Back when I was in school, being geeky was only comedy to those around me. I was fairly geeky, but then I went to college, found a life, made some friends, and eventually got married to a very beautiful woman. I also work for a cool company (Sling Media – geeky, but cool in geek-dom), and only really out myself as a geek here on the LD. Okay, there are other times too (like uttering obscure quotes from Fletch), but this is probably the top of the proverbial heap.
Anyhow, back to high school (was the above a digression, or me avoiding the topic?). Geeks get laughed at. It sucks. We like to think that we can pull a Gates-like maneuver and ‘show them’ one day, but odds are pretty good if we move out of the geekosphere, we’ll tend to put it all behind us. Not me of course, as I am a bitter, bitter man.
Erikka Innes (yes, a former blogger here on LD!) is trying to make the laughing at part more like the good kind of laughing at (more “ha-ha” funny, less “you are such a loser” funny), with her new comedy show focusing on, you guessed it, geeks! Erikka apparently got the idea for her event, the Geek Comedy Night, while watching other comics use geeky material interwoven in their routines. She decided there was enough meat on them 98-pound-weakling bones to have a monthly event.
Geek Comedy Nights start on June 14th at Rooster T. Feathers in Sunnyvale, California. Innes and her coproducer Daymon Ferguson plan to make the show “as geeky as possible” and will even include a “best geek” costume contest (the true winner, of course, would not wear anything abnormal). If you have a little closet geek left in you, Erikka promises “the event will feature tons of jokes about technology, gadgets, video games, science, sci-fi, comic books, d&d, etc.”
The event is $10, and I believe they might take Federation credits, if you can calculate the current exchange rate, that is. So go ahead, laugh at a geek, and this time, you won’t even harm one of our extremely fragile egos.
In high school they were called geeks,
today we just call them millionaires!
Heya coola-geekaroonies! I can verify I’m a geek (more a biology/physics/English/Babylon5/VernorVinge/comic-book style type, if you care to know) and a fan of laughing through my horrible-social-life-in-high-school-remembrance tears. But I can personally confirm that Erikka and Daymon are hilarious! I’ve seen them a couple of times. I don’t know the others (I’ve only seen Townsend once), but Malow looks great. So if you’re even THINKING about it, just GO! I can’t make it as I’m out of state, but let your laughs soothe your “I’m too smart for them bastards” angst. … I wannnnnaaa go! So do it already, and tell them to live long and prosper.