Tog tries their hand at stand-up comedy after being told they're "good at storytelling" at clown school for dogs. Will this new venture help Tog pick themselves up after hitting rock bottom?

Credits, contact, and more info

This comedy audio drama / audio fiction series was created, written, improvised, edited, and produced by Jen deHaan. All dialog in the episodes is fully improvised.

Voices: Jen deHaan (any voices by guests are noted above)

Artwork, logo, and graphics: Jen deHaan.

Transcript: For each episode on their page on this show's page at StereoForest here.

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Mentioned in this episode:

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The Daily Reconnect with Jen deHaan. Whatever you're experiencing, together we will try to reconnect to the world, our bodies, our minds. And get motivated to make a difference again. Episodes will be released Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings when the podcast launches March 3rd. Subscribe to The Daily Reconnect wherever you find podcasts. Brought to you by StereoForest.com.

WEBVTT

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This week on the show, Tog tries their

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hand at standup comedy because they were told

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they were good at storytelling at Clown School

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for Dogs.

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You're with Tog Chesterfield on 101.7 FM

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The Greck tonight.

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This show is taking you along as I

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work to pick up the pieces and fix

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up my life after I hit rock bottom.

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So what am I doing?

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I'm trying new things and attempting to embrace

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life.

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I fuck your life with Tog Chesterfield.

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So welcome to the show right now.

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It's 5.03 PM right now.

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You might be on your commute or perhaps

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you are preparing your dinner or maybe you're

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sitting in a dark corner next to an

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old style boom box with an AM and

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FM radio gently rocking in an old but

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refurbished hand-me-down recliner as you question

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your life choices.

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At any rate, if you're listening to this,

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I'm your guest for the evening.

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In your ears.

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Tonight I'll be taking you through my latest

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quest to figure out what would be included

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in the next stage of my life after

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losing my job at apocalypse.cloud. This time

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I was on stage at the Cackle and

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Crows open mic night.

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So as you might remember from the last

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show, I tried my hand at a clowning

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class here in Grackleton, but it turned out

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to be a clowning class for dogs.

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It taught them to do tricks and stunts

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and instead I took on the role of

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the dog.

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Well, I wasn't a dog, but I was

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kind of a dog.

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Anyways, I learned a bit about performing and

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that's the important thing.

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What was so neat was the class had

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my back, all the humans and they cheered

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me on and it felt pretty great.

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And at the end of clowning class, we

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each got a minute with the teacher for

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some feedback.

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So next up is Tog Chesterfield.

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Oh, the person without a dog.

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Uh, that's me.

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So feedback.

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Yeah.

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Usually I'm just giving the people stuff about

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their dogs, you know, how to hold a

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treat, how to get their dog to listen

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to them and stuff.

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But, uh, yeah, this is for you.

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I'm good at listening and eating.

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Well, really funny stuff out there.

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I really enjoyed watching you.

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Um, kind of, you know, thank you for

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left feet sort of situation at time, but

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it really made us laugh a lot.

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So I like that.

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You know, you are really good at storytelling.

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Did you know that?

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Oh, I didn't.

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I could tell that you were obviously trying

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to tell the story of what happened with

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the potatoes, that little potato incident you had

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there.

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I really wasn't trying to forget.

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Have you ever considered comedy?

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That too.

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So, uh, yeah.

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Storytelling, uh, that might be something that you

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might want to try to do, but, uh,

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keep it up.

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Uh, really funny stuff out there, Todd.

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I learned that our town has an open

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mic night at the Cackle and Crow coffee

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shop.

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I saw a flyer for it down at

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the bulk bin store.

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I didn't even know that Grackleton had an

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open mic at all.

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And I'd tried some Toastmasters when I went

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to college and I've been doing this radio

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show with its storytelling.

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So I thought maybe because all of these

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things I would try doing my standup set

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again.

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I plan to use my old material from

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college, but add maybe some of the clowning

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techniques that I learned in class, but it

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didn't go exactly as I thought that it

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might.

