Give Yoko Ono a Break

Not that anyone is really lashing out at poor Yoko much these days, but if you are, please "let it be." Let me just say that when you get creative people together for a group endeavor, sometimes egos clash and the band just breaks up.

I was directly responsible for one such break-up.

Mr. X's Briefcase was a sketch comedy group for which I was proud to be involved. It featured four very talented and funny guys, all friends of mine. We set our sights on bring about the grand rebirth of the sketch comedy recording. We met once or twice a week, writing new sketches, enjoying one another's company, and working towards achieving our goals.

We even got a sketch of ours, "Suicide Hotline", played on the nationally syndicated comedy radio program, The Doctor Demento Show. In fact, that recording became the 3rd most requested novelty recording in 2001's Funny 25 countdown. I still use that sketch to this day as an intro to some of my comedy club dates and you can hear it by finding the "Easter Egg" I've rather poorly hidden within my blog skin.

Mr. X's Briefcase had exactly one live show. We were the opener at The Lincoln Lodge, a most excellent alternative comedy room in Chicago. We packed the place with many a friend and we had a damn good performance. However, the final rehearsal for the show was what broke up the band, so to say.

We all put so much time and effort into this single, cheap show, that we forgot to have fun and tensions ran amok. Ultimately I know it was some heat-of-the-moment hurtful things I said that did us in. Sure we all were hot about something, but quite frankly, I was the asshole. I've apologized many times and I've even been told it wasn't my fault. I know that it was in fact, I who killed a dream just as we were actually getting modest success. I've never forgiven myself for killing the crop before the harvest.

In the years since I've been hesitant to work with too many others for exactly that fear that it would all turn to crap again. I wasn't fearful I'd be the cause for group-ending tension. I was more afraid that another dream or another friendship would be lost in the simple goal of trying to achieve some kind of greatness out of collective creativity.

For the better part of a year, maybe a tad longer, I've been living with the thought that I somehow did it again. Perhaps one day soon I'll talk abut it.