A Tribute to Some Hero’s
Sometimes when the world speaks it’s important to listen.
As a young man I was inspired, informed, entertained by a host of modern day geniuses. I was and still am captivated by a long list of wonderful Comedic Talents that shined brightly for years, in some cases for too short a time. Our efforts here at 1to10 are at a minimum generally informed by so many of these remarkable performers and occasionally as we go through this journey together there will be a direct connection to a singular talent that we riff on like today’s Blog, Podcast and YouTube post. Some of the talents that are no longer with us are more famous than others like Richard Pryor, Gilda Radnor, John Candy, Madeline Kahn & Gary Shandling to name a few and of course I am a fan of dozens & dozens of comedians that are performing today. Chappelle, Gaffigan, Noah, Rock, Hart, Silverman, Burr, Sykes, Burnham, Mulaney, Segura, Birbiglia, etc. the list of current day talent is so extensive that certainly I left names out here of Comedians that are flat out genius.
“ The Comedian’s Comedian” – an insightful term of art that gets right to the heart of the matter, simply put funny people think your funny and Larry Miller is one of “those guys” – just flat out hilarious. There is a generosity, depth and sophistication to Larry’s stand up that is uniquely his, he has entertained us for years. I have been listening to and enjoying his Podcast forever, I was bummed to hear the Pod he put up this week was going to be his last. All I can do is say Thank You Larry from all of us, I hope upon hope you are well and taking a much earned respite. So of course if hits me right between the eyes, the very week I am kicking off 1to10 Larry is hanging up his headset ( The World was Speaking ) so I pushed back the content I was working on and instead I am taking what I consider Larry’s best known bit, tweaking it for our purposes and in the process hopefully adding some context as to the intention of our effort here, which is to say we want to inform, share, help and where we can promote healing smiles.
Larry Millers 5 Stages of Drinking / with a 1to10 Twist
Level 1:
It's 11:00 on a weeknight, you've had a round of chemo earlier that day. You get up to leave and go to sleep because you have work the next day but one of your scripts calls for another round of prednisone which geeks you up a bit and you find yourself logging in to YouTube. Here at level one you think to yourself, "Oh come on, this is silly, why as long as I get seven hours of sleep (you try and snap your fingers but that pesky neuropathy you have creates more of a muffled stumbling sound), I'm cool."
LEVEL 2: It's midnight. You've had the prednisone/steroids. You've just spent 20 minutes arguing against artificial turf to no one in particular. You get up to leave for the bedroom again, but at level two, a little devil appears on your shoulder. And now you're thinking, "Hey! I'm down an internet rabbit hole about UFO’s and Aliens! What am I working for anyway ? These are the good times ! Besides, as long as I get five hours sleep (louder stumbling sound of fingers) I'm cool."
LEVEL 3: One in the morning. You've abandoned Prednisone for Dexamethasone, a pain pill and a smidge of tequila. You've just spent 20 minutes arguing FOR artificial turf. And now you're thinking, "The Alien in these YouTube videos is the most beautiful woman I've ever seen!" At level three, you love the world. On the way to the bathroom you ask your dog if you can buy him a drink. You fantasize something along the lines of, "Hey Aliens, if we bought our own bar, we could live together forever. We could do it. You pointy headed creature thing they have a partial photograph off from Brazil, you could be the cook.” Clearly at level three, that devil is a little bit bigger....and he's buying. And you're thinking "Oh, come on, come on now. As long as I get three hours sleep...and a complete change of blood (fingers aren’t making any sounds now), I'm cool."
LEVEL 4: Two in the morning. And the devil is bartending. You ARE artificial turf ! This time on your way to the bathroom you spend way to long measuring your hair line in the mirror convinced you are an Alien. And now you're thinking, "I am the best looking man I've ever seen." You finally decide to turn the laptop off, right after the battery runs out. And here, at level four, you actually think to yourself, "Well....as long as I'm only going to get a few hours sleep anyway, I may as well....STAY UP ALL NIGHT!!!! Yeah! That'd be good for me. I don't mind going to that board meeting looking like Keith Richards. Yeah, I'll turn that around, make it work for me. And besides, as long as I get 31 hours sleep tomorrow ....cool."
LEVEL 5: Five in the morning, after unsuccessfully trying to get your money back from an online tattoo parlor ("But I don't even know anybody named Ruby!!!"), At this point even the devil is going, "Uh, I gotta turn in. I gotta be in Hell- at nine. I've got that brunch with Hitler, I can't miss that." You and your dog wind up at a diner. A waitress with fresh stitches comes over, and your thinking, "Someday I'm gonna marry that girl !!" You could swear you hear your dog scream, "WE'RE DRIVIN' TO FLORIDA!!!!!"- and then he passes out. You crawl outside for air , and then you hit the worst part of level five- the sun. You weren't expecting that were you ? You never do. You walk out of a diner in DAYLIGHT, and you see people on their way to work, or jogging. And they look at you-and they know. Let's be honest, if you're 19 and you stay up all night, it's like a victory like you've beat the night, but if you're over 30, then that sun is like God's flashlight. We all say the same prayer then, "I swear, I will never do this again (how long?) as long as I live!" And some of us have that little addition, "......and this time, I mean it!"