Before I get too far into this status report type of thing I just wanted to clarify a bit on what is going on and why I am doing this. There are a couple of very basic reasons:

1. I have always wanted to try it – and after watching a ton of comedians throughout my life I finally decided that even though I would probably never be as great as the great ones, I certainly wouldn’t be as bad as the bad ones. Those odds worked for me.

2. I fancy myself a writer and I am interested in the mechanics or the physics of how things are done. As a martial artist, I was intensely interested in how a properly executed technique worked and the underlying process and principles upon which it was built. I really, really wanted to figure out the process involved in writing jokes and putting together multiple funny bits and ultimately creating a full feature set of material.

3. For about 7 years now I have wanted to make a documentary about me going through this process and include interviews with normal people telling their favorite jokes and explaining what they find funny, as well as interviews with working comedians explaining their approach, etc. Not sure if the documentary will ever happen which makes me very sad, but I couldn’t continue to put off the attempt at stand-up while waiting for the right time and people to help me make the docu. I am not getting younger.

4. Finally, I really want to find out if I can take what is unique about me and build a solid comedic performance around that. My interest in doing this is greatly, hugely diminished if all I am going to do is get up and tell jokes that anyone could write or tell. Now, I understand that there are conventional norms within which I need to work, but beyond that if I can’t do this and remain uniquely me and reflect my point of view on the world, then it is not worth the effort for me – even if I was to end up as great as the great ones.

Now, two final additional points I would like to make as you relay ideas to me that you think would be funny for me to include in my act:

• I might do material that is considered blue, but I won’t do any material that is explicit.

• I will not do material that I feel would reflect poorly on those that I love and hold dear – that specifically means no stereotypically bad Chinese accents or negative reflections on my American family for easy laughs. This is why I struggle with the Sweet and Sour Opossum jokes – the only reason I do use them is that I don’t believe that they are meant to be at the expense of my parents or be mean spirited or demeaning to them and I know that Nate, when he wrote those series of Half Chinese/Half Oklahoma jokes on my behalf, didn’t intend them to be. Plus, they are great for easy laughs.

Okay, now to the act and this is the last time I will write about this as part of the newsletter in such detail. I did pretty much the same set as the first one in order for you to see more easily if I improved or if I got worse, and if I did improve was in it delivery or was the change in the joke.

Here is my rewritten set – all jokes copyright 2008 – Benjamin D. Fuller (with my notes after each joke in parenthesis):

Intro

• Hi, how’re you all doing? You are a very good looking group… [point out man in front row] Though, you are kinda bringing the overall average down some… (I actually didn’t pull this off, once I got on stage I said something different because I was feeling bad for some reason for doing basically the same exact set from the previous week)

• I’m Ben and I’m half Chinese. My mom is from Taiwan and my dad is from Oklahoma. Growing up we ate Sweet and Sour Opossum. (I attended a workshop on Saturday that was presented by the MC from my first video and I changed this joke to a suggestion from Neal: “Our clothes were always pressed and our Fields were always plowed.” It got a pretty good laugh too – having said that, based on my earlier statement, these jokes will probably drop out of what I am doing. By the way the MC is called Marcus (www.myspace.com/marcuscomedy ) and you will probably hear a lot more from him this summer on a national level. He has been a great and helpful guy for Jamie and me the last couple of months as well)

• But I am all Caucasian where it counts… (Added this to avoid doing the Gay Mic joke, but totally forgot it, so ended up doing the Gay Mic joke, which led me to the “don’t even like to see myself naked” joke which I wanted to drop s well and did drop in the workshop on Saturday)

On Dating

• That was meant for the ladies – I’m just saying I’m not gay is all… I am pretty sure my parents were convinced I was gay as a teenager. But trust me, just because there’re five guys locked in a basement room all day without coming out doesn’t automatically mean there aren’t girls involved. Because Dungeons and Dragons has gots girls!! (Changed this a little in order to not give away the D&D premise before the punch line)

• They’re generally called Succubi… and they can kill your Thief/Barbarian quicker than a hoard of Kobolds. Now you know why I don’t date a lot… (I just wanted to say “Kobolds” on stage and see if anyone got it and I wanted a better segue to the next joke)

• My dad was so concerned about my lack of female prospects in high school that he had the talk with me. “Son, a man is never happier than when he has a woman by his side. There comes a time when you just got to take the Bull by the horns… You know your cousin Ying Ying is single…” (True story, but it is important to point out that we were not related by blood – extended Chinese families are really, really extended. Ended up dropping it from the set because in rehearsal I said “sister” instead of “cousin” and I didn’t want to accidentally do that on stage)

• I think my mom’s feelings are hurt because I haven’t dated many Asian girls. She thinks I am embarrassed about my heritage. She even sent my picture to China without telling me. I started getting letters back: “I like long walk in beach, go in movies, cook your family.” (I rearranged the punch line slightly so that the funniest thing was last)

• I guess I am just more comfortable failing to communicate with American girls. (I moved this by itself, because I think it is both funny and true and deserves to have its own moment, even though most people don’t seem to find it quite as funny as I do)

• You know, Utah girls are like the classic image of an All-American girl? Hearty… Wholesome… Aryan… plus, if you need them to they’re genetically pre-disposed to pull a wagon across the continent on foot… (I should end on this joke for this short set, though when I said the “Aryan” line I heard a bit of grumbling in the audience – but it is a true statement, can’t fight the truth)

About Religion

• And they sure do love church… a lot. I mean, if you give them the choice between an under-achieving regular church goer and a half-Chinese dreamer with delusions of grandeur, they will pick the average white boy every time. (I needed a segue line to get me to the next joke easier, the joke didn’t get a laugh but the adlib did)

• I don’t really go to church much, anymore, obviously. Sometimes I’ll catch a movie on Sunday instead. I just figure if I get that feeling where I really need to be preached at while sitting in a big, badly-lit room in uncomfortable seats with a bunch of strangers, I might as well have nachos and a coke instead of bread and water... (I screwed this joke up last time and then ran out of time – I really wanted to get it in the set this time, but I rushed it a little. It didn’t connect very well. I have been talking to my friend ZeitgeistBoy and I think I am going to reposition this joke with a different premise, remove it from the church topic and create a new topic for preachy Hollywood)

Well, there you go – and if you are interested, here is the video of this performance so that you can do a comparison: