Tuesday, July 16th, 2013
The lifelong butchering of my last name could be one of the reasons I gravitate towards comedy. Because after the F-A-R it’s open season on how many different ways you can utterly fuck up saying a simple name. (FAR-nun). Well, let’s see, theirs: Faran, Farlan, Farland, Farman, Farmhand(once on a piece of mail), Farnum(almost got in a fight over this one), Farnad, Flarnin(Bill Cosby gibberish), The dubious Fartnan and Fartan…sometimes just Fart. After a while I lived up to that last one. The list goes on. It’s a running joke in our family.
I guess I’m glad that I have a unique, yet simple, yet sometimes challenging name to say. Most people who know me call me by my last name, or they call me by my lounge name Velvet Tom, or some version of that. All the women in my life who have ever been angry with me call me THOMAS. The only people that call me Thomas, who don’t know me, are bill collectors and healthcare professionals.
The number of people that actively call me ‘Thomas’ is very large.
Show 23: Saturday, July 13th, 2013, The Hollywood Hotel
I arrived ‘late’ I guess, and I almost didn’t get on, but I asked Gus. He wasn’t sure if he had the space, so I bought a beer, then he signed me in. It’s confirmed. He runs the show there. Andrew, the host introduces me:
“What’s your stupid name?”
“Tom Farnan”
“You heard him everyone, give it up for…yeah.”
I earned a comedy merit badge. I covered old stuff I’d written but hadn’t seen the light of day. Future comedy, about time travel, teleportation. Some of it has legs. The stuff about my daily life landed better.
Show 24: Monday, July 15th, 2013, Tribal Cafe
This was my second trip here. I liked it better. Bigger crowd, full of new and positive energy. A group of four young women, new to stand-up, part of a stand-up class sat together and were very generous with praise and laughter throughout the night. We of course returned the same enthusiasm when it was their turn. Some guy named “Go” was on the list, and when his name was called, he got up, put on a hat, waved good-bye and walked out the front door. Seconds later, we had much laughter at his expense. I was throwing out a few new premises, to see if I could get a chuckle. It was a 60/40 night. win.
Show 25: Tuesday, July 16th, 2013, The Palace Restaurant
Thanks to Joe the host! Amplifying Prince’s “Let’s Go Crazy”, from your iphone through the mic was a classic move. Thank you for the announcement about avoiding doing jokes about the room. You took great care of us. Acknowledging the failure of my jokes was more entertaining to the crowd, than my jokes themselves. I’ll take that. It’s a process. It’s coming along. Time to retire the Kardashian stuff. I’ll save it for a different crowd. Vulnerable. Working on it.
I’m going to Los Globos tonight for my 30 day marker. It will be 26 shows. Hurray!