Hey everyone! Wanna know what happened to Whitney when she went crazy? I've got the first person account from your blog host yourself! It was an epic journey, and an amazing time had by all! Join Kyle Harbert, Dennis Williamns, and me, Cody Smith, as we delve into the secrets of manic behavior, Portland police, dancing in attics, and good times at the Looney Bin! You're definitely not going to miss this episode, or any other for that matter. Chec … Read More

via PDX Comedy Blog

anywho. it is a response to T.S. Elliot’s The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, which is one of my favorite things in the history of great things. i just love it. i’ve been gripped by it since the first time i came across it back in high school. (about 10 years ago, come to think it it. damn.) it just says so goddamn much. i have read it so many times and get more out of it every time. i just read it again twice three times as i was writing this blog. so it is clearly of import in my thinking on the world. and i don’t think my little poem makes sense without reading that awesome one first. a few times perhaps.

but yes. well. so. and how. ok, no more stalling now. in short, prufrock has sat in my mind for a long time and this is my response to it.

___________________________

a love song for j. alfred

each meeting of two souls or minds
is sure to end—just give it time.
we pass each other like ships at night
close enough to break off a chunk,
close enough to be the one who’s sunk
sometimes we’re icebergs picking fights.

like jellyfish, no eyes, no souls
just spinal cords and tentacles
we’s are always groups of me’s,
drifting in the same direction
trading glances, words, erections
scuttling on floors of silent seas.

. . .

the future is hidden but can’t be reversed
the lines are all scripted, they’re just unrehearsed
what we label free will is a bend in the hall
taking comfort in lies that we cannot disprove
giving names to a void we create as we move— 
then again, that may not be it, at all.

and how, in fact, could i presume
that any woman in any room
sees Michelangelo like me?
my life and thoughts so intertwined,
how could i know a separate mind?
when two see one, it’s two they see.

. . .

smog and men, a hundred visions
i float inside my indecisions
guarding truths with pearls of fear
lost in dreams as real as life— 
.
.
       directors cut me with a knife
       and wash away my insincere.

. . .

oh Prufrock! you really should know better
we’re all in this alone together
you, me, and all the prophets, too
drifting along in current events
making up noise and causing dents
a whole lot of rubbers and not enough glue.

so force the moment to a crisis
bring toast and tea and all the vices
and dressed in pearls with fine champagne,
you sing me yours, i’ll sing you mine
a strange love song for this strange time
that hasn’t even found its name.

. . .

And speaking of Just Out, I was profiled in their March 5 edition by the once again amazing Ryan Pardo. The article is wonderful and entirely too long. I babble a lot about comedy, Portland, and other things that I do not fully understand. The article is here on their website and I’m putting it here too. Posted twice because it’s so nice.

Stand Up Gals (and Guys)
Portland comic Whitney Streed and the new funny

By Ryan J. Prado

“I was going to be a history teacher,” says Whitney Streed as she fidgets with a bone-white straw, stirring a glass of lemonade at a table on the back patio/smoking alley of Northeast tavern Beulahland. February’s biting winds have been temporarily blocked by the saloon-y shelter, but still Streed seems to shiver; her eyes dart as she answers questions with the verbal velocity of the Micro Machines Man. …

Were it based solely on her reputation as one of Portland’s foremost emerging comedians, the knowledge that Streed’s day job consists of writing and editing textbooks online might surprise the nation’s collective academia. Streed’s particular brand of observational, grammar- and pun-pocked humor is as shifty and fun as it is heady and relevant. Her brain seems to process information quickly; her mannerisms blip with the staccato jerk of a cable modem.

Streed is part of a Portland renaissance of young comedians, despite having only been active on the scene for about a year. After moving from western Pennsylvania a year-and-a-half ago with friends, Streed found herself at the Boiler Room’s comedy open mic one evening in January 2009.

“I was like, ‘Oh I should try to go the Boiler Room sometime…’ and then by the end of the day I was like, ‘No, I should do it tonight, I should just go, do it, now. Go!’ explains Streed. “So I sat in the parking lot and wrote out a set list and went and got completely hammered. I mostly bombed but I had a couple of good moments, and people were very supportive of me immediately because I was marginally funny and I had this huge, flaming mohawk.”

Those good moments paved a resilient trail for Streed. She has since assumed a leadership-type position in the Portland comedy scene, hosting a monthly women’s and trans comedy open mic at Krakow Pub. She also recently debuted the burlesque/Bizzaro fiction/comedy hybrid variety show Naked Lobster at the Hawthorne Theatre Lounge.

