A Professional Blazer Monologue and Long Overdue Updates

Hello again

Well, well, well. Here we are. It’s been almost two years since the last Guffaw newsletter, and so much has happened.

However, many of you signed up for this newsletter looking for humor. So here is a behind-the-scenes look at one of my newer pieces before I hit you with too much life drama.

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Lately I’ve been going to job interviews in person and via Zoom. I don’t think there is a person who loves job interviews, but I really hate them. And it’s so much more frustrating to be interviewing in your 30s vs. your 20s, particularly when your resume features more service jobs than professional settings.

From that frustration I decided to write some comedy. As you can too, with things that drive you crazy.

What do you do first? Make a list of everything bizarre about job interviews.

Pick your favorites. These choices can always change later if you get stuck, but having too many ideas to work with will make it harder to mine for the comedy gold.

I ended up choosing dressing up, lying, and a video game/board game idea.

From there, I played on each idea more with some mapping.

Ultimately, the blazer one stood out to me the most. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, you have a whole wardrobe of business proper attire. Those of us looking to save some coin often have ambiguous shirts that can be instantly made professional by adding the trusty blazer.

One good thing that came out of the mind mapping was including the “lying” concept for the blazer. What would have been a “how to dress” satire that I first envisioned transformed into a monologue from the blazer’s point of view. Incorporating the lies we often have to tell in interviews, I tried to capture my feeling of inadequacy in interviews. Ultimately, wearing professional garb doesn’t hide that I am not a professional. Those feelings I hoped others could relate to.

If you want to read the finished piece, here is the friend link.

As I said, I have a lot of updates to share, so keep an eye out over the next few days for little bits of Guffaw in your inbox.

It’s good to be back!