I enjoy podcasts and spend a considerable amount of time listening to them. However, I probably spend a lot more time trying to find podcasts that I will actually enjoy. I suppose it’s similar to the ratio of time we spend watching shows on Netflix vs. the time spent scrolling through the choices in the menus.

I want to recommend some of my favourite Podcasts to you. But first, I need to plug something:

I‘ve been dreaming about creating my own podcast for quite some time now and finally have! I recently posted the first episode of a new podcast called Weird Movie Club. So far it is available on Anchor and Spotify. It’s a show where I introduce my partner to strange movies that she’s never seen before. Then we have a lighthearted discussion about them. In the first episode, we talk about The Holy Mountain. I hope you will check it out. Here is the link:

Click here!

Okay here are my recommendations:

Everything is Alive:

This is a show where inanimate objects are interviewed. We learn what it is like to be these objects, how they think and how they feel. What do pillows dream about? Do pregnancy tests think about what will happen to them after they’ve been used?

The show is whimsical and strangely gentle. I admit that I have gotten very emotional and teared up listening to several of the episodes.

The Ron Burgundy Podcast:

Yes, Ron Burgundy, the character from the movie Anchorman, as played by Will Ferrell has a podcast and it’s exactly what you would expect.

The Q&A with Jeff Goldsmith

Jeff Goldsmith used to be the editor of Creative Screenwriting Magazine and the host of the accompanying podcast. I had a subscription to the magazine and listened to the podcast religiously. Jeff is a good interviewer and asks great questions.

Unfortunately both the magazine and podcast went belly-up several years ago.

I was delighted to recently discover that Jeff now hosts this new podcast, Which is almost identical to his old one. Not only that but he has created a new digital screenwriting magazine called Backstory which strongly resembles the late great Creative Screenwriting magazine.

Last Podcast on the Left

This podcast is dark, funny, disturbing and definitely not for everyone. Maybe, not even me. I can’t listen to it all the time because I‘m afraid it will begin to affect my mental health. This a show where three funny dudes take in an in-depth look at a real story which is usually based on a true crime or something dealing with the occult. They take the darkest subject matter possible and Lighten it up with college frat boy type humour, all while explaining the facts of the story with a level of detail and research that I rarely see in more serious podcasts.

I think that’s probably enough for now. Please give me your podcast recommendations too. I’m always looking for more listening material. Please check out the Weird Movie Club Podcast.

A few days ago, I found out through facebook that John B. Duff, a stand up comedian in Winnipeg I knew, had died from cancer. I didn’t know John as well as I would have liked, however he was still a huge influence in my life. I want to share my memories of him.

The story begins many years ago, when I first decided to do puppetry. After having the realization that I wanted to work with puppets, I agreed to help organize the very first Winnipeg Puppet Slam, despite never having performed with puppets in front of an audience before. I figured that I should try to get some stage experience before performing in the slam so that I wouldn’t embarrass myself in front of the more experienced puppeteers. 

I considered trying out at an open-mic stand-up comedy show. However I imagined that people who came to watch stand-up would hate seeing my weird puppetry and I pictured myself being booed off the stage. It was then that I discovered a local event called “Comedy Loser.” It was an alt-comedy night that happened once a month featuring the weirdest solo comedy imaginable. I loved alt-comedy and figured that I might have a chance at fitting in. 

I first went to go watch the show as an audience member and was amazed by how hilarious and talented all the performers were. It was the funniest live comedy show I had ever seen. Every comedian in the show had to create new and untested material every month. My favourite segment in the show was the very last part which was called “Purusing the Internet with John B Duff.” John would begin this segment by explaining that he was a cancer survivor, and that when he was recovering, he would get high and surf the internet. He would then present a slide-show of the weirdest and most crazy images he had found and make fun of them. Sometimes, if the pictures were too disturbing he would lighten them up by drawing a fez on them.

At that time, the show was organized and hosted by comedian Ryan McMahon. I went up to Ryan after the show and told him, in my shy and awkward way, that I wanted to do puppetry in the show. Ryan seemed a little apprehensive but agreed to let me perform as a guest in the next show. That show was my first time performing in front of an audience and it went…okay.  A few months passed and I asked Ryan if I could try again. He reluctantly agreed. It went a bit better the second time but still not amazing. A few more months passed and then I got a message from John B. Duff.

Ryan had left Comedy Loser and John had agreed to take over hosting and organizing the show. John asked me if I would like to perform every month and become a regular cast member. I was absolutely thrilled!

