Collective Conscience

Many years ago, in Los Angeles, I was telling a group of people about a sketch company I had been involved with, in Los Angeles, many years ago. Most of my stories are from life-times past. I say, 'many years ago' a lot. Since Los Angeles, I've seen a few of the folks I 'sketched' with on TV and one of them is down right famous. Kinda cool. 


Way back in the sketch days, I was a newbie to the world of comedy and even though the entire company was new, I felt a tad small. Lots of big personalities. One of them, a college friend of mine, seemed to feel the same way so we would meet for coffee after the group meetings and discuss ideas. We did this until the day he brought all of my ideas to the group. My ideas typed out in sketch form. Right in front of me. I didn't know what to do, so I told on him after the meeting. The company leader laughed at me. Lesson learned.


Back to the group I'm sharing tales with in Los Angeles, I tell a story of a successful sketch I had written for the company all by myself. I had help with the punch-line... but still... I typed it alone. This had been the only sketch I wrote for the group on my own, so I recall it well and share it often. 


A few days later, I get a voice mail from one of the friends I told my tale to.


"I swear to God, Christopher Walken did your sketch on Saturday Night Live last night."


I call back. He describes Mr. Walken's opening monologue which, yeah, sounds EXACTLY like my sketch. 'Many years' after I had performed it live in a coffee shop.


Cut to: last night, 2011. The way-back LA sketch stories are before personal computers and the internet. We had crap PC's and chat rooms but no one Googled or utilized streaming information in place of human memory or dusty volumes of encyclopedias. I go searching through Netflix on our new PS3. I happen to see a 'SNL : Christopher Walken' special.  I hit play.


Sure enough. My sketch. Christopher Walken and Jimmy Fallon. I wrote that! New punch-line though... but still...


Squeaky early bird wheel gets the worm oil.  


Kinda cool. Lesson learned.