52 Sketches in 52 Weeks: I Think, and Therefore I... Um.

I Think, and Therefore I... Um (#32)

Mwahaha! With Zach out of town, my high-art existential comedy BS is free to RUN WILD!

My favorite feedback about this sketch:

• Other Guy
  just watched your video
• 
  

  9:46pm

  Nathan Wellman

  oh yeah?
• 
  

  9:46pm

  Other Guy

  yeah..

  : //

  ?
• 9:46p

  ??

  ?????
• 9:46pm

  Nathan Wellman

  EXACTLY
• 
  

  Other Guy
  

  ...

  exactly

  
  

  All jokes aside, this sucker was a nightmare to learn. Many an hour was spent pacing my empty apartment, muttering to myself with no pants on. I actually had a few takes where I didn't stumble over the words nearly so much, but I felt like the character bumbling through the monologue added an extra layer of hopelessness to it that made things more fun/real.

  
  

  As far out there as this piece really is, I think it's one of my favorites. It's extraordinarily unique it its bizarreness. Like a big logic vacuum that sucks the audience's brains out. Or something.

52 Sketches in 52 Weeks: Puppy Love

Oh, hello there internet. So sorry for forsaking you. I managed to put this sketch up on time, but somehow doing the corresponding blog post always managed to fall securely in the "I'll do it tomorrow" quadrant of my vacationing brain. But anyway... yeah. New sketch. Here it is.

Puppy Love (#7)

If I can pinpoint any one common thread in our sense of humor, I'd say it has to be ugliness. When I hear of anything especially serious or horrifying, I'll eventually think "How can I make that funny?" As a rule, comedy is generally only funny when somebody isn't in on the joke. The audience's laughter is mostly a knee jerk reaction of "Thank God that's not me." (Or, sometimes, "That's me! That's me!") That being said, I think this ATX project has become something of a challenge of mine to see just how ugly I can make a character and still get laughs. 

The guy in Puppy Love is, I think, one of the more extreme examples of that effort. Heartbreak, obsession, rage, delusion, loneliness, insanity... funny stuff!

It's another weird little piece, and yes, the filming process was just as strange, if not more so. It was literally just Zach following me around with the camera while I did creepy stuff with some confused dog that isn't even mine. He kept nervously shaking his head and saying "What the fuck are we doing?" I got a little excited every time he asked that, because in my artistic experience, that question is always followed by a really unusual answer. 

I just about never know what I'm doing with these things, but as a result, the end product always surprises me. As long as that keeps happening, I'll stay happy, because that means I'm continually making new discoveries.