So for the next few years, I came up with a weird new five minute puppetry scene every month. I would haul a steamer trunk full of puppets to the Kings Head Pub, laugh at the other comedians who were much better than me, drink some beer and then go up to perform when John would call my name. I think John liked my work for the most part. After my bit, he would often say something to encourage the audience to clap more. “Can you make a puppet out of VHS tapes? No? Then show some appreciation.”

For one performance I acted out the entire plot of the movie “Jingle All the Way” with puppets. For another, I cut some of the hair off my head and made it into a fake moustache which I glued onto the face of future Canada’s Top Comic winner Chanty Marostica.

There was also a show run by John that I loved called “Show and Tell.” Comedians would bring something from home and make jokes about them. I did it three times, bringing my collection of Mr. T memorabilia,  a weird clock and a two headed baby puppet in a jar. This show was a blast. It was made even more special by the fact that my friend Daniel Shandroski performed in the show before passing away several years later.

I did a lot of weird stuff in those days that more or less evolved into what I do now. The experience I received during Comedy Loser and the support I got from John was invaluable.

One day after performing there for several months, he took me aside. He told me that he liked my work and if I wanted, he’d be willing to give me some advice on how to make my comedy better. I really wanted to take him up his offer and often thought of asking him for help but always procrastinated. Even recently, when I found out that he had been diagnosed with cancer for a third time, I still considered asking him for advice. But I never did and I truly regret it.

At some point during the Comedy Loser days, I began to feel that my puppetry needed to improve. This is when I decided to go to the London School of Puppetry. I told John about it and he seemed very excited for me. It ended up being a decision that changed my life. When I returned, I continued to perform in Comedy Loser. I had created a marionette piece called “Gutentag” at the school, and performed it at the alt-comedy night. I’m not sure if it was funny but the audience still seemed impressed. The piece used a music track of yodelling songs. I think John liked it because he kept the music on his computer and would play it often during other shows.

Over time, the audiences at Comedy Loser got smaller and smaller. The King’s Head Pub grew increasingly displeased with the tiny turn-outs we were getting and expressed a desire to replace us with traditional stand-up show or improv. I was invited to an emergency meeting at John’s house with all the other comedians to discuss how we could improve the show. I remember that John cooked some amazing appetizers for us. They were incredibly delicious. He also showed us a box of magic tricks. That was the day that I learned how prevalent the usage of fake fingers is in magic. John was an excellent host and would keep giving me beers to drink. Being the weird puppet guy, I was normally never invited to socialize with the other comedians outside of the show so this was a very meaningful and memorable evening for me.

Many great ideas came out of that meeting but it was too late. The writing was on the wall. We were told a few days later that Comedy Loser had been cancelled. We would have one last show and that would be it. John asked people to perform their favorite bit from the show’s history. I decided to perform “Gutentag.” After the show John told me that it was his favourite piece of mine and was happy that I had done it.

The last time I spoke to John was about a month ago. He made a voice call to me over facebook messenger. He phoned to ask if I was interested in performing in a comedy show in Winnipeg that was looking for something weird. I was flattered but told him in the politest way possible that I was in Japan and couldn’t make it. It was also 4am for me because of the time difference. He jokingly told me “Well F*** you then! You think you’re too good to fly back out here?” We talked a bit and then he asked me if I remembered Comedy Loser. 

I said “Yeah, of course! Those were some of the best days of my life.” 

It was nice to talk to him one last time, but I was awkward and shy as usual. I wish I had done a better job thanking him for everything he had done for me and telling him how much it all meant to me. I also wish I could have said it in a way that was funny and would have made him laugh.

I still laugh every time I think about “Perusing the Internet with John B. Duff” and I think I always will. Perusing the internet will never be as funny without him.

I wrote a super long and emotional essay in order to justify the existence of this entry. But I decided not to publish it. Because why should I have to explain myself? There’s no law against sharing your accomplishments. (Yet.)

Welcome. This is a new monthly segment where I list all the cool stuff I did for the last month. If that doesn’t interest you, or it will somehow make you feel bad then just don’t read it. I personally love to read about other people’s accomplishments, so I thought maybe somebody out there will be interested in mine.

I meditated 14 times. Yes, I should meditate everyday and I would like to get that number up but it’s still not too bad. I only count a meditation session if it’s at least 20 minutes. So I spent at least 280 minutes this month being one with the universe.

I studied Japanese 31 times. I studied every single day this month. Can I speak Japanese yet? Absolutely not. But you can’t say I’m not trying.

