Or The Joke Could Be On You....
I have several items that need to escape my brain and free me for other things... That's what it's like for me as a writer. Something will bug my brain until I write it down or tell someone.
.
FIRST: The German Shepherd/Kitten photo (photographer unknown) I had as my profile pic (aw big brudder ya got my wittle ear all wet...):
The German shepherd licking the kitten's ear reminds me of three things:
1. When we were kids, my big brother would say, "Hey come here. I need to tell you something important." I would go up close to him and he would burp in my ear... (I play straight man in the comedy of life)
2. Sometimes I feel like a little kitten and God is this big German Shepherd bending down and licking my face all over..."It's alright, Katie... I'll take care of you."
3. That warm, fuzzy feeling that something is working out for the good, just around the corner... there I almost see it. And that makes me want to cry...
SECOND: If I could do a "Make A Wish" it would be this:
Get a chance to play "straight man" to Richard Belzer—or just the "fall guy," you know, the schlemiel to his schlimazel. I don't even care who is in the audience or if there's just a few people... Or at least get teased by him. That would be such an honor and oh so much fun......(Thanks, Richard...)
Would be like teaming up with my brother, again—the way we did when we were younger. Besides family for audience, there were Radio DJ's at the local country music stations & neighbors. Would be like a memorial to my brother who loved working in the theater.
What's your "Make A Wish?" You know, the best thing to do with dreams and wishes—follow them—if possible. Cause time is way too short to wait back stage or on the sidelines of your life. Mine just might have a chance of coming true...(now wouldn't that be wild...)
Which leads me to something that I got worried about sharing....
“Do jokes somehow address a concern, a primal concern that we have? Yes, they do. They deal with things that are almost incomprehensible. They’re ways of controlling the uncontrollable…That’s the best thing we can hope for in comedy: honesty.” 51 & 52 of How To Be A Stand Up Comic by Richard Belzer (with Larry Charles & Rick Newman) ©1988
My satirically dry, cynically sarcastic humor is really my own personal safety valve—a way of staying sane among the lemmings. While living with an almost incomprehensible nightmare, I have found structure within what I have very little control over.
My ability to make others laugh just seems to come naturally—like a gift I didn't ask for. At times I barely have to make a conscious effort. Sometimes I wonder what everyone is laughing at. Yet I love the sound.
Though I'm learning to hear the difference between the sound of nervous, defensive laughter, and the sound of a true release of tension. It's that release which happened the other night with my routine and the stressed out cashier. I made her night—and hearing that release gave me an awesome sense of joy—like I had really touched the miraculous. That's why I know that God has a sense of humor...
THIRD: If you pray for a comedian... the joke might just be on you.
Sometimes I see praying for prominent professionals as sort of a two-way practical joke—that they don't know I'm praying and I may never see how my prayers have affected their life. Well, that way of perceiving prayer changed this year.
The kinds of trials I'm going through right now—I sure couldn't handle umpteen dozen years ago. Yet God in his best sense of humor Provided way ahead of time... and I just followed. Just didn't know what I was getting prepared for—that my husband would be arrested for something that never happened.
God told me to pray for two actors since November of 2004. I finally chose to go to law school. Then I started praying for a third person, who happens to be an actor and a comedian.
But I didn't know about the comedian part when I started praying. At the time I only knew he was Jewish and that he reminded me of my brother, whom I missed very dearly. I mentioned the actor to my sister-in-law. She told me that he was a comedian and my brother had admired him. I could see why, due to similar personalities.
At any rate, I intensely studied logic for the Law School Admission test, which I took in June. After my husband gets arrested for a crime that never even happened, that depression I was in and out of due to my brother's death returned full force. Then in September, my stepfather dies. On October 30, I sensed this overwhelming intuition to pray all day for this actor/comedian.... and I had no idea why. Oh well... find out later.
About two weeks before Christmas/Hanukkah, that depression nose-dived...into the deepest, darkest valley—with no visible passage out. I don't even remember why now, but that Still Small Voice led me to look for pictures of this particular actor/comedian up on the web. On the same date I had the urge to pray—a photo had been taken of him with his signature smile—with a sparkle in his eyes I hadn't seen before!! I stared and stared at that picture—printed it up and put it on my bulletin board. I focused on that picture for days... wrote a humorous and heart-breaking essay to the Chairman. And Providence walked me back out into the light.
A/N Note: I felt awfully weird about this whole thing since I had wanted to share the above with the Chairman first...
(Besides, why would he believe me?? That God has a sense of humor and more or less played a practical joke on me? I wonder...what would he think if he knew how that photo of his smile helped save my life?)
- Kat-Renée. =^..^=
A/N: Richard Belzer is an actor/comedian who plays Detective Munch on Law & Order: SVU
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©2006 by Kat-Renée Kittel. All Rights Reserved. Please be kind and give credits to author and founder of the Laughter Safety Valve Commission™. Thanks.
Got Chutzpah is inspired by The Chairman of The Laughter Safety Valve Commission™. (Dear Richard, Thanks for the hug.)
****(Original Post Approved with Safety Revisions. --- Signed by Mr. Anonymous, Chairman of LSVC) ****
(See comment below--left by Mr. Anonymous-- answering the last paragraph... and whatever else.. I don't know... My eccentricly meshugenah brain is still sorting out this conspiratorially cryptic comment left by the Chairman of the LSVC. )
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June 9, 2006 - Richard Belzer & Jerry Lewis
New York, Friar's Club Roast for Jerry's 80th. The Belz, hosting. 
