Let The Good Times Roll

The Josh Wells Weekly, Episode 226

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I recently broke 400 miles running for the year. 400 was my goal for the year but so was doing 33.3 miles per month so the running doesn’t stop but still, pretty cool to see it all added up like that.

Random Thought

I was really sick last week. I hadn’t been sick like that in years. Even when I had Covid, the symptoms themselves were only bad for like a day or two. It came on slow as a sore throat, that was it. I went to sleep that first night thinking I’d be over it in no time. The next day it was pretty much the same. I thought to myself, this isn’t so bad, I got this. And then that third day I woke up and everything felt way worse. My sore throat had turned into a very dry cough. Breathing was annoying because I was constantly clearing my throat. I was also drained of energy.

That third day when I woke up was odd because I began the day filled with a sort of misplaced gratitude. I thought that this would all pass and how much cooler will life be once I’m eventually better? And I thought about all the times when I’m feeling good and healthy and yet still I find something to complain about or get me down and I told myself that when I shook this cold off, I wouldn’t be like that anymore. I’d get healthy and just be super fucking happy to be alive and well.

Then that day delivered a couple of harsh blows. One of my favorite bands announced their break up (Screaming Females, who I wrote about last week) and I was sent a rejection email from a comedy fest. I’m not one to advertise my comedy L’s, but it is what it is and in my fragile state, it really fucked me up. It was bad enough that being sick was keeping me inside so I wasn’t able to go out and tell jokes and be a comedian but now it felt like I was being told I’m not good enough. I can usually shake this sorta thing off (just like I thought I could shake a sore throat off). I usually feel pretty good about my comedy but I was in downer mode and this shit bummed me out more than it should have.

And that sorta set the tone for the rest of my sickness. I stayed inside mostly feeling bad about myself. I was jonesing to get back out there and tell jokes but at the same time I was doubting if I was good enough. I also had my birthday looming (I’m writing this on Thur, 12/14, my birthday is two days away, 12/16). I was starting to feel the world pass me by. Things were happening out there and when I resurfaced things would never be the same. I’d be older. There’d be one less cool band out there. And maybe the comedy parade had passed me by and I’d struggle to catch up, never mind try to get somewhere near the front of it.

I’ve been feeling better for about a week and I’ve been out now and I think I’m doing okay. I’ve hit a few open mics and it was a struggle for me mentally but I don’t think I really let on to anyone outside of my own brain that there was something wrong. I’ve had five open mic sets since then and I honestly only enjoyed myself at this last one. But that’s a hopeful sign to me. Sure it took a few at bats, but I’m starting to feel like I’m getting my groove back.

And so what if some fest doesn’t want me? Comedy’s fickle. I’ll never get everyone to like my stuff. But I’ve told a countless amount of jokes in front of people an almost countless amount of times and I know that some of it works and that some of it is very good and I know that I’ve made rooms of people laugh at my shit. There’s no fest or gatekeeper or whatever else that can take that away from me or any other comic out there.

The L’s sting and unfortunately they’re necessary. I’d say to a certain degree you even learn more from your losses than your wins in comedy and that sucks but it’s crucial to remember. But also, that doesn’t mean me or any other comic should let our W’s fall by the wayside. I spend too much of my time in comedy magnifying the L’s, the rejections, the bombs. But it’d be helpful to me and anyone else that we try and remember the wins, because they’re out there and winning feels good and we should try and cherish and remember that feeling.

I’m out to stack wins. They won’t all be wins but when the good times roll, I’m gonna let them. And maybe I’m just finally coming to terms with what that ol’ cliché statement means. When shit’s going good, don’t try to stand against it. Don’t look for something to damper the mood. Take a moment and soak in the shine of it all. That’s what we’re doing any of this for. Let the good times roll.

This is the only picture I have of me telling jokes this past week. Lighting is weird but there are no ideal conditions. I also might be in the midst of trying to let my hair grow.

