I’ll Be Here All Week

I’m Dylan Baig. I’m from almost Chicago (I say “almost” because even though I’m not officially from the city, I can see the skyline from my window – and because rarely anyone knows where Oak Park, Illinois is). I was drawn to this class because I’m interested in pursuing a writing minor and I had heard that this class was required. But I picked this particular section because I was sort of mystified by what “new media writing” means. I figured it was something having to do with modern media, but I would never have guessed that it’d be a “gameified” class about writing blogs and commenting on performance. That being said, I’m really excited because I’ve never taken a class in this format before. I’ve never even taken a class that has anything to do with modern media before. So this will be an interesting experience. When we were first asked about our favorite kinds of media, I was kind of stumped. I have always thought of media as like TV or radio or modes of communication to the public. But when the topic was posed as “performance”, it kind of changed the whole idea of it. So in terms of performance, I’d have to say that my favorite medium would be stand-up comedy.

I love everything about stand-up (at least at the professional level – amateur stand-up just kind of makes me uncomfortable because it’s painful to watch people get totally butchered on stage). I especially love when comedians put a lot of thought into their jokes, as opposed to just spewing offensive crap just for the sake of appealing to a few jerks. Wit is my favorite feature of comedy. When I have to think about a joke for a second in order to get it, it means the comedian has done a great job. Or when a comedian comments on something that everybody agrees about but that no one really notices. Louis C.K.  is one of my favorite comedians because his delivery is very self-depracating and he makes lots of jokes about parenting, getting older, and himself. Here’s a hilarious clip about his feelings about other people’s kids, parenting, and child abuse (excuse the language).