Pour Me A Story, Vol. 34
feat. Tawanda Gona, some Big News and more
what’s up folks! I bet you thought this newsletter had fallen down a well or something. or perhaps you didn’t think about it at all.
in any case, I’m back baby! apologies for the hiatus, which you wouldn’t have known about if you don’t follow me on Twitter, which is better for your mental health anyway. I had just an all-time stinker of a work week three weeks ago, and then last Thursday night I was all prepared to put the proverbial pen to paper, but then I got caught up in many beers with some old friends and that was a worthy cause, I think.
but not to worry! I had the interview with this week’s special guest already in the bag, which frees me up to double down and talk with another interviewee ahead of next week’s edition. I also don’t want to tease anything that doesn’t come to fruition but I just began working on a pitch for an exciting collab which, if it works out, would probably make me quit immediately after that newsletter hit inboxes because there’s no way I could possibly top it. but I’m getting way ahead of myself here.
onwards and upwards!
From Queensland to the Queen City (Again)
around six and a half years ago, as the calendar pages slid away and the anniversary of my first year in Maine approached, I was browsing job ads at a pace somewhere between “idly” and “furiously.” I hadn’t anticipated staying in the role I was in for the rest of my career, but I wasn’t in any particular rush to get away from it either.
during the course of “job hunting,” that painful process we all know and despise, I came across a gig at a TV news station in Cincinnati that looked to be right up my professional alley. I went through a couple of rounds of interviews before ultimately pulling the plug on my candidacy for personal reasons, namely that I’d finally started to make good friends outside the workplace and I didn’t want to move somewhere else and start all over again.
but my career has been somewhat circular since I immigrated back in 2013. I had applied for the first job I landed, at the Kennebec Journal, two other times before it finally worked out. same thing happened when I moved to South Florida — I’d sent my resume to the Palm Beach Post twice already before hitting the jackpot (so to speak) the third time. it didn’t happen that way at the Denver Post, but I’d lived in Denver before, so there’s the “repeat customer” theme at play again.
this is all just a very long-winded way of saying that, for the fourth time in eight years, I’m about to end up living in a city I’ve flirted with in the past, because we’re packing up the car, the apartment, a Penske truck and the cat carrier and moving to Cincinnati.
there’s no question about it: it’ll be difficult for us to leave Denver. Alex has been here close to a decade, and I passed the four-year mark in April, making this by far the longest I’ve lived in the one city (and one apartment!) over the course of this immigration journey. I’ve often told the true story that on my first night in town, mere hours after landing in Denver, I walked down E. Colfax Ave. on my way to get a beer and thought to myself, “this is it. this is my forever home.”
but funnily enough, 31-year-old Adrian didn’t anticipate that his mid-30s might involve, I dunno, starting a family and settling down? these things, while incredibly wonderful, are not cheap, and neither is this city. Alex and I ummed and ahhed over it for a long while at the beginning of this year and came to the conclusion that, in order to raise said family and provide the best and most stress-free lifestyle possible, we’d have our best shot of doing that in a city with a cheaper cost of living.
again, this wasn’t a decision we came to lightly. we have a ton of friends in Denver, and Colorado’s a beautiful state and a great place to live. but when it comes down to it, the smile on the baby’s face when I watch her running through the grass at the park and inspecting leaves makes me realize one thing: I gotta get this kid a yard to play in, and as a humble shoe salesman who doesn’t know how to code, my salary only goes so far here. it’ll go further in the Midwest. on top of that, she’ll be able to grow up around Alex’s family, and that’s important as well.
but financial and familial benefits aside, I’m excited regardless. Cincinnati is a city I’ve had some good times in when I visited, and the way of life looks pretty easy. it’s the home of Skyline Chili, Kentucky is literally a few minutes’ drive away, and it’s a gateway to parts of the country I’ve never explored before, like Michigan and Indiana and, well, I’m not an atlas. go look at Google Maps.
so stay tuned, because soon these newsletters will be coming at you from Eastern Standard Time, which means I’d better remember to schedule them at 8am instead of 6am Mountain Time like I have been. see y’all in Ohio!
Anyway, We Have Company
this week we have the second (I think?) appearance by a stand-up comedian in these pages. Tawanda Gona is another Twitter pal-o’-mine, and I’m not sure when we first linked up but one of my early memories of our conversations was, unsurprisingly, talking sneakers in the DMs, specifically Air Jordan 1 retros in the pine green hue of his hometown Celtics. anyway I’ll get on with it.
AC: hey Tawanda, what's up man? how's Outside Summer in the City looking?