Movie I Watched Recently

North Hollywood

(Prime)

This was a bit of a gem off the beaten path. I’d never heard of it before, just stumbled across it while I was scrolling and having a hard time choosing what I wanted to watch. The quick recap was that it was about a teenage skateboarder who wanted to make it so I was in on that.

This was a very fun movie but also it wasn’t just all about fun. There’s quite a bit of coming-of-age drama packed into this film. There’s the main character, Michael, who is a skateboarder with skateboarder friends but he’s obviously the most talented of his crew and he has bigger aspirations with skateboarding than his friends do. He’s trying to skate and hang out with local pros while his friends seem happy to just do the same ol’. They’re all planning to go to college or get jobs after graduating high school but for Michael there is no other option than skateboarding.

Michael’s dad, played very well by Vince Vaughn, also pretty much stands against Michael’s skateboarding dreams. He’s a single dad (widowed) and the mom was more of the “follow your dreams,” type but the dad is more strict and wants Michael to focus on college or work and to give up on the idea of “making it” as a skateboarder.

I thought this was overall a very rad movie. I was very into the themes of chasing your dreams and friendship and growing up and all that. There’s also a lot of cool skateboarding scenes. The music is interesting. There’s a lot of old school, 50’s/60’s early rock/pop type music for a movie that I believe is based in the 90’s? I’m actually not sure. This movie came out in 2021 but there isn’t a cell phone to be found in any scene.

This kid actually has great hair but you’ll have to watch the movie to find out what happened to it.

TV show I’m currently watching

My So-Called Life

(Hulu)

My consumption of this show slowed down considerably once I got over my sickness. But I got a few episodes in, and two episodes stuck out a little more than the others.

One features a rebellious substitute teacher who takes over for an extended period for an English teacher who was also in charge of releasing a literary collection inside the school. This new substitute comes in telling all the students that they suck at writing and that they need to dig deeper and the kids start digging deeper and they start enjoying the new teacher’s approach. It gets to a point where some students start skipping their other classes to go to his instead. One student writes something sexual and that causes a whole stir and all of the sudden there’s a whole debacle within the school about censorship.

They fire the cool substitute and all the students get pissed and the principal looks like an asshole. But then we find out that the new substitute teacher abandoned his family and this sours Angela’s opinion of him to the point where she seeks him out to ask him why he did it. This felt like a weird choice for this story but I guess they wanted to leave room for a, ‘both sides can be right and/or wrong,’ sorta thing. Yes, leaving your family is wrong. But making Jordan Catalano love learning is nothing short of miraculous. Anyways, we never see the substitute again but he did make having a toothpick in your mouth cool enough for Angela’s dad to start doing it.

Then, in probably the heaviest episode I’ve watched so far, Sharon’s dad has a heart attack. Sharon’s mom camps out at the hospital and Angela’s parents decide to take Sharon in while this is all going on. So now Angela and Sharon, former BFF’s who don’t talk to each other anymore, have to live in the same house and sleep in the same room. And Angela is so cold in this episode. Sharon’s dad is on the brink of mortality and Angela won’t open up and talk to Sharon. At one point, she gives Sharon shit for leading Brian on when really Brian was just being the friend to Sharon that Angela should’ve been. They eventually make up but it’s after Sharon’s dad is okay. I thought the whole thing was kinda wild. Felt like this was a good time for Angela to put their beef on pause. At one point even Rayanne, who usually has open contempt for Sharon, is nicer to Sharon thanAngela is.

This is when the cool substitute was being grilled by Angela. He tells Angela in this scene that she should drop out of high school and run away. Not with him but because high school is a brain washing factory. But there was a part of me that was a little afraid that they were gonna turn this in the creepy teacher direction.

