She So Funny

This past Sunday, I attended an Uptown Hall at the Apollo Theatre.  Inside, it looks palatial.  I've watched Amateur Night at the Apollo on tv, but I'd never been there.  I was there for an event that intrigued me.  I invited my adult students to join me before we went on a week's break.  Several made sure to be there, and one brought her daughter.  I was very pleased.  

https://www.apollotheater.org/event/apollo-uptown-hall-trial-jury-case-n-word/

It was well worth the time.  Enriching FREE events happen all the time all over New York City.  I like when I step outside of my routines and experience something different. I was honored that several students joined me.  One went through so much to make it happen -- taxicabbed to her mother's who would take care of the baby, etc., etc.  

.....

I fantasized about this when I was 18 years old.  Though there were consciousness raising groups all over, women were still too alienated from each other back then.  It took years of freeing our minds and an orange anal orifice to make it happen.  Herstory in the making!

http://nymag.com/thecut/2017/02/womens-strike-march-8.html

I fucking plan to be there.

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With all that's going on, we also need to make time for fun and laughter.

Wednesday, March 15, 2017 at 9pm 

Mindy Matijasevic

performs stand-up comedy 

in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn 

https://www.facebook.com/redwhitebrewbklynny/

No cover & no minimum

Red, White & Brew

8910 Fifth Avenue

Brooklyn, New York

(R train to 86th Street Station in Bay Ridge)

Hope to see your smiling faces and hear your laughter!

For the first time ever, I saw part of a comedy show where the one in charge heckled his own performers.  It was very puzzling. 

 
On one hand, I wondered if he was just behaving as an acting director at a rehearsal.  What he was claiming to want sounded understandable, but it seemed most of the performers had no idea this was what happens at this event.  Those who had been there before, and accepted the scenario, giggled at the whole thing.  New people, like myself, looked in wonderment. 

Some left.  I decided early on that I was not going to get on stage.  Another comic I know just decided to leave.  I stayed, out of curiosity, and then left halfway through the event. 

I can't say I wouldn't go again.  It was bizarre enough to spark my curiosity though not every brand of strange is compatible with mine.  Maybe if there is a next time, I'll get up.  I need to know what I'm getting myself into.  And I'd have to be in a particularly adventurous mood.  

I'm a teacher again.  When I have lots of days off, I start to find it hard to believe I teach classes of adult students.  Today, Tuesday, was the first day of the new cycle.  Aside from getting to know each other and each other's names, we spoke about the stigma of The Bronx, why our borough has "The" in front of it, and we read and wrote about excerpts from Daniel Hauben's Inches From My Easel.  It is a beautifully uplifting experience to experience the words of someone who sees the beauty and humanity of where you call home.  These are some of his paintings.

In a Bronx-phobic society, I am grateful to Daniel Hauben, his vision, and his passion, and so are my students.  This isn't the first class to whom I introduced his work.  His paintings make my heart smile.

So I guess I am a teacher.  But I'm the kind who is more like a coach, a sister, a friend, a neighbor.  

This site is called "She So Funny" and I'm often quite serious (the multi-faceted person inside the comic), so I'm going to include the humor that truly comes from not necessarily funny life circumstances.  This video includes a bit about me as a teacher.  It is about a minute and a half.  (I don't know how to make it end after that bit.) 

Remember, my students are adults.

It is so hard to go back to work after being off for many days.  Once back in the swing of things, it will probably feel good.  I like my teaching job.  There are many good things about it.  Unfortunately, the salary isn't.  I am always in need of additional income.  Preferring it not be from another teaching job, I'm putting it out there that I'm an experienced and very good proofreader, an experienced fine artist's model, creative writer, actress, and stand-up comic. The Divorced Divas of Comedy are available to do divorce parties and other celebrations.  My dear readers, if you know of anything or anyone, please connect me.  Thank you.

The ASPCA commercials are breaking my heart.  I can't give money.  I owe lots of money.  I can't even adopt a dog or cat at this point.  And I'd like to, an older one whose chances of adoption are less than the young ones.  I would still like to be adopted myself sometimes, so I really can relate to their plight.  Plus it is so beneficial to a human to love an animal.  This human could use such benefits.  I recently went into a store where I sometimes shop, and I told the man, "I really came in to say hello to the cat."  He pointed out where she was, and she and I had our few minutes.  I must need it because I have become closer friends with many animals in the neighborhood since my Luigi had to go to Heaven.

In December 2016, I was fortunate enough to be a part of the Laughing Buddha Bar Show at Bunga's Den.  I had a great set and enjoyed every moment of it.  The room was packed.  I stayed for the whole show as I usually do, and I liked the whole experience.

The next day, I was part of an anthology launch reading and celebration with the Riverside Poets.  They make me feel so appreciated as a poet.  Then all the delicious free food at the celebration really helps when I'm so broke and hungry. It always feels special to hang out with people I see only once or twice a year.  

A cousin who I have yearned to be connected with, but didn't feel able to, contacted me for my December 21st birthday.  It felt really good.  I responded. However, I feel guarded as his sister tried to discredit me with the Bronx Council on the Arts when she realized one of my winning entries in one of their competitions was a nonfiction slice of my childhood.  I think she feels in charge of the victimizing family tradition of not talking about the family.  I believe she was passed that torch, and she took it.  It horrifies me that she's a therapist and would do such a thing.  She even implied when calling them that she was my therapist. Lord have mercy.  I would have thought that a CSW would know that abusive families with a lot to hide typically make everyone feel like it is wrong to talk about your life and that they convince others that the abused are liars.  But as is typical of me, I had overestimated her.  

Also in December 2016, I was honored to be a part of Lehman Stages' storytelling production of Bronx Tales at the Lovinger Theatre.  We were six storytellers.  We are residents of the Bronx, some are natives of the Bronx while others came here from other places.  These are all our true, approximately 10-minute stories.  

  

I very much appreciated working with our director, Dante Albertie.  He helped me shape my story.  He appreciated real and my commitment to the truth.  I needed that.

If you'd like to hear the stories, here it is.  The first storyteller is hilarious in his depiction of other characters.  All the stories are riveting.  If you want to go straight to mine, I'm 28 minutes and some seconds in.  It's called "An Introduction of Sorts."