My Cheeks Still Hurt. I Blame Improv.

Curt Coy, Red Dirt Improv troupe member.

by Joey Rodman

“Curt can guess people’s high school nicknames within ten minutes of meeting them. Curt just got back from Europe, where he spent time training a baby polar bear named Knute. Curt has a great sense of direction and can sometimes be spotted walking magnetic North. Curt believes that it is wrong for you to spank your children, but is willing to do it himself. Upon graduation from OU, Curt was nominated to the Supreme Court, but was unable to make it to the Senate hearings because he couldn’t find any shoes that day. Curt is a friend of Anna and can be found counting ants at the park most days.” ~ Red Dirt Improve Website, Description of Troupe Member, Curt Coy

The weather is trending slightly-weirdly and oh-so-uncertainly warmer in Red Dirt country and since you may be venturing out of your house, we wanted to remind you that the Red Dirt Improv is a viable, if not funky, option.  Joey’s first essay for the RDC was written after she attended her first improv show.  We’re re-posting it this morning in order to give you a little sumthin’-sumthin’ (yes, I was channeling Whitney Houston when I wrote that) for options when selecting where to spend your Oklahoma entertainment dollars.

Ciao ~ Red Dirt Kelly (I don’t know WHAT I was channeling when I wrote “ciao.”  I never say that word. Never ever.)

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Have you ever laughed so much in one night that your cheeks ache? I went to an improv show Saturday night and my face still hurts a little.

Red Dirt Improv is a local troupe of improv performers and they hosted a festival at Lyric at the Plaza last weekend. Troupes from surrounding areas joined in to compound the weekend funny factor.

Even though I’ve been to tons of open mic nights and stand-up comedy shows, I was a little apprehensive. People were going to be on stage doing… well, they didn’t know what they were going to do.

The idea that maybe this wasn’t going to work out so well occurred to me. Continue reading My Cheeks Still Hurt. I Blame Improv.

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The 2011 Imaginary Family Project – Week 12

#12 of 52 : DOONBOX AND WALLY
Doonbox and Wally

External Photo Clues:
None

Imagine:
Doonbox is the name.  The dame sitting next to me is my driver Mary Alice Wallace.  She named me Doonbox.  I named her Wally.  I met Wally and her Pa when I was just a little pup in the summer of 1921.  That’s been going on 77 years ago now… 11 years to you humans.  Wally’s Pa said they didn’t have enough money to feed me when Wally brought me home, but she talked him into it.  Pa could never say no to Wally.  So I got to stay.  Times were pretty tough back then in Oklahoma.  Pa farmed and did the best he could to keep food in my bowl, but things started looking up for us in the fall of 1923. Continue reading The 2011 Imaginary Family Project – Week 12

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N.U.T. # 1 – I am faithful to my wife.


This one was at the top of the list of examples I provided in my intro to this post and I have chosen to put it first on my list because of how important I think it is.

Obviously being faithful to my wife means not getting involved romantically with any other woman, but it means so much more than that. It means being faithful to her with my heart and mind as well as my body. It means not staring at other women. It means not flirting with other women. It means not thinking about other women. It means not putting myself into situations where there might even be an appearance of unfaithfulness. It means not looking at pornography. It means not betraying her confidence to other people. It means always taking her side when other people are involved. It means always sticking up for her and watching out for her best interests. And it means doing all of these things and so much more NO MATTER WHAT.

In many ways, this N.U.T. doesn’t have anything to do with my wife at all. Sure it affects her, but my being faithful to my wife is really about me. It’s about who I am as a man and the content of my character. It’s about me placing a high premium on the value of fidelity.

I’m confident that a lot (not all, but a lot) of the problems in our world today could be greatly minimized (if not eradicated entirely) if men would simply honor their commitments to be faithful to their wives. Think of how many divorces, broken homes, and kids growing up without a dad could be prevented if men everywhere made this one of their non-negotiable, unalterable terms.

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To read more about N.U.T.s from Michael, please visit:

Introduction / N.U.T. #2

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In Search of a Name for the “Man-Bun”

Yep, there it is in all its glory. My “Man-Bun” in need of a decent descriptor.

There really aren’t too many of us these days: long-haired freaky looking guys. Especially those of us who aren’t that freaky.  We grow up, get respectable jobs or just loose our follicles.  Society eventually molds us to its will.

Or does it?

A funny thing happened on my way to respectability.  I found out I just wasn’t that corporate.  And I decided that in honor of my brothers who no longer can, if I can grow my hair, I should.

So here I am once again in familiar territory; the end of the dreaded in-between stage where you can’t pull all your hair into a ponytail so most of the time it looks like a mop in a light socket.  “Push through,” I tell myself.  “Wear a hat.”  Oh yes, that doesn’t work either; my hair makes it slide up my head.  “Push through.”

Continue reading In Search of a Name for the “Man-Bun”

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My Little Victory Garden: Entry Five-Egg Foraged Omelet

Locavores breathe a sigh of relief during the Spring. Find out what we foraged this weekend, and how we created meals around our treasures.

Today is Sunday afternoon, March 20th, and my family is going foraging.  I have just a few veggies and herbs we can now eat, but it’s certainly not enough.  I know, however, there are more outside so I thought I would take you along with us.  I’ll also take you to Crestview Farms, just down the road from my house, and talk about home-produced eggs.  So…let’s get going!

Garden report ~ First things first, here’s how my early garden is growing: onions are now at the early green eating stage, Swiss Chard actually looks like it might do something, and a few sprouts are…oh, maybe one-half inch tall now? Lettuce and spinach are at the “micro-green” stage and if I wanted to get fancy, I’d be cutting.  I’m going to wait, however, because I prefer to eat mouthfuls of those luscious crops.  Broccoli and cauliflower look promising and are now about three times their planting-time size, and so far…no sign of potatoes.  My oregano came back and my asparagus is beginning to make so all-in-all things are looking okay.  I’m still contemplating our extra bed.  Mick and I have finally decided on a size and location.  And now, for the fun stuff!… Continue reading My Little Victory Garden: Entry Five-Egg Foraged Omelet

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Showcasing Red Dirt culture ~ authored and managed by contributors with connections to the great state of Oklahoma.