Streed explains that after she was asked to host the closing show at Mt. Tabor Legacy during last year’s Bridgetown Comedy Festival—which featured headliner Janeane Garofalo—her local funny stock began to rise. Sort of.

“There were some older comics who were like, ‘Keep doing this, you’re good. Well, you’re gonna be good. You’re not good now, but keep doing this,’” says Streed.

Through regular appearances at Suki’s Bar and Grill’s open mics, along with occasional sets at the Brody Theater on Fridays, and Curious Comedy on Sundays, Streed’s trans-tangent one-liners and personal stories sample a resource not widely tapped in Portland’s comedy bubble.

Her forays into character-driven sets (Gladys Mann, a one-off drag character featured at last year’s Life’s Subtle Tease showcase; and Carrie Two-Term, daughter of an outspoken pro-life activist with a predilection for awkward abortion punchlines) only hint at the creative well lurking within Streed’s inner jester. She cites a unique camaraderie within the open mic scene, and a growing number of newcomers, as reasons for her enthusiasm.

“I really like the comedy scene here,” says Streed, staring off a bit, looking for the muse to continue. “I’ve watched it grow significantly even since I’ve started. There are all these local showcases now that there weren’t when I started. People are starting left and right, and lots of them only do it once or twice, and that’s what makes it a good scene. … It’s not really for everybody; it’s this weird, hard art. But to have a bunch of people try it, that means a new audience is coming out to see people who are consistently doing it. Then when someone does come along who’s like, ‘Oh this is it! This is what I’m supposed to be doing,’ then there’s a theme for them to go and keep working on it.”

Streed capitalized on the building momentum by starting the PDX Comedy Blog in December 2009. The blog is a forum for calendar listings like local open mics and special comedy events, but Streed hopes to include more content from other comedians and bloggers soon. “I wanna get it mixed up because I think the more people know individuals in the scene, the more they’re gonna go watch,” says Streed.

Streed acknowledges peers like Dax Jordan, Don Frost, Christian Ricketts, Jimmy Newstetter, and (Just Out advertising representative) Belinda Carroll—who will host a March 7 show in Streed’s absence (she has a gig in Seattle)—as positive influences in the burgeoning movement.

“Comedy is crazy right now in Portland,” states Streed. “I think it’s going to explode. It’s getting bigger and bigger, and in the next couple of months, Bridgetown is going to be huge, and then there’s gonna be this big burst of people right after Bridgetown.

“And it’s [in] hard times that people need comedy more. The point of comedy is to deal with things that make us uncomfortable, and if we’re so uncomfortable right now about so many things, it’s necessary… for the health of the city… for God’s sake.”

The Sunday, March 7 all-women’s and trans comedy show, hosted by Carroll and featuring headliners Nichole Turley and Jacki Kane, is at Krakow Café & Pub (3990 N. Interstate Ave.). Any women, lesbians or trans comics interested in performing are encouraged to contact Streed at streed.jokes@gmail.com.

For more information on Portland’s comedy scene, and for links to local comedians, visit pdxcomedyblog.wordpress.com. The Bridgetown Comedy Festival takes over Portland April 22-25 at various locations. Check bridgetowncomedyfestival.com for updates.

Who is gonna be doing this killing, you say? How about some of the profound comedic talent that is Virginia Jones? What about a bit of religious longing and poultry production from none other than Cody Smith? Maybe a little taste of the unique macabre sweetness of Jimmy Newstetter? And then a smattering of dragtastic glory from Belinda Carroll? Rounded all out with a nip of the dry wry homefry known as Marcia Belsky? Yeah. This show will be seriously freaking sweet. Sweet as sugar after all you’ve had is artificial sweetener for six years. Yeah. That sweet.

Can’t wait to see you at the E Room at 9 pm, friends!!

There are still images pending, and I will compile them all in a fancy-schmancy Facebook fan pages for NLC in the next couple weeks, but here are some of my favorites that I think Rose O’Keefe of Eraserhead Press snapped up:

Angelique DeVil enchants us the first time as a very polite dancer.

Christian Ricketts as John Cotton Dalton

Jeff Burk and all three of his Super Giant Monsters, culled from the audience.

Super Giant Monster Smash!!!

And Dax Jordan takes us all the way home.

