Yesterday, I went on an audition for a Trident commercial, and the whole gist of the audition was improvising on the topic of gum. The script I received had a few paragraphs of ideas, but you were told you could take it in any direction you wanted. However, as I scanned the page, one of the ideas caught my eye. The premise was a standup comic talking about gum in a classic, brick-wall comedy club. The script talked about how normal it was to ask for a piece of gum and contained the line, “It’s rare you hear someone say ‘can I have some insulin?'”
I immediately got a little chuckle because that is something I have actually said to my little brother, and vice versa. The last time I saw him, at my older brother’s wedding, his blood glucose was 240 mg/dl in the middle of the reception and his insulin was across the street at the hotel. Like some sort of diabetic superhero, I was there with my FlexPen and needle and managed to bring him down to 120 in under an hour.
Speaking of diabetic superheroes, have you heard about the kids writing the diabetes comic books? There’s an article about it here. Malcolm and Kamaal, the creators, are planning to continue to create and publish episodes of Omega Boy vs. Dr. Diabetes, with the help of their dad’s company, Omega 7 Comics. I read that they are donating a lot of their profits to diabetes research. Best of luck to the kids.
Ever since I was diagnosed with diabetes, I have always had the random thought that a villain in a Batman or Spider-man movie should have diabetes. They could call him the Sugar Man, or Sweetness, and he would live on top of the Domino Sugar building just north of the Williamsburg Bridge on the water. He would stare out across the city and reveal his plan to infiltrate the sugar supply of the world with deadly toxins. The power of contaminating sugar would be uncontrollable and the quest for peace would begin.
If you’ve never noticed the Domino Sugar building in Brooklyn, please take a close look the next time you venture over to Williamsburg. The chutes, slides, and even the sign on the building are awesome. If Murray and I ever fully erect our Comedy Empire, we plan to buy the Domino Sugar building and replace the sign with one simple word: Headquarters. We would want it to be in the same neon font and light up the Brooklyn sky. It would certainly be the coolest production office in the world.
After the Trident audition, we went and performed on The Wiseguy Show for a satellite radio company. It was a really fun show, and the host and cohosts all made the experience really enjoyable and, more importantly, funny. We hope to do the show again sometime in the future.
Until next week, I’m off to find a place to live in Scotland for the month of August. We’ve made a few offers on places but haven’t locked anywhere down yet. My fingers are crossed.