Clarence Two Toes – A Retrospective Look

i googled myself the other day and i’ve been digging around my old blog and i found something that i wrote just over a year ago. i’m going to post it below, but, it was a bit mind blowing to see that i’ve been working with clarence two toes (a character i play for those of you that don’t know who/what that is) for about 20 months now and this week i’ll be signing a few large deals to work with the character inside of a development deal for the internet and for television. i love the work i do and i love the surprises it brings to me.

i started the character so i could find a way to do the comedy i wanted to do. i started the podcast with my macbook and the garageband program that came with it for free. alot of people discount what i do because i’m an indian and the character is an indian and the show is for indian people – therefore – i’m an indian comic playing to “my audience”. that is not nor ever will be my goal. and just to let you know – i get more feedback from white people telling me that they like the show moreso than people in the native community.

here is the post from a year ago. it was posted may 22, 2008.:

for those that don’t know, i improvise everything i do with clarence. it has become a project and a stream of conciousness thing for me as a comedian. i do write some of the cabin fever stuff for the nci-fm radio show i have, but for the most part, it’s all improvised.

i use garageband on my macbook to record the show. basically, i hit record and go until i’m done. the way it works is this:

1. randomly pick the intro song
2. based on my reaction to the song playing, i begin the opening monologue of the episode.
3. 1st commercial. hit random on the sound f/x mp3′s i have (16 cd’s worth in a $140 box set called the hollywood sfx advantage) and based on the sound f/x that show’s up, i improvise a commercial for theresa’s minnow shack.
4. follow the show format and lay down the reoccuring sections of the show (bday shoutouts, cooking with clarence, swap and shop, news, dear clarence, indian top 10, etc).
5. repeat the commercial process.
6. find an ending.
7. pick a random song to end with and set up the next episode.

if you haven’t listened yet, dowload the episodes. in my opinion they have been getting better every time i do a new one. i’m proud of the project and it’s landed me some great work and some possible future work in way of a sitcom pilot and an exciting project that will land clarence with a record deal to develop a comedy cd.