Nine Minutes Times Five Days

Another Upstanding Comedy Tour is in the books and it was a great one!
You may remember from a previous blog that I learned an important lesson last tour!
I do comedy for the fun of it and as a ministry.  It's an activity that helps me be better on the radio.
I had the opportunity to travel and perform with Upstanding Comedy-The Circuit again.

5 shows!  Barrie, Sarnia, Chatham, Guelph and Brantford.  I do a set that's about 9 minutes.

The headlining performer was Leland Klassen!  We've been fans of his as a family since we discovered him on a DVD from our local bible bookstore in North Bay!  Probably 10 years!
I've met him a few times and the chance to perform with him was a thrill!

SHOW #1 BARRIE - The Community Wholeness Center

Leland Klassen

The Barrie show is easy for me, because I live here!  The venue is downtown.
The LIFE Street team was on hand to!
About 25 people showed up who were ready to laugh!
My comedy buddy Wil Twynstra got to do some time at this show.

Wil Twynstra

He's been unable to perform much lately so it was great to see him up on stage again!
My set went well.
I talk about the oddness of the marriage relationship and my misadventures with a Shop-Vac.
It's the first time for the set and it felt good!
Leland was in fine form and the crowd loved him!
I learned a comedy secret at this show.  Keep the house lights off.
When it's dark, people let go more with laughter.  In the light, they can become self conscious.
We want you to have the best experience possible, so dark it is!

SHOW #2 SARNIA - The Rock Family Church

After work, Rose and I hopped into our reliable Ford Focus and scoot down the 400 to the 407 then to the 401 and 402.  We end up in Sarnia for the second stop on my tour experience.  (The tour actually starts in, Sterling ON, but it's a 3 hour drive from Barrie, so I skip that one!)
The Rock is a church that loves comedy!  Sometimes they don't show that love DURING the show.
It's a different experience in Sarnia.  You learn to trust the material, even though you might not get the feedback you want!  It's about THEM after all!  There were about 60 people that night and they all had a great time.  The Sarnia people are great.
After the show, pastor Al ordered us pizza and Global Donuts!
Global Donuts are a Sarnia institution!  They provide free donuts for the show and we love to plug them!  They are delicious!
Every tour, Timmy Boyle, the creator of The Circuit, records a video with the headlining comedian to promote the donuts.  This time, Leland pretended to be eating 15 donuts and stuck out his belly at the end of the video.  This sent Timmy into a laughing fit that turned into coughing, that turned in to vomiting!  It's great!  View it HERE.

SHOW #3 CHATHAM - Living Faith Church

Chatham is only a stones throw from Wallaceburg.  I grew up in Wallaceburg.  I left there for North Bay to follow my broadcasting dreams.  Chatham was the place to go in my childhood.  We always got excited to go to Chatham!  They had a McDonalds!  They had a Woolco!  They had a movie theater!
The Chatham show was great!  I would say there were about 80 people there.  I like the stage and I like the church!
Also appearing at the Chatham show was Christian Picard.  He is a young man who is confined to a wheel chair.  He uses the chair as a source of comedy and he does a great job!
The other performer besides me was James Mac Neil.

James Mac Neil

James has been doing comedy for a long time and his day job is an undertaker!  He runs an alternative business which is really cool!  It's called Life Transitions.  He brought hats!  Funeral business hats!  Check out his video with Leland HERE.
We were challenged to put a DC Comics reference into all our sets that night.  I think only me and Leland took it seriously!  That was a challenge!

SHOW #4 GUELPH - Parkwood Gardens Church

The crowds keep growing!  Guelph is one of the shows on the tour that really gets a lot of people out.  There were 200 and the energy was fantastic!  I love the Guelph crowd!
Making the trip to Guelph from Brantford were two other comedians, Robert Beckham and Alex Bouman.  These guys are great.  Robert told a story about holding the TV antenna in the rain so his grand dad could watch Maple Leaf Wrestling!  Alex strums the ukulele while quoting hilarious one-liners!  Very entertaining!
The Guelph crow is usually the biggest, but that was about to change!

SHOW #5 BRANTFORD - Evangel Church

Holy cow!  A packed house!  About 220!  The biggest crowd yet for the final night!

Brantford Crowd

I really liked the main auditorium of this place and the fullness made it electric!  I decided to really have fun with this one and just let it all go!  It felt wonderful to get the reactions from the crowd!
Robert and Alex also performed along with a newcomer...President Trump!

Robert Beckham

Alex Bouman

Trump!

He's actually a fellow named, Glenn!  He had us going with his dead-on impressions, which also included Robert DeNiro and Dr. Evil!  Cool!

Tour Wrap Up Photo!

EPILOGUE

The Circuit is expanding!  There are more cities being added!
I urge you to come to a show if you can.  A comedy experience is unlike any other!  For the latest tour info, click HERE.

Timmy Boyle Welcomes you to The Circuit!

Are You As Messed Up As These Folks?

Check out this picture!

Funny right?

Let me describe what this is.  It's not an actual cartoon family.

This particular family hired a photographer who said they knew what they were doing.

All they wanted were some good memories.  So they laid out the cash.

The person took the pictures and then tried to touch them up to look BETTER!

The result is a bit scary. 

These people look like they were drawn by a five year old.

It's hilarious!

They got the pictures back and they could not believe what was being passed off as good work.

At first they were upset, but in the end, they were pleased!

They thought the whole thing was worth the laugh!

In your life, things can get ridiculously messed up, to insane levels.

People will try to make things better, but they end making it worse and costing you money.

This situation is a gift!

It's your chance to laugh!  Seeing the funny side, puts everything in perspective!

Why stress out? 

Laugh at your circumstances until you see the blessing!

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2018/01/19/photoshop-fail-hilariously-botched-family-photos-no-joke/1047621001/

Does This Bug You?

I have noticed that there are certain things that can make me go from happy to angry in a split second.

It could be a wonderful day, things are going good, then BANG!

It's mostly involving the roads.

When a driver fails to signal a lane change, neglects to brush snow off their lights and back window, this can take me from a glass half-full person to wanting to smash the glass on the floor!

I am learning to let the anger go.

I still hate the actions of these drivers and I wish I could do something to facilitate some kind of positive change, but I realize that, change does not come for some until something really bad happens.

I have passive-aggressive ways of dealing with these things, but, again, it's not effective.

There are things that people will do that will constantly annoy us.

See that none render evil for evil unto any man; but ever follow that which is good, both among yourselves, and to all men.
— 1 Thessalonians 5:15

A Good Nag

You've heard of nagging thoughts? 

Mostly we think of them as negative, but could I change your mind or challenge your thinking on something?

What if nagging could be good?

The word nag is used as a verb and is defined as "incessantly finding fault".

For example it can be used when someone continually reminds you of something you need to do.

"You need to clean up this room!"  "Why haven't you finished the project yet?"  "Where's the stuff I ordered online?"

Let's apply it to our thoughts.

When things are going good, there can be that little voice in the back of your head that says this...

"Yeah well, just wait, something bad is going to happen to mess this up."

And we believe that news readily!

Why!

We are prone to believe bad news over good news.

BUT..

What if the opposite were also true?   I think it can be!
.
What if when things are not going so hot, there was also a nagging thought that said "Things are going to get better, they always do!"

That would be wonderful!

I think it's there all the time, we just need to listen a little more.