And lastly but not leastly, some thanks are in order. The Hawthorne staff is top-notch, bar staff to door folks to management. Rayleen Courtney of SinnSavvy Productions and Savoir Faire weekly burlesque night is on the apex of the thanks list. Her vision, and her respect for performers of all stripes, are inspirations to me. Her support was crucial in making Naked Lobster an amazing success. Also deserving of great heaps of thanks are Tyler Spencer for taking the pictures and manning the door when that wasn’t happening. (I can’t wait to see the premier of some of his short films at Mr. Average Presents this Saturday at Hawthorne Lounge! I’m doing a bit of comedy and I’m an old lady in one of the videos!) And of course, thanks by the pound to the performers who helped make the show that I could see in my head happen in the real world, and the audience who was there.

Stay tuned to this channel, my arms in comrades! I have a show coming up at the E Room in less than two weeks that is going to knock your socks clear off, and Naked Lobster will definitely return in April to once again fuse the worlds of comedy, burlesque, and Bizarro. Life is grand sometimes, folks. “All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.”

i have been plugging away at the comedy blog and getting promotional stuff in order for the two shows i’ve got coming up. Naked Lobster Cabaret is in two weeks and Laugh Riot at the E Room is a month away (i shall post about that one in a rambly fashion soon enough i’m sure). much to be done!

this weekend i’ve got a couple shows. heading out to a beer and pizza place in gresham tonight with jon green and lonnie bruhn and dylan kasprzyk, rowdy rowr rowr. tomorrow i’ll be at curious doing comedy in their mainstage variety show. chillaxity chill chill. i really like when my weekends are full of contrasting performance atmospheres.

i feel i should leave you with some sort of reward for getting to the end of this relatively drab post. so…….. here! it is always time for eddie izzard. dress to kill is my favorite (ever, in the history of anything), but i adore the frenetic energy he has in glorious. this is them dragging rwanda back.

So, you say, my gentle reader, why combine comedy and burlesque and Bizarro? And what is Bizarro anyway? Bizarro fiction, says the keeper of knowledge Wikipedia, is “a contemporary literary genre noted for its focus on ‘high weirdness.’” It’s basically the cult section at the movie store in book form.

Anywho. So I’ve been doing comedy for a year now, I’ve known Bizarro authors for a bit longer than that, and in July I started learning about the burlesque scene in Portland. And it has really struck me how much we all have in common as artists. In a town full of really touchy, easily offended people, all of these groups are unafraid to push boundaries, to provoke and challenge people’s thinking, and not bow to some false sanitary correctness enforced from without. Because seriously, fuck that noise.

We also have, methinks, a common identity as independent entertainers, as people who are trying to make our lives and sometimes our livelihoods with our art. We are all going through the battle of “how do I get the shit that is inside of my head on the outside, and in such a way that I can share it with other people and they will understand?”

Prufrock break!

– And would it have been worth it, after all,
After the cups, the marmalade, the tea,
Among the porcelain, among some talk of you and me,
Would it have been worth while,
To have bitten off the matter with a smile,
To have squeezed the universe into a ball
To roll it toward some overwhelming question,
To say: “I am Lazarus, come from the dead,
Come back to tell you all, I shall tell you all” —
If one, settling a pillow by her head,
Should say: “That is not what I meant at all.
That is not it, at all.”

So yes. Of course this is the path of all artists. But what I particularly like about the combination of comedy and burlesque is the strong focus on performance, on drawing a room together and eliciting reactions from the audience. And that’s actually what I like about the Bizarro authors I am choosing for this show. Because, from my limited understanding of the publishing industry, it is the folks in the Bizarro camp who actually have a sense of their readings as performances and not just, well, readings. Jeff Burk’s “Shatnerquake” performance rocked rooms because it involved masks and things falling from the ceiling and the spilling of paper guts. And he is not the only one – fellow Bizarro and Famous Author Mykle Hansen has been around the country doing book promotions involving multimedia presentations and bear costumes, and the granddaddy of Bizarro fiction Carlton Mellick III’s Brutally Evil Satan Show has been growing a reputation for years.

So everyone on this show is aware of themselves as performers, which is why I think this going to be a really goddamn good show. I hope that the weather is nice February 18, because Dax Jordan, Jeff Burk, Angelique DeVil, and Christian Ricketts are quite possibly going to blow the roof off of the Hawthorne Lounge. If you show up at 9pm instead of 11pm, you can also see the regular Savoir Faire burlesque show put together by the amazing Rayleen Courtney, which is just freaking great in its own right. Oh we are all so lucky!!

This has gone on for too long! So, to conclude: I love shows. I love laughing and cheering and being confused for a reason. So come to my show and let me make you love all of those things too, all in the same room, at the same time. It will be fantabulous.