Martin Kicks Arse

[firegirl]

HEAR, HEAR

very well thought out. i agree.

we have theatresports here, too.

keith johnstone.

improv is divided in the us into many different factions - the main schools of thought being theatresports (longform ala keith johnstone), comedysportz (shortform ala dick chednow...) and improv olympic/second city (longform ala viola spolin, del close, charna halpern.) i appreciate all three - started in comedysportz - am now mostly a long form improviser.

it's fun. i love it.

i cannot off the top of my head think where jester has started threads just to bait martin specifically (aside from this one.) but, it does seem that many of his threads are started with the intention of bating someone. martin happens to respond.

btw - i love the chaucer theory you've laid out in your post. it's quite fitting & i think that is what jester intends. i just see him spinning his wheels in the mud mostly - unable to make it go forward in a way which is constructive and not painfully redundant.

and, truthfully - we all play along, don't we?

i love martin's wit. when i first started perusing the p.net i was often rubbed the wrong way by the things which martin posted. it was a combination of being peeved that he had bested me at my own game (as i tend to think of myself as somewhat proficiant at word-play) or that i thought he was misogynistic/crass/rude... blah, blah, blah. over the years his sarcasm has grown on me & now martin is actually one of the few people who i will automatically read if i see he's started a thread or posted a response to something. as, i'm pretty much promised a good "oh, fucking lord - that's just wrong!" laugh when i do.

one of the things i look for in friends (either actual or online) is the gift of a sharp tongue. i grew up in a household where sarcasm was rewarded - my father is the king of all things sarcastic. and, i respond to it - can play in that forum - and, enjoy watching verbal spars.

i think the only reason i at times don't enjoy what jester has to say is because he seems to need validation. you just cannot get into this type of "contentious conversation" needing for someone to say - oh, look how smart/funny/witty you are... because, that will automatically draw contempt from the other players.

not that we all don't need validation - we do. but, you cannot go asking for it. it comes when you don't. when you do - you get shat upon.

i know this having made this blunder before in my life.

anyhow. i suspect jester could be a wonderful contributer if he moved past the narcissistic need he has for someone to do as such.

i don't know where i'm going with this.

back to work.

and, we all just blah, blah, blah along.

peace,
k

[the scarecrow]

You hit the nail on the head when you said "We all play along don't we."

Yes we all do.

I don't see his wheels pointlessly spinning for that very reason. He winds people up and then sits back and congratulates himself when they play along.

I don't understand what he gets from it, because as I have said, he is vexatious. However, reading some of the posts is funny from a neutral point of view.

Martin is superbly witty, but he does get sucked in and no matter how he tries to justify it, he gets sucked in. I think Jester relishes that.

I have to say though that when you and Magrat pop at each other you can feel a kind of sporting sense of fun which is far more entertaining. I think Dr Eric is the funniest man on this board. His timing his sublime.

I agree with what Jester said about Dr Eric having predatory patience. He bides his time and then pounces with some very acurate wit.

I don't think Jester begs for validation, I think he just annoys and annoys and annoys because he can't stand the idea of not being noticed. We live in a world which rewards notoriety.

[the scarecrow]

Originally posted by the scarecrow

I don't think Jester begs for validation, I think he just annoys and annoys and annoys because he can't stand the idea of not being noticed. We live in a world which rewards notoriety.

I changed my mind. He does. And it is very unbecoming.

[firegirl]

very good points.

eric is as witty in person as he is on these boards. he does just sit and wait for precisely the right moment to pounce. he is an individual who can entertain me for a whole afternoon by just stating that he thinks i'm "half-hippy" or some other snarky, throw away comment... perhaps that is because i actually know him... i undoubtedly find the comments of people i know far more amusing because i have a context for what they've written.

martin plays along just like we all do. but, he remains disinterested (or, feigns it well.) i sense that underneath it all jester wants martin to include him... he seeks approval. that he is good enough to be "part of the club." it's just a sense i get from the tone of his writing. i agree that jester views it as a victory when he can get martin to respond - but, i also think that if that is what jester wants he should just be satisfied with that...

it just seems like he's seeking more.

there is a playful tone to the exchanges between myself and magrat. i don't want to denegrate her - as i have seen her be as witty as i can be - but, occasionally i feel like a cat batting around a mouse. i pretty much have identified what it is i can say to make her go off like a rocket. and, frankly i think she more than likely has my buttons identified, too.

anyhow.

neither here nor there.

and, the game goes on and on and on...

now back to you, dick.



k

[martin ewen]

dear mr scarecrow

I do love a subtexturolist.
I am enjoying your perception even though there are one or two things I disagree with.
Whatever you post the fact that you sign everything off with 'I'm from Dorset' lends it an added humour at at level I don't even want to put my finger on.
I think on one level jester and I are engaged in a jesting competition, I'm pretty educated in the art having studied it at length both its history and practice.
A jester survives by allegory and metaphor and the braver the jester the thinner and more pointed the allusion. They have no authority whatsoever but they survive through social favour. They used to be called parasites long before the term lent itself to biology and a parasite was an envied person, who, by no other means but blag, could get pass royal guards and enter royal functions, it was only later as rome was expanding that it became their job to bait the bishop and it was at this point also that biology, patronised by the church, discovered in nature that which we now label parasitism .
I could be a Bishop but that would mean my authority was lent to me and it isn't.
I'm either the jester in residence or the palace guard.
No amount of sociological self serving claptrap regarding bullys and peergroup dynamics changes the fact that I'm secure and remain so while jester shouts ineffectively through the windows.
My authority lies solely in my ability to amuse, I have earned this by being consistantly funny.
I am proud of this only in that is one of the few things I do well and can understand that that could be viewed sadly by those who don't need laughter to justify themselves. But there it is, I know my place.
I bait magrat because it amuses me to. Its my little indulgence to be mean to her and read her mewling questions in response. "why did you say that?" "What do you mean?" and then note that she's gone off and got help from either a sister she's mentioned once, or some other accomplice and then we get these really witty replies like, "But as to sex, I will never compromise my art." (and way back there was another about using the atlantic as a contraceptive)
If it is fact her without help coming out with these then I will accept a bit of misogyny but as theres no way to prove this one way or the other we'll just have to let it hang.
Anyway I enjoyed your post and as any good jester knows, its best to be a little intimidated by the newcomer until they expose their soft underbellies.