Albums of the Week

City Lights / The Wimps

This was my first foray into the Wimps, a band I’d never heard of until this week but they’ve been around so I’m apparently late to the Wimps party. This was a pretty cool album. The vibe is low energy punk rock. Or some kind of slacker garage rock. It’s hard to explain but I think you know what I mean. It’s high energy music for low energy people or possibly low energy music for high energy people. Or both. Either way, it’s a cool vibe and I totally recommend it. It’s 13 songs in 27 minutes, what do you have to lose? Give the Wimps a shot.

I believe this is Seattle but I’m not sure. That’s where their wiki says they’re from. They definitely got Seattle in their sound. I also love this band’s name. So simple and self-deprecatingly cool.

Book I’m Currently Reading

I messed up. I finished all my books and never bought new ones. I usually buy 5-6 at a time and reup on them when I’m down to 1 or 2. But y’know, the holidays and being sick and let’s not forget that Rolling Stones ticket that took a major chunk out of my bank account. So here I am, no book to read and nothing to talk about in this section. Better luck next week.

Random sports thought of the week

The New York City sports area is abuzz with Tommy Devito fever. This third string quarterback for the NY Giants who’s guilty of exercising almost too many Italian stereotypes at once has busted out onto the scene and won a game against the Green Bay Packers in dramatic fashion and now all of the sudden everyone’s doing that finger thing that we associate with Italians. Y’know the one:

He’s even got his teammates in on it. I like when fun things like this pop out of no where in sports. I hope it can last. I don’t know if it will but like the title of this week’s newsletter states, I will choose to let the good times roll.

So grab a chicken cutlet sandwich and get on the bandwagon. I don’t know if there’s been anything this random and fun in NYC sports since Lin-sanity.

If you live in this area, you’re probably tired of this picture already. But that’s Tommy Devito’s agent, I mean, c’mon!!!

Random pro wrestling thought of the week

It’s so good to see R-Truth back in WWE and it’s really good to see WWE utilizing him. It’s nothing too serious. We are most likely on the tail end of R-Truth’s career (even though he seems to still be in ridiculously good shape) and it will almost certainly lean towards being more comedic than anything else. But Truth seems like he really puts his heart into it and it’s all very enjoyable.

He’s currently in an angle where he’s under the impression that he’s a member of Judgement Day. He’s not. Judgement Day knows this. We the fans know this. And yet, when he says it, it’s almost like I want it to be true. He’s so endearing, it’s like why wouldn’t you allow R-Truth in the Judgement Day? Besides being too likable, I can’t imagine any good reason not to let him in.

The Judgement Day has been well booked in WWE for a while now. This new wrinkle is a fun addition that will help get a little more out of the entire storyline. It’ll help maintain Judgement Day’s heat because what’s more despicable than punishing R-Truth for wanting to be a member of your gang? And it’s great for R-Truth. It’s TV time and it’s entertaining.

Is it silly? Yes. A lot of pro wrestling is. But there’s something different about how R-Truth delivers silly. Dude’s all heart out there. He’s impossible not to like. Everyone has a role to play and at the moment, R-Truth is the jester. But not only that, he’s pretty much stealing every segment he’s in. You take R-Truth out of these segments and they’re all yawn-fests. R-Truth’s talents are the glue that keeps a lot of these things together.

Here’s R-Truth eating jelly rolls in the Judgement Day “clubhouse.” WWE needs to capitalize and give us an R-Truth/Judgement Day t-shirt.

Top 5 Back Up QB’s In The NFL Right Now

1- Jake Browning (Bengals)

2- Gardner Minshew (Colts)

3- Joe Flacco (Browns)

5- Will Levis (Titans)

4- Tommy Devito (Giants)

Weekly Quote

“My motto is: more good times.”

-Jack Nicholson

Thanks for reading!

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Upcoming Shows

TONIGHT!

HELL YEA!

WE’RE CELEBRATING MY 44TH BIRTHDAY AND CHRISTMAS TOO I GUESS.

My schedule is bleak till later January. So it goes. Think maybe I’ll hibernate.