Sorry it’s been awhile, I can’t seem to focus on anything with all of these world crisis’ going on…you know, Brexit, Trump, Pokemon Go and of course the Armageddon. (I have been told by a somewhat reliable source at a dinner party that apparently the Rapture is going to touch down in Toronto, or at least Canada, so we are first on the list to float away).
And it could be soon people, it could be soon. (Interject dramatic symphony music here) So, it’s hard for me to write about funny shit when things don’t really feel all that funny. I mean, I can’t begin to know what it feels like to be Bernie Sanders, so I shouldn’t complain. But still.
In lieu of being funny I am going to bring you someone who is.
I had the pleasure of meeting Charles Demers at the writers Adventure camp. I’d seen him before; he is an excellent comedian. I’ve also heard him on “The Debaters” (one of the funniest radio shows around, look for a podcast). I bought my husband one of his books so I could hear him do that snort-laughing thing, a rare occurrence in the everyday tedium of middle-agedness. Not that life is bad or anything, besides all the bombings and mass shootings and war and Donald Trump.
Where was I, oh yes, levity.
If I can’t bring it to you, try Charles. He’s the kind of guy you would love to have as a best friend if he wasn’t also busy raising a child and having a marriage and making a living as a comedian. (i.e. he is too busy to be your friend, but he might send you a nice email if you aren’t weirdly stalker-ish) Which is also why you should buy his book, so he can be less busy and buy at least one more gluten free taco with the proceeds. Pass it around, give it to a friend, etc. He has more than one book, but the one I really recommend is:
The Horrors: An A to Z of Funny Thoughts on Awful Things
I mean even the name tells you that you might be in for some dark yet funny stuff. Here’s an excerpt, just to help you out. He too has thoughts on the Armageddon… I’ll just excerpt a few bits:
“Human existence is a little bit like the Godfather Part III, in that from the very moment it begins, we start to wonder when it’s going to end. For all of our history, dark fantasies about the fiery or watery or, later, mushroom-cloudy end of the world as we know it have proven irresistible, so much so that its tough to find a major civilization anywhere, at any time, that couldn’t offer up a fairly spectacular version of how everything will terrifyingly and inevitably grind to a halt…
…Tim LaHaye’s Rapture centred Left Behind novels, with their chilling tales of scramble for survival by those uncalled to join God in Heaven at the End Times, have sold in the millions and achieved, in 2014, the highest honour bestowed by Western society: being made into a Nicolas Cage movie.”
And by the way, has anyone actually seen the movie “The Rapture?” Not the Nicolas Cage one, but the 1991 version with Mimi Rogers. We stumbled upon it years ago in one of those late-night-pre-Netflix “Well this looks weird, lets see where it goes.” It had David Duchoveny and a few other almost big name stars, so we tucked in and couldn’t stop watching. Not because it was good, mind you, that isn’t always why we watch something. We watched because it was bad. Really quite bad, but also totally strange, with a fantastically annoying ending that still sticks in my head. So, maybe that makes it good. Anyway, if you’re worried about the actual Rapture, watch it.
The way I see it now, we’ve all got a pretty good chance.
Happy reading, I’ll be back when I can shelve my disappointment in humanity…