WOW and having read the posts that happened while I was writing this it would seem that I am a cross between resident jester and guard and that Eric is King.
Damn you Eric, damn your economical wit to hell!
Um sorry, could I lick that plate after your done?

[Magrat2005]

Re: Picking up hitchhikers and pretending to be deaf mutes

Originally posted by martin ewen
Some non performing wannabe

Im not a wannabe, Im a Gonnabe which is better than being your age and a never quite made it.....

[jester]

Originally posted by Peter Voice
What really has me hooked on this thread is the number of posts where people have to explain/justify themselves. The insecurity is tangible.

You ARE funny. YOU don't need to keep telling us or yourself. Can't you tell by the audiences laughing Martin?

[Peter Voice]

So Magrat, what exactly are you "gonnabe" when you grow up?

Besides British, that is.

[firegirl]

OH LORD HELP US.

Originally posted by Magrat2005
Im not a wannabe, Im a Gonnabe which is better than being your age and a never quite made it.....

oooohhh.... magrat. poke, poke - eh?

you go girl!

quite brave of you.

i'll just sit back here and watch the disembowlement.



anyhow - if the deaf mute was in reference to my improv example - i was not endowed "mute" only "deaf." get it right. grr.

and, god help me - part of me wants to put an arm around magrat and defensively say:

"Now you boys - stop being needlessly snarky."

i see potential in young magrat. she's amusing. sometimes in a pesky way... but, so am i - so who am i to criticize? she's brave. she seems to have a whit of intellegence about her.

who knows - perhaps she is a "gonnabe." only time will tell.

what is this icky maternal feeling...? eww.

[martin ewen]

The deaf mute thing is something a friend and I did sometimes when we picked up hitchhikers, Magrat, I'm not cruel enough to, once I've realised You're actually a bit hurt, keep on at you. Its hard because you run hot and cold.
Theres no sport in hurting a hurt person.
I think your sister's the tough one.

[firegirl]

AND, WHAT I THINK IS:

i don't think she was hurt. i think she was actually challenging you, martin.

but - i should just let her speak for herself.

i guess i didn't catch the hitchiker reference.

eh.

[firegirl]

GENIUS KNOWS GENIUS

Originally posted by martin ewen
WOW and having read the posts that happened while I was writing this it would seem that I am a cross between resident jester and guard and that Eric is King.
Damn you Eric, damn your economical wit to hell!
Um sorry, could I lick that plate after your done?

crap. that was the funniest thing i read all afternoon.

well done... well done.

*golf claps*

i'm over and out for the climate theater.
k

[martin ewen]

Hey look its a pathetic person...lets kill him before he infects us

03-21-05 04:42am
Now I have my own reasons for arguing with Martin, but I started this thread especially for that and when it had carried its course I let it go at one point and just stayed off the thread. It was easy. In fact to show how easy it is I'll do it again.

03-21-05 06:18 PM
Blah blah blah blah martin blah.

OOh look I must of read something you wrote, quick get a wet cloth else you'll swoon.
How easy is it again? 13 hours pppft.
You should be right for another month or so now.
You didn't just stay off the thread you closed it IN CAPITAL LETTERS.
and it just went rambling on without you, on and on it went, on and on and on. Theres this place we've all been where your aware someones pitiful and you think to yourself, no, I will be the person who makes a difference. So you give not pity but encouragement but the pitiful persons so stuck in their groove that you realise they're actually quite comfortable being pitiful and at that point all their little mannerisms start grating even more because basicly your angry that you've let yourself hope on their behalf when they can't be bothered hoping for themselves. You love this stuff because to you affecting people is the point. You don't care how.
Your beyond caring, as long as you get a reaction.
Did you like that? Its a reaction. Go ahead use it. Its yours, I give it to you. I don't have to (you may believe otherwise, you think I'm compelled but you're demonstratively deluded and socially pathologically retarded {retarded in the sense you cannot change/evolve/learn}.) but I choose to, because I'm really happy to help. Its rare I meet performers I have no pity for, its liberating. Knock yourself out. Do or say something that is anything other than whining about ME. Its hysterical you suggesting others grow up. You are professionally infantile for gods sake. And you think you're so clever. But the general consensus is...um...your not. But that doesn't matter because you don't care and in not caring expose your pathology.
So anyway...............(See just this once I've decided not to have a point, its uncanny, I can almost feel the bells against my forehead)

[Doctor Eric]

Back to the !@#?ing bus, I want to play on THIS stage

click me

and click on the 2005.03 link.

[martin ewen]

Double latte

Yeah? Well I want to build a full size replica of the sydney operahouse with wheels on it. No hold on the roads are to small, ok no wheels, a huge sydney opera house hovercraft.
And part of the hover intake will be these tubes that suck in our audience from up to 4 miles away so we just hover up to a city and wait for rush hour and crank up the engine. and send out the tubes baby!
And we don't perform as such, we just film and distribute a series of movies called, "All my clothes were sucked off and now I'm in a huge room with lots of other naked people and I'm scared."
Excuse me I have to go to my room now.