I lost 4kg. I’m a loser baby. What’s my secret? I’ll never tell. But I can assure you that I definitely didn’t lose the weight by exercising or cutting ice cream out of my diet. Don’t believe me? I’ll prove it Buy me some ice cream and I’ll eat it on the spot.

I wrote over 2000 words per day on 21 days. I made it over 1000 on three other days. Take that George RR Martin.

I fasted for 13 days. No, not in a row.

I have a horrible habit of not finishing things that I start. I am working to change this. So here are the things I’ve finished.

I finished reading these books:

-“The Last Wish” by Andrzej Sapkowsji

-“Sword of Destiny” by Andrzej Sapkowsji

-“Master Keaton volume 1” by Naoki Urasawa

-“Into the Woods” by John Yorke

-“Barbarella” by Jean Claude-Forest

I finished taking these Masterclasses:

-R.L. Stine teaches writing for young audiences

-Neil Gaiman teaches the art of storytelling

-Aaron Sorkin teaches Screenwriting

I finished these writing projects:

Mysterious Hero Manga Script

Flyer Manga Script

The first four chapters of an untitled Novel

I saw three plays in the theatre

Yes, they were all puppet shows. No, I can’t remember the names of any of them. Please don’t take this as a sign of disrespect. I have a bad memory.

I beat a video game:

It was the Witcher 3 for the PlayStation 4. No, I didn’t complete all of the side quests or do any of the dlc. It is a long game.

Conclusion:

I guess I didn’t do too bad this month, although I know there is still plenty of room for improvement. Will next month bring even more achievements, or I will spiral down a hole of despair and end up doing nothing? Find out in next month’s Big Bad Brag Blog.

This is going to be a blog entry where I obsess about word counts. However, if you have only come here for an answer to the above question, I will get straight to the point.

Stephen King’s word count is 2000 words per day.

In 2016, Stephen King and George R.R. Martin interviewed each other. Martin asked King, “How the f*** do you write so fast?” In his answer, King revealed that he does his best to write six pages per day.

How many words are in six pages?

According to wordcounter.net, the average word count for six pages is 3000 words for single spaced pages and 1500 words for double spaced.

So does Stephen King write single spaced or double spaced?

In 1988 Stephen King wrote an article called “Everything You Need to Know About Writing Successfully in Ten Minutes.” (Just the title alone has a word count of 11.) In this article he instructs aspiring writers to type, double spaced on nice heavy white paper. However, this was a written a long time ago when people still used typewriters. Stephen King most likely types on a computer now, eliminating the need to type double spaced. According to Paste Magazine, Stephen King uses an iMac or a MacBook Pro.

Stephen King also claimed to write 2000 words per day in his book “On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft”

2000 words per day seems a bit low for a writer as prolific as Stephen King. Perhaps this is just his minimum goal. It is believed that his novel “The Running Man” was written in only one week. That book is 66990 pages long. Meaning that in order to write it in seven days, his word count would have been 9570 word per day.

Why does any of this matter? As a writer, I have no objective way to know whether I’m doing a good job or not. However, at the very least, a daily word count is a concrete way to measure how hard I have been working. A daily word count is certainly not an indication of the quality of a writer. Ernest Hemingway and Graham Greene wrote 500 words per day. Arthur Conan Doyle wrote 3000 words per day. Michael Crichton writes 10000 word per day!

I consider myself to be a very slow writer. I have made it one of my goals for 2020 to improve my writing speed and my daily word count. My new minimum daily goal is 2000 words per day. When my daily word count reaches or even exceeds 2000, I feel amazing. I feel like I’m Stephen King.

This was the question an actor asked me back in the early 2000s when I handed him a script I wrote for a movie called Geeksters. There was scene where his character was talking about his blog and the actor had never even heard the word before. It’s short for web log, I tried to explain. It’s like an online journal where people write about themselves. He looked at me like I was crazy.

This was a time before social medial. Before YouTube. Before Facebook. This was back when somebody would still call you a nerd for using the internet. Those days are long behind us. The idea of writing a blog in 2020 almost seems old fashioned and quaint now.

I have never been good at keeping up with the latest trends. I feel like I’m always late to the party. I often end up waiting too long before becoming involved. I don’t become interested until something is no longer cool or trendy. I jump on the bandwagon after it’s already been stopped and abandoned at the side of the road. I am constantly beating myself up for these missed opportunities.

Not today. Today, I’m going to embrace my anachronistic idiosyncrasies and try to make the best blog possible that nobody will ever read! My name is Daniel Wishes. I am a writer. A puppeteer. A coffee addict. And as of this moment right now…a blogger.