TG: Hey man I’m doing good! Slowly getting back outside. And the city looking great, I’m hungover these days so things are going good? Haha
AC: hahaha I think that means America is healing. now if memory serves you're from Boston right? how long have you been in New York City and what brought you there?
TG: Yea I’m from Boston, I’ve been in NY 3 years and I moved because I wanted to advance my comedy career.
AC: right on. feels like that's a good place to do just that. what does the trajectory into comedy look like? I mean can make folks laugh now and then but I feel as though that's a very big chasm to jump to "understanding how to perform the art of comedy."
TG: Oh yea it’s great cuz the city is harsh and really pushes you to your limits. It honestly made me tougher. And I honestly don’t know trajectory. I think you just gotta do it and learn from there. Everyone starts out bad at everything but then learns how to be good if they really care.
AC: what was that first time on stage like? my heart is racing over here just THINKING about getting up in front of folks and hoping they laugh. it seems like a dumb question but is that the goal, or is getting up there just as much about "working out delivery and material and flow" as it is about the joke landing?
TG: Hmm I was like 18 and hella nervous, all I can remember is that I couldn’t run and had to see it to the end. I think the material and natural flow are essential to the joke landing well. At the end of the day you wanna feel like you’ve been heard, so working on delivery, material and presence is all essential to that. It’s like a conversation; you want it to flow naturally.
AC: and conversation in itself is a skill that not everybody possesses, as can be evidenced by my post-pandemic small talk. in any case it must be extremely validating to have been brought on board the best show on late-night TV, which -- huge kudos for that man. what's it like working alongside Desus and Mero?
TG: Yea I totally forgot how to have small talk, I can talk about myself but that’s pretty much it, so this interview is perfect for me. Thanks man! Working for Desus and Mero has been real fun, they’re good guys and the whole team over there has welcomed me with open arms. I was worried before the job because I never thought I’d be able to fit in anywhere so this show has been so affirming in that regard.
AC: that's just incredible. I remember when you posted the screenshot of your name in the credits and saying "whoa" right out loud. super happy for you that you found the right fit career-wise. alright man two more softballs then I'll let you go -- first off, the special guest gets to pick the song of the week, it can be something you're rocking with this week or an old favorite or anything you like. lastly, go ahead and plug something. it can be meaningful or something cool you think we should check out, or again whatever you like. sky's the limit.
TG: Haha man it was surreal I’ll say that. I’ve never seen my name in the credits before so that was an amazing feeling. Hm I like the song “Gang Gang” by Polo G and Lil Wayne.
and plug wise? I’m a big fan of trash so let’s plug the VH1 Love and Hip-Hop YouTube page. It gives hour summaries of seasons or multi season storylines. It’s quick enjoyable trash and it’s been holding me down all week.
AC: well as a big fan of trash I don't doubt you'll enjoy the rest of this newsletter. thanks so much for sharing some of your time this week, my man! greatly appreciate ya.
TG: No doubt man!
Editor’s note: I’m not letting Tawanda get away without a plug for his Instagram account, where he posts quasi-autobiographical comic strips. it’s good stuff, go follow it.
Worthy Consumables
back when I decided it was time to leave the daily news business in 2018, it was partially to do with how heavy the whole world felt. the news cycle was dominated by one particular guy doing a lot of shouting about petty grudges against aging celebrities and taking out personal grievances on whole communities of marginalized people, and I just couldn’t handle it as well as I had previously been able to.
around a year prior, during the spring of 2017, a TV adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s novel The Handmaid’s Tale arrived on Hulu. it was controversial and enthralling and difficult to watch, much like the news cycle, for similar reasons: brutal mistreatment of human beings for one doctrine or another.
I thought the first season, maybe the first two even, were a battle to get through, but not necessarily in a “this show sucks” kind of a way. season three, however, roundly stunk, and it felt like a chore. but we watched it through anyway, because of the classic “sunk cost fallacy” situation.
so when the trailer for season four hit, I thought “this shit better be good, because I’m not gonna bother otherwise.” and you know what? it’s way better than season two or three. against my better judgement, I found myself rooting for characters again, and uhh even emotionally involved to an extent?
anyway, if you fell off the show at some point in the past three years, or you’re on the fence like I was about watching the fourth season, my endorsement is clear: it’s worth returning to. the climax of the finale made me say “haha eat shit,” if that helps you any.
Parting Note
as our esteemed guest Tawanda requested, here’s some Polo G for your Friday morning. it’s a heater.
thanks as always for rocking with me this fine summer Friday pals, and especially thanks for hanging in there during my unforeseen hiatus of a couple weeks. I’ll go further into that at a later date, but I’m glad to be back in your inboxes!
— adrian ✌🏻