by and squeezed it real tight for a while. That seemed to work too.
Also, I promise I’m wearing shorts in that picture. Don’t get too distracted by my thick legs, you weirdo.