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But first let's take a quick break.

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This is Un-Fuck Your Life on 101

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.7 FM The Grack with Todd Chesterfield.

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Un-Fuck Your Life with Todd Chesterfield.

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Back to the show.

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So I headed down to the Cackle and

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Crow coffee shops open mic night, which in

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case you don't know is on Monday nights

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at 8 PM.

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So I went a little bit early so

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I could talk to the people doing the

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sign up for it at the door and

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see if I could go a little bit

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later in the evening so I could watch

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other people first and kind of just get

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an idea about how things worked and what

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people did, especially the other comedians.

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And it was really quite good.

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There was a ventriloquist with a sock puppet

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that vaped while discussing the origin story of

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sauerkraut, which was really interesting.

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And someone played the riff from Smells Like

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Teen Spirit and like six different musical genres.

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Hapolka was really quite neat.

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I liked that one.

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And a woman who recited late 1800s nonsense

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literature, limericks to background music that she played

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on a Sony Discman with old computer speakers

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plugged in.

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Well, that one was actually pretty strange.

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And then it was my turn.

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I started with some of my bits from

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college and then worked in some of my

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clowning moves, but, but no one laughed.

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They just groaned and they rolled their eyes.

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And one person from the back threw a

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French fry at the stage.

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Well, that person was Chauncey Block.

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I knew Chauncey from Apocalypse.Cloud. So I

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panicked and I remembered how the teacher at

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my dog clowning class told me I was

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quite adequate at storytelling.

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And I started to talk about how I

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accidentally took the dog based clowning class.

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I just went straight into a story.

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So I recently signed up for a clowning

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class.

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I thought, you know, why not?

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Life's short and let's learn how to make

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balloon animals and maybe emotionally distance myself behind

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a red nose.

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But when I got there, something felt off.

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For starters, I was the only one without

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a leash.

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And the instructor, she had one of those

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little dog treat bags, you know, the ones

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that hook onto the belt and just kind

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of hang there.

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I talked with some of the people there

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with dogs.

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Everyone else had one.

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And I was actually in a class where

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they teach the dogs to do special tricks

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and stunts, kind of like a circus show,

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which in hindsight would have been a great

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class if I owned a dog.

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Now, a normal person would have left, but

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I had already paid and I figured I'd

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just adapt.

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Everyone else is teaching their dogs to roll

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over.

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I'm on the floor doing somersaults.

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I'm jumping through the hoops, literally, so I

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can entertain the other students.

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The worst part, the dogs were better at

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this than me.

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A pun.

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They were nailing their routines.

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And meanwhile, I got stuck in a hula

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hoop and had to be untangled like a

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fish in a six pack ring.

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But at the end, the instructor came up

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to me and said, you know, I've never

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seen someone do this class without a dog

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before, but you got real potential.

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Which honestly was the best compliment I've ever

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gotten.

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I was winning against a pack of shelter

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mixes.

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Chauncey Block threw another French fry at me.

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I don't really know why trying to initiate

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a food fight was even allowed in the

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coffee shop, actually.

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So it wasn't really a good night.

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Oh, it's time for the Grackleton weather.

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Tonight's weather for your drive at five with

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Unlock Your Life is brought to you by

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Gordon Gooden from the Tennis Stop.

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The Tennis Stop won't string you along.

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Gordon will just string your racket.

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Tonight, Grackleton is expecting light rain.

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That's it.

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And that's it for the weather for your

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drive at five from the Tennis Stop.

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Gordon says the racketeering thing was just a

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big under...

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Oh, a big misunderstanding after a pun he

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put on social media.

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Go say hi and get strung at the

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Tennis Stop on 5th Street at Rickle Lane.

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Unlock Your Life with Todd Chesterfield.

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So the set didn't go very well.

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Chauncey actually threw the French fry because of

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the potato incident and thought it would get

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a good laugh at Apocalypse.cloud. But Chauncey

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didn't set the video to unlisted and it

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ended up going viral because of the hecklers

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and everything.

