“Oh yeah, Reilly? Well, the jerk store called. They’re running out of you!”
Adi sends over the new episodes to me just as soon as he's finished futzing about with them. Hot off the press.
And truth be told, I like listening to them. Not because I'm an egomaniac or anything, but mostly because I have little to no recollection of what we said. Taping the show is a bit of a whirlwind. A quick 60 minutes. We name the topics we're going to do, and then we are off to the races!
And the whole thing is of course improvised, which is both liberating and a bit scary at the same time. At the end, I usually say something like "I have no idea what just happened", and Adi says something like "That's either the greatest episode we've ever recorded, or we're going to have to scrap the whole thing".
And so, each time I listen to the rough cuts with equal parts anticipation and trepidation. Ten recorded episodes in, I tend to have the same three reactions. 1) Adi is so effing clever. 2) Megan on the couch is comic gold. 3) WHY DID I SAY THAT?! I SHOULD HAVE SAID (fill in the blank)
I'm reminded of one of my favorite Seinfeld episodes, The Comeback. If you haven't seen it, the basic premise is this. A guy at George's work makes a snarky comment about the way he eats shrimp, and on the drive away, George comes up with a comeback and spends the rest of the episode trying to find a way to use it.
But...I don't want to be the George Costanza of Highly Unreasonable. Come to think of it, I don't want to be the George Costanza of anything! George Costanza doesn't want to be George Costanza!
And so, I'm almost a little ashamed to admit this, I've been practicing my comebacks. In real life. In all my every day situations. The people around me aren't aware of it, or at least I don't think they are, but lord willing and the creek don't rise, I'm going to get better.
I must!
Listen in and see how I do. It might be a disaster.
Either way, the effort alone relieves me of being the Costanza of HU.
Until next time...
Brandon
