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)
Monday, September 18 - The Comic Strip (Edmonton)
Wednesday, September 20 - Yuk Yuks (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

-Last Monday was probably the most fun I've had doing comedy. Since there wasn't enough of a crowd to justify a show, but most of the dozen comics or so who were there still wanted to perform, LARS CALLEIOU hit upon the idea of all of us performing for each other, but with a twist--we had to perform another comic's jokes. Make sense? Anyway, we drew names and I got to be ANDREW IWANYK for an evening, while my material was performed by Lars. The highlight of the night was MAX MAULT doing ED WENDE. He could only remember one joke (not surprising since Max often has a hard time remembering his own material) so he kept repeating it over and over, finally ending with this exchange..

MAX: I'm going for that Moby's older brother look. Umm...Moby was a whale. And I'm going for that Moby's older brother look. (to Ed) Ed, what are some more of your jokes?

ED: Well, I do stuff about my parents and kids, where they...

MAX: Oh, yeah, right, right, right. (to the crowd) I'm going for that parents and kids look.

Classic. Afterwards, Lars bought everyone drinks at Sherlock's because he won money playing poker and because he's a cool guy, and then Max paid for my food at the Sidetrack, because...well, because he's one of the classiest guys on the planet, though you'd never know it from watching him on stage.

Nights like that, you appreciate being a comic. Just doing what you love, and hanging out with other people who love comedy and life too. There's this cliche that comedians are often depressed and sad, and while there's sometimes some truth to that, comics also have a deep passion and love for life--at least in Edmonton. I wouldn't have traded last night for the world. People ask me how long it will take me to be succesful at comedy. I say I already have. My late brother and his wife had a quote they showed me about mountaing climbing: "The best climber in the world is the one who's having the most fun." That applies to a lot of other things too.

-For those of you wondering about this mysterious book project I've been working on, you can learn a bit more about it at 10otherwomen.blogspot.com. The short version is, it's going to be a book on dating and relationships. I think there may be one or two books about that already on the market, but I really think I'm onto something (end Sarcasm). It's going to be at least partly autobiographical, but I have a "unique" attitude towards dating and a tendency to misbehave in my personal life, so I'm looking for stories to help give a more balanced perspective.