Soundtracked

Johnny Carson

"Choose a Famous Birthday   for today and tell us why you think they should be celebrated."

Yo yo yo!! What's up y'all! This blog is telling me I haven't posted an entry since March 12th...and most of y'all know life's been crazy on this end since then a few months after then. I could sit here and talk all day about how my first WDC Give it 100! attempt became a published book, but that's not what I'm here for and I'm getting enough social media promotion now that I'm worried about Norb fatigue.

So, what am I doing here? I have had the urge to write for the last couple days now, but not in my Wordpress blog or in my poetry notebooks (although I have recently posted some old and new ones in "World By Design" , which you can catch up with more easily at "Note: [Image #2137515] You guys!! It's been so..."). It's time to hang out for a short spell with some old friends again, back in my old haunt. Props to the blogging gods and Dragon is hiding , for having the energy to do this today and the given prompt which I feel comfortable working with.

Today I'm going with a television legend and a comedic icon, or a television icon and comedic legend, Johnny Carson  ...born on this day in 1925. A game show and variety show host, he became the standard in late-night tv viewing...Carson set the template eventually for every late-night talk/comedy show that followed:

Monologue
short comedic skit (or interlude)
First celebrity guest, usually talking about a recent movie or tv role
Second celebrity guest, usually not as famous or important but still hawking some current project
Musical or comedic performance closing the show

When I filled up my first or second blog (I can't remember) and I was writing for different blogging groups (many times both in the same day), and I was accepting that people liked and enjoyed what I wrote, I made a powerful decision that impacted what I did and how I went about blogging...

I wanted to be the Johnny Carson of blogging.

No bullshit...I'd seen so many of his shows and how his predecessors and his influences operated, and I wanted to bring that feeling into my world with what I was doing. And you can see that in "Who do I still think I am??"  and "Still Figurin' Out Who I Think I Am" , just in the layout alone. I'd answer a couple prompts after a short intro, throw in a song clip, end it with a few random ha-has, and after I signed off with my signature GOODNIGHT NOW!! I'd toss in another short semi-hilarious yet relevant comedy clip. That's the format that works for me, and that's where the formula came from. There are a few times (like today) when I veer from that, but sometimes that's necessary to fully get out what you want and nothing else seems to fit the script.

I can't tell you how many times I've been asked "What makes a good blog entry?" The question stumps me...the winner of several "30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS"  rounds, eventual runner of it, and multiple WDC Quill Award winner for blogging while doing that. The best advice I can give is Make It Yours. It's yours from the beginning, and in order to be good, something needs to stand out from the rest of the pack. Two-to-three sentence answers don't make for a good entry. Prompts that can be answered basically by a yes/no response require more work on your end than that. Relate to your audience, once you learn who that audience is...and take advantage of the newsfeed and "The Blog Board" . Talk to your other friends through blog comments and IMs...build your own community within the community...the "30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS"  has been bringing people together in unlikely ways for years! Those are my best hints...other than "I know what I don't like!"

For real though...Johnny Carson is a legit influence on my life. I remember falling asleep to his show on a tiny b/w tv with foil on the rabbit ears after homework and a little studying in high school, like many people. It remains the best way to end my day...falling asleep to late-nite talk shows (or cartoons, depending on the time...but I try to time my bedtime so I can at least catch the Seth Meyers desk monologue and A Closer Look  ). And I'm ok with this...in a world full of hatred and destruction all around, sometimes you need the comfort of laughter to get you through the rest of your night.

With all that said, my friends...this isn't my typical blog entry. Just wanted to give y'all an update and share some thoughts with my people. Thanks to Emily and Dragon is hiding today, and to everyone who's supported me for buying a copy of my book. Mad love to all y'all. GOODNIGHT NOW!!

This is what the best WDC blog comment sections
should look like.