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I was actually pretty lucky Chauncey didn't record

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the bit about the HOA that I had

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in my set or I would have been

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writing Louis Pepperoni another apology letter.

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But I learned something from all of this,

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listener.

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Something that helped with my getting off of

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rock bottom, actually.

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I didn't ruminate about anything this time, anything

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that happened at the Cackle and Crow about

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how bad my set turned out or the

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the French fry or anything.

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How all of Grackleton and beyond was laughing

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at me getting owned by the hecklers online.

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I was constantly ruminating after all my failed

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businesses.

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But this time I was able to just

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move on and try to solve the problem,

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at least try to get a little bit

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better at this thing I was doing.

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And I wasn't trying to do that before.

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Before, I was just thinking of the past,

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going in circles about myself.

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It wasn't helping the depression at all.

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All that self-awareness, I just kept thinking

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about what had happened and what I'd done,

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thinking in circles.

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And I literally couldn't even stop doing that

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no matter how hard I tried.

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And it was pulling me down like a

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heavy rock with each turn back towards that

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rock bottom, actually.

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I mean, being self-aware is pretty good

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for a lot of things, but just thinking

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about how I'd failed the jerky business and

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the instant coffee business and that sourdough business,

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I never tried to solve anything.

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Just I ended up thinking about how much

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I had failed over and over the same

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thing.

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But this time my brain didn't let me

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do that.

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I called a new friend from the clowning

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class that same night that I did the

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set.

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My friend was a night owl and we

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decided to take some new classes and find

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a writer's room to join and work on

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something together for the open mic.

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If I was going to reflect on myself,

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I thought I'd do it by writing and

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making people laugh or.

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Hey, excuse me.

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Hey, hi, hi.

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I'm Chip Crust.

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Who are you?

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Oh, right.

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I got the key from the key is

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from Dalton Paper, who was is was was

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your roommate.

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Was my roommate.

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No, I'm your roommate.

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Oh, how?

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Oh, Dalton had to go.

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It was something about a cat and had

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to go.

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Oh, and now it's me here.

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I got the key.

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I'm your roommate now.

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Chip Crust.

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Oh, I said that.

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I think you.

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Chip Crust.

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Yeah, you did.

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Chip.

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All right.

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So that.

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Oh, all right.

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Okay.

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You can stay.

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Cool.

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Nice.

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So I have a thing on this paper.

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It says work out the fridge.

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Oh, what does it say?

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Work out the fridge slash potato thing with

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Tog Chesterfield.

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Is your Tog Chesterfield?

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Yeah, I'm Tog Chesterfield.

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Okay, so half the fridge is mine.

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Half the fridge is yours.

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Just don't touch the potatoes.

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Oh, it's actually really easy for me.

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I don't use a fridge.

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Okay, so I don't, I need zero percent.

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No fridge.

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All right, so I need zero percent.

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That makes it really easy.

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Then you don't need to worry about percentage.

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Well, that's really good.

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It's easy.

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So I'm just going to go kick it

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in my room.

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Okay, just.

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Okay.

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Do you want the note?

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No, you can keep the note.

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Okay.

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So that's it for this week's episode of

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the show here on 101.7 FM The

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Grack.

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:: 14:06

Stay tuned for talking about jam and jelly

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for an hour in this show.

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:: 14:13

Rick and Susan will continue their argument about

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:: 14:16

how marmalade is overrated in European countries.

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:: 14:19

Oh, they're right about that.

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:: 14:21

You have been listening to Un-Fuck Your

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Life with Tog Chesterfield, a Stereo Forest production.

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:: 14:27

This episode was written, directed, edited, produced, and

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:: 14:31

all voices were by Jen DeHaan.

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:: 14:33

You can find all show notes and sign

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:: 14:35

up to get notified about new episodes on

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:: 14:38

StereoForest.com.