Strange days of horror and disbelief, Folks
Some kid shot at him.
It was strange hearing about it up here in Canada. I was at a movie when it happened and I came out and Kit had texted something I didn’t understand in reference to it and I texted ‘what do you mean?’ That’s how the news broke to me.
I can be ignorant about some things. Probably many things. One thing is I don’t really know anything about the Canadian government in terms of how it works, the layout of the country, nothing. I know who Trudeau is but that’s about it.
So for my being, I am in a political free zone. Nothing pressing for me up here. From what I can tell the reaction on the streets here was pretty much nothing. I don’t know what it was down in America but you become very sensitive to the psychic shifts of the cultural consciousness when you are in the big brain of it. I was not.
I was alone up here in a way. Even among people. I didn’t really talk to anyone on the phone in America. I texted a couple of people. I did have a visceral emotional reaction. I could feel the rush of pure hopelessness which is not one of the good rushes.
I knew one thing, I had to get on stage with it. I process on stage. I needed to make it funny. I knew it was just hours after, all the information wasn’t in, but I had to get up there. If I needed to release some steam I assumed others would as well. I felt I could make it funny. It’s tricky. I’ve always been that way. It was arguably too soon, but does that even apply any more with how fast things move into the past and get lost in the flood of garbage we distract ourselves with? Now, if it feels like it's too soon, tomorrow may be too late.
Also, there wasn’t a huge risk to taking it on. I was going to perform in a basement in Vancouver for 40 people.
I knew the feelings I was having. I thought about how to put them out there. Frame them so they were jokes without question. They were easy ones, really. But it made me feel better.
The interesting thing about the night was that the host did some crowd work at the beginning of the show. He asked if anyone was from out of town and there was a couple there from Dallas, Texas. I’m thinking, ‘Fuck, they’re here. Texans. Representatives from one of the true fascist experiment states.’ All of a sudden I was questioning doing the bits because I didn’t want to deal with the tension. Then I realized that’s what’s at stake if and when American authoritarianism happens. Which is now more likely.
I don’t really think most people, certainly not here in Canada, know the dire and dangerous precipice we are on in America. It’s not immediate up here. It’s not their country. I get that.
I don’t think most Americans really know. It is bad.
It was that moment of realizing that me stifling myself in light of Texans being there is how authoritarianism works culturally. Make people afraid to talk, to push back, to fight fascists. Then I started thinking about the real threat of it as a government. The federal government is one thing but state governments run by Christian Nationalists could easily start legally enforcing repression of speech and ideas in their state by passing laws there that enable them to do so. With sympathetic judges to decide the outcome. You could do jail time for talking shit about Jesus. Which is kind of one of my favorite things to do.
We’re just barely past obscenity laws being over-enforced.
All these anti-woke hacks yammering about being cancelled as a point of view is impotent. There could come a time when there are legal consequences to speaking your mind in the near future in some states.
I did the jokes. The Texans were good ones. The jokes were funny. I felt better.
I did say that the idea of Trump being a shoe-in now, for me, is kind of like being diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer of the spirit. Not so much a joke. Just a poetic idea about the death of the democratic experiment.
Today I talk to Trey Anastasio from Phish. Yes, it happened. Thursday I talk to comedian Dan St. Germain. Great stuff.
Enjoy!
Boomer, Monkey and LaFonda live!
Love,
Maron
