UPcoming (edited--September 9)

Upcoming Comedy
Wednesday, September 13 - The Comic Strip (Edmonton)
Thursday, September 14 - The Comic Strip (Edmonton)
Friday, September 15 - The Comic Strip (Edmonton)
Saturday, September 16 - The Comic Strip (Edmonton)
Sunday, September 17 - The Comic Strip (Edmonton)
Sunday, September 24 - The Comic Strip (Edmonton)
Monday, September 25 - The Comic Strip (Edmonton)

Living Articles in the Journal
Friday, September 22 - Getting By With a Little Help From...

Dan Brodribb's headLINES appears every Saturday in the ed section of the Edmonton Journal

Be Dan Brodribb's friend on myspace at http://www.myspace.com/danbrodribb

Thanks to everyone who wrote in about the article on my brother. It meant a lot to me that people connected with it and shared their own stories of loss as well. Reading everyone's stories was very moving and a couple times I found myself overwhelmed with emotion. I try to make a point of answering anybody who takes the time to write in as soon as possible. In this case, though, it may take a few days before I get back to everyone, partially from the number of responses, but mostly because of it is pretty intense emotionally. If you wrote in and didn't hear back from me, thanks in advance for your patience. I promise I'll get to everyone I can.


Before the MPW show, they played Dokken's "Tooth and Nail" CD which had me all a-twitter; I haven't heard that album in ages. From my 'Martial' Art character's point of view, that turned out to be the high point of the show. The show was great, but also one of the darker and grimmer shows (and bloodiest) we've put on as from top-to-bottom of the card, the 'bad guys' unrelentingly dominated the show. As a fan, I'm notorious for cheering for the bad guys, but as a character I really got pulled into the hopelessness of the situation from the broadcast table, and I hope that genuine emotion comes through on the DVD. I expect this show will be mostly remembered for the sheer bloody barbarism of the main event between MASSIVE DAMAGE and DARREN 'THE BOMB' DALTON, but there are a lot of other things that happened on the show that led up to it that I hope people appreciate. CHI CHI CRUZ vs. BORIS THE BRUISER was a really cool piece of storytelling the way it started quiet and descended into a nightmare, while BIG JESS and 'ALL AMERICAN' STEVE RIVERS managed to draw in the crowd without using outside interference or blood or gimmicks. The match most in danger of being overlooked because it was early in the card and didn't have a lot of build is AJ SANCHEZ vs. BOBBY SHARP, but if it's a sign of things to come, then both these guys have pretty bright futures.

(Bye the bye, according to reports, I won the voting for MPW commissioner. Thanks to all who voted in. They're planning on making an announcement at the next show. Look forward to HEAVY METAL singing how he "feels pretty and witty and bright" very shortly as per my campaign promises.)

I had in mind to do a ramble about comedy, but this is already getting a bit long. Maybe I'll save those thoughts for a rainy day. I always worry both with comedy and with wrestling that if I fill this space with too much 'shop talk' casual readers will get bored or annoyed that i'm wrecking the magic for them. Personally, i think knowing more about something makes it more fun and gives me a deeper appreciation for it, but I certainly understand why people might hold a different opinion.